Excuse the writing on this post but Im on a French keyboard which has keys all over the shop. I also spent 2 hours writing this yesterday before Weebly deleted the post so I am a bit miffed about having to do it again. 

Well the last time I posted I was about to head off to Berlin and Julia was on her way back to Helsinki. The trip to Berlin was a trying one. I made my train with no problems, I had one stop over which would put me on the train straight to Berlin. After a couple of hours on the train I was picking up my bags preparing for my stop over. The train stopped before we ever made it to the station. A few announcements in Swedish were made and finally I was told that the signal light was broken so we had to wait for 20 minutes while it was repaired. A few more announcements were made 40 minutes later and before I knew it we were heading back the way we came. Once at the previous station I managed to find a controller and explain to him that I had a connecting train to Berlin which was due to leave 15 minutes ago. He explained my options to me. Either I could find a bus to the next station, or I could walk. Not the most encouraging answers I must admit. As I made my way from the train to the bus stop the man came running over and told me to get back on the train. The light was fixed. We arrived to the station and although the conductor wasn't sure if the train had been held he did know it left from platform 6. I scrambled to the platform with a big group of people but when we reached the platform no train was waiting. No infomation was given so we all stood around wondering what to do. Some lady had sliced her foot open on the escalators while running for the platform so while her boyfriend ran around like a stunned mullet trying to find an open shop (which is not easy at a train station at 10:30PM) I managed to clean and patch her up with some medi wipes and a bandage. It bled a lot but wasn't to deep which was lucky for her. We were eventually told that our train had not yet left but had no certain departure time which left us stranded at the station, unable to leave incase it arrived. We were there all night, some slept on benches, some on the concrete floor. I stayed up and chatted with some Americans. Finally a train arrived qnd took us to another station. We were told that the station wouldnt open in a few hours but we were welcome to sleep on the train until 4:30. After that the train would leave so we would have to wait outside. At about 3:30 I woke to people scrambling with luggage and evacuating the train like a plague had arrived. I followed the madness and arrived at a platform with a train to Berlin waiting for us. I got on and found a room with a couchette and prepared to sleep. I shared the room with a mother and her two young daughters. At 11AM they woke me while leaving the room "hello" said the mother "we are still in Sweden, sorry!". Sure enough we were still in Sweden. The train crosses the water on a ferry and we were apperently waiting for the ferry which would lave at 12:15. When we finally did get on the boat we were gifted a buffet breakfast which after 9 hours of no food, was more than welcome. I spent the rest of the trip to Berlin with the mother and her kids in the train cabin. We played some cards for a while and then spend the rest of the trip talking about this and that.   

I arrived in Berlin at 9;30PM. The first thing I did was go to the service point to book my trains to Hungerzell the next morning. Seems like everyone else had the same thought. The line went from the counters all the way out the door. It would be a long wait but now that I had arrived, I didn't mind so much. That is until about 15 minutes later when a very rude man strolled his way up to the front of the line and headed to the next available counter. I was to tired and irritated to let him get away with that so i got up and met him at the counter. I explained very loudly to the service lady that I had been waiting for 15 minutes now and the people infront of me had been waiting even longer. I told her that this "asshole" had walked straight to the front of the line without waiting and that I hoped she would ask him to wait in line like everybody else. Everyone in the room was watching and even the other service desks had stopped to listen. He kept telling me that "it was ok" in which I would tell him "no it's not!". I made my way back to my place in the line and after a short while the man followed. He again told it was ok and to relax which really made me angry. I not so politely told him it would be best if he left which he did. On the way out he told me "go back to your own country" which at the time, seemed like a great idea.   

After booking my train I headed to my hostel which was on a very loud, colourful and partying street. The weather was really hot and moist so everyone was sitting and talking outside. The hostel was nice enough and I was put in a 16 person dorm which is the biggest I had ever been in. I had a quick chat with a Canadian lady before going to get some food. Berlin is great. Imagine a city covered in graffiti, a city where the buildings are older than Australian settlement and the lights from the street are all different colours. It was instantly inviting and friendly and although I was on a busy street as a tourist with no clue to where I was headed I felt really safe. I finally found a spot to eat and sat down outside. I was joined by two extremely gay German men and their friend from Hong Kong. They were an odd trio and the biggest of the 3 wore a glittery top hat. They were all very friendly though and extremely funny people. We talked for an hour or so before they left. When they left they told me that what was left of the Berlin wall was a mere 5 minute walk from here so I set out to find it. The wall now runs about a Kilometer long and the city has hired numerous artists to paint murals along it with a theme of peace and new beginnings. Although I had said that the city is rampabt with graffiti, none had touched the wall. It was the same with the old style European buildings. The graffiti was always over new modern, metal or concrete structures but never the old. I wandered along the wall for an hour or so before heading back to the hostel for some sleep.  

