MIRIAM

For the next two months ill be on Gabriola island working as a lifeguard for Camp Miriam. I worked there last year as a cook, but that job included long hours and low pay. Lifeguarding for a summer camp also doesnt pay a lot, but the amount of work Im required to do is close to nil. I clean the pool once a day, then I watch kids swim in it. During each day there are about 3 hours of free time during which the kids can go swimming in the pool, so a three hour day would be a busy day for me... let the good times roll.

Because I'll have a lot of time to kill this summer, I brought my bike up so that I could ride it every morning and get better at trials. I also brought my camera so I could take a bunch of photos this summer. Ive already got a few keepers and I add more every week. Check them out here.

RV Trip

During the two weeks immediatly following my last exam at BCIT, I went on an RV trip with two friends from highschool. We started going up highway 99 through Squamish and Whistler, then headed east towards Banff and Calgary. The farthest east we got was Dramheller. We then went back through Calgary and South through the Okanogan before coming home.
On three separate occasions we snuck into hotsprings in the middle of the night. We climbed down a wall into a huge museum in the middle of nowhere. We shot a potatoe canon at highway signs. We stole antlers, a pick axe, and two large street signs. We also found a large green plastic horn in Whistler that didnt have much use until we drove through downtown Calgary during rush hour blowing it at every pedestrian within 20 feet of the RV. We walked into several hotels as if we were average guests and used their hottubs, saunas and showers. We parked illegally everywhere we went. During the 14 nights we were gone, we paid for one campsite in Whistler. We spent one night parked on a patch of grass within walking distance of Lake Louise, which we got kicked out of in the morning... big surprise. WE FOUND AN ABANDONED HOTEL. We did so many ridiculous things, I dont think i'll be able to remember them all. This is how life should be. 

Here's a link to a few of my favorite photos from the trip. The full album can be found here.

WEEKLY CHALLENGE

As part of getting to know each other better before camp starts, the staff were given a challenge: To post something that that tells us about who you are. One of the criteria was for it not to be a youtube video but I thought this video was awesome enough to become an exception.

Hemp Bracelets

Over the last year Ive gotten really good at making hemp bracelets. I don't wanna brag or anything (who am I kidding.. ofcourse I do) but I have yet to see anyone else take the normal hemp pattern and link it to itself like I do. Simple concept, but nobody else has tried it. This little talent started at camp when the arts teacher, Megan, gave me a book on hemp. I took a quick glance, tried some of challenging patterns, then got curious as to what would happen if I started mixing patterns together. I got really into it. Now by "really into it" i mean, I was at a point where I was making 3 a week. Might not seem like that much, but at the same time I was going to school full time and taking lifeguarding courses on the weekends. Each bracelet would take me about 2-3 hours. If school wasn't in the way I probably would have made more.
       Recently one of my ski friends dropped a tub of coloured hemp in front of me and asked me to make her a bracelet. I must admit I got a little giggidy. So far I have only used regular brown coloured hemp, so this got me pretty stoked. I had to pick a colour combo that would be feminin, but not so feminin that it would make it look girly. Settled on pink, blue, and purple. Combine that with a rad design, and voila. The bracelet in the picture is the end result! All yours Chelsea!

Cat Skiing

Cat Skiing! Is expensive! But I did it for free!! Last year I won the Telus Ski + Snowboard Slush Cup event by doing a backflip and landing it, and won the grand prize --> Cat Skiing! For the non-skiing/snowboarding type, ill explain what cat skiing is.. First off, a cat is one of those large machines that grooms runs on ski hills. The act of cat skiing is when you ride inside one of these machines instead of riding on a chairlift. The advantage of cat skiing is that it takes you away from the overpopulated ski hills, out into the middle of nowhere. So on a powder day (lots of freshly fallen snow), you get fresh powder all day, all to yourself (powder is good.)

This would have been an awesome day if in fact a lot of powder had fallen the night before.. which it did not. The group I skied with were quite mediocre, I was surprised to see that there were average skiers ready to fork out $500 for a day of skiing. There were however some people that could ski decently well, a few were possibly even better than me, but in general, the group's skiing ability was lacking. Because of this, and the fact that the cat skiing company was responsible for the well-being of these deep pocketed weaklings, we were forced to ski very easy terrain. The entire time I was thinking how much the young kids I coach would have complained if they were stuck skiing such boring terrain all day. There was however one nice steep gully that I enjoyed skiing, too bad it wasnt very long. I should mention though, that the light was really flat so we could only ski below the tree line because of the increased visibility there. So on a powder day when the visibility is good, and they take you all the way to the top, I would consider possibly dishing out my $500 to go cat skiing... or winning another slush cup so I could go for free :)

ALSO! I spoke to the fellow who drives the Cat, and he makes his own skis! Who makes their own skis?? Impressive is all i got to say about that. His skis are called Gary Wayne Skis, and they are shaped the complete opposite way normal skis are. They were awesomely fun to ski on. To turn these skis, you must ignore everything you would naturally do while turning.. its weird... but fun. Especially if there was more powder. Check out his website here: http://garywayneskis.com

