So, after a December which had all of us here including myself, reluctant to leave the warmth of the White Dot chalet and mount our shiny new ski’s for fear of all the rocks, the last few months have turned out to be a lot nicer!

I was actually super impressed with the how the sticks held up in the early season; our general billy-goating around rock faces and tree stumps, or as we prefer “adventure skiing” isn’t exactly easy going on the planks. Even after hitting some gnarly rock hidden under the surface and opening shop to a few full-on yard sales (skis, poles, hats, you name it, all over the shop!) the skis still had none of those big holes/core chunks/edge missing that we all love to have on our favourite skis. Happy days!

After that the start of January was amazing; the snow gods gave us all a pat on the back and it dumped and dumped. I had some great days, exploring some of the steeps, glaciers, couloirs and just generally crazy lines that give Chamonix its reputation as a freeride mecca.

With Kai and Niclas on their Redeemers, Maria and I on our Preachers, we all agreed; more from the big grins and screaming like children because the skis kicked ass wherever we took them. Between the skis and riding with these three, I have certainly been given me some runs I’ll remember for a long, long time!

In Mid-January it was time for the team photo shoot, this was a great week; nice to all get together and bounce ideas around, get out on the hill and push each other and to get the best shots we could - which meant whiplash, black eye and a bloody nose for me - standard behaviour when I’m snow giddy.

Sadly, not every week can be that good, queue February; I spent most of the time juggling working (a lot!) and getting on the hill whenever I could to make the use of the best snow. This turned good a few times, put up a few photos of Kai and me from then. Hopefully with it getting quieter now there’ll be time for a few late season comps, some more shooting, basically some more playing around on the hill on my incredible skis!

I’ve got to say a huge thanks to Kai, Maria and Niclas, from Fall Line Bootfitting. Both for their support with my equipment for this season and between them keeping me safe and teaching me about mountains here, it’s a different world from most of the freeriding I’ve done in the past. They all rip on skis and are massively enthusiastic about White Dot and what we do!

If you want to figure out why they are, go have a chat and grab a test pair from their shop in town (Chamonix, France!).

Anyway, got to go get some Rando bindings, there must be some untracked snow somewhere, looks like touring season is upon us!

n insight into Whitedot team rider Ally Watson’s season so far . . .

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I have been really busy so far this season, I started off in October with a trip to the Hintertux Gletcher to prepare for the London Freeze.  Unfortunately the weather was windy and overcast with hard landings on the jumps making it not the best training conditions but it was good to get back on skis after a long summer.

It was onto The London Freeze ‘Best of Brits’ where I ended up 6th place reaching the semi-finals.  The rail jam was fun, chilling with Tom Wallish and all the other boys from oversees as well as the homegrown UK boys.

Right after the party I found myself in a motor home heading for Dover on our way to the factory in Poland.  It was a long trip but gave me some quality time to get to know Andy a bit more, maybe a little too well!  Once we were there we got the chance to check out the production cycle and the skis being made and went over some of the new models including Fred’s ideas for his new Pro Model ski which will be out next fall.  We also got the chance to go out for dinner and sample some of the local specialities, my favorite being a Polish soup served in a bread bowl.

After a brief time at home doing a bit of studying and training in the gym for the winter I took the drive from Glasgow to Chamonix.  The trip involved a few accidental hours sightseeing in Brussels, but i made it in the end. I spent a couple of weeks in Chamonix getting familiar with the place, it’s a pretty extreme and overwhelming place and I got to enjoy the first couple of decent snowfalls.

My first trip of the season was out to Mayrhofen, to catch up with some of the boys and do some shooting.  There was a pretty poor base but i managed to have a really good session with Sebastian Hanneman and Felix Wiemers in Zell am Ziller, hopefully we will cross paths again soon!

After that it was back to Chamonix for a bit of a Whitedot gathering.  All the team got to check out the prototype of Fred’s new ski and ski on next years range.  We all had an awesome time and got to give some good feedback on the new range.