The next morning was another early one. I was at the station at around 7 and had an entire days travel ahead of me. Everything went pretty smoothly and I even caught up with Andreas on the last leg of the journey. I spent a couple of weeks with Andreas in Vancouver last year though he hails from Sweden. It helped to make the trip a bit quicker to have someone to talk to and before we knew it we were in a small town named Bogen. From there we got a lift with Stephan Risch who is the brains behind the Almatrieb race. He gave us a run up the mountain and some good local information on racing lines and average speeds. The road was awesome! I quick, technical section at the top which stays at about 70KM/h and then it rockets you into a fast straight which is around the mid 90 mark. The straight ends with a difficult left hand hairpin and then a few S bends to the finish line. Our camp ground was pretty average. It was in a nice enough spot but lacked the essentials of a week of camping. With no showers we bathed in the river next door each night. The river was like ice but after a whole day of riding in leathers and full face helmets in near 40 degree weather, it was a welcome change. We had some porta potties that ran out of paper after day 1 and in the heat of the sun were un bearable to use. We had a party tent next door though which was an awesome set up and in the small town of Hungerzell the beer is cheaper than water, truly. Not only that but if you collected 4 empty bottles and brought them to the bar, they would give you a knew beer. We basically drank for free the whole week. My first Qualafication run wasn't the best as I hit the bails on the last tight left so I got a time of 3:19. The next day I took it a bit easier and made sure I got a clean run down and ended with a time of 3:08. That put me in 114th spot and since they decided to run a 128 man bracket, I was in. My first heat was tight. I was consistantly in second for the technical top section but the other 3 proved to fast for me on the straight, pushing me back into 4th and not enough time to draft anyone before the line. It was a disapointing heat for me but I still had a good time and was able to get a lot of filming done for the rest of the day. At the end of the day Kevin Reimer took first place followed in second by Jackson Shapiera and Eric Lundenburg in third. It was Jacksons third podium of the season so far and he is doing the Aussies proud.  

After the race a few of us went to a local place for dinner before heading back to the party tent for the award ceremony. I managed to take away a new Dervish board for a safety run I did down the track to point out a post the marshalls had missed with the hay bails. I also caugh a set of Abecs nez free ride wheels which was nice. After the ceremony I headed back to my tent to drop my new gear off. I had a few empty bottles in my tent and seeing as I was leaving the next day, I thought I would take them to the bar to cash them in. I put one in my pocket. DONT put glass bottles in your pocket. I didn't have a light with me and I didn't see my tent rope. I fell onto the bottle and it was game over. I got some help from Robin, Jacko and Norways team Sheiza. Leeo managed to track down Sammy from Switzerland who doesn't drink and the champ drove me to the nearest hospital. Sammy speaks German which was very helpful in the hospital and seeing as I didn't have any pants on, let ot lone a wallet he lent me the money to pay the doctor. I ended up with 14 stitches in my leg and 2 needles in my ass. Lesson learned, DONT put glass in your pocket. We headed back to the party in the knowing that I would be unable to race France. I hung out for a bit before going to bed. The next morning I awoke to the sounds of the Norwegians next door who were trying to work out who had shat in their tent. Turns out Dasha had woken in the middle of the night to see Alex (from team Norway and who sleeps in the tent) taking a crap. She screamed out no but it was to late so she went back to sleep. They will always be Team Sheiza...  

The next morning I got a lift to Munich with Danny Strasser who documents extreme sports around Europe. He dropped me off at the central station and I booked my trains. My train didn't leave until 11:30 so I had a shower at the station, ate and sat around. My train left an hour late. That meant I missed my connection to Zurich. That meant I spent another night at a cold, dark empty train station in the middle of no where. The zorst part was I had a sleeper booked and was so looking forward to being in a bed but it was not to be. I got on a train at 6am the next day and after a few hours and some of the most breath taking scenery I have ever seen, I was in Zurich. It was hot, damn hot! I had another shower at the station but by the time I was ready to get dressed again I was soaked with sweat. I hung around for hours waiting for my train and by the end of it I was ready to go home. My back hurt, my leg hurt, I was hot and sticky from sweat. My eyes throbbed from the glaring light and I was so sick of carting bags around with me. After hours of waiting I was on a train to Grenoble to meet up with Millena.
 
