T3BORED? Never!

By: Daniel Hinderink

Behind the scenes of organizing the snowboard tour.

Only a few more days and the fifth snowboard tour is ready to rock the hill, or will it?

For every year I have been involved with organising this event, I have had the same sensations during the preparation in three phases:

1. Finding a place

Looking for the right spot that offers enough space, a great ski resort, all the facilities we need and has a vacancy is a much bigger challenge then most might imagine. it takes hundreds of emails and many phone calls, let alone hours of googling to find a fitting place and time.

Every year we think about letting some travel pro's do the hard work, but every time we find out they just don't have a clue what we want and their service range is too limited.

Anyway, this is a phase of hectic search and great anticipation resolved by a moment of relief when the reservation is fixed and the advance payment is made.

2. Registration and the loooong wait.

Here we collate the information, overhaul the registration extension and get more details fixed with the travel agency. Finally the big day comes and registration opens. The true believers and the ambitous newbies storm the list and fill up at least half of what's available within the first few hours. After that it takes a few weeks to fill up the remaining places and then the long wait comes...

3. One week until touchdown

It is usually only one week to the starting date that I get nervous. Will the hotel be alright? Will there be snow? Will everybody like the spot? Will everybody get there safely and back? Will we be able to avoid any major injuries during the tour? Will we have the community feeling again?

Now there are only a few more days and the answers to these questions will be given. I hope, probably more than anybody, that this years tour will again bring new improvements over previous ones, will not repeat mistakes we made in the past, that the inevitable compromises made with any choice for a place and time will not hamper the success of the event and so on.

however some things are already planned and almost set for 2008:

- we will most probably go to Laax/Switzerland

- booking and registration will be entirely handled by the hotel

- we try to find a vacant time slot in late Febuary.

 

See you at the Snowboard Tour in L2A! Let's make it rock once more!

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