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Hi, I'm a 43 year old Brit who's been riding, what I thought were called snowblades, since my first pair of Bigfoot originals (the matt black ones with the pink toenails). Last week I went to Val D'Isere with a group of 16 skiiers of varying competence. Of course they all scoffed when I took my old 94cm Blizzards out of the bag, until the first day on the mountain when I blitzed past them all on the piste (in style)!
The next day it snowed..a lot and the pistes soon turned into piles of crud. Of course I got the inevitable upper leg burn all day as I had to lean back to avoid the face plants. It continued to snow overnight, so the next morning I resorted to hiring a pair of skis and poles so I could keep up with my mates, without exhausting myself.
The sun came out and the snow turned once more into piles of crud on the steeper pistes. In the afternoon I had been having a miserable time on the sh*tty hire skis when my salvation finally appeared. We had just skied down a really steep black covered in ice and piles of crud and were at the bottom of the slope watching the intermediates carefully pick their way down the piste. Suddenly this bloke came bombing down the hill backwards, putting in perfect carving turns then leaping over the crud he did a 180 and changed direction. He had no poles a we all stood there open jawed as he changed direction again and effortlessly skated past us backwards. I immediately set off in pursuit and finally caught up with him when he got to the lift. I got chatting to him and asked him about his ride. He was an American and he told me they were called skiboards. He was wearing a pair of Summit Marauder 125's.
That evening I went shopping in Val D'Isere to see if I could find any. None of the shops had even heard of them or understood what i was talking about, even though I spoke very slowly and very loudly with a french accent.
I'm now back home in the UK and yesterday won an Ebay auction, a pair of new Summit Marauders 125's from the States
Unfortunately I'll now have to wait 12 months before I can try them out.
It's going to be a very very long year!
The next day it snowed..a lot and the pistes soon turned into piles of crud. Of course I got the inevitable upper leg burn all day as I had to lean back to avoid the face plants. It continued to snow overnight, so the next morning I resorted to hiring a pair of skis and poles so I could keep up with my mates, without exhausting myself.
The sun came out and the snow turned once more into piles of crud on the steeper pistes. In the afternoon I had been having a miserable time on the sh*tty hire skis when my salvation finally appeared. We had just skied down a really steep black covered in ice and piles of crud and were at the bottom of the slope watching the intermediates carefully pick their way down the piste. Suddenly this bloke came bombing down the hill backwards, putting in perfect carving turns then leaping over the crud he did a 180 and changed direction. He had no poles a we all stood there open jawed as he changed direction again and effortlessly skated past us backwards. I immediately set off in pursuit and finally caught up with him when he got to the lift. I got chatting to him and asked him about his ride. He was an American and he told me they were called skiboards. He was wearing a pair of Summit Marauder 125's.
That evening I went shopping in Val D'Isere to see if I could find any. None of the shops had even heard of them or understood what i was talking about, even though I spoke very slowly and very loudly with a french accent.
I'm now back home in the UK and yesterday won an Ebay auction, a pair of new Summit Marauders 125's from the States
Unfortunately I'll now have to wait 12 months before I can try them out.It's going to be a very very long year!
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