I’ve not long returned from a week in Italy where I spent time catching up with freestyle rider Alvaro Dal Farra and his mechanic Lorenzo, who kindly put my fiancée Andrea and myself up in his apartment in the Dolomite Mountains for the week, which is on the doorstep of 1200kms of incredible ski runs. I hadn’t had the fortune in the 18 months of traveling through Europe to hit the snow until this trip and when the snow started dumping on our third day my snowboard was working overtime making up for lost time carving fresh tracks until my legs couldn’t cope any longer.

While staying at Alvaro’s I also caught up with old friend Busty Wolter and French sensation Thomas Page. Alvaro was just coming back off injury and we managed to get a few hours shooting in at his park, which was more a fun warm-up session for the boys before heading off to the second round of the Master Of The Dirt series in Austria that weekend, which Alvaro ended up winning. His riding has lifted to a higher level since my last visit to his park back in November last year, which is good to see.

Busty and Thomas rocking Alvaro’s double line. Busty was also stepping up his tricks learning Superman Flips, go boy!!

I’ll take this opportunity to say a big thanks to Alvaro and Lorenzo for their generous hospitality during our stay. Being looked after by good friends in a foreign country makes all the difference, thanks guys!!!!!

Me and Lorenzo on the verandah of his apartment in the Dolomites gearing up for a wicked day of snowboarding under bright blue skies.

Now back in the UK I’ve had some time to do some much needed work to my site. It has recently been upgraded to a new server thanks to my mate Bevan, but on the transfer I’d lost my Morocco blog and some images I’d previously uploaded. Well I’m happy to say they’re back up and you can check out the Moroccan blog below, plus go to my photo section to see my Best of Europe 2007 shots under FMX. I also have uploaded the four stories of the Euro road trip, which features Busty and his Upforce crew, Matt Rebeaud, Alvaro Dal Farra, Remi Bizoaurd, Manu Troux, the Page Bros, Andre Villa and Dany Torres. These stories can be found in the FMX section under stories.

For those interested in reading my story on Josh Coppin’s 2007 world MX championship season and his heartache of losing the crown that should have been his it can be found under stories, MX/SX.

There’s so much cool stuff coming up this year and I’m keen as to capture as much action as possible so keep dropping in to see what’s going down and pop me a message to say hi or let me know what you’re up too, cheers Goba.

More pics:

Alvaro fresh back from injury and in form straight off the bat!

Busty with a Whip Flip.

Thomas stylin’ it up with a Whip.

Thomas following close in Busty’s tracks.

Busty even had time to show me up with the camera...sweet!

Thanks for the shots Busty. Keep an eye out for his new site coming soon.

I was stoked to find they’d named a lush hotel after me in Venice, but not so stoked they tried to charge me to stay there. Don’t they know who I am man!! Ha ha.

I guess they have to hand their washing somewhere. I just hope they have strong pegs!

You can’t go to Italy without a quick trip to Venice, its an amazing city.

A nice afternoon view over the frozen lake of Alleghe.

The view from our verandah after a few hours of fresh snow.

Plenty of time to chill.

Thanks for the use of your van Alvaro, legend!