Snowboarding

The Big Day- Mont Blanc Descent

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 29th April 2007 | 1 comments

The Big Day! Feeling relieved and extremely happy as I’m in one piece! The heli-drop was very successful, not to mention enjoyable. The day started with an 8 a.m. pickup in Keith’s car. We drove over the border from France into Switzerland and parked in a lay-by as we got our kit together and waited for the helicopter to pick us up. There were 5 of us in total, Myself, Keith McIntosh, Neil McNab, James Vernon, and Georgia Merton. James and Georgia were going to be filming the event...

Final Count Down

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 25th April 2007 | 0 comments

The heli drop has been scheduled for this coming Saturday, 28th April. However, this could change depending on the weather, and if I change my mind and go home to my mum :) It’s Wednesday night and I have just arrived in Chamonix. It is midnight, and I am sitting in my dorm in the chalet ski station. The next two days before the drop will be for Keith McIntosh and I to have some intimate time on the snow together to ensure that we have good communication between one another. It’s ...

The Bucket!

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 19th April 2007 | 0 comments

Did a dreaded street collection on Fulham Broadway. We started about 5:30 and were out there till 9. There was such diversity in people on the street. Some of them were not interested and others were so interested that they requested photos next to us. I’m not sure why, though. Haven’t they ever seen a blind guy with a white stick standing on a snowboard on the pavement with balloons and a bucket in his hands? One of the best was a lady who tried to sound really interested, but was...

Friday the 13th - How Lucky

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 13th April 2007 | 0 comments

Lucky for me, my plane was delayed by 15 minutes which gave me time to check-in. I bought a drink for the flight attendant; which I promised to myself I would do if I made the easyJet flight. As usual, the flight was a joy and the helpful staff members gave me a personal one-to-one with their safety equipment. I was heading to France again, this time accompanied by Bilal, who is a cool South African lad I met in London. Also along with us was his friend Jun, who is the funniest Japanese lad I ...

My Ears are My Eyes on the Slope

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 11th April 2007 | 0 comments

Imagine you are driving, and you are picking up some speed and you know there is a corner coming up…then suddenly, someone places a French newspaper in front of your eyes and you are forced to read its contents while your car is dangerously heading towards the corner! A similar thing happens to me on the slope. The car is my snowboard, the corner is a cliff and the French newspaper is a French girl’s voice. She has gotten onto the same walkie-talkie channel and has interrupted my gu...

On the Board with Blair

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 6th April 2007 | 0 comments

I arrived in France on Friday night for a quick weekend on the snow with Chris Blair, my friend from Oxford. I mean to say my friend who studied at Oxford, not implying in any way that that I went to Oxford. Chris doesn’t like it when I tell people he went to Oxford, so I won't. Personally, I was over qualified and had to attend the Strathclyde University Business School instead. We hadn’t seen each other for a while, so I must admit we savoured the cafés and street-side sta...

A Hard Day's Riding in Les Houches

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 17th February 2007 | 0 comments

16/02/2009: Les Houches: Caught the last Easyjet flight on Friday evening from Gatwick. Flying out with Grant Gallacher to have a full days of riding in Les Houches in Chamonix. I’m always impressed with the service I get with Easyjet. However this time around I had a little disagreement with the lady at check-in. She was insisting on informing me on what kind of assistance I required. I had informed that I only needed help up to the security desk as I would meet Grant on the other side, ...

Festive Fun- Christmas in Argenti�re

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 24th December 2006 | 0 comments

24/12/2006: 2am London: Still have not finished packing. Spent most of the day travelling around the UK trying to pick up a set of Motorola walkie-talkies. Eventually picked them up at Ellis Brigham in Tamworth, who kindly provided them for free together with some base layers. My snowboard is sitting on the bed looking irresistible. It is a pure white Icon Wallpaper edition, with the board make stencilled in an overlapping fashion across the middle between the bindings and wrapping around the...

The Snowboard asylum Helps me out

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 28th November 2006 | 0 comments

When snowboarding first came on the scene, refined personalities and some of the more genteel skiers may have had the opinion that it was a sport consisting of badly dressed adrenaline junkies partaking in high risk ventures, resulting in hold ups on the slope and every so often the descent of a stretcher carrying the unlucky risk taker. Increased research into the sport and the diversity of clientele ranging from Management Consultants to Ministers has slowly shaped a new image of snowboarding...

Talk to my friend as the blind man ain't listening...

Adil Latif | Snowboarding-Mont Blanc glacier Descent | ON 28th October 2006 | 1 comments

An interesting phenomena most blind people face and indeed most people with an obvious disability face, is people refusing to speak directly to them and opting instead to speak to who ever is accompanying them. After a few cool looking runs on my first day with Grant we were approached by a snowboarder. Random snowboarder:“So is he blind?” Grant: “Yes he is”. Random Snowboarder: “So how long has HE been riding for?” Grant: “Why don’t you ask HI...