After wishing my brothers and parents dropped me off at the airport in Ottawa, I was finally starting the trip of a life time, more than one year in the making.
You know how when you fly, you always have the slight worry in the back of your head that you might sit next to some weirdo? I was on my way to Vancouver and Whistler to visit some friends, and was really prepared to sleep most of the trip. I have to admit that my first impression of the man sitting next to me wasn't great. He was a rather large African-American with pretty baggy cloths flat brimmed hat. After talking for about ten minutes, I came to realize that this guy, Wes, had some pretty cool stories about rapping, shooting movies/tv shows and writing a book ("Stick to Your Vision"). His egotistical stories didn't seem to be real, but were entertaining non-the-less. He eventually told me that his rap name was Maestro, and that he was the first Canadian to win a Juno for a hip-hop album. While I put him at about 25, turns out he was 41 and was telling me that when he was my age, he had 2 hit albums and a Juno. He wasn't the best at making me feel like I've accomplished anything, but he was definitely the most entertaining person I've sat next too.
Getting to see Vancouver and the UBC campus was incredible. I never thought the dal campus was big, but I walked about UBC for over 2 hours and only saw about a 3rd of the campus. Just humongous. To add to the excitement, there were camera crews and a full warzone set on campus for the filming of a scene for the new X-Men movie. Talking to some guys, I found out that there were 6 story high fireballs going off the night before while they were filming at 2 in the morning. Later that day, Janice (my friend at UBC), and her hilarious roommates grabbed by far the best sushi I have ever had. It makes the 'all you can eat' sushi in Toronto taste like crap.
The next night I was able to check out some of Janice's roommates perform in a improv show at UBC. These girls were hilarious, and Janice and I laughed for almost an hour and a half straight! I was even slected from the audience to help split up the group for one game, it was really fun to feel almost instantly comfortable with this group of people! After wandering both the UBC campus and China Town/Gastown/Downtown Van over a couple of days, I took off to Whistler to visit some friends which I met planting in Grande Prairie, AB.
I managed to just catch the bus, and got to whistler on Wednesday night and was lucky enough to have my own room to stay in! Drew was able to set up a room for me, but because of his injuries he had to head back to Ottawa and thus wasn't able to show me around. Ron had just got back from Ottawa and was more than willing to teach me the ways of kicking it in Whistler.
I always thought that I was a decent snowboarder, but that's back in Ontario/Gatinau. Ron is by far the best rider that I've ever riden with. With a tight cash flow for both of us, we decided to hike up a good chunk of Whistler to avoid spending $100 on a lift ticket, it only took us about 40 minutes. Some of the runs we hit were pretty gnarly, filled with trees, cliffs (in the same area where a man was killed by an avalanch in bounds just weeks earlier) but the lack of snow made for the "fresh" powder we found to be wet, heavy and kinda crusty. After a nice bail, which had me slide onto a groomed run infront of a few older men (who were rightly laughing at my fall). Ron, hoping to be a professional rider some day, took me into the park (full of rails and jumps). My first rail, I ended up falling on my head to the sound of 'oooooing' from some other riders. At the same time, I was really able to appreciate Ron's abilities. He even had me ride to the top of a jump where he flew over me with a sick method. It was an unbelievable day.
The next day, Ron was able to pull a few strings, grab a friends pick-up truck, and took me sledding (snowmobiling) for the first time. After filling up his sled with gas, oil and coolant we got to the base of Sprout (just adjacent to Whistler and Blackcomb) and got on our way. On the first open part of the trail, Ron hit about 50 miles an hour with me in-front on him. I was giggling like a school girl! We got to a frozen lake part way up the mountain, where Ron gave me the opportunity to take the sled out on my own. Ripping it wide open was a huge rush! We were climbing and going down some seriously steep slopes, some close to a 75 degree angle! The sled only got stuck once where the powder was close to 4 feet deep. It was a real shame that we didn't bring our boards with us.
After only spending 3 and a half days in Whistler, I can totally understand why people are there for years at a time. I met some amazing people from all across Canada, New Zealand, Australia and California! Unfortunatly my nights out in the village were filled with lots of people way too caught up in the image of being cool. I wasn't nearly as big a fan of the bar scene of Whistler as I was the endless, raw beauty of the area! While meeting many of Ron's friends (some who happen to be some of the best riders in the world) I realized that there is a great atmosphere among those who are there for the world class riding conditions.
