The 2009 Rude Girls Snowboarding Week brings 18 energetic and outgoing girls together for a full on week of fun and activities. The week consists of boarding lessons (beginner, immediate, advanced and park), daily guiding, yoga sessions, sledging, a snowboard workshop and the end of week party sponsored by GRAVIS & BURTON. Rude encourage progression as they hand out prizes for the most improved in each category but every girl goes away with a goody bag with rude t-shirt and Burton / GRAVIS goodies. The girls were staying in the renowned snowboarding chalet, Chalet Joseph – every room is kitted out with a LCD screen and Xbox, and all rooms are ensuite, ensuring a luxury and trendy stay. The chalet is in Morzine town centre so getting back after a few sneaky après drinks is easy.

Rude Chalets provide a Burton Test Centre so a lot of the girls on the trip were trying out new boards, Rude are able to offer a wide variety from the Lux which is super soft and forgiving, so ideal for beginners, and the Blender which is a great all-rounder and rocks in the park to the Burton Feelgood which is perfect for off-piste riding. Jess, from Zest Magazine was trying a new Burton Feelgood board and she said that she had no idea how unsuitable her current board was until now, and Julie, the narliest rider of the group took the opportunity to swap her board for a flexi board which was more useful for the park sessions.

I joined in with the park sessions, and was thoroughly impressed with our French instructor, Sabrina (sponsored by Nikita, Rome and Rude Chalets), who had both French charm and the skills. Sabrina got everyone in the group to master an ollie (and in switch); she taught us that the ollie was fundamental to mastering all tricks. She then had everyone going over the 4 green kickers in the Avoriaz Snowboard Park, mentioning to us that we had “lazy legs” and that we must use our legs to get “pop” off the jumps. Sabrina also took everyone through The Stash and had some of the girls going over the table tops for their first time. Everyone in the group came away feeling great as they all felt that they had achieved and learnt something new.

Helen, owner of Rude Chalets hosted the guiding everyday at 1.30pm from Changabangs in Avoriaz. The guiding is great as it brings the girls together for a nice social and cruising around the mountains. Helen is thoroughly involved in the week and loves meeting all her guests and making sure they are having a great time. I was impressed by how she managed to take part in everything i.e., the yoga sessions, sledging, parties, après’ as well as organising the whole week. She even found the energy to lead the way with the air guitar at the party – but I hear Helen is the air guitar queen.

I asked Sarah, one of the guests what her highlight of the week has been; “the lessons have been great but the sledging was definitely my highlight.” On Wednesday evening the girls (all 18 of them) went to a mountain refuge to enjoy a typical French meal of cheese and more cheese, followed by an evening of sledging. This type of evening is suited for our readers i.e., a little dangerous; there were no lights, steep terrain and some friendly competitiveness. The girls agreed with a night drinking “crap-on” (their made up drink of white wine and orangina) that no-one cared that it might be a little risky. And everyone walked away from having a great evening with only a few bitten tongues and a bitten lip!

My highlight of the week was taking part in the Hatha Yoga sessions on the Monday and Tuesday evening. Learning from Lou, owner of Om Padma (http://www.ompadma.co.uk/) was great as she reminded me of the correct breathing patterns and also to hold the positions for longer. It was also great to learn some new moves and I believe the girls saw the benefit of the yoga the day after.

Why take part on the camp?
I spoke to the girls on why they signed up for the week, so here is why you should too;
Whilst speaking with Anna she mentioned that when she goes away with her husband (who is a stronger rider than her) she spends the week playing catch up and never making much progress as she feels under pressure and does not feel she has time to practice an ollie, switch or have a play in the park. Anna says, “This week has been great for my progression; riding with a group of girls has given me more confidence to try new things. I saw the other girls do the small jumps in the park and thought if they can do it then I can too.”

So if you do not have someone of a similar standard to ride with this week is a perfect opportunity to be able to meet and ride with fellow boarders of your standard.
Another great reason for joining the camp is for those that want to achieve something on their holiday. A number of the girls wanted to do this week to see a progression in their riding.

It is also a great opportunity to get lots of male attention as the bars are often full of groups of men on their weekly holidays – it definitely equals lots of attention if you are in a group of women especially as everyone is having such a laugh. A guy asked me today to come to his cocktail party tonight and please bring all the Rude Girls, I said that they had a better party to go to but thanks for the offer.

Nearly all of the girls on the trip came individually so it is like the first week of uni, where no-one knows anyone and everyone wants to be your friend. Four of the girls had returned from the year before as they had enjoyed last year’s camp so much.

When asking the girls if they will be back next year the responses were all met with “yes, definitely.” The only complaint was that they wished there was another session in March!

The Facts:
When: January 2010
Where: Chalet Joseph, Morzine, France.
Level: Beginner to advanced
Age: Doesn’t matter!!
Group: 80% of Rudegirls come out on their own. Small groups also welcome.

For further information contact {encode=”[email protected]” title=”[email protected]”} or call 0870 068 7030.