This isn't how it's meant to happen, I think to myself as I strike the lip of the terrifying ski jump with my tailbone and bounce head-first into the gigantic pool of foam with a heavy snowboard strapped to my feet. I'd travelled to the Swiss resort of Laax to experience the newly opened state-of-the-art Freestyle Academy - "Europe's first indoor freestyle training centre" - lured by the promises of a safe, padded environment to try out all the crazy snowboarding tricks I'd never dare attempt on real, hard-packed snow. And here I am, battered, bruised and face-down in foam, my credibility in tatters, wondering how it had all gone so wrong.
Freestyling has been a source of terror and fascination for me since I started snowboarding 13 years ago. Doing jumps and tricks over manmade structures in purpose-built snow parks is just one aspect of the sport, but to my mind it is where ordinary mortals attached to rectangular boards turn into super-humans who can fly. If you've ever witnessed a snowboarder sailing over a big jump, doing a few rotations or backflips in mid-air and touching down as casually as a bird on water, you'll know what I mean. I'd always dreamed of becoming a great freestyler, and had made a few haphazard attempts to learn, but until Laax I'd never had the courage to properly take the leap.
The journey started promisingly enough. I arrived at the resort after a smooth two-hour trip by train and bus from Zurich airport, to be greeted by glorious falling snow and a thick, white carpet underfoot. This promises to be a bumper ski season in the Alps: its resorts opened several weeks early and the conditions are already superb.
My hotel for the weekend is the famed Riders Palace, which established Laax as a snowboarder hot spot when it opened in 2001. A modern concrete structure with a neon-lit cocktail bar in the reception, a club in the basement, and beanbags and widescreen TVs in the bedrooms, it is a magnet for trendy young boarders from all over the world. The young man checking in ahead of me has travelled all the way from California.
When I last visited Laax in 2007, the hub of the resort consisted of two large hotels, an ugly complex with downmarket bars and restaurants, and a gigantic car park next to the lifts. Since then, the company that owns the resort has totally transformed the site. The car park has been buried underground and replaced with eight minimalist, cube-shaped apartment blocks arranged around a central plaza. The development, known as rocksresort, also boasts chic shops and bars and a variety of dining options.
Rocksresort lacks the cosy, old-fashioned feel of a classic European ski resort but has been designed well enough to make you feel pleasantly at home, especially if you're a hip young snowboarder who values clean lines and convenience over Alpine kitsch. (The 122 apartments can be rented throughout the season from 32 Swiss francs [Dh123] per person, per night.)
My appointment at Freestyle Academy isn't until three the following afternoon, so the next morning, fully kitted up, I head up the mountain. The snow is fresh and powdery and I do some exhilarating runs. Laax is not a large resort by Alpine standards but it does contain a good variety of terrain, with an epic off-piste descent from the Vorab Glacier to Alp Ruschein, lots of long, winding reds, and a new 2.5km freestyle slope at Crap Sogn Gion where expert boarders wow the crowds on jumps, rails and half-pipes. The lift system is a bit patchy but I'm told it's getting an overhaul in the next year.
The Freestyle Academy, which I hope will turn me into some sort of big-air hero, turns out to be a low, inconspicuous building next to Riders Palace. The entrance hall, with a long coffee bar and comfortable sofas, is actually a viewing platform overlooking a series of training pits. Below left are four large trampolines; below right is a skateboarding ramp. Towards the rear, taking up more than half of the building, is a massive pool of carbon-grey foam cubes cushioning a series of jumps, the largest of which stretches all the way up to the ceiling. I assure myself that this is not even slightly intimidating.
Everyone has to enrol in a supervised two-and-a-half-hour introductory course to familiarise themselves with the facilities and to prove that they are skilled enough to use them. The academy accepts all ages and skill levels, but you really need to be an intermediate-to-expert boarder, and already confident in the air, to attempt the bigger jumps. Once you've completed the course, you can book cheaper unsupervised sessions to further hone your skills before you try them out on real snow.
