Wedding

Congratulations to Aaron and Helen who got married on Tuesday.   As I mentioned in my last post; Aaron, Warren and myself didn’t let the small matter of a wedding stand in the way of perfectly good riding time.  We went to Norquay where they have a good (but small) park, some good steep runs and some really challenging double blacks.  This is probably not the safest place to take the groom on the morning of his wedding and the above photo was taken at 11.25am in Norquay when the wedding was in Banff at 2pm.  Not bad going to get back and get ready for the wedding in time.  Warren rode a box for the first time ever, Aaron rode his first ever double black diamond run and I hit the park despite the fact that any falls would have been only marginally better than landing on concrete.  I didn’t fall.

The wedding went off really well.  The ceremony was held in a nearby hotel and then afterwards the photographer took us to a few different places to take his photos.  The scenery is amazing and it was a beautiful sunny day so their photos should look amazing.

Since the wedding I have ridden every day apart from Saturday and we have been riding from first to last lift.  It is great to be riding with my buddies again, although there have been a few days were we haven’t ridden together as much as we would have liked due to injuries, equipment failure and the like.

Sunshine has one of the world’s craziest ski-outs (the bit you ski/ride at the end of the day to get back to the base of the gondola).  Although the run itself is not anything too difficult, it is not big enough for the number of people who use it.  Particularly at the weekend when the ski-out resembles being on a race circuit with everything from an F1 car to 25 year old original mini.  Lots of opportunities for crashes, and Aaron duly managed to hit a tree and hurt his back.  Fortunately he only missed one full day and has had to hold back a little on his riding since.  Could have been much worse.  Warren has also hurt his back after crashing whilst going Mach 10, and I hurt my arm after falling on a box.  My arm is on the mend, slowly.

Today we are going back to Lake Louise and the bus leaves in 30 minutes, so I’ll write a longer update when I get the chance!

Quick Hits

As you may have noticed I haven’t managed to updated my blog for ages.  Banff is a lot of fun, but my days leave no time for writing posts to my blog.  I have loads to tell you so I shall write more of an update tomorrow, when I am taking a rest day.  Here is quick take on what’s been going on:

- Left Whistler on Saturday and spent 11 hours getting to Banff.
- This week I have ridden Lake Louise twice, Norquay for a morning and Sunshine for three days
- I smashed myself off the most difficult box I have ever attempted to ride – it had 6 sections to it and I managed four on my snowboard before falling on the fifth section.  I still can’t straighten my arm, but apart from that I seem to still be in one piece
- Aaron and Helen got married on Tuesday, but the boys still rode Norquay in the morning.   We had been instructed not to do anything too dangerous, so we rode boxes, kickers and an icy double black diamond run with moguls the whole way.  Hmmm – probably why I wasn’t asked to be best man!  Even when we were on piste the runs were bullet proof so we all did our best not to fall.  Warren fell over and assured us that it does really hurt falling on bulletproof snow even with impact shorts on.

The sun has been out non-stop, so the snow conditions here are very different (and more challenging) than Whistler – it has made for some great photos though, so I have posted a few to Picasa.  Click here if you would like to see some photos.

Happy Valentines Day

The last few days have seen some of the best snowboarding of my life!  Whistler has had a few days where the peak chair was shut (due to high winds) which meant that on Wednesday when they opened it we all raced up the peak chair, traversed to some fresh powder and then rode some of the best conditions I have ever experienced.  There was a large group of us tracking out powder fields on our ride down.  Just an awesome feeling to float along in the powder.   I also, finally, managed to locate some bigger balls and hit the medium size rainbow rail in the blue park on Whistler.  I can only 50:50 it, but none the less it is a big rail to ride so I am really pleased that I managed it.  I can alley-oop the wall ride as well (which is just after the rainbow rail) and just need to ride a bit faster to be able to go off the top of the wall ride and bonk the tree that is at the top.

