April started with a bang - a smokin' backyard BBQ mini-shred saw the closing days of the backyard park off with a bang - click below:
Being the end of the season, the boys decided to go for a switch-up day: us snowboarders tried skiing, and Pat the skier tried snowboarding
Not being the types to go half-hearted at anything, we dressed in clothing appropriate to skiers fashion - and threw ourselves headlong down the slopes.
We had a fantastic day spending hours hooting with laughter, and I have to say that everyone there did remarkably well with no stragglers at all. However the most impressiveg convert was Pat, who by the end of his first run was linking turns, and by the second was snowboarding properly. I have never seen this before - and from a 43-year old die-hard skier? Unreal!
I spent an afternoon skating at Castlegar skatepark, as I had heard that it was one of the Kootenay's best outdoor parks - boy, was I rusty on the rails since last skating in November! Dispite taking a proper stack, I continue to be impressed as to the public amenities available to relatively small towns, similar to those available in New Zealand.
Before leaving Rossland, I must tell you about Jons LP record covers, truely the sickest wall decorations in the northern hemisphere.
From Roger ("The Saga Continues..."), to the priceless Scandanavian Interlude, Wayne King and his Orchestra (because everybody loves Wayne King ;), and the frankly unbelieveable Kroeze family - each and every one is a classic! See for yourself...
Having said goodbye to our friends, CJ and I left Rossland, opting to head east to Vancouver by dropping into the U.S., rather than take the same Canadian route we have done 3 times before.
We drove south to Spokane, then east along the (alledged 4.5 hour - whatever...) highway to Seattle, where we stopped off by the Wanapum viewpoint for a stunning panorama of the mighty Columbia River (one of the longest in North America).
Continuing east, we spent the night near Seattle, before driving through city to head north through Bellingham to Vancouver - and our final destination of Whistler.
We arrived in Whistler at the start of the Telus Festival - a combination of snow sports events (such as the Big Air and Halfpipe) and music concerts - bringing more people into town than at any other point in the season. Not a good time to search for accommodation! However, after a couple of days of concerted effort and viewing rooms, we found a room available for a couple of months, perfect for our spring pass.
We were joined by our aussie friends Tom and Mike Stranger, and kiwi buddies Logan and Boots - our co-conspirators from the Black Bear kickers! The aussies decided spend a couple of months in town, working in the construction industry - and after a bit of wrangling, we managed to sort them accommodation in the same house as us - deja vous..?!
The highlight of the Telus festival was the Jon Butler Trio. Amazing talent, not only playing multiple instruments in a variety of ways, but using innovative techniques such as singing through the guitar soundbox, so that his voice was picked up through the strings - giving it a distinctly metallic sound. Superb.
Tom had lived previously with his sister, so we wound up chatting to her over drinks in the bar afterwards - a very pleasant down-to-earth person, apparently like Jon himself.
Whistler ski area is composed of 2 mountains - Whistler and Blackcomb, combining to give a vast amount of terrain. Unfortunately, apart from a couple of days of good weather at the beginning - the weather has been very poor, going from sheet ice to overcast pouring rain, conspiring to limit the amount of time we could ride before Whistler mountain closed.
It was Toms 30th birthday last week, and his brother Mick secretly arranged a special birthday treat for him - snowmobiling!
After managing to keep up the charade of a normal day on the mountain, the four of us embarked on a 2 hour trip driving snowmobiles up the Whistler backcountry, led by a guide up road where the loggers used to drive so fast down, they removed their doors in case they had to bail out!
The trip culminated on a fantastic viewpoint on Rainbow mountain, where Mick presented Tom with a birthday cake, with the number "30" spelt out with candles... Unforgettable!
So the weather has finally improved and we have the warmer springtime weather that has been ominously lacking - the snow has softened up, and we can get jibbing without fear of breaking bones.
Bring it on..!
monday 31st march
Late powder dumps at Red meant I wound up heading out to Nelson alone, taking my streetboard to check out the park and get riding again - expecting to find the usual bustle of people all competing for lines.
Instead I found a huge empty warehouse, with no one around to ride apart from me and a couple of people playing pool...
Nelson is a great park, with all the benefits associated with the biggest UK ventures, nestled out of the way in the BC interior - situated in a town of barely a few thousand people..!
I set about hitting up the 10ft quarterpipe and trying to bust out as much air as possible, but unfortunately as I was alone I didn't get any footage, nor go as big as I would have wished in case of injury :o( C'est la vie.
Our housemate from Wanaka '05, Tim Andrews, came to stay with us for a week.
Tim is a telemark skier of considerable ability, and joined us en route in the middle of a 2 month backcountry tour of British Columbia.
An unexpected 3-day snow dump prompted our crew to make a spontaneous roadtrip to Revelstoke - the newest resort in BC and destined to become the largest vertical drop in north America.
So aussie brothers Tom and Mike, housemate Jon, Pat the local, CJ and me piled in 3 cars and drove convoy - at one point using a free ferry crossing to bridge the Upper Arrow Lake upon which Revelstoke is located.
