Road Trip to Lowlander Round Two

Lowlander – Round 2

November 21^st – Bellahouston, Glasgow

Leaving time 8.30 am

 

Round 2 of the Lowlander will be held at The Glasgow Ski and Board Centre (AKA Bellahouston) on Saturday November 21^st.

As promised we will be taking the team bus down to the comp, registration time is still to be finalised but is likely to be around midday.  We will be leaving Aberdeen Snowsports Centre at 8.30am to give us plenty of time to get there.

Make sure you get your name on the list at reception if you want to come on the bus, and leave your phone number so we can get in touch with you.

Travel costs are to be confirmed but should be around £10.

Contact Beth by email at bethwoodall@btconnect.com if you have any questions.

Cheers, see you on the bus.

G.O.A.T. Round Twelve video now online

It’s the last one…

That’s it for the trick list, but we’ve still got the final to go! The G.O.A.T. page has all the info you need, as well as the complete final standings of the competition.

The final is this Saturday, and it’s also the debut of the Saturday night freestyle sessions which will run all winter, don’t miss it!

Lowlander at Garthdee, Saturday 31st October 2009

Lowlander at Garthdee 31/12/09

Nicol’s given us the lowdown on the Lowlander, have a read. Also check out the photos in the gallery below, courtesy of the Strachans and the Camerons:

The first round of the Lowlander series at Aberdeen Snowsports centre saw skiers and boarders flock from all over Scotland.  With over 40 competitors this was the busiest Lowlander to date, not to mention all of the spectators at the bottom who helped add to the atmosphere.

With the sun shining, red bull flowing and some good tunes playing it was set to be a good day.  With the practice session starting at 12, the southerners were flipping, spinning and jibbing in all directions, this gave our local riders a wee shock and they seemed to be slightly nervous at first.  The competition was to be based on slopestyle, where you link features together. First off everyone had 2 judged runs on the kicker and quarter pipe and then it went onto the rail run where we had Mal’s box linked onto the battleship.

Stand outs at first were the well known McCormack brothers from Glasgow.  Danny was spinning not only backside 7’s but switch frontside 5’s, frontside rodeos, these were all landed flawlessly and linked onto the quarterpipe for some more spins and flips. His younger brother Matt on his board and Chris on his skis were keeping the crowds attention with a consistent flow of well executed manoeuvres.

By this stage our local riders at Garthdee realised that they were going to have to pull something special out the bag if they were to claim a place on the podium.  Local snowboarder Kris Bell was one of our  competitors that was looking strong and confident and was giving Danny McCormack a run for his money on the quarter pipe.  Angus Jacobs was most definitely giving it his all by putting a lot of effort into his newly learned 720’s, unfortunately Angus didn’t land  many of them but kept on showing his true spirit by getting back up and trying again. Once Ross Cruickshank’s nerves had settled he was pulling off some nice stunts with some sizeable switch backflips and mistly flips. Close friend Mathew Hellingoe was also improving as the afternoon progressed. Local skier Grant Donald finally found his feet after a shaky start with some sweet switch 3’s followed by his signature flare in the quarter pipe. Whilst the older, more experienced Andy Wilson and Mike Hewson owned the slopes with some huge spins from Mike followed by big airs in the quarter pipe, it seemed Andy was going to be the guy to beat with his switch 7’s followed by switch rodeos in the quarter pipe, although Hector Barbour stepped up his game as the competition went on.

It was great to see the few females that we had busting a gut for a prize, although disappointingly there was only a total of  6 girls. I’m sure there are a lot more of you out there that are more than capable of competing so next time come on down and give it your best.

Stand out for the females was Natalie Riley, she was hitting the kicker with some solid 360’s followed by the same rotation on the quarter pipe; Sophie Addison did well to pull off some smooth nose grabs and later stepped up to some 180’s but unfortunately failed to land them, however she made up for that by pulling of some silky smooth jibs on the rail line. Rebecca Morrison was giving it her all on the table top with the backside 360 and some nice backside airs on the quarter pipe. Rebecca Eccles was looking solid with her line on her skis and Local Lass Beth Woodall showed off her multi talent by not only freestyling it on the skis but the board as well, good to see! Jessica Crichton had travelled all the way from Fort William and was practising the day before which secured her with some sweet 180’s.