Millena is a French girl who lived with Julia in Adelaide. I dont know her well but we hung out a little bit and she came to stay with Julia and I one weekend on Kangaroo Island. We met at the train station and headed straight to her famalies house for dinner. It was great, her family were all very welcoming and friendly people and lived in downtown Grenoble which was full of old buildings and had a lot of charecter about it. Everyone kisses everyone on the cheeks to greet one another and say goodbye which I have never encountered before other than rich Western folk who try so hard to be French. It was done here in such a natural friendly manner though. After dinner Millena and I drove back to her house, I had a shower and slept. Millena lives with her dad, Pierre who I met the next morning. Millena had work so we said our goodbyes and she was off. Pierre is a teacher so he was on holidays which meant he was able to drop me at the station in the afternoon. He is an avid motorbike rider so I leant him my head cam to use before I headed off to explore. Grenoble is an awesome city. Full of parks and fountains, dogs, churches, cafes and restraunts. Towering over the city on one of the mountains is a huge fortress named Le Bastille. I hiked up the mountain on my own. I was worried about an hour and a bit hike up a mountain side with 14 fresh stitches in my leg but thought I may never get the chance again. The views on the way up are incredible and onlmy topped by the views from the top. The fortress looks over the whole city with the enormous mountain back drop. I hung around for an hour or so, paid 8 Euro for a coke and an icecream (I guess they can charge what the want up there), checked out the museum which was free but all in French so I had no idea what was happening and then caught the Bastille eggs back down. The eggs were built in the 60's for the Olympics and they are 6 seater cable cars from the bottom to the top. I HATE heights when I have no control and sitting in a bubble that swings in the wind 800 meters above the ground is about as little control as you can get. By the time I reached the ground I was cramped all over from being so tense for the ride down. I slowly made my way back to Millenas on the bus, spent some time watching bike footage with Pierre before he dropped me at the train station and on my way to Anncey.... The Graveyard call.

In Munich now and on my way to France. Would love to do an entry but no time at the moment. I have added some photos though which of course, you can check them out on the photos page. I can tell you that I managed to slice my leg open on a glass bottle yesterday (no, not while riding) and I have ended up with 14 stitches in my leg. That puts me out of the next race in France which is the one I wanted to ride the most. I am pretty bummed with it but I may be able to do a couple of freerides. We will see how it is on the day. Hopefully I will have a full report up in the next couple of days.

Well when I last posted I was still in Norway. we had a good last couple of days in Voss before heading back down to Gothenburg, Sweden. In the beginning of the Norway week Julia and I went for a skate around town with a Swedish fella named Christian. It was raining pretty heavily so we found a small slope and spent some time sliding in the wet. A couple of local kids, maybe 12 years old,  cruised by on some longboards so I yelled out to them to come over and session with us. They were pretty new to the sport and had never slid their boards before. We lent them a helmet and some slide gloves and gave them a few pointers for 40 minutes or so. When we left to catch our bus Julia stressed to them that helmets are a good thing to have. They said they had helmets at home and would wear them in the future. That night the three of us went out for some pizza and as we sat outside eating, the same two groms blew past on their boards with fresh helmets on each one of their melons. We saw them again in the festival tent that night, still wearing helmets. On race day I spotted them walking up the hill to find a good viewing spot, both with boards, both with helmets. On the last day in Voss as we headed to the train station, we saw them for the last time, again both rocking helmets. It was the highlight of my trip to Norway and hopefully when I go back I will get to ride with both of them on some bigger hills.

