Author Archive

Saturday 12th May 2012

SNO!down Jam at SNO!zone Castleford

Today I travelled up with my Mum for a change as my Dad was suffering from ‘man flu’!! We had picked up Fraser Sell from Hemel Hempstead the night before and we met up with fellow Boardersboards and SNO!zone team member Will Gilmore and headed up all together in Will’s Dad’s 7 seater. It was a fairly long journey to Castleford as the traffic was heavy but was a laugh all travelling together.

We arrived about half an hour before the event was due to start and I had just enough time to get changed, and head out on the slope. I was feeling really excited about this event as I had learned some new tricks the evening before and was eager to try them out again. Also it was great to meet up with my friends Nathalie Silkstone and really great to see Lynsey Ashdown again as she was back to riding after recently becoming a Mum.

The event was in its 3rd year but some reason I had not made it to the other years. But it was great fun, with a two hour jam session followed by a team event. I was riding well during the jam session and nailed my new trick a ‘switch up pretzel 270 out’ on the street rail. The team event was great fun and I was in a team with my friend Jake Binnee, we were so close when we shotgunned on to the box that our boards actually knocked!

The park was a really good set up with a great flow but did become fairly icy after a bit. I came off the slope very happy as I was really pleased with my riding. We then had a cool down period with a chance to chat to friends and wait for the results to be anounced.

It was so cool to hear that I had made 1st place overall female. The results were as follows:

1. Becky Menday

2. Chloe Palmer

3. Lynsey Ashdown

I won a great bag full of goodies and a crisp £50 note, so stoked! It was a great evening and loads of fun and I look forward to attending another one soon. Well done to the organisers for setting up the event and I will make sure I don’t miss it next year.

Next week it is the Scottish Championships in Glasgow so I will let you know how I get on there.

BeXx x

Saturday 28th April 2012

Today we headed down to the Snowtrax dry slope at Christchurch for the Air Attack snowboard and ski competition. This was my first competition since injuring my ankle in the World Rookie Fest in Ischgl in Austria so I was looking forward to shredding again.

This event was being held to show off the slopes new surface, they have just recently changed the slope over to a surface called ‘Proslope’. I have to say that I was very impressed with the surface, as it allows for far more edge control than you usually find on other dry slope surfaces. The facilities at Snowtrax are very good with a superb restaurant serving good food all day long.

Soon it was time for the competition, the format was to be a jam session with a first and second place only. After a few runs the competition began to hot up and as the skies began to darken into the evening and the lights came on the vibe was really cool.

I was riding really well and was really pleased to not only get some really cool gaps with grabs over the box feature, but also landed front and back 3′s and even a front 5. My fellow team mate from Boardersboards Cerys Allen was also riding really well and even landed a cool front flip. So after several hours of fun and exciting shredding, we had to all leave the slope and await the results.

I was really pleased to take 1st place in the under 16′s category and well done to Cerys Allen for her 2nd place. I also won £25 for the best trick on the box, so I walked away with a cool £100 for my winnings.

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GB Junior Team Pre Brits Camp

Monday 12th March 2012

Hi everybody, well time seems to fly past! I have been off on my travels again, this time back to Laax in Switzerland. I had to fly in to Zurich airport from Birmingham by myself, but was met in Zurich by my GB Junior Team coach Ben Kinnear. Ben then drove me the rest of the way to Laax with his sister Fi who I would share a room with for the week.

It was a really busy week training with Ben and Dan Wakeham both on the mountain and back at the Freestyle Academy. Dan had me working on my ‘Gainers’ a type of back flip into the foam pit. This was my first and only week of training on the mountain this season, and it was really good to have some great coaching on my spins off the kickers. I was really pleased to nail my front 5′s and to lockdown both my front and back 3′s with grabs off the 12m kicker. I also learned to do a back 180 on and front 360′s off the box and the pipe and a side hit back tail and front blunt on the rails. I was the only girl on this course, well apart from Ben’s sister and the guys made me work hard, which was a good thing.

We also had a dedicated day to develop our basic mountain riding skills and edge control, also spending a lot of time riding switch. I now even feel more comfortable hitting kickers switch and really feel more at one with my board.

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I have just some amazing news!! What a week I am having, just found out that Skullcandy want to add me on a flow deal! Really excited as I love their headphones already, and they are great for all the travelling I have to do. Also Celtek want to take me on to there UK Team and take care of all my cold hand needs with their cool range of gloves and mitts, here is the official announcement:

13 year old freestyle snowboarder and GB Freestyle Team ‘Elite Junior’ Becky Menday, joins the Skullcandy crew: Becky is really excited about this opportunity as she already loves  Skullcandy headphones. Becky said “I am so pleased, Skullcandy headphones will make all the hours of travelling I have to do to competitions and events far more entertaining, I can tune the world out and enjoy my music and videos”.

eu.skullcandy.com

Big thanks to Jamie from Boarders Boards for all his help in sorting this out.