On Tuesday I rented a new board to try it out as I need to get a board that is more park orientated.  I loved it, so I have treated myself to a Rome Agent 154.  The rest of Tuesday (after our video analysis) I spent de-tuning the edges, waxing the board and setting up my bindings.  It is such a fun board to ride – there are a couple of tricks that I struggle to do on my Custom X which I can easily do on my new board.  (This is because the new board is shorter – 154 vs 158 – and it is more flexible.)  Video analysis was pretty useful this week as I was trying a few new tricks and it was good to see what they look like in slow motion so that I know what I am doing wrong, or what I can do to improve the style of them.

Earlier in the week we were working on our freestyle so I have crashed a fair amount whilst trying out new stuff.  Today we were working on our spins off natural jumps (natural jumps being ones not found in the park, but rather anywhere else on the mountain).  Unfortunately one of the guys I ride with was injured attempting a frontside 360 (one full spin).  He landed on the tail of his board and then slipped backwards putting his arm out to stop his fall.  Dislocated shoulder.  We got the medical team for him, and 2 doctors, a ski patrol guy and some laughing gas all combined to pop his shoulder back in on the mountain.  It looked seriously painful!  Then they strapped him up in a stretcher and they skied him down the hill.  He has been to the hospital and the X-ray showed that there is no fracture, which is fortunate because the type of dislocation he suffered is often accompanied by a fracture.  He still has to have an MRI scan later in the week.  Pretty sobering to watch as I was going to try the same trick on the same jump directly after him.

Tomorrow is my last day riding in Whistler this month (I am actually going to ride Blackcomb).  That is pretty depressing, but to make up for it I am heading to Banff and will be riding the three resorts there – Norquay, Lake Louise and Sunshine.  There should be lots of new photos next week as most of my friends that I am riding (and skiing) with are trigger happy when it comes to cameras.  Hopefully I can get some good shots.  On Tuesday my friends are getting married and that will definitely be the first time that I get to go to a wedding wearing trainers.  I’ll see if I can also sneak my lovely new snowboard into the photos as well.

10cm of new snow due tonight so I am expecting a good (and full) day riding tomorrow.

Association Canadienne des Moniteurs de Surf Des Neiges

I passed.  Yes, the good news is that my HOAL (holiday of a lifetime) is not totally about having fun but has also given me a qualification.  After an intense three days of examination I passed my CASI Level 1 exam and so have qualified as a snowboard instructor.   Over the three days we were introduced to the CASI style of teaching and the CASI style of riding.  Obviously pro-ride had done a lot to prepare me for all of this prior to the three days.  My riding was assessed over all three days, and my teaching was assessed based on two mock lessons I gave on Sunday.  Both riding and teaching are graded as one of three levels; above standard, at standard or below standard.  If either is below standard then you fail the course.  My teaching was graded at standard (although one lesson I gave was rated above standard and one at standard) and my riding was graded as above standard.  I am totally amazed with my riding mark as I am far from the best rider at pro-ride, but I was one of only two people from pro-ride to get this distinction, so am really pleased.  To celebrate we had a couple of drinks (oh ok, more than just a couple) but not so many that I couldn’t go riding this morning.  

I have one more week of freestyle before I head to Banff for two weeks.  So I rode the park on my own this morning and then I had my lesson in the park in the afternoon.  I landed several new tricks today so I am really happy with my riding.  I also had masses of fun today trying out new stuff, occasionally eating snow or landing on my arse – but the feeling of learning new tricks is pretty infectious, so I shall be trying a few more tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am riding a rental board – a Rome Agent 154 if you must know.  If I like it then I shall soon be the proud of owner of a second board.  Maybe as soon as tomorrow.  If I don’t like it then I might well buy a Ride DH.  Or a Ride Society.  So many difficult choices in life.

Today I worked out that it is going to take me 10 hours to get to Banff on Saturday despite the fact that it is only a 1 hour flight from Vancouver – Calgary.  Yuck.  Still – it will be worth it!