We spent the last night at a camping ground in the center of Voss. It had a kitchen and clean bathrooms which was such a luxuary after a week of slumming it in the shit hole that is Extreme sport weeks camp ground. We did some filming for most of the night before eating and sleeping. The next morning we were up early again and onto the train back to Oslo. We sat next to a family of Aussies who were flying up North of Norway from Oslo to spend 4 weeks with friends just outside of Hammerfest. When I arrived in Finland I was reading a book called ''neither here nor there'' by Bill Bryson. The book was all about his travels through Europe and the first place he went was Hemmerfest, Norway. He went in the midst of winter to see the Northern lights and it sounded ghastly. Forever dark and cold with maybe 20 people in the whole town. Ever since then I have wanted to visit the town of Hammerfest to experience what Bill did. I told the Aussies what I knew about Hammerfest and Norways lapland (which is very little). I don't think they were really prepared for the 4 weeks that lay ahead of them. Of course in summer it is always light up there so if anything they will have problems sleeping. Anyway, a bit off track. Good luck to them. I spent the rest of the trip looking at the scenery and trying to work out how a fella named Ali at Voss was doing magic tricks with cards. I never worked it out. When we got into Oslo we went straight to the ticket box and booked ourselves a bus to Gothenburg. We wern't giving Oslo anymore of our money (except the bus fair) based on our last financial experience in the city. We waited 40 minutes and we were on our way...

Gothenburg is a great place. People are friendly, weather is good, the city is easy to navigate and the public transport system is pretty good.  We came into the city about mid afternoon and headed to the only camp ground we knew of, Lindbergs. We got to the reception and were told that the place was full but they had a second camp ground which was a 20 minute walk from there. Of course carrying 30 kilos of gear the 20 minutes turned into 40 and had to be up hill all the way. We arrived and checked in. We were forced to buy a Skandinavien camping card for 30 Kronas which does nothing except suck more money out of your wallet. We quickly discovered that the kitchen area, toilets and showers never get locked. The camp ground was surrounded by forest so we only paid for one night and just hid our tent in the bush for the week. It worked perfectly, we were only a couple of minutes from the camp ground and closer to the facilities than most of the people who had paid. The next day was spent in the city just wandering around and checking the place out. The day after was wet and cold so we did basically the same thing. The next day we were up early and on the bus to a place called Marstrand. It's a series of islands on the west coast of Sweden, about an hour from Gothenburg. We had expected a nice little fishing village that we could wander around in and maybe do some swimming. The bus was pretty crowded and when we arrived to the spot we were faced with 100's if not 1000's of visotors all in the area for a sailing race. They were all middle aged men who walk around with their pants to high and their striped shirt tucked in even though they are on holiday. They always have a middle aged woman who is dressed in white hanging off their arm and you can just tell that they think they are the bee's knees. When I was a teenager my dad owned a boat. It was a Mcgregor which is a 25foot (I think) yacht from America. Of course it was 1 of only 2 in the country and although it never went in the water, it was a good way to prove how wealthy we were and that if you befriended us (dad and his then partner) we might take you out for a day trip on our American yacht. The boat was docked at Sandringham yacht club and all the people at Marstrand reminded me of the yacht club members and of my dad's then partners friends. Without all the pretencious wankers who were strutting about it was actually quite a nice place. The town itself was old but I think had fresh coats of paint put on it reguarly for the benefit of visitors. We bought a ticket and did a self guided tour of a fort named Carslston. The docks at Marstrand almost never freeze so back in the good old days it was a very valuable bit of land for anyone who could get their hands on it. The fort boasts the worlds first revolving lens in a  lighthouse (though no one could tell me how they made the lens rotate) and it was also the first place to trial solitary confinement which was proven a ''success''. The trial was run with 3 prisoners. 2 died and the third went insane. So insane in fact that he scratched his fingers down to the bone on the rock walls in his cell and wrote with blood all over the walls. The blood is still there. It was a truly interesting place and the views of the area were pretty great. There were lots of areas to explore and I think we spent at least, 2 hours wandering around the fortress. I even spotted a snake while climbing on the wall which scared the shit out of me but was none the less, great to see. After the castle we went looking for a cave which was almost impossible to find and when we did eventually find it, was a great disapointment. It did have early carvings on it's walls from back in the 1700's though which was pretty special. The rest of the day was filled with walking, laying about in the sun, eating ice cream and then the bus trip back. The next day we hired a couple of Kayaks and spent 5 and a bit hours paddling around Gothenburg through a series of rivers. We saw some great little towns that were built of scrap on the riverbanks. We stopped at a spot and had lunch and watched a few boats go past and then followed the current back to the city. We made it the whole day without falling in or tipping the boats until it was time to get out back at the docks. I was fine, Julia tipped the boat and filled it up with the nasty petrol and litter filled water that she was splashing about in. It made me laugh.

