Grenoble France: When

Parker and I found out that we were going to be two of the

representatives for Rossignol at the Jeux de Neige competition in

Grenoble France we were both real excited about the opportunity to

travel to and ski in Europe for the first time. We weren’t exactly sure

what the format of the competition was going to be, but we knew that a

few other riders from Rossignol and us would be making up a team to

compete against teams from other ski companies. My goal for the trip

was to just have fun and ski how I do on an everyday basis. Just be

relaxed, keep it smooth, and don’t try to do something that i wouldn’t

try at home. The excitement of what the trip would bring definitely

made my journey from Mammoth Lakes, California feel shorter then it

really was.

When I finally arrived in France I met up with Parker and

“the man with the plan” Arnaud Peyrin. That night after checking into

our hotel we went to meet up with Xavier Bertoni and Kevin Rolland, two

of rossignols top riders and two of our teammates for the competition.

We got a chance to watch those guys, along with rossi snowboard team

rider Mathieu Crepel film a sit down interview with a local television

station in Grenoble. Even though we couldn’t understand a thing any of

them were saying, it was still fun to sit in and watch. With no set

plans on thursday Kevin, Parker, and I drove about an hour to Les 2

Alpes ski resort to get some riding in.

We headed up to the glacier on

top of the mountain to ride the terrain park that consisted of a bunch

of jumps and few rails. We rode a few hours on some good snow but not

in the greatest weather, the wind and clouds made it a little sketchy

to jump and hard to see. The clouds really started rolling in towards

the afternoon and when it became next to impossible to determine the

difference between the snow and the sky we decided to call it a day.

When friday morning rolled around us three went to meet Arnaud, Matt

the Rossi filmer, and a few of the snowboard guys at the rossi factory

to film some interviews with all of the new 09 skis (be sure to check

that out at Rossignol.com, should be up in the near future).

Friday

night's plan was to ride in this rail jam, and when we got there we met

our final team member for the big air, Joffrey Pollet Villard. We were

all real stoked with the setup that they had built and it looked like

it was going to be a real fun time. Everyone was killing it, real good

vibe between all of the riders and with the crowd going wild every time

someone iced something up it just fueled everyone else to step their

game up. At the end of the rail jam everyone was covered in mud,

exhausted, and ready to hit the big air jump the following day. On

saturday morning, Parker and my plan of sleeping in a little but waking

up early enough to get the hotel breakfast went down the drain when

Parker bugged out on our hotel room phone when it rang for our wake up

call. He did the same thing when Arnaud called our room around eleven

to let us know what time we had to be at the jump.

We got an hour to

ride the jump for practice around four. Getting speed for the jump was

not a problem and for it being in the middle of a city, the size of the

jump was pretty good too. Once the snowboarders had finished and

Mathieu claimed the top spot for just absolutely slaying it we got a

few more practice jumps before the competition. The format was three

jumps and each jump had a theme. A smooth jump, a technical jump, and

an old school jump. Everyone on the team did work. Check out the edit

to peep what went down, and what hilarious surprise Kevin and Xavier

had for everybody for the old school jump. Everybody in the competition

had such a fun time, rossignol ended up taking second, and then a bunch

of the competitors ended the night by taking on the crowd in a snowball

fight. Overall France was such a fun time and a great experience. Big

thanks to everybody from Rossi, PK for hooking us up with the

opportunity, Arnaud for making our time there dope as hell, and

everybody else we met on the way.

Chris Logan