Hello there, I am just back from New Zealand and am still buzzing with the excitement of the trip. It was definitely one of the best and most fun trips I have been on and we were lucky enough to have powder snow right until the end!!

I think the highlight of the trip as far as riding went was the day we went heli boarding. None of us had done it before and we got a beautiful sunny day for it with a lot of new snow too. It was a lot harder than we had thought to film free riding shots though as you really do not have a clue where you are going to go. You are up at the top of the mountain, having selected a line to do from the bottom, with a vast expanse of white powder before you that drops away out of sight. You have an idea of the area you should be heading for but you can't see it and you can't stop half way to have a look as the cameras are filming you and you will ruin the shot. It is pretty nerve wracking.

Close behind the heli boarding was the Snowpark resort. Snowpark is a whole resort dedicated to obstacles to play on. The super pipe was excellent and was by far the best pipe I had ridden all summer. The kickers were great and the rails were great too. We did a lot of filming there and got some great footage. Unfortunately, Lisa F hurt herself on the last day we were there by going too big off the really big kicker. They had built the kicker for the Burton photo shoot and the Burton guys had apparently been ripping off it. However everyone at Snowpark who saw Lisa's slam said she went way bigger than any of the Burton lot!!

Lisa was not the only casualty on the trip as Tina B managed to bite right through her bottom lip and kill her front tooth in a very gorey fall indeed. Me and Stine managed to ride until the end but were a bit beat up and sore by the time we got to Aukland for a few days before we flew home. In Aukland we went on a couple of TV shows and hung out in the very spring like weather. It is very strange to be back here with all the trees turning to autumn colours and the nights drawing in.

I am going to chill out for a bit now and do some dry land training before I go to Saas Fee in the middle of Oct.

Bye for now,
X Les

I am having a ball out here in New Zealand and have been lucky enough to get the best powder of the season here so far. We have been filming a lot and have been heli boarding twice as well as building a lot of back country kickers. There is a brilliant resort here called 'Snowpark' which is just a big park and pipe and it is so much fun to ride there. We have been made to feel very welcome everywhere we go and have also been lucky enough to have three Peugeot cars with our 'Dropstitch' logo on the side to drive around in. The word is definitely out about our film and these cars have been helping to get the name noticed which is great.

Next week we are heading to the club fields where we will hopefully get to ride more powder and build more kickers then we will be off to Aukland to do some TV stuff and maybe get a day surfing on the coast too.

New Zealand really does feel like a home away from home and I have met a lot of fellow Scots out here. It is a really great place.

Hope you are all fine.

cheers, les

Hello everyone, Hope you have all managed to make the most of the hot weather and have got some surfing in!!! I have been learning to surf and I love it. I never really got it before as I was, and still am, pretty rubbish at it but I can now kind of stand up at least and I can tell you if you have never tried it try it it rules.

I rode until the middle of July but the glaciers in Europe were looking pretty grim so I cut my losses and headed for the waves instead. I also got in a good bit of mountain biking in Aviemore and have been training pretty hard in the gym too. Infact I have been very busy. I also managed to swing by the Hillend AIM series comp and was well impressed with the riding going on there, keep it up!!!

I have been getting the girls film up and galloping too and if you want to check out the trailer then the link is as follows:

Chunky Knit Trailer

To download the trailer please right click the above link (or hold down mouse if you have a mac) and "save target as" to download and save it to your computer. Do not just click on the link. Turn up your volume!! This file is 30mb so please only download it if you have ADSL, ISDN or broadband internet connection.

I am now going on holiday for a few weeks before I get back on the snow in New Zealand at the end of the month.

Bye for now,
Les

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well. I have been really busy as usual and have just come back from the Snowboard UK board test in Tignes and the Kommunity camp in Les 2 Alpes. Both were very fun even although the snow was very soft and the weather very hot. I did manage to learn a new trick though. I was spinning cab 540s off the little kicker which I was really happy about.

The pipe in Tignes was a bit too soft to ride really but the pne in Les 2 Alpes was very good and was both big and fast.

I am now in London trying to sort out some sponsorship stuff. I will be back in Scotland for the AIM series event in Edinburgh on the 27th of July though and am looking forward to that a lot.

The next time I will be on snow will be in August in New Zealand and until then I am going to try and learn how to surf.

I will keep you posted!

Cheers, les