Tuesday, January 06, 2009

www.breathecostarica.com

Hey Guys,

A good friend of ours is running this really innovative event in Costa Rica that you should all check out and see if it's your kinda thing. see www.breathecostarica.com If the break at Santa Teresa is not enough to get you there, maybe a the Yoga sessions or music events is your your thing but there's plenty on offer this Feb.

Here's a brief intro....

Any Yoga master will tell you concentrated, deep breathing is the start of all
healing. For body, mind and soul, learning to breathe relieves stress, relaxes
the body, creating greater clarity of mind. At a time in our history where
complicated, inter related issues face us on a global scale, clarity of mind,
strength and conviction can be the difference between action or non-action.
Breathe is an organic concept that believes both the answers and solutions
to many of the world’s challenges are inclusive in nature. No single solution
will resolve all the issues. No single action is too small to make a difference.
The biggest issue we face is ignorance or the feeling of helplessness creating
an inertia or failure to act.
Breathe challenges people to leave their regular surroundings and to re-
immerse themselves with a living, breathing ecosystem. A week of isolation
from the market driven distractions of the modern Western world, it at-
tempts to increase awareness of today’s major issues, the individuals and
organizations working to address them.
Breathe promotes awareness through music, art, surfing, eco tours, yoga
sessions, horse tours, offshore fishing, beach combing, local food & culture,
workshops, documentary screenings and much more…
Pura Vida…

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Last day - time to see some footage!


_ _ _ _ _.

A picture says more than 1000 words. A film says it all!

Last day of the Kaos trip and it's time for Kaos little brother Dotinc Management to contribute with an update. With clients like the video bloging superstar Jon Olsson we learned that the masses don't like to read, they want the real thing!

/Kristoffer

Thursday, December 18, 2008

the adventure continues...

Day four and the team KAOS social experiment has proved at least one fact during our stay in Meribel. Relying only on good faith and optimism is not enough to secure a bluebird start to the day. Despite the low cloud, after dropping the groms in ski school, we set out on our first mission over the mountains and into Les Trois Valleys, Jimmy, The Suit and I optimistically armed with transceivers and camera equipment as we headed towards the morning lifts.
Because I knew exactly what was going on in Val Thorens and how unpleasant a Valley Rally can be for those not partaking in it, and therefore sober, we decided to head the in the other direction and made our way up the Saulire bubble to the top of the run down to Courcheval 1850. The run down through the clouds towards the top of the Verdon’s bubble up from Courcheval was a great way to start the day with the long, chopped up red run proving that the terrain on this side of the valley would be slightly more testing than that on the Meribel side.
As we picked our way down though the rollers and other natural features of the section of the hill dubbed “Supermario Land” smiles were aplenty. We were able to jump around and despite the continuing flat light; the decision to leave the Meribel Valley seemed to have been justified.
We decided to head around the resort to Courcheval 1650 and as we traversed around below the altiport it seemed as if the morning’s optimism was well placed as the sun peeked though the cloud to make its first appearance of the trip. Heading up as far as the lifts would take us looking for fresh lines and tree runs, team KAOS looked like we were going to be able to get the cover shots that Jimmy had brought his camera out for after all. Unfortunately the cloud cover was too persistent and as we headed into Courcheval 1650 the battle for visibility was once again being lost. Luckily not all our photographic efforts were fruitless as my follow-cam on James “shredding up blue runs” on the way down for lunch resulted in a quality You’ve Been Framed moment; watch this space for this on Youtube.
After the stereotypically French lunch we headed back out on to the mountain, still on the promise of blue sky, a promise that by this point in the day was a fading as quickly as the visibility. Indeed as we made our way back around to Courcheval 1850 the cloud had descended right down the visible distance was reduced to merely a few meters in any direction. And so after one final and sadly undefined run through “Supermario Land” we decided to call it a day and head back over to Meribel to meet up with the younger generation of family Knipe.
As we descended into the Meribel valley and dipped below the cloud, the temporary KAOS office came into view and beer o’clock came into sight, it became clear that the transceivers that Jimmy, Kris and I were wearing were a good idea after all as we all made it back to the office in one piece.
Tomorrow is our last full day out on the mountain so please join us in the sundance that we will be doing tonight!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

powder powder powder

So Day 3 of the Kaos experiment got off to a late start but a start nonetheless.

Family Knipe had put everyone else to shame and were up and out by 8.30 leaving the rest of us snoozing gently.

Opening the curtains revealed a foot of fresh had fallen overnight and the big snowflakes were still falling as Zinnia and I headed out leaving the boys in bed. Alas, the price to pay for the new snow was the minimal visibility so the orange lenses were in full force.

Bimbling along in the gloom past the ‘piste ferme’ sign, Zin and I discovered that the piste bashers had groomed the slope leaving the fresh powder on perfectly smooth piste. With no one around we did a few laps getting first tracks until we met the boys at the lift.

Deciding that the trees were the best place to be, we spent the next few hours lapping the lift line of a drag lift with a few cat tracks and hips to bust out the freestyling skills. or not as the case may be. The Suit is still convinced that he is the freestyling demon however his attempt at ‘sending it’ off a cat track lead to him going ass first as his legs couldn’t deal with the compression on the run in which lead brilliantly into a natural hip where the suit buried the nose of his board on landing leaving him looking like the (giant?) abominable snowman.

Dusting off the snow, team KAOS pulled up at the Rond Point for an overpriced panini. It being Wednesday (seasonaires day off) the place was packed with excitable young English kids all bright eyed at the sight of fresh powder and the thought of the liver abuse they are all bound to endure tonight. Ah, the life of a seasonaire…
One overly keen young lad was telling me how amazing the freestyle skiing (can I call it that?) was down by the lift, y’know the one in the Olympics where they bounce down the moguls and do a twister spread eagle thing? Yep the one that your dad gets confused with snowboarding. Anyway, I digress…the place also had free wifi meaning the Blackberrys and iphones were brought out so the office could check email in one hand and eat lunch with the other. You gotta love technology sometimes! As it turned out the world wasn’t going to end unless they were all replied to so they could wait until after riding.

After lunch we headed over to Meribel Mottaret picking up the boss and Team KAOS minishredder (Griffin) and all piled into the gondola that leads all the way to edge of the Meribel ski area. The doors opened revealing the conditions that hadn’t changed much since the morning…hmmm. The snow was much lighter up here but the flat light still played havoc with judging with the terrain, deciding that it was time for tea and cake we came down through Mottaret into Meribel village.

Arriving back into the village the day had taken it’s toll with team KAOS feeling the burn somewhat. However the mood soon changed on the sight of a band of 4 Frenchie’s (complete with drummer) dressed in purple spandex and matching wigs playing bad Tom Jones covers to a crowd of bemused 'rosbifs'.

Frenchies are a league unto themselves sometimes

Bring on the sunshine…

James

PS - In case you wondered how it should be done, check out the clip below from Nike ACG's Sweetspots film


Nike ACG Sweetspots Snowboard Teaser from Nike ACG on Vimeo