The bill, known as SB 105, would enforce a fine on parents if their children were found without helmets on whilst participating in snowsports.

The proposed law would also require resorts to warn skiers and boarders of the requirements by posting warning signs and notices by the pistes as well as on their websites and printed trail maps.

“When you have thousands of accidents where there are brain injuries of some sort, nearly half of those injuries could have been prevented if the youngsters wore a helmet.” said Democratic Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco who proposed the bill which was passed by California’s senate last week and now awaits the final approval or rejection by the governor.

New Jersey became the first US state to introduce a similar law requiring children to wear helmets for snowsports earlier this winter. A number of US ski resorts already require their staff working on the slopes and everyone taking ski school classes to wear helmets. Similar laws requiring children to wear helmets when participating in snow sports have been in place in both France and Italy for some years.

The International Academy (www.international-academy.com) is offering guaranteed jobs to gap year students who train as ski instructors with them.

In collaboration with SkiBound, any students who successfully complete a course with the International Academy will be offered employment as either a ski or snowboard instructor in countries across Europe.

“This works particularly well if you have qualified through one of our early season ski or snowboard instructor courses in Val d’Isere, Tignes or Verbier and are looking for some paid work experience. Our link with SkiBound is also useful if you are looking for short term work as a ski or snowboard instructor during your university breaks or holidays. Skiing has a way of letting you discover the mountains whilst having fun in the process.” said Alan Bates, Managing Director of International Academy.

The company contends that although some may think that taking a gap year is an expensive luxury, the reality is that travel doesn’t just broaden the mind, it also broadens employment prospects.

“These days it’s not just about the results but about the beginning of a life-long learning journey. It is apparent in the current economy that employers are looking for some qualifications as well as seeing what students have achieved outside of the academic world. This is a great time to seize the opportunity to gaining a life enhancing experience. It’s time to learn new skills and to achieve personal goals. Millions of fellow enthusiasts share the passion to ski and this is chance to meet new people and learn about them and their amazing experiences by hitting the slopes.” said a company statement.

The cost for studying for an 11 week BASI Level 1 & 2 instructor qualification starts from £8,250 with accommodation at the Hotel le Dome on half board with ski in, ski out position to the vast Espace Killy ski circuit. The course is available from 12 November 2011 – 28 January 2012. Once complete, you’ll have a guaranteed job offer from SkiBound. At the Swiss resort of Verbier, prices start from £7,950 for 11 weeks, staying at the Golf5 apartment.

Flights are not included.

Toggenburg – A winter wonderland for families

Toggenburg is located in the East of Switzerland and truly is a paradise for families. There is a Kids Park at all three of its base lodges where children can learn and practice in a playful way. In addition, there is another Kids Park at the exit of the lift called Unterwasser-Iltios. At the exit of the gondola called Alt St. Johann-Sellamatt there is a rope-tow leading directly to a lift especially designed for children. Thus, it forms the perfect transfer between Kids Park and usual trails.

Great Activities for Children

There is also a lot to explore besides the trails. Toggi’s Kinderprogram at “Haus des Gastes” (House of the Guest” at the curling center Wildhaus includes a puppet theatre, donkey hikes and a children’s disco. Thus, fun is guaranteed at Toggenburg! It enables parents to have time to scale the summit of the resort using the mountain railway “Iltios-Chäserrugg”. Once you are up there you can enjoy stunning views of the 7 summits of Churfirsten and your ski run through finest snow.

Simply Enjoy Winter

If you want to take a day off the trails there are many other great activities available for families. Hike through the wonderful winter landscape of Toggenburg, enjoy a sleigh ride leading you through the old village or try the toboggan run! One thing is for sure: Your holiday at Toggenburg will one to remember and all members of your family will have a pleasant time!

On the 21^st of December 2011 the resort is planning a celebratory evening of entertainment. The show will be a ‘home-grown’, grass roots tribute to the resort with a cast made up of locals, including the ski schools, lift operating company, Club de Sport, and past and present ski champions. After the main show a firework display will take place on the Plagne Centre.

