Yes, as crazy at it may seem, there is snowboarding in Africa. In fact from this year, 2009, we have a world class small park with plans to further develop it in 2010.
The park is situated at the Afriski resort, in Northern Lesotho - a small principality right in the middle of South Africa. Its one of the most beautiful, remote and rural areas on earth. It takes about 4 hours of driving to get there from Johannesburg - 16 Hours from cape Town, so this is not advised. The park is run by Gone Skiing, Ski and Snowboard shop and the guys at www.snowboarder.co.za, who it must be said, have done a fantastic job.
The slope at Afriski is Southern Facing, meaning its protected from the wind and sun, and they have plenty of hours of optimum snow blowing time during our winter. There are also dumps of real snow on a pretty regular basis and when this happens it is one of the best Free riding areas i have ever seen. No chopper needed as the road system threads through the passes and with a minimal amount of hiking you can use the car to access some great runs.
The Kings Cup Slopestyle competition has been running for a number of years, but this year proved to be the best ever - probably due to the insane park and beautiful blue sky days we had the whole weekend. On day 1 the park was open for training and most of the top SA riders took full advantage of the opportunity to steaze out and get their runs sorted for the next day. Some of the best riding was done by the Jekot siblings, who have long been the top male and female riders in SA. But, the level is definitely being raised in our small boarding community and guys like Matt Ammo, Kat Maponyane and Ruben Storbeck - also the guy in charge of maintaining the park - were busting out.
Saturday night saw the usual Apr es mayhem - I sum how don't remember much other than some serious dirty dancing and a bottle of Johnny Walker - surprising is it not? ha ha
Take a look at the attached video for the visuals and keep an eye out for Day 2 soon.
Keep it good,
Captain Kai
Enter a world of magic and mystery, in my own head, where surfing and snowboarding are considered real jobs! Amazing feats of daring and skill are performed every day - and that's just getting the footage onto film! Media anarchist, film guru, surf addict and web video blogger!
