After an epic drive featuring four countries, the Girlylegs Crew eventually rolled into the small Austrian village of Kaunertal.  Each year the British snowboarding industry (shops, brands, riders and media) migrate to this small out of the way location in mid May for the very last scraps of European slush, on which they test all of next seasons boards.  This was Girlylegs second year in attendance, and yet again we had an amazingly fun time, even managing to get some work done between partying hard!

Having spent three nights sleeping three deep in the back of Polly’s BMW, we were over the moon to move into our very own apartment.  Nothing better than a real bathroom and shower after living feral for a few days!  We were hyped on arriving, so after a very quick freshen up we jumped back into Ram and headed towards the Glacier in the hope we would catch the end of the Whitelines Rail Jam.  Its a good 45 minute car ride up the hill, and as we neared the top, the comp wound up, and we were met in the car park by familiar faces heading back to town.

Returning with them, we took ourselves to the local pizzaria/bar for a glass or two of wine, and said hi to old friends as they came and went.  Afternoon turned into evening, evening to night, and soon the bar was filled with the party in full swing.  It stayed swinging until the early hours.

In complete contrast to the previous year, the next day saw the British Boardtest bathed in glorious sunshine.  All the brands in attendance had their gazebos up, new product proudly on display, with the buzz of people and music adding to the atmosphere.  Not wanting to waste any riding time, we got ourselves set up with new boards and bindings and headed off in search of snowy adventures.  Having only been snowboarding since The Brits earlier this year, I couldn’t believe how good Polly has got, and we had her testing the beginner and entry level boards.  Nadine spent her time playing about on next seasons jib boards, while I went fast and cruised on the all mountain boards.

We will be adding all our board reviews to Girlylegs.com at a later date, so make sure you check in with us before you start next seasons shopping spree!

After a day of shredding, we took the long drive home and cooked up a vegetable storm in our kitchen – love a bit of health!  Les-Ettes and Bataleon teamed up for a mini ramp battle in the late afternoon sunshine, with free beers, cake and a fire to celebrate their snowboard collaboration.  Monday evening was supposed to be a quiet one, with a pub quiz from Westbeach. However, there was nothing at all quiet about it in the end.  We joined forces with the Rome team, who were great with the snowboarding questions, but lacked on the Royal Wedding round, thankfully with our inane knowledge of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge we scored highly in the question rounds.  It was the high action bonus rounds that really got the crowd going, a ridiculous amount of nakedness, drinking, cross dressing and human pyramid building!  In the end it came down to a strip-off between our Rome team and another.  Unfortunately we lost at the last second due to a sock oversight.

For the next couple of days everyone up the hill was suffering from sore heads, but the fresh mountain air soon swept away the cobwebs.  We did more testing, and chatted to some of the top female snowboarders in the UK today.  Katie Blundell, Helen Fox, Emilia Vanni, Faye Young, Aimee Fuller, Lynsey Ashdown, Alice Blake, and Sophie Addison among others, were all in attendance both partying and shredding.

With such beautiful sunny weather the boys seemed to have endless energy which meant we were treated to some topless volleyball – the perfect way to wind down!

If you have ever been to Kaunertal you will know what a moon scape the dam on the drive up looks like.  One night Polly headed up with photographer Dan Medhurst to make the most of the eerie atmosphere – check out this great shot!

www.danmedhurst.com

On our last night at the Boardtest, we moved out of our own apartment and into the Rome Team house, and after cooking them a massive dinner to say thanks for letting us stay we helped them film some footage for an edit.  Abit more crossdressing, and then it was time to play dice, eat chillies and head to the pub, where it got really funny and messy!

We had such an amazing week!  Thanks to the organizers and everyone we met, and of course massive love to the Rome Punks x