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Welcome to the magic of NoBoarding! The best sensation ever!
Trust me it’s 100 times better then snowboarding! I’m so hooked! It feels like surfing on pow—you take full control of your body’s impact on your board through your toes and your heels. It’s such a great adrenaline rush, all the way, all the time!
The GT Memorial is the one event I wouldn’t miss for the world. It’s a NoBoard (www.noboard.ca) race organized in the dead end of the Kootenays to commemorate Greg Todds who died in an avalanche 5 years ago. Greg, Cholo and their crew had decided to get rid of bindings in deep pow and developed a pad which allows you to surf and skate on powder.
Vanessa Andrieux (www.vanessaandrieux.com) and I started the adventure with a bit of trouble because of bad rental car service in Castlegar, where everything closes at 4:30 PM apparently, we got stuck there for the night hoping to get a car early enough to drive all the way in time for the race. The rental car thing didn’t get any better when we realized they didn’t have any 4-wheel drive or any proper mountain cars at all. Once we over-packed the small car they gave us, we realized the car had summer tires. It was super sketchy knowing we’d have to drive on quite narrow and slippery, snowy mountain roads, but it was that or hang out in that ugly town doing nothing for the whole weekend so we jumped in the car and somehow just made it in time.
Our luck came back as soon as we arrived in NoBoard land for the 5th Annual GT Memorial. We showed up at the same time as Gigi and Shandi Campos, who took us straight to the sledding spot. We didn’t have a sled but there, again, we got instantly picked up and doubled all the way to the race field. It was so cool to show up and find Romain, Jussi, Benjie, Shin, Rube, Mikey (etc.) and of course the local legends Scott Penner, Cholo Burns and Jenna Lowe. I met Scott years back and he got me to fall in love with NoBoarding, and to see what he can do without bindings, he is my hero!
I had missed the women’s race but I got a run with the last guy’s heat. The place was tracked already! It was my first run in two years and still I had so much fun riding down that field of pillows and trees! A good part of the fun is knowing you are definitely gonna crash at some point! Of course guys like Gigi and Terje killed it but the locals rule at that game, we’re in their backyard and Young Dave won the race. I had never seen a contest winner holding on so much to his cup, he probably spooned with it after partying with it all night! We all went down and an auction was organized to raise money for Greg’s kids. I couldn’t believe how much stuff was sold. Then we danced all night to DJ Solomon’s tunes! The weekend was a blast—there was such a great vibe!
We stayed some on with Cholo and Jenna to shoot. We went up and spent the first day doing Noboard runs in heavy, but super fun, no roping snow. It was a bit sketchy with snow conditions and what can happen when the conditions are not right happened—at the bottom of a run, Cholo set off a small avalanche. It wasn’t big nor deep, but what appeared to be just a small slide was enough to fully burry him. Luckily this happened right before our eyes so we all ran and got him out in no time and he was fine. However, that was a serious wake up call.
A couple days later we went back up and the conditions were even more dangerous.
We set off two avalanches and decided to go home. That day I had that weird feeling: We were not welcome in the mountains. I was relieved only when we got back to the cars, happy and lucky to be safe and alive. The highway was closed because of avalanche danger and we had to drive all around the mountains on small roads. It took us 15 hours to get to Vancouver.
Some days the mountain is a fun playground, and some others it’s a giant monster ready to eat you up. It’s crucial to listen to your surroundings and hold back when the conditions are not right. The few days we spent with Cholo and Jenna were amazing, I won’t forget their extraordinary hospitality. Long live NoBoarding! My favorite thing ever! Be safe.
—Anne-Flore
www.annefloremarxer.com |
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