Other than that, we got Punkkis. Punkki is a Finnish word. They are little tick things that burrow their heads into your skin and drink blood until they are big, fat and swolen. You cant pull them off normally because the head will remain under the skin and cause infection. You have to buy special tweezers from the chemist. I had one and Julia had 2 latch on. We had a few crawl on us but found them in time. Nasty little bleeders and i dont like them one bit. We saw a feasent and some ducklings while on the kayaks and some pretty coold frogs around the place to. I spotted my first fire fly which was on some grass next to our tent two nights in a row lighting the place up. I was very excited to see him as I have only ever seen them in cartoons. Gothenburg boasts the second biggest slugs I have ever seen (Vancouvers are HUGE) and I got bitten on the back of the leg today while packing up camp by something that must have fire as teeth, it hurt so bad. It swelled instantly and began to welt but is looking better now. Julia left for Oslo this morning for her flight back to Helsinki so Im now travelling alone until the next race. I went for a bit of a skate after she had gone and checked out some suburban areas of Gothenburg. I took my time in packing up camp because the weather has been so sunny and nice.... Until the 20 minute thunderstorm that totally soaked all my stuff came. Once again I packed a wet tent and by the time I was done it was back to being sunny and warm. I have worked out a new packing system which has made carrying bags much easier. I did some swapping around so my bags are a bit lighter in all the right spots now. The final touch was attaching my board to the bottim of my skate bag allowing me to sit on it and ride it down hills. I was hitting around 35KM/h on the way to the tram from the camp ground but started to get speed wobbles so had to keep the speed there. The board is set up for freeriding though so I will try a downhill setup and see how quick I can get my bag to go. It's a good test of the Kooky trucks too since I weigh 7 something kilos and the bag is around 20. If they can cope with the pressure of 90 kilos, they should be fine.

And now I wait. At 5ish this afternoon I'm off to Berlin on a night train. I will have a night and a day in Berlin before heading to Munich and then Hungerzell for the Almatieb race. Very excicted to see Berlin and very excited to skate a brand new road in Hungerzell.

Until next time, enjoy these photos of a Punkki...

(Ours never got the chance to swell so they were like the top picture. I have seen them swolen on a friends dog though. Nasty. They are about the size of a match stick head.)

 

I'd like to express my sympathy to the Coast Longboarding family and true family of Glenna Evans from Vancouver who died yesterday skating one of Vancouvers many gems, Mt. Seymour. A real loss for everyone who knew her and she will be missed a lot in many circles Im sure. Best wishes to all involved.

CLICK HERE

Well, Julia and I have made it into Voss and it is now the end of week one. We were up early last Friday morning and caught a flight into Oslo where we were to spend a night. We got into Oslo airport at around lunch time and made our way to the hostel by bus. The countryside around Oslo is so incredibly beautiful. It is intensly green with rolling hills everywhere. Things like power lines and bridges are built in a really nice fashion and everything is pleasing to the eye. After a long walk up hill with a lot of baggage we made it to the hostel. A nice enough spot, simple. Nothing special. After settling in and playing a game of chess on a giant chess board we headed into the city to look around and find the train station in preparation for the next days trip. The train station is junky central. It is a nice looking area, clean with nice buildings but surrounded by people who are clearly off their chops and who are constantly asking if you would like to be too. We collected our tickets and began to walk around. The city itself is nice enough. Lots of parklands and nice buildings and really clean. It was some how a little dull though and not all that exciting to explore. Everything in Norway is expensive. Im talking REALLY expensive. Shopping for the nights dinner (soup in a packet for 2, 2 bread rolls, a pack of nuts and a small bag of lollies) came to 30 Euros. That's about 60 Aussie dollars. As we sat in a park looking for free things to do in the city (good luck) Julia spotted a bike in a big construction bin. We pulled it out to find that it was a good as new mountain bike. Big mountain tyres, suspension and with no damage. We looked around but no one payed any attention to us and as there was no lock on the bike, we took it. We rode around for a while and then started thinking about what we should do with the bike. We considered shipping or training it back to Finland but it was too much effort. Instead, we drew up a sign saying that I was moving back to Australia the next day and needed to sell the bike. We put a price of 1000 Norwegian Kronas on it and sat about to see if we could sell it. We spent the afternoon at different areas, slowly dropping the price at each spot. We had a couple of interested people but at the end of the day, no one bought it. We left the bike at the train station and it was gone the next day.