Revelstoke resort is situated on a high mountain, remeniscent of european alpine terrain - although there are currently only 2 lifts (a gondola and a high-speed chair), the resort already has a vertical drop of 1440m (4724ft) - about to be increased to 1829 (6000ft), making it the 4th highest vertical drop of any resort in the world.
The terrain is fantastic, mixing up long tree runs with the huge North Bowl powder face, and with an expansion programme taking the number of lifts from 2 to 20 and opening up the cat-skiing bowls - of an unbelieveably large scale.
I had the fortune to bump into another friend from Wanaka '05 by complete chance - Greg Seiffert was staying at the "Mountain View" hostel with the rest of us, and it was great to catch up with him for a beer - although he was unfortunately only over on a day trip from Banff/Lake Louise and not staying. It was great to see him though - nice one mate ;o)
We had, a great 3 days ripping up fantastic powder and all experienced "the stoke" - completed by a trip to the Halcyon Hot Springs thermal spa.
WOW - this place left me speechless.
That was the most amazing place, floating around outside in natually heated thermal spas on the outdoor terrace, overlooking the Upper Arrows Lake with the air chilly around you as the sun goes down... Stunning.
On one of our short trips over the border into the U.S., CJ and I visited the town of Colville.
A small town, the pace of life seemed slower here, and we found genuine wild-west facades down a side street - nice!
Both on this journey and the trip to Nelson, we passed spectacular dams and hydro-electric power stations.
The very scale of these has to be seen to be believed, it beggars belief that THAT much water can be held back... :o0
Well it's snowing hard at the moment, but we've only a week or so left of the season in Rossland, so we're now looking at the possibility of extending our snowboarding with a spring pass at Whistler - as the season the runs into June ;o)
The issue with Whistler is the abject lack of accommodation - which was beyond ridiculous when we visited back in January - heres hoping we have more luck this time...
Wish us luck..!
newsflash!
New snowboarding movie edit out now - the Black Bear Kickers!
3 kickers, 3 days - our crew descended on the Rossland location and built and hit these kickers, built on the slag piles left from mining operations in the hillside below...
Click the player below to watch the movie!
Also - the Flipside "I Know..." streetboarding collection in embedded format, again, click to play:
Enjoy ;o)
wednesday 5th march
In a change of plan - we spent the last week building kickers instead of streetboarding...
Our friends Tom & Mick, Australian brothers living up the road, had spotted a great location for kickers - perfect for a range of hits, and hidden from general view.
We constructed 3 kickers on 2 different hills: the original Gap Kicker on one, the Huge Kicker and Under Kicker on the other.
The "hills" were actually 2 gigantic manmade slag heaps, sited above the entrance to the now-defunct Black Bear mineshaft.
This was originally owned by the "Le Roi" mining company - back in the days when Rossland was a Gold Rush town...
The Gap Kicker was constructed and bombed out during our first day - a 20ft gap on the side of the hill. The snow was perfect that day, great for building but even better for landing, so we spent about 4 hours hitting it in the spring conditions.
Over the next couple of days we constructed and rode the other 2 kickers, situated one-under-another on the other hill.
The piece-de-resistance was the "Huge Kicker" - a vast construction about 15ft high from base to lip with a deep gap below, before the slope continued - providing our landing spot...
With a depth (from lip to bottom of gap) of about 35ft, this was not a kicker to fall short of, or mess-up a take-off from...
It is worth mentioning that Tom took first hit on the Huge Kicker, with the result that he somersaulted 60ft through the air before landing on his chest, just missing his head...
Unbelieveably, he walked away with only a stiff back and severe winding to show for it!
The 3rd kicker was the "Under Kicker" which ran across the fall-line, with the drop-in situated in the gap under the Huge Kicker, and the landing in a natural halfpipe depression which opened out into a face. This was the smallest kicker, but also the one with the least chance of injury in the event of an accident...
So we used up all the fresh snow after 3 days, and the landings became unuseable.
The elements have combined to make fantastic spring snow conditions over the last few days, with a perfect slushy texture - although in the afternoons it can be a little "grabby" and slow...
Hopefully I will be heading over to Nelson skatepark in the next week for some streetboarding action, so I will have news from there - and hopefully some more snow will fall..?
Until then - keep it tight...
saturday 23rd february
Firstly - I have uploaded the new collection of Flipside's '07 streetboard footage: entitled "I Know...", it draws from our search for street locations over the last 12 months...
So we've spent the last month snowboarding most days at Red Mountain - lots of powder and freeriding, but less freestyle than I would like - however we have had a few moments...
I went streetboarding at an indoor bowl up the road in Salmo, but the transition was not particularly streetboard-friendly.
However - the good news is I have found a huge indoor skatepark 1.5 hours away in Nelson! More on this below...
Transport is an absolute requirement in Canada, distances being so big - managed to get a van for a bargain price!
Unfortunately it did not have snow tyres, so we had to buy chains (groan!) to drive when the roads get bad...
So we said goodbye to Farmer & Rachel, left Abbotsford and drove to Rossland - not such an epic drive this time, but still not without apprehension due to the tyres issue...
