Whistler....with only one plank

As my regular readers will no doubt recall, my efforts on the mono-plank snow sport have slowly been paying off and I can now do a reasonable impression of someone who knows what he's doing!

Armed with my new found confidence, I headed up to mecca, err...sorry, Whistler for my first big-mountain day on a board :-) Jason and D were kind enough to invite me along with them for the day. D (iane) is on a board for her second season so I thought I should be able to hang on to her a least.


Jason and D











It was a great day. The snow was good right at the top so we stayed there most of the day. I rode powder for the first time and I have to say I can now see what all the fuss is about - powder on a board rocks ;-)

Probably the biggest thing I noticed was how much bigger Whistler seems a) on a board cruising blue runs and b) compared to Cypress (5 min top to bottom)





Here's Jason and D again, on top of the world.

Thanks to them for a great day.

I'm looking forward to a couple more days this season and then a day boarding on the glacier in July ;-)

Wet

The wettest March in recorded history. Granted, the records don't exactky go back to the time of Christ but my alarm-radio told me yesterday Vancouver has never had this much rain in March - and March ain't over!!

I went snowboarding in it the other night - its actually quite entertaining cos the deep snow is really like porridge - yuk! Couldnt last for more than a couple hours though cos you do get soaked - my boots are still wet - 3 days later!

And we cant ride either. Too wet. Just look at this bit of Boogieman - where there isnt a river - there's a waterfall!!



















What was that? What? Who? Didnt see anyone!!!!!!!!















Ah well, back to Whistler for my first ever time there on a board :-D

Oh, and we have a record low of sun in March too. Something like 38 hours instead of 140!!
Who cares! I'd still love Vancouver if it rained all year round!

Not much to report

Its been pretty quiet of late. Lots of homework, lots of work (thankfully) and indifferent weather. I have managed to get back into running a little though. I just nip round the corner to the beach - it can be quite hard running on the sand but I'm not in it for miles so it suits my dodgy knees perfectly :-)

This is "my" beach - Kitsilano Beach - on a rainy March afternoon. You can see the city in the distance and Stanley Park to the left of the city

I guess the summer photos will look a bit better - but then I won't have the beach to myself!!






This where

Eh! I'm famous - well sort of

N (orth) S (hore) M (ountain) B (iking) is running a photo competition in its online magazine - and dear ol' Johhny Smoke's stuck a photo of me in it!! :-D

check me out!

A night with Christina Aguilera and the Pussy Cat Dolls!

Last night was the big night, the girls were performing for me - and the other few thousand people that turned up

The support act was The Pussy Cat Dolls - and I have to say they didnt suck!












This was the number from the Charlie's Angels film












hot women in skimpy outfits - marvelous!













I'm not sure I'll rush out for the CD, but they did a good job of killing some time before Christina came out to play










....and then the real show started!
















I don't care what you think - this girl can sing!













...and put on a damn fine show to boot













big fancy sets













lots of dancers prancing about the place













and Christina rocking the house flat out....













Trapeeze artists, fire twirlers, stilt walkers, and to top it, Christina chained to a target!












Diirty pole dancing













more singing













yet another costume change - they all changed about ten times!












and Christina still rocking the house













she was amazing, as was the whole stage show - a really good night out












she even fired bits of paper all over the audience - strange Americans!












and almost 2 hours later she finished rocking the house. Nice one Christina. Thanks.

You can come back ;-)

I've been a bit busy....

Sorry folkes, for it's been a month since my last blogfession....

February was a bit crazy - working 3 days a week, school 3 days a week plus a ton of homework has been taking its toll. It took me about 3 weeks to find time for a haircut!

But. Obviously I've squeezed in a little play time here and there....

My snowboarding is coming along nicely - I've said goodbye to the 3-days-of-pain and I even did (and landed) my first jump last week :-)
Cypress is the place for night-boarding. Jon and I have got a "sport-swap" thing going on. I snowboard and he skis - although we're not clever enough to have the same size feet so we cant swap equipment














Havent done much biking but did squeeze in a morning on Seymour in the snow the other week.
It was also the first time I took my car in the snow since getting snow tyres - flippin amazing what they'll grip :-)

if you click the pic you can see the snow!












As he often is, Tim was our cheif shuttle driver with the excellent Honda Element and North Shore Bike Rack. Sweet.














The work I've been so tied up with has been for Canada Border services - at the airport and the border - its real odd being on the wrong side of the Immigration counter! Not as odd though as taking a quick drive down the road next to the border. And when I say next to the border, I mean next to the border! Take a closer look at the pic below - the 50kph sign is Canadian, the 35mph sign is in the USA. Somehow I thought they'd at least have a fence!?















Back to biking - popped down to the finals of the 4X a couple weeks ago. This time I first invested in some semi-slick tyres ($40 the pair - bargain!) which made the track a whooooole lot faster - The best race was with Jon, Rich and I battling out - Rich stumbled out of the start, letting Jon and I get away - Jon fluffed the first big jump and I took the lead. I flew through the next couple jumps only to mess up the rhythm section but just, and I mean just held the lead by the tip of my visor to take the win. Sweet! :-D




this is the guy who organises the series doing a demo lap on his road bike!! lol crazy guy!
He's so crazy he wears this weird fury hat with ears - and sooooo crazy that he was still wearing it when we saw him at the Earther MTB Movie premier - crazy Canucks!






Speaking of bikes, I've got another one :-) Its an old one that I'm gonna use for round town etc, I've been doing some work on it so it looks completely crap lol but its great jumping on the bike and nippin up the shops or into the city - suddenly everywhere downtown is only 5 mins away :-)















I'm not the only one who's been busy. Despite working flat out on her portfolia to get into a Design Degree, Michele whipped up this cake - with great cake comes great responsibility ;-)



















and this pic from skiing last night at Cypress takes us pretty much up to date. The trees up top look craaaaaazy at the moment. We both felt like a bit of speed was in order so had a non-swap night and we had a great time. Got some cool little jumps going :-)



















Well, that's all for now folkes. I'm guessing I wont blog again until after the 12th - tune in a around the 14th to see what I've been up to....