It’s my second day here at the European Snowboarding Open in Laax, Switzerland with Nokia Push and their Research and Development team, and as I type this I’m sat in glorious sunshine, with the view you can see below.

What I will be covering in this post is my experiences from yesterday’s time on the slopes with a snowboard. This was my very first time on a snowboard on real snow, having only experienced a couple of hours on an artificial slope back in the UK several years ago.

First things first, and as mentioned in my previous post from Laax, I was kitted out with various sensors, before heading to the slopes, its these sensors which will collect the various data from my body, and board.

So what can I tell you? Well, lots, and first of all I want to let you know how difficult snowboarding really is for the first time. It’s crazy. First you need to figure out if you are Goofy (Right Footed), or Regular (Left Footed). This is very important, and I found out the hard way by thinking I was Regular when in actual fact I’m Goofy.

Knowing I was Goofy me, and Matt from Nokia Push headed to the Ski Shop to get my board set up to suit me as it was set up as a Regular snowboard for left foot first rider.

My first mission on the snow was to go down the slope to the ski lift which takes you right to the top of this mountain here in Laax, luckily I had a really nice guy, Armin who’s had 20 years snowboarding experience, and he helped me down to the ski lift fine, holding my arms, and directing me every foot of the way. This was the easy part.

We pretty much went down the slope with the snowboard’s edge facing downwards, and gently sliding a little at a time, and using the edge of the snowboard to stop now and again.

This is the view I got used to very quickly…(on my backside)

I do have photo proof that I can snowboard a little, checkout the photo below, see, I’m still standing!

Now onto the hard part, and this damn ski lift, it was one of those small types with a single angled bar which goes between my legs, but first in order to go on this lift you have to remove one of your feet from the snowboard itself, it was here where I discovered Im Goofy, and not Regular, and Regular is how my board was set up.

For the life of me, I simply could not get my head about the whole balancing thing, and my first attempt to hook up to the ski lift, I tried to sit down on the small round area which rests on your back side. I of course ended up on the floor, and felt a little embarrassed, but Armin was really patient with me, and we tried several times to get me onto this ski lift, but sadly due to me not being the fittest guy in the world (I really need to get to the gym), I wore myself out.

I was so exhausted, and seeing as I didn’t have the energy to walk back up the slope I had just come down, Armin arranged a Mountain Rescue for me.!

Micky’s Mountain Rescue, can you believe it, my pride was a little bruised at this point, but Armin assured me, not to be ashamed, and said he has seen it all before with new snowboarders over his 20 years snowboarding experience.

After 10 minutes waiting the Mountain Rescue arrived, it was a snowmobile on steroids, and the best way I can describe it is that it was a kind of quad bike, but instead of four wheels, it had 4 tracks similar to what you see of a tank, but smaller obviously. I hopped on and was taken to the top of the mountain in no time, and boy this thing was fast!

So there I am, back on the top of this stunning mountain, but I still couldn’t help feel ashamed, as for one, I had these amazing sensors on my body and board, and I was unable to give any data to the Nokia Push team for them to work with. I was assured it was no big deal, and they said things like this happen.

Later in the day two professional snowboarders joined us, and both got geared up with the sensors, and set about heading down the slopes with our cameraman in tow. The data was then collected, and compiled in an amazing video where the sensors’ readings were overlaid on the video like a kind of dashboard, and the data was synced to the snowboarders actual position on the slope.

I will post a video or two of the Burton guys soon. I will also be following up this post with a run down of each of the five sensors, and the various data they collect from the snowboarders! Here’s a labeled photo to show you some of the sensors fitted.

Related posts:

1. Day 1 With Nokia Push & Burton Snowboarding in Laax
2. Switzerland Bound with Nokia Push & Burton for first alpha tests
3. My view for the day
4. Just not having a good day lol

Tags: EDITORIAL, Video

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 18:42 and is filed under EDITORIAL, NOKIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.