Also joining Skullcandy in supporting Becky, Celtek will also be looking after her glove and mitt situation. Becky looks forward too shredding the slope with some of the coolest looking glove designs out there.

Becky said “What a week, I have my ears covered and my hands covered, so cool”.

www.celtek.com

I am waiting excitedly for the stuff to arrive and will stick up some pictures as soon as it does.

BeXx x x

Hi everybody, me again, here is my blog from my weekend trip to Avoriaz in France for the second leg of the WRF 3 star Protest French Fries competition. This was to prove to be an amazing weekend for me and quite an adventure on the journey home. Read on to find out how I survived my ‘horror movie moment’ in the back of beyond in France…

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Hi everybody, still trying to catch up on my blog with everything that has been happening the last two months. Here is my blog on what went down for me at the WRF in Livigno in Italy in January. I hope you enjoy it, it was a real special one for me, first time travelling alone and some personal achievements along the way.

BeXx x x

Friday 13th January travel day:
Today was my first time travelling by plane on my own! and I was quite scared, even though I knew I would probably be fine, I was worried about getting lost trying to find the gate. Luckily for me  ’Swiss Air’ arranged for me to be escorted the whole way through to the airplane like a rockstar!!

Ok I know it’s friday the 13th and its meant to be unlucky, but I managed to get from the airport in London to the airport in Zurich safely, except that when I went through security in London I forgot to take my scissors out of my pencil case again and had to give them back to my mum!!!

oh well! My flight went fine I sat next to someone very nice and we talked the whole flight! On landing at Zurich airport I was escorted by the Airline person to my Protest Team manager Martine who would be driving me the rest of the way to Italy. In the car  I met Sven (another protest team rider)  who would also be doing the competition with me! The car journey was only four hours long but it seemed to last forever…I shined my nails and Martine sung to some music. I knew when we were nearly there because we go through this massive tunnel, through a mountain,on a train, in a car. Finally we arrived and I was so excited to be back in the mountians.

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I have just been taken on as a ‘semi pro’  by the style company ‘Nooka Mindstyle’. They are supplying me with designer watches, belts, wallets. I will stick up some pictures of me wearing the product when it arrives. I am really stoked as the watch and belt designs are really cool.

www.nooka.com

https://www.facebook.com/nooka

BeXx x x

Hey everybody, This weekend I travelled up to the Halifax ‘Sportsman Inn and Leisure‘ dry slope, for two days of kicker training with the GB Junior Snowboard Team. Unfortunately the weather decide to have other ideas on the Saturday. After picking up our GB training coach Ben Kinnear from Manchester Airport we arrived at the dry slope in gale force winds. It was decided to abandon the idea of kicker training and just concentrate on some rail and box riding for the day.

The days session was cut short by the wind and bullet like hail stones, and so we relocated to the Rokt Climbing Centre at Brighouse. They were really pleased to have the GB team turn up and made us feel very welcome, providing us with equipment and training all evening.

It was really cool and we even bumped into the snowboarding sensation that is Jamie Nicholls who trains at Rokt on a regular basis. We spent the evening ‘bouldering’,and it was great as I have not done any rock climbing in ages and I really love it. We all decided that it was such a good session not only for our fitness and core training, but was amazing fun as well. So we arranged to have a private early morning session on the Sunday before carrying on with kicker training on the dryslope.

Sunday turned out to be a lovely day with the sun shining and calm winds, after spending the early morning rock climbing and slack lining we hit the kicker.

It was a cool day and I had to get used to riding dry slope again after riding snow for ages. I ended up working on learning to spin my 360′s off my toes instead of off my heels like I normally do. This makes spins on dry slope much easier to do and control. I had a couple of nasty slams off the kicker first hurting my elbow and then whiplashing my head after a heel edge catch. But battered and bruised I finished the session happy and smiling. I really enjoy training and meeting up with everyone on the GB Junior Team, and I look forward to the next time we get together.

