Springtime hits NZ, and along with some of the anticipated slushy fun sessions the Diaries Downunder boys also luck out to score some of the best pow of the season in the Queenstown area…

Springtime’s not only about slashing slush in wifebeaters – often you can find epic snow with way less crowds if you know where to look. These Kiwi boys certainly know where to go when it’s on, and they also know someone at the resort who can build them a solid booter in the middle of the bunny run to boot. If we ever head to NZ we’re hooking up with this lot – seem’s like they be running tings down under.

Spring is a season that cannot be tamed or predicted. Spring is the king of surprises and the tail end of the snow season this year in Queenstown was no exception!

In between beautiful warm, blue sky days we had storms come through that delivered some of the best powder days of the season! 
In this episode we go and make the most of the surprise powder that Spring seems to so kindly deliver – even when we think the slush has finally become the king of late season.

We make the most of the slushy spring landings and get a progression session happening after hours at The Remarkables. 
A great end to another season of good times here at the bottom of the world!

Music Credit 
Band: Black Hat Brigade 
Song: On Leave 
Produced by: Brightmind Music

Though winter’s knocking at the door of the northern hemi, our Antipodean brethren in NZ are still milking what remains of their own cold months. In this fourth episode the Diaries Downunder crew hit the heli and snowsurf the lesser-ridden south side of the Remarkables and peep some epic landscapes in the process.

In Episode 4, we venture beyond the resort boundaries on one of Queenstown’s most famous landmarks, The Remarkables – the only mountain range in the Southern Hemisphere that runs true North to South.

In search of amazing terrain, untracked powder and to tick one off the bucket list the crew jump in a helicopter and ride the very rarely ridden southern and front sides of The Remarkables. The crew are quick to realise there is a reason why the front side is so rarely ridden. With it’s rugged steep faces disappearing into the lake below the crew are greeted by a stunning sunset that caps off an incredible day in New Zealand snowboarding history.

Australian Dane Tiene flies into Christchurch from Sydney. The crew then make their way to the centre of Christchurch before testing out a Kiwi classic – the nutcracker ropetow. Staying up at Mount Olympus club field the boys find some of Canterbury’s finest shreddable terrain. Ben Comber, Stef Zeestraten and Nick Hyne show Dane exactly why Mount Olympus and the Canterbury region has gained such a fine reputation.

The contest season is ON down under. The Billabong Bro Down wrapped up the other day in NZ and now you can peep the spin-tastic edit from the 4-Star World Snowboard Tour event.

After a grand total of 86,780 degrees of rotation from the assembled crew of riders, Stef Zeestraten took the top honours. Should you be after the full blow-by-blow account you can check out recap by the good blokes at NZsnowboard.com who also knocked out this recap edit.

It’s not often you score a heli to shoot some fun laps in the park, but after an epic mission to the west coast fo NZ for a morning surf, that’s exactly what the Diaries Down Under crew do. Banging way to kick off the new season of webisodes…

The crew – Nick Hyne and Stef Zeestraten – pick up NZ professional surfer Maz Quinn and take him straight up to Snow Park NZ to see how his skills transfer on the snow. The next morning heli tours picks up the boys and flies straight to the West Coast to go surfing, with Maz in his element the snowboarders get shown how it’s done before flying back to Snow Park for a couple of lazy afternoon laps. An epic day!

See you next year!

This week Nick Hyne, Stef Zeestraten and Jake Koia are thrown out of a plane 15,000 ft in the air before hitting up The Remarkables for some pre-season jibbing on some specially made features to get the Diaries Down Under crew pumped.

We all know that they have sheep everywhere in Kiwi Land. Now they even made it in a snowboard clip!

In the first episode of Diaries Down Under, Stef Zeestraten makes the trek from Wanaka to Coronet Peak, Queenstown for the opening day. It’s the first resort to open in the Southern Hemisphere for 2010. After a sick day riding around the resort they revisit two days later to find a good 30cm of fresh has fallen making for some epic early season conditions.

Kick back and enjoy!

(BTW: No sheep were harmed during this production…)

diariesdownunder.com

Check Tyler and crew getting the on the gnar in Mayrhofen back in January.

Tyler, one of the infamous Pirates crew, torch-bearer for men’s riding in Britain and former owner of the finest moustache in snowboarding, is a frickin’ fun guy to shred the gnar gnar with. Able to chuck frontflips off molehills, put down back 9s with the best of ‘em and butter his furry muffin like it’s going out of fashion, we reckoned he’d be the perfect candidate to stalk for a day in the Vans Penken Park and shralping up the resort’s inclines.

So at the start of January we ragged it over to the Zillertal when the park opened it’s doors for the season and followed Tyler, Kalle Ohlson (green jacket and too much hair) Stef Zeestraten (white jacket, blue pants) and Chris Kightly (orange pants) around for the day.

Check it out.