EPTSorry this is so late Drav!
Hi friends, one or two of you know me, most of you probably don't but anyways:
I'm Tim, or Targe here, this post is basically to explain where I've been for the last two months for those of you who don't know (most of you probably don't care anyway but whatever).
This was written for the most part on a 22 hour long coach journey so forgive me if it's not well written, inconsistent or whatever.
To start off, this is me:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/h2Te7sA.jpg)
and this
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7sXaJuS.png)
Those few of you who know me knew I had been looking for a job in the alps for some time, I found one. I've been working in the kitchen of a hotel restaurant in the italian alps in order to snowboard. I got payed around 300 pounds (500$) /mo and worked about 60 hours a week, one in every three weeks I worked the night shift where I would work 11:30pm to 7:00am and cook breakfast for around 80 people solo. Not the best job and definitely not the easiest.
Here's the village:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/L9vt9Ev.jpg)
Why would I want to do this? I fucking. love. snowboarding.
Like, fucking, absolutely love it.
You know that passion you all feel for Dota, for sc2, BW or LoL or whatever? That's how I feel about snowboarding. Obviously I love playing Dota 'till 6am and chilling on teamspeak as much as the rest of you nerds but it just doesn't compare for me. I even used to ride my bike for three quarters of an hour, take a tram then walk for 20 mins with my snowboard, boots and ski clothes to the local snowdome just so I could go.
I am a park rider (park rat, snowboarder thug, whatever you want to call us) which means I live in the park, I like throwing down spins, grabs and hitting jibs like nothing else, for this I have a park board, it's shorter, lighter and more flexible than regular snowboards, here she is:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EM1a2Wb.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0NzlZkk.jpg)
She's called Stacey, she's a 2013 Rome SDS Artifact 153 with 2012 Drake Reload bindings and she replaced Stacey's mum (a 2012 Amplid Dopamine 153) when Stacey's mum broke last year RIP.
Stacey's mum:
Anyways after arriving in Italy I obviously made a massive effort to go to the local park every day and just have fun shredding, I pushed other people to come try it too, quite a few hadn't gone because they were apprehensive over the jumps or just hadn't felt like going. By the time we left though I had convinced quite a few people to start going and a few even became park regulars, they started to throw tricks and push themselves and some people were saying 'I'm glad Tim came or I wouldn't have bothered to do this'. In the last week we even built a jump where we got half the hotel staff hitting it, pushing eachother and throwing down (nothing beats this in snowboarding, nothing. there is nothing like just chilling with your mates with an atmosphere like that).
In my short time out there I progressed massively in my riding, I never expected to get so much done, I went out there wanting to land my first 720 and did much more than that, here's a list of new tricks I landed since I went out: + Show Spoiler +
Nollie Frontflip, Backside 720, Cab 360, Frontside 360, Backside 360 crail grab, Backside 360 method grab, Half Cab transfer, Blunt stall, Blunt stall 180 out, Front board to switch, Flatland Nose-butter 180 to 180 out, Flatland 180 to Nose-press 180 out, Flatland Cab 360 and a few other things that aren't really big enough to mention
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Qv8w7Hn.png)
My journey there wasn't bad for the most part; I woke up at 4 am, hopped into the car and my dad drove me to Gatwick airport where my flight etc. had been sorted out, my bag was overweight and an awkward shape (snowboard bag) but it just got waived through without a problem because my flight had been sorted by the company. The journey back though, has been fucking. awful. to start off I had a two hour coach journey down the mountain where we were supposed to meet up with another bus load of people coming from a different resort, they were about 40 mins late, then within an hour of setting off for the second time we ran out of hydraulic fluid and had to pull over for an hour to let the bus cool down. The bus completely broke down at the next toll booth where two fire engines were immediately deployed and the bus was then towed to the side, fuck, ok. so we have to wait 2 hours for some AA rescue van to deliver us some hydraulic fuel to fix the bus (it's getting late now, everyone's getting tired). AA guy arrives, SICK, we're going home. NOPE LOL. The bus is fucked, let's ring the head office and try to get a new bus sorted out (we're at the mont blanc tunnel so it's going to take hours for a bus to come from anywhere). oh wait, gl sorting out anything with the head office at 10pm on a saturday night during bank holiday weekend. Finally we get a bus sorted which arrives at 1am and we finally set off (it's currently 2pm at the time of writing and the ferry to cross the channel has only just set off, I was meant to have arrived at gatwick airport at 9am this morning).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7aN8bw7.jpg)
Dover finally!
Here's two clips from my season, I wish I could upload the whole edit but I'm waiting for a timelapse from a friend so I can't render it yet:
This is also my 5K post if I didn't fuck that up (not that that's a milestone or anything) and I'm also gonna use it to celebrate my 2 years at TL which happened whilst I was away, as usual you're an awesome community who's even more awesome for being willing to play with me despite my flaws and obvious lack of skill.
Shoutouts: I'm not going to do individual shoutouts for fear of forgetting someone so I'm just gonna do groups
#tl.dota2, you're awesome, stay being awesome. (see how hard is that comeh?)
#tlplus and tplus generally, I love you all, you're all great (even you ponera)
Kotanos, despite not being a TL member and being from up north you're alright.
That's about that, thanks guys, Targe out
(oh look I've been travelling for over 24 hours solid now)
p.s. tell me to wear a helmet and ill fukn dek u m8
. I might just stick to hockey haha. I know what you're talking about though, that feeling of just like NEEDING to snowboard or for me play hockey/guitar. Video games are awesome, but they don't give the same feel.
