First Day

Have you ever walked in half way through a movie? Stuff doesnt really make sense, a plot has already been established and your forced to simoultaneously spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out what happened before you got there and whats happening as the movie continues?

This was pretty much my first day at the resort here. I had my first soak in the hotsprings today, and we went to the hoodoos which were only a 5 minute drive away, followed by a short 15min hike. Although it was a fun day and all, I noticed an uneasy vibe amongst a few of the people that have been here for a while. I was told they went through something tough before I got here. With the plot already established, Im trying to focus more on what happens from now onward and how I can have as much fun as possible with the people here. By the way have I mentioned the people here are awesome? Everybody is friendly and very welcoming. Im stoked.

At the hoodoos I took my first photo for my new selfies album. Ive decided that the best way to cope with my insecurities as a 20 year old male was to post self taken photographs on facebook. I'll keep you all up to date on my progress, heres my first shot:

A Change in Lifestyle

For the last 6 months my life has mainly revolved around working. I would wake up at 5am and carpool my way to a lumber mill where I would repeat the same task over and over again for 8 straight hours. As much fun as that was, I was starting to get tired of it. Plus the idea of telling people 10 years from now that all I did at 20 was work at a lumber mill wasnt very appealing.

I realized early on when I started working at the mill that I didn't want to stay there for long, so I searched the internet for all the cool jobs I could think of. I applied for various jobs on the local mountains, a few oil rig jobs in Alberta and I also sent my resume to several treeplanting companies. No luck. I gave up after a while and started to focus on University applications for next September.

Life become pretty dull and repetative in last month and a half, until I received an email from a lady looking to hire me as a lifeguard for hotsprings in the rockies.

Long story short I took the job and im hoping onto a bus in an hour that will take me to Fairmont Hotsprings. So begins my change in lifestyle, and the revival of this blog...

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