Thanks to Felix Robinson for the picture:

BeXx xxx

Hey everybody, my really cool shop sponsor Boarders Boards over at Weedon, are having a Snowboarding ‘Jam session’ called ‘Wanna Be An Icon?’ at  Sno!zone in Milton Keynes on 30th March 2012 at 7pm. They are really cool bunch of guys, come and have a shred with me and the other guys on the Boarders Boards Team. Hope to see you there,

BeXx xx

This season, I have been wearing and testing the latest body armour and protection gear from my sponsor Head protection. I have worn this protection in many different situations from riding the Mountain to dry slope and indoor artificial snow. Each different environment has unique set of challenges for body protection to deal with.

The base layer protection has to deal with different extremes from the cold on the mountains to heat generated when riding indoors. Body armour also needs to be lightweight,easy to pack for travel yet strong and sturdy enough to offer protection. Having good body armour on gives a rider confidence to try new things out, while lessening the impact when things go wrong. But any body armour or protection is next to useless, if it is uncomfortable to wear or does not offer suitable flexibility and movement. Read on to see what I thought of this seasons new product from Head Protection.

The ‘Mute’ series under layer protection

While competing and training I have been wearing the new ‘Mute’ series of under layerbody protection. This year the adult woman’s range comes in a very nice purple colour, and this makes a very nice change from usual black. The long sleeve  top and the ‘Mute, Pant Plus are made out of a bamboo/polyester and elasthan material, this is warm and very comfy to wear and is a really good breathable material to allow any moisture to dissipate. Both the top and the bottom come with built in padding around all vulnerable areas. The top has padding around the shoulders,elbows, back and kidney areas, this padding while slim and unobtrusive works very well on impact and has protected me really well from some big impacts on both rails and very large kickers. The Mute 3/4 length pants are made from exactly the same material and padding and again has protection for all areas, such as the Knees the hips and the coccyx regions. It is really nice to wear padded pants that do not make you feel like you are wearing a nappy, yet offer the confidence of full protection. The only grumble I would have is that the knee protection often twists round slightly, and has to be adjusted fairly regularly. But with this said it is far more comfy than wearing strap on Knee pads.

The waist and kidney pads are also removable, and this is useful those who like have a “slim fit” feel at the hips. The garment can be easily washed with the pads in place just like your regular underwear. This is purely a girly thing, but I do not like the fact that taking the garments on and off charges my hair with static and makes it all stand on end. Also to note is that all the products in the ‘Mute’ range come with the POLYGINE treatment, this has a lifetime garuntee for odour freeness. For more detailed information about this for you technical people check out the weblink  http://www.polygiene.com/polygiene-technology-1.aspx

The Flexor Back Protector

I have also been trying out the new ‘Flexor’ range of back protector, this is a brand new range and design for Head Protection so here is the technical bit:

The ‘NEW’ FLEXOR range is a ‘CE certified (Standard 1621:2, Level 2) vicso-elastic Softback-protectors. All articles in this line are made from multi- impact absorbing foam the supplier of this foam is also the main supplier for years to the BMW Motorbike protection manufacturer.The fabric of the vest and jacket is a high quality 4way stretch fleece and comes with a POLYGIENE Silver Salt treatment, which provides you a permanent odor-freeness.

I have to say this back protector is one of the best I have ever worn. Not only is it incredibly lightweight and amazingly comfy, but it really absorbs heavy impacts very well. I have had some heavy landings of big kickers on my back while trying to work on my spins on both snow and dry slope surfaces, and not really felt a thing.

The Flexor unit seems to mould itself to your body and does not create the ‘hunchback’ of many other back protectors on the market. The strapping system and Velcro stomach strap hold the unit securely and comfortably to the body.

The only problem I have had with the unit was when I left it in the boot of the car overnight after a days riding in -18 degree temperatures. In the morning the unit had curled up on itself and frozen in this position, but after a minute of warming it up with my body temperature it returned to a flexible shape again. But it did give me a moment of panic as I thought I would not be able to wear it.

The ELA Helmet

The helmet I was sent to evaluate was the Ela model and was in a rather vivid yellow colour,and not to my liking although that is my personal opinion. However this was a very comfy helmet with good wind protection for the ears, the helmet has a very professional construction and feels very strong, yet still light on the head.

The strapping system works very well and is easy to operate even in cold temperatures and encumbered with gloves on. However I do feel that the colour range of the Ela is very poor with only black, white, green,brown and a vivid yellow. These colours are all solid and the graphic design is very boring. However Head also have a model called the Rebel/Cloe and although I did not have this years model, I still wear last years and the helmet has all the comfort features and ease of use of the Ela but comes in a far cooler range of colour designs.

So comfort, weight, construction and protection are all very important in a helmet design, but I also want to look good on the slopes. So I would choose the Rebel/Cloe over the Ela purely based on looks.

This is my first ever review, I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading

BeXx xx