Another early morning and we were on our way to the station to head to Voss. We were supposed to catch the 5:30 bus so we lugged all of our bags through a frisbee golf field to the bus stop. I am carrying just under 40 kilos of luggage and Julia a bit under me. We got to the bus stop with 5 minuets to spare when Julia realises that she had left her wallet at the hostel. She went back, we missed our bus and got onto the 6:00 bus. We made it to the station on time and found Dennis, Gabriel and some friends of theirs on the platform. Dennis is from norway but lived in Australia for a while. I first met him at Master of the hill, a race in the Sydney blue mountains where he took Second. Gabriel is from Sweden and also lived in Australia for a while on the East coast. We hung around the station for 5 minutes or so and then we were on our way. The train trip is 6 hours and it was truly fantastic. Words cannot describe the scenery in Norway as you travel North. We went from lush forest on rolling hills to green fields as far as you can see. We then made our way through huge granite mountains covered in Birch and Pines. After a while of taking in the scenery we fell asleep for an hour and a bit. When we woke we were surrounded by snow and ice. The same granite mountains but with nothing green in sight. The water was frozen and every now and then we would go past an old wooden shack which made you wonder what people think when they buy a property. Eventually the tunnels started. We would come out of a tunnel to a truly amazing view. 30 seconds to take a photo and then we would be in darkness again for another 3 minutes. Back out, snap, snap, snap, back in. It went like this for a long time and was really quite irritating after a while. We had a couple of stops on the way at stations in the middle of no where and after a few round of hacky sack, we would be on our way again.

Voss is no less incredible than the rest of the journey. It is a pretty small town sitting in a valley. The walls of the valley are made up of 800+ meter mountains that go forever. A couple that are especially high have no trees on top and are white with snow. It took 3 days for anyone to realise it as the cloud levels were lower than the peak for a long time. The camp we are staying in is a bit of a dive. It's a military air strip. We set our tent up in the forest which gave us some shelter from the rain to come (and boy, did it rain). The bathroom is just as you would picture an army bathroom. Huge rows of metal troughs with taps to wash in. Common showering area which is all metal and cold with pipes sticking out everywhere. Strangely enough the toilets are painted a retro orange and purple and are quite cheerful. No cooking areas means we are using disposable grills but when it is pissing with rain this can prove a problem. Boiling water it not an option which makes things very difficult. The festival organisers have found hundreds of ways to squeeze extra money out of every person who attends the festival. Registration for the race cost 1000NOK but they wont allow you to pay with cash. Payments at the festival are made with a ''cash card'' which is like a credit card you top up with your own money. The card itself cost a total of 30NOK which puts the race rego up. The card lasts for a year I was told and I can use it at other festivals in Norway, but seeing as I'm from Australia, I think that's a bit far fetched. We can't afford to eat or drink in the festival tent so the card is now useless. Anyone who wants to buy a cheap cash card, call me.

I cant go into details on all of the skating. So many places to skate here. The first day Julia, Gabe and I just grabbed our boards and walked up. We found a couple of good spots and Julia is skating the biggest roads she has ever skated before. She is working out how to stop and control her speed and the roads gave her plenty of time to work on things. She is still pretty unsure of herself but I can see progress each time she gets on a board. On the second day we went to a place named Vik. The mountain has two sides with roads going down. The first one we did was incredible. The scenery from the top is something out of this world. The valleys surrounding the area and the lakes at the bottom. The road averages 80 to 90KM\h but being 14 Kilometers long it is almost impossible to tuck the whole thing. Norwegians have crazy cattle grids on their roads which are just like endless black holes. This run has one about half way down so it's a 7K skate before you have to get off, cross the grid and then jump back on. It's a good excuse to rest the legs though. The run ends at an ice cream store which sits on the shores of the worlds longest fjord. I dont know the difference of a fjord and a lake but I suppose there is one. (Fjords are formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Many such valleys were formed during the recent ice age. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed (also called isostasysea level rise. Most fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea; Sognefjord, Norway, reaches as much as 1,300 m (4,265 ft) below sea level. Fjords generally have a sill or rise at their mouth caused by the previous glacier's terminal moraine, in many cases causing extreme currents and large saltwater rapids (see skookumchuck). Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the world's strongest tidal current. These characteristics distinguish fjords from rias (e.g. the Bay of Kotor), which are drowned valleys flooded by the rising sea.) The bottom allows you to look up at the huge mountain you have just skated and soak it all in. The other side isnt so long but what it lacks in length it makes up for in gnarly hair pin corners, narrowness (is that a word), cracks, holes and guard rails. As well as this, there are free range sheep hanging about at the bottom (someone hit one last year) and just through the flock of sheep is another crazy cattle grid. Luckily the sheep wear bells on their necks so they do have some sort of warning system.

