Indoor World Speed Record

Rupert Cawte Breaks Indoor World Speed Record on DataWax

I started doing competitive snowboarding when I went to uni (Nottingham Trent) in 2006, this ranged from freestyle to slalom and the occasional boarder cross. I had done competitions in other sports such as athletics before so as soon as I reached the ability with my board to compete I was very keen to try.

I first tried speed boarding back in 2013, I had seen that Jamie Barrow had the British record and I knew I had beaten him before at events such as BUISC in the relay, so I was just had to see if I could beat him on a speed slope. The hardest part for this was the preparation, I spoke to some speed skiiers and some speed snowboarders who compete in a world league that ran back in the early 2000's. I found that all of the speed slopes that were interested in letting me make an attempt were too short and that...

"Even with perfect conditions I was only ever going to be close and unlikely to break the 160km/ph barrier I dreamed of."

With Les Arcs deemed too dangerous and closed and Verbier slope slipping in a landslide it only left VARS run by Phillipe Billy, a French speed skiing enthusiast who isn't overly keen on snowboarders and those new to his piste. During the trip I met and trained with Joost Vandendries a Belgium skiier who was just getting back into speed skiing, then a few months ago he mentioned he was going to be attempting the indoor record, I let him know I was interested however he already had a snowboarder taking up one of the spaces. Fortunately for me on Friday 20th Joost messaged me saying they had pulled out.

We caught a ferry late Sunday ready for the training rides on the Monday, Joost, Maxime (mono skiier), Katrien Aerts (female skiing switch), Mathieu Verlinden (male skiing switch). We had around 1/3rd of the piste fenced off with the official guys from the FIS setting up the timing gates towards the bottom of the slope, even though it was pisted the slope with a little messy and the two rollers towards the top made it tricky to get into an aerodynamic position. 

My first run in standard boarding gear had me reach just 62km/h. At this point my fears on the size of the slope seemed to be coming true, with Joost reaching 78km/h it wasn't looking good for either of us, the others were just setting records so there was a little less pressure on them. I pushed myself harder, throughout the session getting a couple of kilometres more each time and the same again as I cat suited up, at this point I was wearing my Ruroc Helmet and on my Windlip custom board. Finally by the end of my runs I had reached 69.9km/h so I knew that the next day I could do it. The feeling of going from fairly dejected initially, disappointed with my speed to very positive and excited about the fact that I could have a world record the next day, was quite a thing, I sent one message home just saying "I think I can actually do this".

 

Rupert & DataWax

Joost and I spent hours that night then waxing up, even more so than when I had the day before my speed run and he showed me many little tricks to get an even better finish, we started with cleaning, then a graphite layer, a base layer, then Magma High Fluoro Race Wax to top it off.

My warm up runs were back on the park board, so I could be 100% confident before it began, they had iced up the top of the slope to try and help Joost reach the 105kph that he was needing however this made it very tricky on my board and stopped me tucking so I was worried I was going to come up slower than the day before and the warm up runs on the Nitro board were proving this.

 

We were allowed 4 runs on the day and then the piste would be changed back for slalom training, I strapped in to my Burton Cartel Bindings on my perfectly waxed Windlip board and knew that with enough commitment I might just make, I donned the aero helmet Joost had lent me and threw myself down the slope. Reaching forward as much as I could I passed the last gate and edged hard to stop before the row of journalists at the bottom,

 

"looking up I saw the speed come up on the board, 69.9kph, I had reached my goal on the first run!" 

 

Now it was time to see how much more I could gain, the next run I hit 71 and then 72, with the wax now wearing off I struggle to increase on that with my final run dropping back to 71. I had been trying to beat Maxime as his outdoor record is slightly more than mine so I knew it could be close, I had equalled him when I had hit 72, but then he smashed it again with a 74. Even with this minor upset I was elated, I had never dreamed of having a world record before and now in just 4 days I had gone from nothing to breaking one. 

Airbnb. A cheap safe night wherevet you go.

I have found airbnb one of the best ways to find accomodation when travelling or even visiting friends or going for nights out in a city.
 To save £25 on your airbnb stay use the link below.

www.airbnb.co.uk/c/rcawte1?s=8

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2014 The adventures continue

Europe and the Alps

Every year I try to get away as much as possible, the last couple of trips have mostly involved snowboarding, In december 2013 I went to Val Thorens, France with Freeze frame a company that can hire camers, film your trip and even edit it all together for you, my job this trip was filming and editing, the results can be seen here:

#Ridebarinvalthorens

I am now planning a new small trip trying out different resorts in the Alps.

London - Munich,
Munich - St Anton
St Anton - Geneva (via Zurich)
Geneva - Meribel
Meribel - Windlip Snowboards, La Mouche, Pussy, France
Windlip Snowboards - Vars Speed Slope
Vars - Meribel
Meribel - Calais
Calais - Rye

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=ztXlYc09s_rM.kPDxX7O3CLug

The flight.

I sat down feelig optimistic about the trip and waited while, the plane filled up, it was a busy flight with just one or two seats spare. We just started ferrying out to the runway when the young boy who was currently playing with his model airplane turned to his mum and said those 4 words that bring dread to anyone

"Are we there yet?"

Planning an escape I picked up the news paper and began reading about how bad england were as a nation from politics to sport. The evening standard clearly has some editors that like to really emphasise the worst in everything. Maybe they should take a tip from Russell Howard and have a good news section at the end to show how great things happen.

