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THE MAN BEHIND THE ARSE |
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Funny how people remember
you. This pic of Cookies bum has certainly done the rounds,
thanks no less to the b-zone crew and their story of the mans'
misfortune. I remember when he did the damage… somewhere
in the middle of the states. Plenty of pow and one big rock-
I'm sure you don't need to use your imagination. I was no less
than two states away at the time when I heard the news. Someone
had taken a photo and that bruise became the talk of the kiwi
snowboarding fraternity.
Andrew "Cookie" Clark. One of the faces behind S&C
Snowboard Shop in Queenstown. He's been riding since '89 and
with that amount of mileage has developed a certain aggressive
riding style. I remember him talking about his last year at
Otago University. He turned up to lectures one day a week. Meanwhile
he lived in a bus in Wanaka and spent his days getting to know
TC intimately. (Yes at the end of the year he passed his exams
thanks to an elaborate system he had going with a more studious
peer.)
It's that sort of passion for riding that you don't see in too
many people. Certainly not someone who's been riding for 12
years. Yet it's there and I get to see it everyday. Even in
summer there are always references to snowboarding. Cookie is
the ultimate powder fiend. It's a real addiction, something
that many of us can relate too I'm sure. He knows where to find
the goods and he'll make the effort to get there. 5am rises
are not uncommon- the guy is an ox when it comes to stamina.
I've seen him work a 14hour shift, party till the vacuum cleaners
come on and then stomp up Coronet for first tracks at dawn.
It's those crowd-less powder runs that we all dream about. They
do exist, even on Coronet Peak one of the nations busiest mountains.
All you need is the passion, the burning desire to ride deep
dry snow and the knowledge of where and how to find it. Cookies
got it.
Look at that picture again. That haematoma tells the story.
Not a story about someone who had a bad fall, not even someone
who was supposedly was going super big. It's about a guy who
was charging like a bat outta hell in a whole heap of fresh
snow with a big fat smile on his face - a smile that was well
and truly wiped from his face at the moment of impact!
This of course is not the sort of incident that keeps this sort
of guy off the snow. Cookies' still got the hunger and the drive
- an almost mindless passion to ride powder. One of a few to
get first tracks at Coronet in '01.
That was two weeks before opening. He didn't claim anything
at the time but did provide some great shots of winter local
and K2 rider Jamie Bassett. A few days later he was up the Peak
again. Two more pics from the lense of the boarderzone camera
resulted in the Cookster's powder turns showing up in the Nations'
Sunday paper…page two no less. The other resembling somewhere
in Alaska made front page on this very web site. By his own
account he's a bloody legend! |
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HELIBOARDING
Helicopter Snowboarding with N.Z's most experienced
backcountry boarders. 
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