The following couple of weeks were banging; massive dumps, riding pillows, some of the best face shots ever, finding new zones in the Chamonix valley, watching Candide dominate the world tour to busting around with a crew of kiwi’s and a couple of fin’s.  We were working on laying out our backflips and pretty much going rictor, spinning off everything and anything we could find, 100% natural. I even had a touch of tree hopping too!

We are rolling together to the Qualifying Freeride Tour events, should be really fun but a busy month ahead!

At the Engadine Freeride World Qualifier we had some really good times.  Congratulations to Sam Smoothy from New Zealand who won.  I picked a completely different line to anybody else in the qualifier and hit one of the larger cliffs on the face but unfortunately one of my turns at the top of the face was a bit wild and less controlled so I lost out on being in contention with qualifying.  The party was pretty crazy and I had fun playing my first ever ice hockey game the following day, I couldn’t even skate that well but managed to score 4 goals, ha ha!

At the beginning of this week I got a last minute call and was involved in a Lotus catalogue shoot.  We were jumping a skier cross style jump over a couple of the cars; it was different but kind of cool, 007 style! I even had my debut as a model with Dan Wakeham, 3 Swedish and 1 Australian chick involving a casino and one of the cars.  It will be interesting to see what they will use from the shoot!

I have some news on the sponsorship front with new sponsorship from Forcefield Body Armour and a small sponsorship deal with GoPro helmet cameras.  When I get my helmet cam I will begin to be able to film my competition runs as well as some fun lines from the mountains.

I am going to be doing a bit of filming over the next couple weeks with unity-productions around France, Italy and Switzerland once the snow recovers from the fern wind that has just come through, should be fun! May have to follow the snow for a little bit! It’s onto Mystic Experience in Monterose, Aosta over the weekend.

Bang, Bang - It’s been a fun season so far

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A review by Ally Paton - Skier, White Dot enthusiast, purchaser and fellow scot!

Managed to pick up a pair of 189 Preachers from the guys at Whitedot Freeride after speaking to one of the current team skiers Ally Watson.  Had a bit of an epic journey picking up skis driving for hours and eventually getting them mounted up with this seasons Marker Dukes, the day before leaving for a trip to the Les Deux Alpes and La Grave!

First impression of the skis was promising, they look well made, the graphics are good and it’s a light ski for its size.  Flexing the ski the tips were not the stiffest in the world but under foot they did seem pretty solid.

Day One of the trip we woke to blue-bird and powder and one of the most epic days I have had in a good few years.  The first run down was a quick blast on piste to get to a small-untouched powder field we had spotted on the lift up, this was my very first impression of the skis and one that amazed me!  Fast from edge to edge, gripping very well and turning tight with no strange characteristics at all, it’s not a slalom ski by any means but the torsional stiffness for a ski of this size and turn radius made it a lot of fun.  If you’re looking to go 200mph then the ski may be a bit soft, and when going straight with the skis running flat there was a very slight wobble but this is eliminated by putting a very small amount of pressure on the edges, though this is common with most wide ‘turny’ skis.

Once in the powder (must have been about knee deep) the skis came alive; having the big and slightly softer tip made the skis float well, rise up and never bog down, the big softer tip eliminates the need for rocker (in my opinion) and makes this a very versatile ski.

There are not many trees in Deux Alpes so having to turn tight wasn’t an issue and just letting the skis run was amazing, very bouncy and lively and the feel of the ski gave me a lot of confidence. There was however, a sensation that they would like to keep turning though this wasn’t difficult to sort - just don’t put so much effort into the turn and this wont be a problem!

Les Deux Alpes

Day Two; Still bluebird but strong over night winds made the conditions not quite so good, a bit wind-packed and slab-like however the skis held their own on this as well, no problems.

Les Deux Alpes

Day Three; Crossed the glacier at the top of Deux Alpes using the dukes and skins, this setup worked well making it quick and efficient.  Visability was poor, we couldn’t see much apart from angry French pisters at the top of La Grave!  We ended up lapping the trees which was epic in waist deep powder; [the Preacher] performs so well in these conditions, turning hard and floating the whole way through each turn.  On the final section back to P1 the huge La Grave moguls became apparent, for a big ski they coped well despite scrapping a few rocks here and there.  I was pleasantly surprised I had only made a few light scratches which suggests to me that the bases are strong and durable.