Landed in munich with german efficiency I had already collected my baggage before the plane was even expected to land. I met my friend and we went to the hire car company we were meant to be collecting a car described as

 "like vauxhall astra"

We were hiring from Budget so were expecting something far worse, then were were offered this:

Golf 2.0 tdi - Budget car hire?..I think not, Brilliant car hire!

We hit the car hire jackpot..think it's time to buy a lottery ticket, I'm feeling lucky...

The diet of a Kitesurf Instructor

So the other day I was taking a kitesurf lesson and in a break a student mentioned about the amount of food I ate. Because we are constantly walking and running through waste deep water and needing to stay warm we eat a lot of food, here is an estimate of an average days consumption.

Meal	Item	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	400
	Orange juice	112
Lunch	Pork pie Mini / Sausage roll	162
	Sandwhich
	Bread - 4 slices	416
	Cheese	400
	Pickle	50
	lettuce	0
	Cake - 70g slice	300
	Cookie / Snack bar / Cereal bar	147
	Apple / banana / kiwi / grapes / orange	50
	Tomato	10
	Scone / Muffin / Crumpet / Chocolate brownie	250
Dinner	shepards pie / chilli con carne / curry / tagine	800
	Apple & blackberry crumble / rubharb cobler & ice cream	750
Drink	Fruit Squash	5
Snacks	Biscuits	61
	chocolate	40
	Total	3953
	Adult male average	2500

 A fair amount above the average (1453) and I'm often still hungry.

Trip highlights. broken down from 6 weeks to just all 5 minutes 17 seconds

So it has taken almost a month since returning however here is the the trip highlights
Video of the trip finally complete, check it out to see all of the most extreme things to do.




I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I have done filming it. This was filmed on a Contour Roam with a goggle strap mount which I then used webbing and a clip to mostly fix to my wrists along with all of the wristbands that I collected on the way around, these really helped to stop any vibrations.

Back to reality

Six flights taking us almost as far from the UK as you can possibly go without leaving the planet, a variety of cultures, loads of new friends, two songs and far too much rain for a summer.

The last part of the journey was a little odd in comparison, usually when waiting in the airport it had been sad to leave but also exciting as the adventure was taking you off to another location likely to be equally exciting with new things to see and do. However with the last flight it still had the excitement as we would be able to see missed friends and family on landing but from then it was just going to be back to the day to day life and work. I would happily have stayed away a little longer in almost every location we visited and so now the plan must begin on how to return.

Arriving in and seeing everyone again was great and life quickly went from continually getting up and moving to another location or rushing around to see all the sites in the short time possible to slipping back into the daily routine of waking up and going to work, although my work is a little different from most so even back from my travels I see views such as this everyday - Camber sands england, it may not be as warm as Australia or as adrenaline filled as New Zealand and there are far less celebrities than in LA but this is where I work at The Kitesurf Centre

Throughout this trip I, as many others have, collected mementoes from all the different countries and places along the way. I usually try and find something such as a necklace, t shirt or postcard that can be easily carried, this is something that I continued throughout this trip although with so many wristbands and bracelets given out when you take part in activities my task was almost completed for me and the only issue became if I would have any arm space left. Here is how my arms finished the trip, a couple hadn't made it to the end, one from Dreamworld in Surfers Paradise and another that was won when in Wellington which must have popped off and has now evaded me. With them all on there is such a covering that US security checked each one looking underneath in case I was using them to hide something.

The trip is probably the most exciting thing I have ever done with so many fun moments, now home I'll be working and saving ready for another adventure, the question is, where will I go...

LA last of the trilogy

6^th day magic mountain

If the previous day was the perfect weather for an outdoor day in a theme park this was the opposite, the sky was grey and foreboding in the morning so that just as we waited for the park to open the rain came down and it didn't stop. We went on a few rides which although the weather was bad were still great fun, this has some of the best roller coasters in the world however with the weather how it was many were closed and after a few hours the whole park followed suit and it was time to try and get home.

7^th day miles

The last full day and LA and the last of the trip, in New Zealand we met loads of people including some Americans and amazingly a few that live near LA, one of which had returned before us and had agreed to meet up and show us around. It was great to see miles again, he came with a friend steffie and they took us for a drive in her car, it couldn’t have been planned much better, we were being driven along the Pacific coast Highway in a fastback ford mustang. Miles pointed out sites on the way giving us great stories and info as we went, far more interesting than any of the tours that you could book and not just seeing celebrities houses either.

We saw beaches from point break, restaurants from the fast and the furious along with other films, the tattoo parlour from LA ink and even a cash machine that dispenses cupcakes. From the moment Adam and Miles had found out we were stopping in LA they said we much go to “In and Out Burger” however these seemed to have been evading us and difficult to find so they took is to one they knew of and we stopped for lunch, the burgers are quite good however I still think that Ferg Burger in Queenstown have been the best on the trip. After seeing everything that all of us could think of including miles' house and husky we headed back to the hostel where we said our goodbyes and packed for the flight.

8^th day home

Up awake, showered and downstairs for the usual pancakes and fruit. A short little wander around and then off to the airport, after hearing all the stories about American security and waiting times I expected a lot of standing around and waiting in queues however I was pleasantly surprised, there was almost no queues and we shot through security, the only thing they seemed to have a slight issue with was all my bracelets being under the impression that I had snuck something in underneath them.

After going on so many flights recently I was almost becoming accustomed to the whole experience which has allowed me to notice the advantages and disadvantages of each airline, this time we were with BA and one of their most modern planes, Large touch screen TV’s with loads of choice. Overall decisions were: BA had the most comfy seats and on the last flight the tastiest food, however when we flew with Quantas they were continually offering more food and drinks whatever time in the night they did bring round ice creams which is just plane awesome.