RIGHT TOP Niels Schack ollies and begs forgiveness in front of a massive mosque near the bottom of Ercyies. RIGHT BOTTOM Victor Daviet McTwisting 60 miles from the Syrian border. ERCIYES Located at the foot of 12,848-foot stratovolcano Mount Erciyes in the Taurus Mountains near the middle of the country, Kayseri is one of the most conservative cities in Turkey, and, after our experience with cosmopolitan Istanbul, it felt like we were arriving in another country. We immediately went to the local tourist office halfway up the volcano, near the base of a smallish ski resort rising up into the alpine. There we met Mr. Murat, a well-dressed bald man who looked and acted as if he worked on Wall Street. We sat in huge white leather couches in his office for more than an hour enjoying Turkish sweets and listening to him explain his gamble of investing millions of dollars into Erciyes to attract European skiers and snowboarders. In return, we explained how six guys from four countries ended up in Turkey filming a snowboard movie. Niels did most of the talking while Sparrow tried his best not to say anything stupid. By the end of the meeting, Mr. Murat had offered free lodging in the basement of his office. Anything we wanted during our stay, all we had to do was call him. With an unusual but comfortable home base, we descended the winding road into the city to meet up with Osman Tahaoglu, a friend of Pelin’s who owns Deep Up, the only skate shop in Kayseri. His interest in snowboarding started in his teens and hasn’t wavered. Now in his 30s, Osman is an importer/exporter of some sort, but his real passion lies in connecting with the younger generation of Kayseri riders learning to shred Erciyes. Osman spoke perfect English, took control of dinner and ordered one of nearly everything on the menu in a brand-new restaurant serving traditional Kayseri cuisine. Dinner ranged from the mini-dumpling soup of kayseri manti, flavored with chili-infused olive oil and a magical sprinkling of mint and sumac gar-nish, to the more convivial usulu yaglama, a flatbread layered with a filling of ground meat, onions and tomatoes, and served with a big dose of creamy garlic yogurt. In addition to treating us to the local culinary scene, Osman also helped us further our Turkish lexicon. We wanted to engage with lo-cal culture on more than a superficial level, and chose to learn one Turkish word per day while we were there. So we’d ask whoever we encountered, whether a gondola partner, a resort employee or some-one who came to watch us ride, to teach us a word, and they’d happily oblige. The Turkish word for “thank you,” for instance, is “teşekkür” (pronounced “Teeshi-cure”). It’s the kind of word that you get to use a lot throughout the day. Alex really struggled with the pronunciation and insisted on replacing it with “Tacky Chan” or “Jackie Chan,” depending on how he was feeling. Needless to say, the locals didn’t al-ways understand our broken Turkish, but they appreciated the effort. Back at Erciyes, we encountered more foul weather for the first few days. But on the fourth day, we woke to clear skies. It was the first time we’d seen sun since landing in Istanbul almost two weeks prior, and we boarded a new gondola to the peak. It was Victor’s birthday, and he took the lead in finding a good spot to build a jump for the day. The whole crew began shoveling snow and cutting blocks to shape the lip as clouds crept into the lowlands, leaving the sun to warm the alpine. To which Alex said, “Tacky Chan,” the rest of us said, “teşekkür,” and we rode under a blue Turkish sky. 068 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 14.1: Page 68
