| XMAS trip 2015 - Part 02...

 Joyeuses fêtes  from Taos Pueblo, NM.

Denise, Robert and their beautiful family welcomed us in their home, fed us and really took good care of us while preparing for the feast, the multiple ceremonies and the dances. I won't forget those precious days spent in their company, i lost track of time and was just trying to appreciate every second in their presence. Merci, merci!

Despite the cold snowing day the crowd was growing fast and eventually everyone gathered around the numerous piles of wood to enjoy the celebration of this solstice transition, the great spirit and Christmas in this magnificent and sacred environment. After the procession of the Virgin Mary the tribal members finally lit the fires and it was quite a spectacle, the wind created some sort of smoke twisters behind the gigantic bonfires and everyone was simply in awe. There is something very spiritual at Taos even for the hardcore atheist, the weight of history and the respect of those ancestral traditions had honestly quite an impact on me.

It took a long time for the fires to fade away and for the people to leave but we all went back inside the cosy shop for the meal. They had prepared some homemade bison tamales (freshly killed) along with plenty of food and dessert, what a feast! It was an honor to be invited here, thanks to Manny and Denise and i can't be more thankful to have shared those precious hours with you all.

On the 25th we went back to the pueblo to help Denise bring her posole to the shop and attend the ceremony of the Deer/Buffalo Dance. No cameras were allowed on that day, which does make sense; you have to be there to live the moment and appreciate the cultural heritage and the performance of the dancers! There is no words to describe what i've seen and felt there, the music, the costumes, choreography and willpower of this nation is beyond what i imagined. 

I would recommend anyone to go buy their famous tamales if you visit the pueblo. Their locally-grown blue corn is amazing, it is a native plant that Robert farms (amongst other grains) in the reservation with the help of his daughters, undoubtedly the best i ever tasted and it makes for some tasty good popcorn too :)

#TaosPueblo #RobertMirabal

| XMAS trip 2015 - Part 01...

From Montreal to Austin, TX...

What an incredible trip through the badlands of New-Mexico to the plateaus of the northern high deserts. At one point, my driver decided to stop in the little town of Fort Sumner to say hello to the famous outlaw "Billy the Kid", well to his burial garden actually! After Santa Rosa, i didn't expect to see such a mountainous environment, the road via Las Vegas (NM) was very scenic and we even passed Sipapu, a local ski resort. The temperatures dropped down considerably and i could finally enjoyed some snow.

Got a good shot of the sasquatch of Sipapu!

We eventually reached the city of Taos and our hotel (Don Fernando) completely fried after a long road trip (about 12h), kudos to Manny for driving all the way without even sleeping. Little did i know that the adventure was just about to start! Especially after an unfortunate episode of finding bed bugs in our room :((( Part #2 coming up soon...

#Taos #NewMexico

| Happy Holidays 2015...

| JuMana protos...

After yesterday's unprecedented terrorist attacks on Paris, i wasn't in a good mood, i stayed awake quite late trying to get more information about this horrible event and making sure my friends were safe. Anyways, this afternoon felt better as i drove to Mille-Isles to meet with the JuMana ladies. Martine and Julie have recently received a few interesting packages from a Chinese manufacturer, because you know... we've actually been working hard on their forthcoming inflatable SUP line in the last few months ;) the 3 boards you see below are the early prototypes with temporary colors, shapes and equipment.

After thoroughly inspecting the boards, bags and paddles for a while, we already have a long list of useful information and ideas concerning the final products. We had a good time debating the pros and cons but the goal of the day was to paddle and that's what we did despite the unfriendly weather (outside temp around -4°C). However no flurries would stop us from our mission: to test-ride those brand new paddle-boards at Lake Noel!!!

Shit it was cold and windy to be honest, of course i forgot to bring some warmer underlayers, the drysuit is great but not so well insulated (it's only a shell). The girls were wearing their new mere 3mm wetsuits, how risky is that? Mind that we did not plan to risk bailing into the dark waters, we just wanted to paddle for fun.

The green all-around board is super stable and fast, i think it'll certainly be their best-seller with minor adjustments and the final graphics, the blue one is a whitewater oriented stick, it works well as it is but we'll have to tune it a lot more before it becomes operational (especially the rocker line). The red is a race board and it is fast, fast indeed but not stable at only 25" (63.5cm) wide! It takes some time getting used to it as we soon realized, Martine fell directly as she was trying to stand up. I did too later on, but that's fine it's part of the mission right :) it took me a few minutes to adjust but it was worth the sweat, with its needle design the board glides effortlessly on the surface in comparison to the other ones, a good sensation of speed indeed.

We eventually got tired of our frozen fingers and decided to head back for a little apero with a good bottle of Muscat de Rivesaltes in front of their fireplace, and surrounded by needy dogs. Quite a privileged day really, far from the violences of this sick world!

I also received my package from Aquabatics which contains some removable fins from NRS. One set of 2" (5.08cm) flexible fins and a set of four 5" (12.7cm), i plan to resize and cut some of them to a more classic fin shape like an FCS M-5 ITF. #SUP #JuManaBoards 

Peace & love...

T.

| M-7 snowskates...

Okay now i'm excited about winter again! Today I've just received a package from Kurt Zapata of Minus Seven Snowskates and guess what was in the box? The brand new 2016 Parkore snubnose 38" blades with the improved tip & tail skate flex. I already had some Parkore subs before but they were warped unfortunately (see review here) and he wanted to replace them, so i suppose that's why the box contained two models :)

Thank you so much Kurt, until today i was still into paddle-boarding mode but now you have activated the snowskate switch, damn!!! Those blades do look great, can't wait to test them, the shape of the tips is very intriguing and the flex seems so much better than my prototype. My cat Dim Sum doesn't seem to be impressed but i am, love the colors and raw punk style. #minus7snowskates 

| Blog de chum...

Mon ami Sylvain et sa copine ont demarre un blog de voyage pour conter leurs aventures en van a travers le continent, on en partagera surement pas mal j'en suis certain, en tout cas j'adore lire les blogs des copaings surtout s'ils ne sont pas trop perdus!

| Family trip in France - Part 02...

During our stay at my brother's house we had the chance to visit some of the surrounding picturesque villages like Chalencon, we've enjoyed some alternative festivals or roamed the local organic markets. That's when you realise the weight of history/culture and admittedly, i miss it!

On the last day before heading back to my parent's house in Tresserre, we couldn't miss the opportunity to drive through the Ardèche Gorges with the obvious goal to visit their world famous Chauvet cavern.