Les Deux Alpes

To finish the day we skid the Trifide 1 Coulior in poor visability though with epic snow, again I was grinning the whole way down!

Used the skis back at Glencoe in Scotland where I spend most of my time skiing and found them to be very good here as well.  The mountain isn’t as big or spacious as the Alps so having the ability to turn tight when you need to is a very good thing.  You can get a lot more from a ski like this than its stiffer counterparts on the smaller mountains so its description as all mountains is spot on.

The ski performs very well over the entire mountain and you don’t feel its size, I don’t regret choosing these skis at all.

Cheers to the guys at Whitedot Freeride for sorting out the gear in time for the trip!

[photos to come]

My life is boring, wake up, put my boots on grab my Ones and go up the mountain come back down eat and help my flatmates get rid of all the beer they buy (damn english housemates ).
I have been doing a few small comps, last weekend was the sick trick tour in Waidring ,this was the jib comp half of the series. It was a night jib comp fun setup rails and boxes a high standard which pushed me a bit…enough to win it !!! that gives me straigt entrance to the final of the sicktrick tou slopestyle next week..fingers crossed for that one!
This weekend in Mayrhofen was the freeski open …I missed out on a place in it so I am going to a different comp in Sunsite park in eastern tirol which I was invited to because I won it last year.
The snow conditions here are getting bad as today was more like spring than winter but the the clouds are coming and we hope to get some snow soon !! we hope !!
I am loving the skis and they have been good all round so far…I cant wait for some  pure rockered park jib skis that you guys are talking about for the future so in the mean time I be careful with my ones. promise!!
So thats about it from Austria for now but i will let you know how these comps go next week.
ps: I went snowboarding with Katie today and it was siiiiiiiick!
Hope u and family are all well and dealing with the stinky nappies.

THANKS MANI. KEEP IT UP BUD, SEE YOU IN NZ.

Just watch the video. Matt on his 190 Redeemers. Its a great life eh Matt?

http://www.vimeo.com/9156782

Great to see almost the whole team together in Chamonix last week for the photo shoot. Massive thanks to Fred, Karsten, Matt, Dennis, Steve, Ally and Adam and for our very own chef Chris.

Thanks guys. You rock.

We’re gutted to hear that a Whitedot customer and Friend has had his 179 Preachers mounted with NTNs stolen in the Chamonix Valley.

As far as we’re aware, these are the only pair of 179 Preachers mounted with NTNs so if anyone is offered a pair, please let us know straight away so we can inform the owner and the police.

White Dots distributor for Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark has been hitting the slopes in Norway in style. 

 Although it’s only been 3 weeks since Hans Wernersen and Fred Syversen have taken on the distribution of White Dot Freeride in Scaninavia they’ve already being taking advantage of the new snow allowing people to try the skis and we’re pleased to say that White Dot skis will be available in shops in Norway, Sweden and possibly Finland this season (details of dealers will be released soon).

if you want to try the skis in Norway or Sweden, contact Hans or Fred through Steep Zone (http://www.steepzone.com/contact.html)

Come and see us at the show (21st to 25th Oct).

Fred Syversen will be on hand to answer any questions (like what was going through your head Fred when you dropped the 107m cliff).

We’re also offering a 15% discount on any skis ordered at the show (an extra 5% if you’re a 20days member  or a snowhead so check them out www.20days.co.uk and www.snowheads.com)

We’ll be easy to spot. look for the green wallpaper, the big comfy leather sofa and the fat skis so come on over, take the weight off and relax.

White Dot Freeride is VERY excited to welcome to it’s team, former Dynastar pro rider, Fred Syversen.

Fred brings with him a wealth of freeride experience and will be let loose in the factory to design a new ski bearing his stamp for the 2011 season.

Many know Fred as the unofficial world record cliff jump holder of 107m http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkZ7Tyf7_YM and he also has an impressive cv of freeride wins and places.