Thursday, March 3, 2011

Paintball San Salvador, El Salvador

After two years and living in two countries that do not allow paintball, I was pretty excited to learn that El Salvador had a field. The field leaves a lot to be desired, but thats ok. It is a place to get out and shoot at my friends. It also gives me the opertunity to put the many dollars woth of gear I have collected to use. Paintball Navarro is just outside the city. I have spent a good number of Sundays out there shooting at people. Sadly the field is pretty unorganized. Unless you bring your own group, it is pretty hard to hook up with any local groups. There are some refs, but they mostly only go out to the field if there are little kids around. Dispite all these short comming it is still a blast. It is the perfect way to end the week. Below is a little video that I took on the speed ball field using my JOLE Autococker. The field was pretty bad this day. Most of the air bunkers were flat or not full. There was also a good amount of cow droppings on the field, not exactly what you want to slide into. Coordinates are +13° 40' 27.51", -89° 12' 27.95"

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ice and Fire

Since before I ever got to Hawaii it was a goal of mine to go from snow to beach in the same day. I really wanted to snowboard and surf in the same day, but that didn't quite happen.

In one day I managed to go visit the top of Mauna Kea and play in the snow, and then drive down to Volcanos National Park and see flowing lava in the afternoon, an stopped at the beach inbetween. While both of these things are relitively close, it still took most of the day.Because I started in Kona, Hawaii, the day involved about 10 hours of driving.

I don't have too much to say on this adventure, so I will let the video and pictures speak for themselves.



Lava
Hot lava
Hawaiian Snow
View from the top of the world

Luxembourg Mountain Biking "The End"

It was almost two years ago now. Near the end of my time in Luxembourg, I was tipped off to some better Mountain bike trails, by a video on youtube. The youtuber was kind enough to give me directions on how to get to this not so hidden national mountain bike park, down in the iron rich, red hills of south east Luxembourg. Unfortunately the wet winter wasn't quite over with when I first started going. This bike park had a few miles of single and double track and some serious dirt jump and ladder dropps. I didn't take advantage of any of the DJ, but I did spend a few days riding around the single and double track. I don't think I ever saw another rider, outside of the DJ area.
DJ still wet in April


Nice and dry in May


Some of the locals put on a show for me.




Coordinates are +49° 29' 21.69", +6° 0' 26.94"

Flaine, France Skiing



Flaine, France is a tiny little ski town in the shadow of Mont Blanc. I went down there with three friends for some fun in the snow. We got a little ski in ski out condo and spent the week doing nothing but spending time on the mountain or drinking. That is the beauty of small towns like Flaine.
Mont Blanc

Our timing couldn't have been much better. There was already a good amount of snow in the mountain when we got there. Our first day was spent warming up and learning the mountain on the groomers, which was nice since all of us had not rode for at least a year.
Shopping for supplies with the smallest shopping cart ever

Just as we were heading in for the night, the snow started coming down. It continued almost all night. In the morning we got up early to find about 9 inches of fresh powder. We spent the whole day on the side-country floating over all the fresh powder.

Day three I took the day off from snowboarding to ski and get my board tuned. There was still a little powder to play on, but most of the day was spent on the back side of the mountain, which wasn't very steep.

Day four it was back to the board and sticking to the steeps. I tried to seek out some cliff jumps, and found a few small ones.

July Snowboarding in Oregon

I am sitting here is the tropics for another winter, again missing the snows. It is making me think back to my summer snowboarding adventure.

Last year after spending 14 months in the summer of Saudi Arabia, I was really needing some snow. I was already out in Portland, OR for some beer festival. The white top of Mount Hood was calling me. On the last day of my trip I decided to head up to the Palmer Glacier at Timberline on Mount Hood.

The price was pretty steap for only being able to use half of the very top lift, but how often will I get to snowboard in July. Also the guy in the rental shop hooked me up with a millitary discount of 100%, which was awesome. The weather was nice and warm, so I was able to board in just hiking pants and a hoodie.

I spent about two hours just doing laps of the one run and just enjoying myself, and I took this video.