I may have been a loyal and useful après ski reporter thus far, but things have changed considerably in the last week. Well, since my last mammoth tried and tested après blog to be precise.
It all started when I (along with 500 other people) trotted along to the Palais du Sport arena in the centre of Morzine for this year’s Cavern 247 video comp. It’s always one of the highlights of the winter season. Groups of amateur filmmakers get together, register their team and collect their Cavern 247 bibs before heading off to film and edit a masterpiece over the next three days. All the entries are screened at a premier, which for the first time was held at the Palais du Sport in support of local cancer charity the Lavender Trust and the ‘Build a Skatepark’ campaign. What I believed would be a relatively sensible night out (in bed by midnight I foolishly told myself…) turned out into one of the funniest and most drunken of the season. So far.
Thankfully I was able to remember most of the brilliant films and here’s the winner…
I did have a personal favorite however, and in my (not particularly professional but also unbiased) opinion, the girls were robbed with this effort…
And another brilliant vid…
So I’m now off the sauce. I promise. This week has been spent at Sport Achat, a snowsports buyers trade exhibition (think the French version of ISPO, but smaller) in Lyon. So rather than après tips, this week you get a preview of next winter’s clothing and kit – does that sound fair? Good.
Snowboard graphics have turned into cartoon strips. These ones in particular from Imperium Snowboards were pretty representative.
Skis have gone eco. SkiLogik have always lead with way with their wooden, natural designs but White-Doctor and K2 also had some beauties on display.
Morzine based hat brand Stardust Factory were also at the trade fair, where founder Kim Dekker was always deep in discussion with one retailer or another!
French eco brand Picture Organic had a load of next season’s kit on their stall with some great new colour combos.
And who knew Nike and Dragon had joined forces to produce frameless goggles? Well, not me, but they are rather special…
There may be more boozing back on the après itinerary next week, but for now, I’m off to enjoy the spring powder!