We moved into the most beautiful house, taking Shez's room to become housemates with Jon:
No sooner had we arrived, than the Winter Festival started next day! The whole town came alive with events including the Carnival, bob-sleigh and street slope-style:
All the runs here are deliberately through trees - they are "gladed" specially to allow riding in-between.
Combine this with natural snow-capped boulders and it is the picture-perfect free-riding recipe.
The weather was very cold initially, averaging around -15C, but recently the snow has let up and the sun come out - giving opportunity for some jibbing around in lighter clothing...
We have had various BBQ jams in our backyard park, attended "Taco Evenings", a Red-themed party and also a "digital photo treasure hunt" - having to take photos of as many pre-concieved scenarios as possible in a given time. There were quite a few naked people on the High Street that night...
I have bought new boots as the 32s have died after their dire performance - Vans BFBs; supposedly good, but painful as hell, so got them heat-moulded up the road in Nelson, which has improved them.
Nelson was a lovely town, very remeniscent of Wanaka - a natural suntrap with a very hippie vibe and small-town atmosphere, sat on the Kootenay River (the Kootenays is the name of the collective area) about an hour and a half from Rossland.
It also has a killer-looking indoor skatepark, about the size of Motion, comprising of a bowl, quarters and flatbanks, a spine and various blocks perfect for streetboarding.
So you can imagine where I'm going to skate next week ;)
newsflash!
New Flipside streetboarding movie out now!
A collection of footage from our search for street in 2007, in collaboration with Day One...
Well the UK 2007 streetboarding nationals were HUGE - a really good comp with a high level of riding, and also a great promotional tool for streetboarding as a sport! Read the write-up in the Streetboarding.com UK2007 review.
But time has moved on since the last article - and we now reside in Canada...
We got up at some ungodly hour and arrived at Gatwick only to find the flight delayed for a day :(
When we eventually arrived at Vancouver Airport, our friend Rachel picked us up and we got our first look at Canada.
It had just recently snowed, so we were greeted with a snow-covered landscape.
We journeyed to Rachel & Farmers appartment in Abbotsford, a small city 1 hour from Vancouver - which was to serve as base for our excursions.
We spent New Years eve in Farmers cabin in the US; a large permanent wooden trailer in Kendal Valley, Washington, about 3/4 hour away from Mt.Baker - our New Years day ski resort destination.
Wow, was that a cold night..!
Mt.Baker was our first day back on snow, and it was good to be sliding around again - the air is very cold here, but seemingly less chilling than back in Europe.
A couple of days later the four of us drove to Mt.Cyprus - one of the Vancouver ski hills. The snow here was very wet, but we had a good day until I stove my knee into a rock - ending my session for that day!
CJ and I packed our bags, as Rachel & Farmer were moving house, and drove Farmers car to Whistler so we could recce for accommodation and jobs - one of CJs NZ Treble Cone work collegues Christine putting us up for the duration (thanks Christine!).
We had not been there 10 minutes when I walked straight into a friend from both years in Wanaka - Jonny Scully - who had lived both seasons with Tassie Ben!
It was so funny to see him, couldn't have choreographed it better if you had tried...
After methodically searching for accommodation for 2 days, we wound up our efforts and spent the remaining 2 on the mountain.
SOOOOO much powder - it is so totally different from Europe - floating in between the trees through powder like a liquid, its such a different experience and one I must thoroughly recommend...
Christine and housemate Jenna took us through Khyber Valley, a 25 minute powder tree-run from top-to-bottom culminating in a natural boardercross - really taking it out of the legs!
Wanaka friends Jonny Scully & Nina joined us next day, showing us lots of off-piste tree runs and natural hits.
It was one of these runs after lunch where CJ & I dropped too low, resulting in a difficult 45 minute hike out. NEVER AGAIN!
Had a great day with them, it was especially good to see Jonny again and catch up after a year and a half.
We returned to Abbotsford on the 5th day, returning to Rachel & Farmers new place - further out of town, and crackhead-free!
Another few days and we were off on the 9-hour trip to Rossland to meet old Wanaka housemate Shez and check out the town.
I have never been in such crazy driving snow, driving blind in the night with only a single set of tyre tracks to show you the way.
Rossland is a very small town at the bottom of Red Mountain ski hill - almost fairytale-looking with a single lit mainstreet edged with low one- or two-storey buildings. Shez joined us when we arrived at the Mountain Shadow hostel, and we soon met her housemates John & Adam and friend Jamie at the town pub.
We spent a couple of days snowboarding Red Mountain (actually Red &anp; Granite mountains) and being shown the locals secret spots, including some mineshafts excavated from the backside of Red, and one hidden man-height shaft with rail track on the floor, where small ore-wagons ran.
During the evenings we ate barbeque at Johns and hit the boxrail and kicker in the backyard park constructed in his garden.
It was extremely cold, but shouts from the spectators kept the nightime session going till the late hours!
On our journey back to Farmer & Rachels in Abbotsford, we decided that Red was the better choice all factors considered.
We have therefore arranged to take over Shez's accommodation at Johns when she leaves next week...
So looks like we're moving to Rossland for the next 3 months!