Rowan Cameron was looking confident with his new boots and trousers, he was flying towards the kicker and quarter pipe pulling of some well executed airs, however to get a place on the podium will perhaps need to step up to spinning over features in the future. 

Findlay Bremner started off a little nervous then pulled things together to getting some sweet runs under his belt, Fin didn’t even use half of his trick book.  Emmet Strachan was looking really strong landing almost everything he tried, linking features together not only with style and precision but you could tell Emmet had in mind just exactly what he was going to do. This is what you need in a competition like this, a little bit of pre planning and most importantly a back up plan. It is also important to sometimes sit back and gauge what everyone else is doing and landing, this will then give you a better idea of what to go for.

The Glasgow guys seriously started stepping it up with Matt McClement going for a 1080!! Unfortunately for Matt he failed to land, never the less he kept everyone else on there toes.  Pete Medows ‘two feet Pete’ was pulling of some very smooth 7’s followed by Mctwists on the quarter pipe, this wasn’t enough to gain him first as his good friend Matt McCormack matched his 7 on the kicker and followed through with a barrel roll on the quarter which was smoothly landed.

 

8-11yrs Snowboarding  Emmet Strachan 1^st    Findlay Bremner 2^nd    Brandon bow 3^rd

12-15 Snowboarding Matt McCormack 1^st    Pete Medows 2^nd    Matt McClement 3^rd

16’s and over Snowboarding Danny McCormack 1^st    Kris Bell 2^nd    Mitch Flynn 3^rd

 

 Female Boarding. Natalie Riley 1st    Sophie Addison  2^nd    Beth Woodall  3^rd

 Female Ski. Bex Eccles 1^st Beth Woodall 2^nd.

 

 Ski 8-11 Chris McCormack 1^st    Cal Sanderson 2^nd    Angus Jacobs 3^rd

Ski 12- 15 Ski  Ross Cruickshank  1^st    David Bilsland 2^nd    Grant Donald 3^rd

Over 16’s ski. Andy Wilson 1^st    Hector Barbour 2^nd    Mike Hewson 3^rd

 

All in all it was a great day and apart from our amp blowing and losing our music and MC everyone seemed to have a great day, let’s hope we can tempt all competitors up to our very own ‘OWN IT’ on the 19^th of December 09.

Dundee Rail Jam, Saturday 24th October 2009

Grant Donald was the Goat Post’s man on the scene at the Dundee University Rail Jam last weekend. Sounds like it was great event, with Aberdeen boasting a solid team. Read Grant’s report below:

Skills of the Irish: no luck required as Emmet Strachan locks in a boardslide

On the 24th October 2009 the University of Dundee was set to host a Rail Jam. With real snow being taken from the Sno!Dome in Glasgow as well as some features it was to be a good set up. The rails that were taken were a street rail

Grant Donald gets the landing gear down as Fin Bremner looks on

(single rail wide) , a short box and a down box. With a few familiar faces from Aberdeen such as Will Smith, Ben Kinnear and Mark Watson. With Matt Helingoe, Emmet Strachan, Fin Bremner and Grant Donald riding together as a group with some of the Glasgow crew alongside them. As the Jam began the rain began to pour and the snow hardened and became very icy.

On Emmet’s first run he struggled with the rail and ended up on his head next to it. Through-out the competition he stepped up his riding and showed the crowd what hes made of with a stomped 180 on 180 off the down box. Fin was sticking some sweet 180s off the rail and hit the street rail a few times which was pretty good going. Sophie Addison was throwing down some sweet 5.0s and boardslides and a 6 foot mudslide that made everyone smile ! The Mens Boarders were mostly hitting the street rail and attempting 180 on 180 off with Mark Watson and Kevin Cowie nailing a few. Despite the run-in being slower to skiiers than boarders, the skiiers were throwing lots of varieties of tricks. Switch-ups, 270s on and off galore. Bellahouston riders Gareth McLean, David Bilsland, Pierce and Rory Houlihan were doing pretzels and spinning on, making an impression to the judges. But it was Rory Houlihan who make everyone laugh by bailing into and under the rail and tearing out the boards

Matt Hellingoe, 270-on: learned at Garthdee, stomped in Dundee.

underneath. Matthew Helingoe and Grant Donald were representing the skiiers form Aberdeen. Matt was droping in on all the rail and doing some sweet railslides. He stepped up to 270s onto the small box, which gave us some funny bails to laugh at because of the speed problems. Grant Donald was also having problems with the speed but managed to do some switch-ups, ski-slides and attempting some 2s off.

