So injuries from the past 14 weeks

Bruised ribs - more than once
Winded - lots
hyper extended thumb
Knackered wrist
Twisted ankle
Dodgy knee
Concussion - with amnesia
Friction burn on chin - from snow!
Deep bruise on thigh - from jumping the snowmobile
some kind of bruise / strain / something or other on the right shoulder

Not bad for 14 weeks, faired a lot better than some of the other guys

So after the interlude of the interesting spider reactions to drugs, back to reality with a bump - I am currently sat in Calgary international airport waiting for my flight which is not for about another 3 ½ hours.

On the plus side however I have just been upgraded to world traveller plus - Score! No idea what the difference is but I’m much closer to the front of the plane which must be a good thing.

So back to Banff and back to last weekend - we said a fair well to Jacko. So that has left Matt, Chris (who up to this point I had only seen twice since base camp split) and me. Matt has been having some private lessons in preparation for his retake of his riding for the level 2. So I have been cruising around the mountain trying to spin a 3 (60). Managed to end most day in a bit of a mood. And then on Saturday I realised why I snowboard and why I want to do it as a job. And my mood wheat very quickly from being ready to leave to really not wanting to go, it’s a funny old world.

Saturday I went to Sunshine (eeeuuurgh!) to ride with Alex, Natasha and Nolan (guys from the SameSun) Still no luck with the 3 it was still a good day.

It was going to be my last day on the hill so I could relax on Sunday and then pack on Monday because I thought it was going to be a long job. Turns out I then went back to Louise (Harrah!) on Sunday and then again on Monday.

Saturday evening we went out for Chris’ leaving do. Matt and I where going to go for some drinks anyway as Matt’s level 2 was over my final night he didn’t want to drink. We went to the Rose and Crown for some pool and some jars and there was a group of guys there from Edmington who have known each other from school and go out together each year. They where in their 40’s and were hammered - they were really good fun and we had a few drinks with them before we moved onto Mel’s to meet up with Chris. More drinks at Mel’s resulted in both of us still being hammered when we meet for a final breakfast in Mel’s (damn its good!). Really relaxed breakfast as there are now only two buses to Louise each morning. Thought I was fine before I stood up - turns out I was still drunk! - Sunday on the hill got ride of that though - the mountain air really is awesome!

I spent Sunday trying to spin the 3 again. I though it was going to be my day because the first spin was really close. Still no luck as I just seemed to get worse and worse. On a plus note my 180s are a lot better and than include me getting over my inability to spin backside spins. I think I have over come that both regular and switch (again Harrah!). Monday, as it turned out was disserted - it wasn’t as sunny as well which means by the end of the day the snow was still snow and not slush. Also another really good thing was that as it is getting towards the end of the season and it is really quite they have closed the glacier quad (which just so happens to run right over the top of the park). So not only was the park really quite but there was nobody watching. I took this opportunity to sessoin the rails a bit and ended up having an awesome day.

Rails sessioned: Beginners box
{Front side broad slide;
Front side broad slide, switch out;
Front side broad slide nose press}
Jump on flat box
{50-50;
front side shifty}
Rainbow rail
{50-50}
Jump on up box
{50-50}
Up-flat-down box
{50-50;
Tried a 50-50 on the up and the flat and then an back side broad slide on the down - didn’t work - ended up winded!}

Also rolled over the bin at the top of a spin and also managed a nose press on the bin and rode out switch the way I came in

Tried one 3 - didn’t work but at least it looked like a sweet 180

It was awesome fun so hopefully I will be a bit more willing to go in the park next season.

On the front of the next season, apparently Lake Louise has a list of who they want to come back next year - no news yet but that is from both Jamie and Anna - finger crossed.



So that has killed a bit of time writing this - only 3 hours to wait!

See you on home soil

Peace

Funny stuff

check it out...

so I thought matts ex to snowboard on friday - another successful lesson harrah!

i took saturday and sunday off as i normally do but it was easter weekend and good friday was busy enough thank you very much. how dare all these people come to my mountain - the cheek!

Saturday morning i decided to run up tunnel mountain, and yes i did run (part of) it! not my smartest idea for a first run of the year - what can i say only a lucky few are gifted with these kind of idea. you are all very lucky to be in the presence of greatness. the view was awesome though and i met a kiwi girl called jenny near the top so we took in the view together and walked back down.

i thought i was going to have a quite afternoon, but after i got back to the hostel and everybody else had woken up (yes i got up and down tunnel mountain before they even got out of bed!) we decided to head down to the river and have a BBQ ( with Kiwis and Aussies - i knew it was going to be good) and a few jars - by a few i mean actually quite a few. we then came back and decided to go up to the hot springs - turned into an awesome from very humble beginnings.
sunday was a quite day in.

monday was Jacko's final night so we went out for a meal and a few drinks. turns out he got home fine which leave just me, Matt and Chris, although i have only seen Chris twice since the rest of the crew left a few weeks back. i think he has spent of his time drinking but hey never mind. Matt and i have had a good week and the weather has been sweet. we went to see TMNT at the cinema on tuesday - it was really good fun - the ninjas are awesome in it.

I thought i was ready to stop boarding this morning but after today i can now see why i want to do this all season - i was on such a high this afternoon I'm really looking forward to tomorrow - bring it on

Peace

So after the level 2 I had an awesome week, as did Chris. As we had both passed we had no re-takes to work towards so we could just have a really fun week, trying to go big off everything, bigger rock drops and cornice drops than we had ever done and trying to tweak the shot out of all of them. This did however lead to quite a few tomahawks. Sky, snow, sky, snow, sky, snow… at least on the whole snow is soft and as Warren Miller said ‘you can’t get hurt in the air!’

So the re-takes where on Friday. Will had to redo Thursday and Friday because of the accident. But the good news is that everybody passed in the end - Harrah! So Friday night was another big night out, with the sad prospect that most people had to go home the next day. It was a weird prospect that after 11 weeks they all just disappear! They all had fun and most are treatening to come back next year!

So it is now two weeks since that fateful Friday when the crew separated and I am now in the Samesun backpacker hostel in a room of four with my own double bed surrounded by kiwi’s and aussie’s. the number of times people have thought that I am either kiwi or aussie is really quite surprising - apparently I’m starting to talk like them!
We had quite a lot of snow in Banff during the week which came as a bit of a shock, it went from short weather to “oh crap its cold - better put some clothes on” type weather. So more good riding at lake louise. I also had my first proper student - I thought Jacko how to board on Wednesday and he returned the favour and thought me to ski yesterday. Both days where really good fun. Jacko got me to basic parallel turn in my first afternoon on skis - how cool is that. I say its all to do with the student but Jacko assures me its all in the teaching. - So I look forward to skiing with the folks at the next trip! Army Rich (one of the IA guys) and I did some hiking up from the top of the Larch chair which was great fun - the snow wasn't great but the view was awesome!So that brings us up to speed. Off to Lake Louise again today for the afternoon. I might be teaching one of Matt’s friends to board for a bit, but then again I might not - we’ll see what happen

Peace and Lovin

J

sup kiddies

so the internet is now down in the Sameson and have had to trek down to an internet cafe - what is it with me and the internet not working

Anyhoo...

I can't be bothered to write whats been going on but I am alive and still in Lake Louise - still hurting, but at least it is different pains each day so at least it keeps me interested. The Sameson is pretty cool and there are lots of awesome people staying there - most of them that i've met are aussie and kiwi but you can't hold that against them!

More later

Peace