A commemorative book and DVD will also be published to commemorate the anniversary. They will retrace the story of la Plagne over the last 50 years and showcase photos and authentic documents retrieved from locals’ pasts.

Inghams have announced new initiatives and improvements to their programme for winter 2011-12.

The company, one of the UK’s biggest operators, offers holidays to 86 resorts in 10 different countries with flights from over 20 UK airports.  For 2011-12 the company will add 9 new resort choices, 42 new chalet/chalet hotels and more.

The company has put an onus on high-altitude destinations and will also offer Friday departures in December so that guests don’t need to travel on Christmas or New Year’s Eve which falls on a Saturday this year.

“We recognise that times are still hard out there, and the new brochure responds to that overwhelmingly important issue by going all out to give skiers outstanding value for money.” said Inghams CEO Andy Perrin, “The new chalets are a key part of this drive, with so much already included in the price.”

www.inghams.co.uk

It’s been a while since I’ve been in Azerbaijan, around eight years to be exact. About two years back I heard of a development in the north east of the country, Shagdah mountain resort with the top elevation at 4243 m.

Now you may be asking yourself why you’d want to fly off to Azerbaijan for your holiday instead of just heading to France, for one Easy Jet haven’t opened up a route yet. Although you’d never know.

The resort hasn’t opened just yet, it’ll be welcoming tourists for the first time next season, but I wanted to bring this up in a blog post to gauge people’s inclination to ski in such places. The whole Central Asian group of countries, from Azerbaijan through to Uzebekistan and Kazakhstan have fantastic skiing, incredible culture and are welcoming places. With this seasons average snowfall across the Alps, would those who go on a ten day or two week trip have a desire to head off to these locations as an alternative?

I’m not talking about those of you who are seeking an adventure, as despite there being no overload of information on these skiing locations you’d still head off. I’m talking about your family holiday, is it unthinkable that such locations could blend into the norms of Switzerland, France and Austria?

Perhaps I’m letting my imagination run away from me a little, for now at any rate.

The project in Azerbaijan will be costing the Azeri’s and numerous investors upwards of 700 million USD (and I’m sure this will be on its way upwards of a billion shortly.) Now for that amount of cash we can expect something pretty impressive and worthy of a vacation. I for one will be heading there next season to support this new resort, and hopefully ski a lot of untouched powder.

Russia are too, seeking investment for multiple similar developments in their cut of the Caucuses, although Russia are seeking a substantial amount more capital than the Azeri’s. With Sochi the next location for the winter Olympics in 2014 we could and should see a rise in these resorts appeal to those in Europe.

For more information on Shadag ski resort take a look at www.shahdag.az/eng

Oli Corkhill is a director at Alpine Guru, www.alpineguru.com – a fanatical skier who can’t seem to stay in once place for longer than a month. Connect with Oli on twitter @olicorkhill

The UK’s largest indoor snow centre is due to open by 2014. Ground work is due to start in the next few months on the SnOasis project. The news was confirmed by Mr Godfrey Spanner, managing director of the project, to the BBC.

Mr Spanner has said that ground work will begin in March and the project will be completed by 2014. The project is now 10 years in the making and is estimated to cost £350 million. The project involves creating an indoor winter resort incorporating a 415m long indoor ski slope, ice rink, facilities for 14 winter sports, hotels, shops and accommodation on a former quarry.

“We’re scheduled for the second quarter of 2014 but at this minute I’m working with the team to see if we couldn’t get the snow dome itself operating before that time,” Mr Spanner told the BBC. “One of the planning conditions is that we must start the snow dome first.”

The SnOasis project was given the go ahead several years ago, just before the economic crash. It has been hit by delays that Mr Spanner says have been down to satisfying ecological concerns regarding rare newts in the area.

Burton Snowboards has signed a deal to allow technology from Swedish company MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) to be implemented into their helmets.

MIPS say that by mimicking and reinforcing the brain’s own protection methods, their technology reduces the risk of brain damage, setting a new standard in helmet safety.