Soon prize-giving was upon us and we headed into the union bar to be first to the seats. The first set of prizes being given out were the JUNIOR SKI: 3rd place went to Grant Donald , 2nd place to Gareth McLean and 1st to David Bilsland. JUNIOR BOARD: 3rd – Fin Bremner, 2nd: Jessie (Glasgow) And a Grand first place to Emmet Strachan who won himself a pair of size 9 thirtytwo boots. Overall barring the heefin’ rain and wind everybody had a great day out and we will be back next year.

Thanks to Dom at DUSC and all the sponsors for the tee’s, do-nuts on great prizes and a brill but very wet day out.

Rogues' gallery: Fin, Kielan, Grant and Emmet.

Round Eleven Entries now online

One round to go!

Final round deadline extended

The deadline for round 12 has been extended by another week. This will allow for the final trick tip to be filmed, and for the last few riders to step up and make it to the final!

The final page has been updated too, take a look!

Matt’s back!!

After a few months away, Matt Gibson’s back up this week for a long-overdue Garthdee shred sesh! He’s already been tearing it up and he’ll be back down tomorrow night (Wednesday) for the freestyle night, don’t miss it!

Highlander/Lowlander poster released

Here’s the new Highlander/Lowlander poster, showing all the dates of each comp. Click the poster to enlarge.

The Aberdeen leg is the first round, and it’ll all be kicking off at 1pm on Saturday 31st October. See you there!

Winter opening times for 09/10 at Garthdee

As of Monday 26th October, the Garthdee slope is changing to its winter timetable. There are a few big changes, and it all adds up to a lot more riding time.

The public sessions times at the slope will be 12pm til 10pm every day (with the continued exception of the Wednesday freestyle clubs, where entry is still by referral).

Weekends will now feature a second Freestyle session every Saturday night from 5pm til 10pm, and a 50% off session for Aberdeen Snowsports Club members every Sunday from 5pm til 10pm.

With the Lowlander comp up next Saturday, as well as the G.O.A.T. Final the week after that, there’ll be a lot going on at the mat. Make sure you don’t miss out!

For more info phone the slope on 01224 810215. 

 

public session times at Garthdee will change to 12pm-10pm every day.

Frazmatazz session review

Last night’s Frazmatazz slope session was a stormer. In honour of Fraz, who was down for his last Garthdee slide in what could be a while, there were plenty of flannel shirts kicking about, as well as the odd ginger wig….

Chris Gatenby and Ally Gray stood out as the riders of the night. Approriately for the occasion, Chris stomped some of the best palm airs the mat has seen in a while, while Ally showed how clean his newest tricks have already become: Cab 5, cab 7, backside 360 onto Mal’s box and super-corked back 5s. Ed Greig was back down for another session, nailing some heelside rodeos and big back 1s. Slav Gnatetski made a long-overdue return to the mat, taking the time to get some shots of the riders hitting the kicker. All in all, it was a great send-off for Fraz, a fine example of the kind of session he has been instrumental in encouraging.

Over to Nicol Paton for the final word on Fraz and all that he’s done for the slope:

Local legend Frazer Rennie has left Aberdeen and is off to start a job In York England, Frazer AKA Fraz will most certainly be gone for a few months and possibly as long as 2 years.

He will be sorely missed by all the local riders and parents of those riders and even more so by all the staff here at Aberdeen Snow sports centre,  and I’m sure by allot of people in the North east of Scotland.

Fraz has been a regular face here at Garthdee for over 4 years and has been an inspiration to many a rider, I don’t think there would be one person that comes along to our freestyle Wednesday session that hasn’t learned a bag of tricks from Fraz.

Fraz was well known for his individual style and flair also for his ability to tweak his tricks out to the max, he was more often seen helping others than he was on his own board.  There is not anyone who has a bad word to say about Fraz and I’m sure everyone will hope for the best for Fraz’s future. So raise your glass of  beer or Irn bru to him the next time you have one.

Cheers  for all the rad times Fraz!!