DC’s Area 43: Chalet Diary
The first person to great us was DC
and FreestyleXtreme sponsored rider,
Sam Turnbull. Sam, as always, was
full of energy and ran up and grabbed
my bag from me welcoming me into
what can only be described as every
snowboarder’s dream garage. The
space had been converted into a
snowboard workshop with benches,
tools, lockers and everything you
would ever need to maintain and repair
your gear before hitting the slopes. As
if this wasn’t good enough, around the
corner I found myself staring and a wall
of next season’s boards in every size
available. When they told me the week
was on DC, I didn’t realise that I would
also be testing out all of next season’s
kit. Brushing my hands over a couple
of brand spanking new PBJs, I knew I
had to get up the mountain as soon as
possible.
Opening the door to the lounge, I found
Simon Cudlip and Faye Young, two
more DC UK riders who have just spent
a season riding in Breckenridge in the
States. Si showed me to the kitchen
where he grabbed me an ice-cold
Carlsberg from a Carlsberg branded
fridge on one of the counters. Did I
mention the chalet is also sponsored
by Carlsberg?
Cold beer in hand, I star-fished out on
my huge double bed in the loft room,
staring out at my private balcony onto
the snow-globe scene that lay ahead.
Yet I wouldn’t be chilling out for long -
we were heading up the mountain, so
a quick change and I was back in the
garage sliding on a brand new PBJ 155
and a pair of ‘Judges’. We all piled into
the DC Area 43 van and 30 minutes
later we were at the top of the park
in Méribel. Blue Bird and ‘fresh-ish’
snow awaited my first run. Area 43 is
the DC park in Méribel and consists
of a competition-ready half pipe, rails,
boxes and some massive kickers.
Weaving in and out of the obstacles
while looking over the valley gave me a
great sense of calm and for a moment
my biggest regret was never doing a
season in the snow, that quiet moment
instantly disappeared when Turnbull
sprayed me with a mound of snow off a
massive carve. u