The other great thing about this place is that it doesn't get dark. The other night we sessioned an awesome, winding, smooth, fast hill from 10PM until 1:30AM. We had a big group of riders and everyone was riding really close to one another and ripping. There are two cattle grids but both have a half meter patch of road next to them that is smooth so you dont have to stop for them. I had a crash on a corner and my board flew under a guard rail, off the side of the mountain, through 10 meters of forest and landed safely in field. It took a while to find the board...

The next day we free rode the race hill. The hill is a nice one and although it only reaches 75KM\h or so it required a lot of thinking in the corners. It was really easy to scrub out and drift of speed in the corners so you constantly had to think about your lines. It was interesting to see different riding techniques between the norwegians, swedes, aussies and americans. The Europeans do a lot of foot braking before corners where as we tend to pre drift the corner as we are entering it. It made riding in groups really interesting and setting up tyres on the track required a different approach as the possibility for different kinds of crashing became apparent. Once again, the hill is incredibly scenic. From the top you can see the entire road which made the start line a bit more exciting while waithing for your heat. Half way down is one of the most incredible water falls I have ever seen It scales up the mountain and on windy days blows water onto the road making a huge wet patch in the middle of the track. After 4 hours of free rides we were back to camp, partying and preparing for race day.

Race day ran smoothly. We got a few more free rides in which was unexpected but welcome. The usual qualification runs were ditched and it was straight into heats of 4. My first heat was a really tight one. I started out in front and didn't brake for the first corner which gave me a decent lead. On the second corner I scrubbed to much speed and was passed by the other 3. Down the straight and past the water fall I managed to draft my way back to the front of the pack into the hard right hander. On the last left a swede named Fredrick passed me and the other two caught my draft making us a tight pack over the line. Fredrick came in first and I came in second putting us both through to the next round. the next heat was a controversial one. A magician named Ollie, Fredrick, another fella who's name I forget and I were up. Fredrick and I tangled while pushing from the start line which put us at the back of the pack. On the frist left Fredrick made it through to second and I sat behind the nameless fella who was now in third. We made it down in a pretty tight pack and by the time we hit the hard right hander I was in third and moving fast. As we approached the corner Ollie through a massive slide infront of Fredrick. Fredrick didn't have time to brake and came into the corner to fast and was thrown. Ollie made it through the corner easily and I made it into the apex managing to avoid Fredricks carnage. I got very excited, thinking that I was now in second and would make it through to the next heat. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. No name came out of no where and drifted into the side of me throwing us both off the board. I was quicker on my feet but he kicked harder into the turn. That and I was rding my board backwards. He beat me to the line putting me in third and out of the race. There was talk of the heat being re-run because Fredrick was angry at Ollie's slide before the corner but at the end of the day there was no time to re-run it. I think it was the right decision. A spectator who was sitting on a rock fell as the ground gave way beneath him and he plummeted down into the valley below. We had Ambulances and fire crew and almost a helicopter. We were delayed for almost an hour. He was ok and was sent to the hospital for a check up. By the afternoon all the heats were really tight. I was watching from the start line and groups of four rode down. At the end of the day Jackson Shapiera from Sydney took the well deserved win and a 5000NOK cheque which I'm told will be used to buy fuel and beer for Leeso, Robin and Louis who he is travelling with. It was Leeso that told me that, not Jacko.

We still have 3 or 4 days left here now. We are not sure when our train trip is exactly but we will find out soon. The city area is filled with skydivers, paragliders, skaters and all sorts of acrobatics. It has been amazing to watch such a diverse group of people all doing what they want to do. Each night in the festival tent they show a short video of what happened in each sport that day. Base jumping is by far the highlight for me (other than skating of course) but everyone here is truly incredible. The kayaking people get big props too. The rapids and water falls here are insane and of course, incredibly cold. I think the next few days will be a bit more relaxed and some mellower skating with the people that stay the extra days. Next stop is Sweden for a few days befroe heading to Germany for the Almatrieb race.