vagabonding

I'm just back from a couple of weeks in Italy at Lake Garda. Its a lovely place despite the lack of waves! Awesome mountain biking though.

It was the first trip away with my new Millican backpack and I thought i'd post a few thoughts. If you haven't come across them before, Millican are a little company based in the Lake District. They make a selection of day bags and travel stuff using sustainable, low waste methods and with a focus on tough practical design for global travelling, on or off the beaten path.

My pack is their "Smith the rollpack 25l" and like most of their products is well thought out and fantastic in use. Its made from a kind of waxed canvas,  like a super heavy duty barbour wax jacket material. Its a good size with two bottle holders and a front pocket, a main compartment and a hidden small laptop/ tablet sleeve in the backpiece. Both main and interior pockets have various small organiser pockets for phones, note pads, pens etc. The main straps are really comfortable and it has easily removed, low profile sternum and waist straps. There are lots of neat little touches like the fold out reflector panel and bike light clip and hidden straps for carrying walking poles or a camera tripod.

In short it's just everything you want in a day bag and nothing you don't. Plus it looks pretty styley too in my opinion!

p.o.v

So, first film through the lomo lc-a came out, making it an utter ebay bargain at a tenner when they regularly go second hand for £60 plus. Slightly weird having to factor batteries into the equation when taking it on a trip and it didn't like the cold that much. I lost out on a couple of beautiful landscapes because the minus temps killed the battery. Not a problem with the mechanical holga or diana. That said, i'm really happy with the results!


The thing that struck me this year, and it's obviously a personal thing, is how devoid of stress snowboarding is, how much  pure enjoyment without baggage. My days of scaring myself over big kickers are gone and given the confines of family snowtrips, the chances of getting to stray too far out of bounds and into harm's way are slim. I'm proficient enough to take most things easily accessible from a small resort in my stride and experienced enough to slot back into the groove after a long break fairly quickly.It's instant gratification with little effort.


I've snowboarded a lot longer than i've surfed and i've seen snowboarding grow from the fringe, frowned upon, poorly equipped pastime it once was into the corporate run bona fide sport it now is. Many things have changed over that time (17 years, kinda depressing when you type it!) but one thing hasn't and that's the pure fun of riding powder.

For th un-initiated it's like taking the essence of swooping around on a perfect rippable wave and adding the ability to repeat as desired without the effort of paddling or relying on so many fickle elements falling into place. It's effortless weightless floating, swooping, slashing, playing out your every curren/slater fantasy on snowbanks. Racing friends through trees like speeder bikes in "return of the jedi". Cold shots of snow in the face making you feel alive as you power through the flakes still in the air from your turn before. It's the quiet that the woods and the poor visibility the heavy snow brings, the resort empty as fairweather types stay inside, your board swishing along, no louder than your breath steams out. It's big smiles..........................