If I’m gonna head up to the mountains for a day of snowboarding, the one guy I’d like to have with me is Julian “The Dick Man” Dykmans (he hates that nickname). Julian is a Belgian pro skater who lives here in Barcelona. I met him two years ago when he auditioned for the play I was directing at the time – The Marriage of Bette and Boo. He has a bit of an accent so you can kinda tell that English isn’t his native language so I cast him as Bette’s father – a severe stroke victim who can’t pronounce any consonants and so no one can understand what he’s saying. He was perfect!

Julian has been snowboarding for well over 10 years and is the one guy who I find myself struggling to keep up with on the slopes. I thrive on the challenge. He’s also a good guy to have at your side if you’re ploughing through the trees off-piste or spotting the big jumps.

We hopped on the 7am train out of Plaza Cataluña and were on top of the highest peak at La Molina by 11am. The sun was shining and the snow was just right. Plus, if you go skiing during the work week, you’ve got the entire mountain all to yourself! La Molina isn’t the largest station in the Pyranese so we were able to explore the entire station by 5pm.

You don’t want to go skiing with someone who you don’t get along with because you spend more time sitting next to them – on the train and on the ski lifts – than skiing. This was fine with me because it gave us a chance to catch up after not seeing each other for over two months (Julian just got back from a two month skate trip to Argentina).

I think we were on the train heading home for about 15 minutes before we both passed out unconscious. A good day was had by all.