No matter how young you think you are, you will probably feel old at the Freestyle Academy. High-energy pop and nu-metal pumps out of the speakers and everyone is dressed in baggy skater gear. Many of the kids in my group, which numbers about 20, are half my height and - infuriatingly - double my skill level. Loath to be outperformed by a bunch of nine-year-olds, I throw myself into the activities with total determination.
Our group has two cheerful young supervisors. We start with a trampoline session, which teaches you how to jump and flip in mid-air without losing your balance. "Stop flailing your arms," I am told, "and keep your legs straight." I apply this advice and immediately feel a lot more stable in the air. Next, we strap on our boards and venture onto a baby slope, to get a feel for the artificial terrain (a cutting-edge new technology called Snowflex). I find the bristly, slippery surface hard to negotiate, and to my embarrassment I keep falling at the bottom. The nine-year-olds glide by with infinite ease, giving me pitying looks as I crawl to my feet. "Take as many goes as you want," the supervisor smiles sympathetically.
We try a steeper slope with a near-vertical drop, which I manage to pull off in a dignified manner, and then it is on to the climactic moment of the course. The big jumps are where you accustom yourself to taking off at speed and, with practice, learn how to do elaborate mid-air tricks. I have watched skiers, boarders and even BMX bikers shoot off them, spinning and somersaulting into the foam, and I'm ready now to have a go myself.
"Try it if you want," a supervisor tells me, so I haul my snowboard up the steep steps and perch at the top of the second-highest descent. The foam pool below seems a very long way down. This is much scarier than anticipated. But if kids half my age are doing it, what excuse do I have? I take a few deep breaths and, inching forward until there is nothing beneath my board but thin air, I drop over the edge ...
A word of advice: if you're a freestyle snowboarding novice and you attempt a big jump, make sure you brace your legs as you speed towards take-off. Otherwise your knees will buckle, like mine did, and you'll use your rear end as a launching mechanism.
My pride takes some comfort in the fact that the girl two places ahead of me also took a tumble. Eventually I am hauled out of the pool by a man who assures me: "I have seen much worse falls here. Professional boarders as well as beginners. This is nothing out of the ordinary." I believe him. Looking around, there are clearly too few supervisors to prevent such accidents. I'm left feeling, as I hobble to the exit, that I could have conquered my fear of freestyling, attaining the confidence to tackle big jumps and the skill to land them safely, if only I'd had proper tuition.
But there's no denying that the Freestyle Academy is a terrific facility which looks set to confirm Laax as one of the hottest snowboarding destinations in the world. Just one week after opening it's full of enthusiastic young boarders - four of whom had come all the way from Japan - putting their aerial abilities to the test and pulling off all manner of gravity-defying stunts. As for me, I'm going to keep my feet on solid ground from now on and stick to the safety of the slopes. My dreams of flying have been laid to rest: I'll leave the freestyling to the kids.
The introductory course at the Freestyle Academy (freestyleacademy.laax.com; 00 41 81 927 7170) costs 50 Swiss francs (Dh190). A double room at Riders Palace (www.riderspalace.ch; 00 41 81 927 9700) costs 690 Swiss francs (Dh2,660) per person for five nights including a lift pass.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
Match info
Bournemouth 1 (King 45 1')
Arsenal 2 (Lerma 30' og, Aubameyang 67')
Man of the Match: Sead Kolasinac (Arsenal)
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Scoreline
Arsenal 3
Aubameyang (28'), Welbeck (38', 81')
Red cards: El Neny (90' 3)
Southampton 2
Long (17'), Austin (73')
Red cards: Stephens (90' 2)
if you go
The flights
Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.
The trek
Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.
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FA Cup fifth round draw
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Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
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Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The biog
Name: Sarah Al Senaani
Age: 35
Martial status: Married with three children - aged 8, 6 and 2
Education: Masters of arts in cultural communication and tourism
Favourite movie: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Favourite hobbies: Art and horseback ridding
Occupation: Communication specialist at a government agency and the owner of Atelier
Favourite cuisine: Definitely Emirati - harees is my favourite dish
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
