Investments in Gear
So yesterday I went shopping with An. After 6 shops - Decathlon x 2, A.S. Adventure x 2, Makro and Intersport - based in two provinces I have spent about €180. I'd say that's a success. It's obviously skiing season because the stocks were very low on all the stuff I needed, that's also the reason why I had to buy RED impact shorts which are about €30 euro more expensive than WED'ZEs 
(RED is a daughter company of Burton, hence the high pricing).
So what did I buy?
- Medium sized RED Wrist Guards (€ 27.00 in Intersport)
- Medium sized RED Total Impact Shorts (€ 79.99 in A.S. Adventure Sint-Denijs-Westrem)
- 4 pairs of WED'ZE ski/snowboard socks (€ 3.00 per pair in Decathlon Roeselare)
- WED'ZE Reverse Authentic Logo ski/snowboard backpack (€ 24.90 in Decathlon Roeselare)
- 2 WED'ZE Simpel Warm thermal pants (€ 9.90/pc. in Decathlon Kortrijk)
My step brother is gonna lend me his helmet and goggles. Kudos to him for that! 
I already have the rest of my material from going skiing in the past.
Some pictures:
And a video about the WED'ZE Reverse Backpack system (which will take some getting used to).
SIMPLE WARM PANTS
Snowboarding, a history lesson
In this post I'll give you guys a quick outline of snowboarding history. It doesn't contain recent history, that'll be for another time . (I'm not responsible for any errors that might be in this post, but you can always let me know of course)
1929: M.J. “Jack” Burchett cuts a plank of plywood and tries to strap it to his feet using clothesline and horse reins.
1965: Sherman Poppen invents the Snurfer, originally a toy for his kid. Due to high popularity he licensed it.
1969: Dimitri Milovich starts making the first snowboards. Hist boards are surfboards combined with some ski technology. His company Winterstick gets articles in Newsweek, Playboy and Powder which helped to make snowboarding better known.
1977: THE SURFING SIDE - Jake Burton Carpenter finishes NYU and starts making several other versions of the Snurfer to make some money. He’d participated in Snurf competitions in the past. His boards are made of laminated hardwood and he was the first to introduce bindings in the contests (although the were invented by Jeff Grell). This binding allowed him to easily beat other Snurfers in the competitions.
1977: THE SKATEBOARD SIDE - Tim Sims produces his first snowboards: a piece of wood, carpet glued on the topside and an aluminum sheeting on the bottom. His employee Chuck Barfoot creates the Flying Yellow Banana a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell.
1980: Burton creates snowboard prototypes with a P-Tex base. Sims signs skate-/snowboard deal with Vision Sports.
1982: The first National Snowboard (Snurfing) race in Suicide Six (Woodstock, Vermont). The race was actually more a crazy downhill run.
1985: Absolute Radical, the snowboarding magazine is launched. Still only 39 out of about 600 ski resorts allow snowboarders at this time.
1986: I was born. 
And also Regis Rolland, a French snowboarder stars in Apocalypse Snow. The movie causes a wave of popularity in Europe. More and more snowboarding events are organized.
1990: International Snowboard Federation (ISF) is founded.
1994: Snowboarding becomes an official Olympic Sport.
1996: Noah Salasnek and Johan Olofsson release TB5 (Totally Board 5), a video with them performing incredible stunts and tricks in Alaska.
1998: First Olympic competitions in snowboarding in Japan. Ross Rebagliati (Canada) wins gold but is initially disqualified due to traces of marijuana in his blood. This event leads to a lot of negative publicity for snowboarding.
2002: After years of struggling with the Federation International Ski (FIS) the ISF ceases operations.
Below are some pictures of the first snowboards.
Ski Resorts in Les Sybelles
In one of my earlier posts I told you a bit about the location. But I didn't mention much about the ski specifics in the area. So here's some more details on that. The table below shows the runs in all four ski areas within Les Sybelles. 320km, that should do right?
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Lifts
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Runs
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||||||||
|
drag
|
chair
|
tot
|
G
|
B
|
R
|
BL
|
tot
|
tot km
|
|
| St. Sorlin d'Arves | 13 | 7 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 25 | 120 |
| St. Jean d'Arves | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| Le Corbier | 18 | 7 | 25 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 28 | 90 |
| La Toussuire | 16 | 8 | 24 | 5 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 31 | 55 |
| St. Colomban | 4 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 45 |
| Total | 54 | 25 | 79 | 22 | 42 | 32 | 5 | 101 | 320 |
The slopes' altitudes range between about 1550m and 2600m above sea level. There's a snow park pretty much in the center of Les Sybelles. But that will probably be out of bounds for me at the moment . There's also a mini-snowpark though, I might do some experimenting over there.
According to what I've read the chalets are very close to the La Chal ski-lift (about 100m). So that's handy. Below is a map of the lifts and runs. Click to enlarge 
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The weather today was not very good as far as I could tell from the webcam images on the Les Sybelles website. Yesterday was much better. I suppose it can get pretty cold on the chairlifts when the weather is down.
So that was a bit more about the ski areas .
Luggage Checklist
I've started making my luggage checklist as well today. It'll also help me when I go gear shopping next week. This is a work-in-progress though so the list might not yet be complete. Below is the Google Document containing the list, it'll be updated automatically when I make changes.
Snowboarding For Newbies
As it is the first time I'm going to hit the slopes on a snowboard - I've gone skiing quite a few times in the past - I'm taking lessons in France. If I'm not mistaking the lessons are taken care of by École du ski francais. But since I wanna learn as quickly as possible I googled around a bit to find online snowboarding tutorials and beginner lessons.
That's when I came over Snowboarding For Newbies. It's a website containing almost 3 hours worth of free snowboard video tutorials. I learned all the basics about gear, techniques and even some intermediate tricks. I really think this will help me once I try it out for real. The lessons are given by Aaron Flake, he's a very friendly guy too, I sent him a message to thank him for the videos and he sent a very kind message back .
So if any of you want to learn how to snowboard too, I really recommend to check out their website. If you wanna register, please use this link: Register.
To give you guys a sneak preview, here's one of their videos.
Enjoy!
P.S.: I'm goofy!
Skikot – Résidences La Fontaine du Roi
If you've read the About page then you know why I'm creating this blog. Before I leave for France I'm going to keep you posted about the preparations of the trip. I'm really eager to leave, so this is a lot of fun for me. The more I think about the snow, the happier I get.
Maybe I'll start off by giving you some more info about the location of the trip. The ski area I'm going to is called Les Sybelles. It consists of four ski stations called Le Corbier, St. Jean d’Arves, La Toussuire and St. Sorlin d’Arves.
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The chalets I'm staying in are called Résidences La Fontaine du Roi which are located in St. Jean d'Arves:
La Fontaine du Roi consists of 8 wooden chalets. The chalets have an ideal location close to town, the slopes and the ski-lift. There's a reception, parking garage, heated interior pool, two free saunas and a lounge bar with a fireplace. The building is next to the supermarket, the bakery and on top of a cozy après-ski bar.
I'm making the trip with my good friend An. Originally we were gonna go with a group of four but Marjolein and her boyfriend sadly had to cancel the plans. That's when An came up with the idea to tag along with Skikot, a Belgian ski- and snowboard organization. We'll probably meet a lot of new people there so that oughta be fun. I'm guessing the après-ski parties might help to break the ice as well 
.
I think that's about it for now.