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.