A Day with Jacob

I find I always ride harder when Im with others. When you ski by yourself you never quite get as much out of your day as you would with a ski buddy. Well today Jacob was that ski buddy. Having lived in Whistler all last year, he wasnt easy to keep up to. The day began with me dropping down waterfalls 6 times before 10am while I waited for Jacob to get up, I actually stopped filming it the last 2 times cause i felt like it was getting old. Yes thats right... the 30 foot drop was getting old. One highlight of the day: I skied "The Coffin" which for those of you who dont know, is a drop into a chute with rock walls on both sides. I was always scared of trying it, mainly because of the name. Like... why did they name it The Coffin? How many bodies are in there? Also the entrance to the chute is directly under the chairlift, so if you are standing at the top of this bad boy your continuously getting heckled by people on the chairlift "DROP IT! DO IT! SEND IT!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!! CMON!!!" So showing up, looking at it, then leaving... isnt an option. Jacob had done it several times before, so I felt cumfortable with him going down first then following his line. As it turns out.. it wasnt that bad. Jacob later told me that his old coach sends 15 year old girls down The Coffin. That information would have helped me a lot more I he said it before we did it. Anyway... WATCH VID! And then later... check out Jacob's blog: http://underwhiteskies.blogspot.com/

Skiing with Taylor & Jacob, Fixing Camera Mount

Finally did some skiing after going down to Vancouver for a few days. Skied with the Curran and Boyd. Brynn was here aswell but did not manage to get in any of my shots unfortunatly.. NEXT TIME BRYNN! With catskiing coming closer and closer I finally decided it was time to fix the gopro mount on my ski (broke it last april), and test out some cool angles so that im all geared up and ready to go come catskiing!

New Years Day Penguin Plunge

Do you know the muffin man? Yes? Well do you know the Peguin Plunge? It is an annual event that takes place in deep cove at 2pm every New Years Day. Over a thousand people show up dressed in the most ridiculous costumes. There were vikings decked out in all the viking gear (i mean like everything... they had the horns, swords, and furry cape like things) there were two dudes dressed as massive advent calendars complete with candy! (they gave out the candy to little children.. which may have been a little creepy.. just imagine "Hey there little boy, do you like my costume? Im an advent calendar, open this little door and you'll find candy inside! kid: Thats what the last guy said..) The water is just above freezing, which was refreshing. As I jumped in i started to hyper ventilate and any time my mouth was in the water I would take in huge gulps of sea water.. good times. There is always an unofficial competition duing this event, the competition is who can make it through the treacherous waters to be the first to reach the infamous dock of doom. Because I had to swim with a camera and tuque, it gave others a chance to win. I came top 15 nonetheless. WATCH VID!

Megan and Ben!

Megan is this awesomely rad friend I met at Camp Miriam (by the way everybody from Miriam is awesomely rad, just make a note of that) she was visiting her folks in Vancouver for the holidays and is now back on the island at UVIC. Ben is ski friend of mine (by the way everybody who skis is also awesomely rad, go skiing and you can be awesomely rad just like us) Ben threw a party at his place because he is leaving for a few months to go down south to study... whatever it is he studies. I SAW MEGAN AND BEN WATCH MY VIDEO!

My Friends Visited Me!

Right after Christmas a couple of my friends came to visit me for a few days. It was a nice break from skiing. When they left they gave me a bunch of their food which was totally awesome cause i was running low on the munchies. By the way whoever it was that gave me the pepperoni sticks THANK YOU cause they have lasted me sooo long, ive been eating them for lunch and dinner as well as the occassional snack!

Boxing Day

Boxing Day... is the day for me to get as far away from ALL shopping centers and malls. I did a pretty good job of that. I stayed up late filming this one so i thought i should add some emotion to prevent it from being lame.. commentary turned out more intense than expected... The drop at the beginning is a 10 footer followed by a 15 footer. It isnt too bad... as long as everything goes right. Seeing as how it was my first run, i thought i would ski by, check it out, then work up the courage to do it later. But then... a snowboarder did it right in front of me. When he got down he turned around and stared up at me, waiting for me to follow him. Having a glance and leaving to do it later was no longer an option.. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED SNOWBOAAARDEEERRR!!!

Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas folks! Finally got new snow in Whistler after like a week and a half of lameness. After skiing we had dinner with the Browns (which was amazing thank you Linda Brown) and i got introduced to a strange (apparently Canadian) tradition where everyone at the table pulls open these big candy things, they then explode (about as loud as a cap gun) and when you open it there is a crown, a present, and a really bad joke written on a piece of paper. One of the jokes i remember was "Who is the only one that doesnt get to eat during a turkey dinner" --> The Turkey. Yes... that was sure a knee slapper.. *cough cough*.. MOVING ON! CHECK OUT THE VID!

Christmas Camp at Seymour

I went down to Vancouver for a couple days to coach the E2s during their Christmas Camp. Coaching is awesome for two reasons: The first is that I dont have to teach anyone HOW to ski, all my kids already know how to ski, im just there to challenge them. The second is that I get to act like a kid myself without anyone telling me to act normal. I feel like if I spend too much time with children i wont be able to function in a normal adult society. Meh... guess thats a sacrifice im going to take. Acting like a kid isnt something Im going to be able to let go of easily.

Got the Blog

Hey whats up? Should I make a blog? Yes I think so.