Tuesday 15 December 2009

Snow Jam: Snowboarding in the City




And there it was....34 meters of it! Or 111 feet high above the Gwanghwamun Plaza in Central Seoul.

Snow Jam's special snowboarding ramp was built last week on the Gwanghwamun Plaza, which is sandwiched by the Sejong Arts Center and the Japanese and American embassies, to hold a series of snowboarding demonstration and competition.

I was there last Sunday, December 12, and the temperatures were forgivable, not too cold. For me, at least. But seeing the hordes of Seoulites milling around the Plaza, queuing for tickets and for free coffee, I just amused myself with taking photos and finding out how on earth would the snowboarders be slalom-ing down the ramp, do a 360 and not fly out into the Sejong Arts Center! The ramp looked too short (from where I could see) with all the momentum and velocity that the jumper, er, snowboarder, gathers while careening down the ramp at God knows what speed!

I didn't stay long though. The exhibition and competition was to start at 6PM, which meant it would have been very dark, very cold....and I, very hungry. I just hope those snowboarders from Switzerland, Italy, Korea, Finland, Japan, Norway, Austria, US and Germany had a great time flying off the ramp and doing their jumps, spins, rotations, slaloms and Big Air to impress the local audience.

Ciao.

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