157: Snowboarding Special - How to choose a snowboard, renting v. buying, splitboarding & more

We focus on snowboarding, including how to choose a snowboard, whether you should buy or rent and what split boarding is.   Iain was joined by journalist Sam Haddad (Guardian & Cooler Magazine) and Luke Rees, founder of adventure travel website AWE365.com. Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code Save money on your ski hire by using the code ‘SKIPODCAST’ at intersportrent.com, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied at the checkout. SHOW NOTES Check out Sam’s new ‘Climate & Board Sports’ Substack Listen to Felix Milns talk about his helicopter freefall jump over the Eiger in Episode 98 Sam was in La Rosiere in April Iain tested the Mont Valaisan ski area in La Rosiere in Episode 27 Luke travelled to North Macedonia The are 157 episodes of The Ski Podcast, so under our new numbering system, this is Episode 157 Les 3 Vallees sponsors The Ski Podcast The Alpine Ski World Championships will be held in Courchevel and Meribel from 06-19 February 2023 The National Snow Show takes place at the Birmingham NEC on 15-16 October Look out for ‘The Ski Podcast Live!’ on Saturday at 11.15am and Iain’s presentation on electric cars in ski resorts on Sunday at 12:00pm There are three main categories of snowboard: Freeride, Freestyle and All Mountain Sam is a big fan of splitboarding – read her article in The Guardian here For a UK-based splitboarding option, try Wandering Workshops in Scotland Burton’s ‘Step On’ snowboard bindings are a game-changer Nidecker’s ‘Supermatic’ is another ‘step’ in this direction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm_PyqvFoSo Al Judge is the owner of AliKats Mountains Holidays in Morzine Find out about the Montagne Verte organisation in Morzine Listen to our special episode on Electric Vehicles in ski resorts Find out about bokashi composting You can find out more about their sustainability policies on their website On average, a hot tub uses 1,500 litres of water and 200 kWh of electricity to keep the water at 37.5 degrees centigrade for a week in the winter Find out about their ‘Responsible Hot Tub Initiative’ here AliKats use the Good Planet Foundation for any offsets they require Listen to our special episode when Iain interviewed Helen Coffey, the flight free travel journalist FEEDBACK I enjoy all feedback about the show, so please do review us on Spotify/Apple, or get in contact on social or by email [email protected]. Fogey58: "Always varied, well presented and for snowsports fans an essential hit" Guapo333: "Love this podcast. Really informative and superbly presented. Keep up the good work" Elaine Bunyon: "Wow…Greece is now on my bucket list!"   Thanks also to Fiachra Diskin and Dave Faller for their kind words.   Don’t forget we have 156 other episodes to catch up on – typically 75-100 get listened to every week.  You can follow The Ski Podcast on social media at @theskipodcast