I think this is the first time this week I have felt chilled and relaxed. That is a sign of something . . . maybe Pinot Grigio . . . I was just looking at some old pictures and two things struck me.

1. I have next to no pictures of my family! Mum, can you put some to one side for me please, maybe post them out, I can scan them and send them back, or maybe I can ask Dave or the Sheppard to scan them?
2. It is amazing how quickly you can forget stuff! I will explain in the next paragraph!

As many of you know snowboarding has, for what ever reasons been a big part of my life for many years. But if we pan back for a moment and look how it all started we can point fingers at the usual suspects!

If we go back to Eric (ok, that’s getting old I know, but I am trying to protect the giraffes on the internet . . or something ;). He had a birthday some years ago. Coldbird and I manage to plan a weekend away, of which a small part was going to Tamworth Snowdome for some sledging and a skiing lesson. Well, that was a whole adventure that would need a long time to explain! But after that weekend I mentioned How I always wanted to try snowboarding and there were some things I wanted to achieve before my 25^th birthday. Any, Eric being the kind of guy he is picked up on this an booked a lesson for coldbird and myself at the next opportunity (just after my 25^th). There were only 2 spaces available on the lesson hence Eric stepped back, picked up the video camera and let us make fools out of ourselves. I still have a copy of that DVD!

Anyhow, why am I going into all this? I regularly tell stories to people of my holidays and nights out boarding, it covers the names you would expect, Dave/Andy/Adam and other internet interlopers. I don’t really get to mention that in the early days all the lessons were spent with Eric and Coldbird (cept the first trip to Andorra with Dave, but that is another can of worms!)

This picture is from the second holiday I ever went on. It was a crazy trip, a 3 day weekend to Les Arcs with Duncan, Matt, Eric and Coldbird. Some of you would have seen the DVD (again lovingly crafted by Coldbird!) but not many of you would have seen any of the pictures, hence this pic is from my 7^th day on snow! (excluding MK and Tam).

You have to remember the early days, it helps keep things in perspective. I may not have boarded as much as I would have liked to since I have been in Portland, but the desire is there as strong as ever and the people that have been there from the start are still a big part of it.

In summary, thanks to all of you that make boarding what it is to me, I will hopefully post some additional pictures of you all, prob do some kind of profile thingy for each of you, but for now there is a rare snippet of Eric and I on snow together, I hope we get a chance to do it again sometime Eric!

This picture, from left to right.

Duncan, Eric "the dragon" Richardson, Matt. Crazy weekend summized by long mobile calls, tree crashes (Duncan!!!) tantrums and courtesy flushes (Matt) Hot chocolates, Birthdays and Valentines (Coldbird, yielding the camera in this case) and lots of beer, me! Then table, chairs . . snow and so on . . . .