A statement from MIPS said, “Helmets on the market today are based on the same technology that was developed during the 70’s. They provide adequate protection but they don’t protect against brain damage caused by an angled impact to the head. The MIPS protection system reduces the risk of brain damage by mimicking the brain’s own protection system, using a unique sliding low-friction layer between the head and the helmet liner. This means the new R.E.D. helmets can absorb more energy created by an angled impact to the head (which is how most head injuries occur). By designing technology addressing how accidents actually occur, these new standards will help to minimize the risk involved with angled impact to the head.”

The first Burton helmet that will have the technology integrated into its design will be The Burton R.E.D. 2012 “HI FI” helmet. The model was used by six out of seven snowboard medal winners at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and will be available in shops worldwide from August 2011.

Late season skiing has long been the secret of the seasoned skier. While the rest of us have put our poles back in the attic for another year, they’re jetting down the slopes well into May.

There are numerous benefits to skiing in the Spring. For starters, its cheaper – the later in the season you visit, the lower the cost of lift passes, accommodation, rentals and travel. Taken together, this all adds up to a smaller dent in the bank balance and more time in the snow. Skiing or snowboarding in late season means fewer people on the slopes and fewer people queuing for a lift too. Couple that with the longer daylight hours and you’ll be looking at a far more enjoyable holiday.

There are plenty of places around the world naturally equipped for late season skiing. Below are some of the top resorts for hitting the slopes well past March. Some are at high altitude, others are on glaciers, but all of them have brilliant snow in the Spring.

As Europe’s highest ski resort, Val Thorens in France is one of the best places to go. With most of the slopes above the 2000m mark, the lifts are kept running right through to May.

Riksgransen in Sweden borders Norway and is one of the world’s most northerly ski resorts, meaning its best conditions are often found later in the season and keeps its doors open right through until June.

Another of Sweden’s resorts, Are, is Northern Europe’s largest and most advanced. 100 pistes and regular night skiing make Are a big draw in late season skiing.

At Tignes, in France, the main resort’s season stops in May while on the Tignes glacier the season doesn’t even begin until June, where powder-fiends can enjoy 20km of runs and an impressive vertical drop of over 750m.

Switzerland’s Saas Fee sits between 1800m and 3500m and has access to a glacier. The charming resort offers late-season skiers lots of snow and plenty of fun.

Livigno in Italy has a season that lasts into early May. The resort’s tax-free status means that food and drink are terrific value. One of the largest terrain parks and pistes up to 3000m make Livigno a top draw for late season skiers.

The Japanese resort of Gassan is located on the main island of Honshu. Often getting snow up to 8m means that the resort doesn’t even open until April because it’s inaccessible before then.

All of these resorts continue to provide top class skiing conditions at times of the year many others can’t. So book your flight, pack up your equipment, and enjoy some late-season skiing like the pros.

- If you want to take THAT photo or become THAT photographer you’ll need to invest money into your equipment. If you don’t then you’re more likely to be parading your photos to the crowd of people on Facebook you call your ‘friends’. Get yourself an SLR (film) or DSLR (digital), some lenses and film/memory cards. Try using a point and shoot camera and you’ll see the vast difference between these and the SLRs.

- Let the shot tell the story. If the skier is heading in one direction or he’s come from one direction then allow your shot to show this. It’s always good to have a point of reference.

- A lot of photographers say that you should never take a photo with the subject right in the middle of the shot and, more often than not, this is completely correct. Technically, you have control of what makes it into the photo so whatever you think will make the photo more interesting, gives it that little extra depth or compliments the angle, shoot it. If not, pack up and move on.

- Make you rider stand out! It’s so important to make the focus of your shot stand out from whatever else is contesting for 15 minutes of fame. Lenses will also help in this area. If you manage to get yourself in the middle of a halfpipe a fisheye lens will increase the sense of height and Shaun White will thank you for that when you become his official photographer!

- Here comes the technical stuff: Shutter speeds. The standard shutter speed you want to go with is 1/1000 second and f5.6 with a film speed of 100 iSO. If you’re losing light the simple solution is to open up the aperture or increase the ISO.

So that’s a quick guide on how to take the best snowboarding photos. Give it a try and if you enjoy it, then I’ll see you in the next issue of all the snowboard magazines!

Happy shooting!