Even though I've had an amzing time in both Van and Whistler, I'm headed to Thailand on Tuesday morning, and I can't wait to get going.
You know how when you fly, you always have the slight worry in the back of your head that you might sit next to some weirdo? I was on my way to Vancouver and Whistler to visit some friends, and was really prepared to sleep most of the trip. I have to admit that my first impression of the man sitting next to me wasn't great. He was a rather large African-American with pretty baggy cloths flat brimmed hat. After talking for about ten minutes, I came to realize that this guy, Wes, had some pretty cool stories about rapping, shooting movies/tv shows and writing a book ("Stick to Your Vision"). His egotistical stories didn't seem to be real, but were entertaining non-the-less. He eventually told me that his rap name was Maestro, and that he was the first Canadian to win a Juno for a hip-hop album. While I put him at about 25, turns out he was 41 and was telling me that when he was my age, he had 2 hit albums and a Juno. He wasn't the best at making me feel like I've accomplished anything, but he was definitely the most entertaining person I've sat next too.
Getting to see Vancouver and the UBC campus was incredible. I never thought the dal campus was big, but I walked about UBC for over 2 hours and only saw about a 3rd of the campus. Just humongous. To add to the excitement, there were camera crews and a full warzone set on campus for the filming of a scene for the new X-Men movie. Talking to some guys, I found out that there were 6 story high fireballs going off the night before while they were filming at 2 in the morning. Later that day, Janice (my friend at UBC), and her hilarious roommates grabbed by far the best sushi I have ever had. It makes the 'all you can eat' sushi in Toronto taste like crap.
The next night I was able to check out some of Janice's roommates perform in a improv show at UBC. These girls were hilarious, and Janice and I laughed for almost an hour and a half straight! I was even slected from the audience to help split up the group for one game, it was really fun to feel almost instantly comfortable with this group of people! After wandering both the UBC campus and China Town/Gastown/Downtown Van over a couple of days, I took off to Whistler to visit some friends which I met planting in Grande Prairie, AB.
I managed to just catch the bus, and got to whistler on Wednesday night and was lucky enough to have my own room to stay in! Drew was able to set up a room for me, but because of his injuries he had to head back to Ottawa and thus wasn't able to show me around. Ron had just got back from Ottawa and was more than willing to teach me the ways of kicking it in Whistler.
I always thought that I was a decent snowboarder, but that's back in Ontario/Gatinau. Ron is by far the best rider that I've ever riden with. With a tight cash flow for both of us, we decided to hike up a good chunk of Whistler to avoid spending $100 on a lift ticket, it only took us about 40 minutes. Some of the runs we hit were pretty gnarly, filled with trees, cliffs (in the same area where a man was killed by an avalanch in bounds just weeks earlier) but the lack of snow made for the "fresh" powder we found to be wet, heavy and kinda crusty. After a nice bail, which had me slide onto a groomed run infront of a few older men (who were rightly laughing at my fall). Ron, hoping to be a professional rider some day, took me into the park (full of rails and jumps). My first rail, I ended up falling on my head to the sound of 'oooooing' from some other riders. At the same time, I was really able to appreciate Ron's abilities. He even had me ride to the top of a jump where he flew over me with a sick method. It was an unbelievable day.
The next day, Ron was able to pull a few strings, grab a friends pick-up truck, and took me sledding (snowmobiling) for the first time. After filling up his sled with gas, oil and coolant we got to the base of Sprout (just adjacent to Whistler and Blackcomb) and got on our way. On the first open part of the trail, Ron hit about 50 miles an hour with me in-front on him. I was giggling like a school girl! We got to a frozen lake part way up the mountain, where Ron gave me the opportunity to take the sled out on my own. Ripping it wide open was a huge rush! We were climbing and going down some seriously steep slopes, some close to a 75 degree angle! The sled only got stuck once where the powder was close to 4 feet deep. It was a real shame that we didn't bring our boards with us.
After only spending 3 and a half days in Whistler, I can totally understand why people are there for years at a time. I met some amazing people from all across Canada, New Zealand, Australia and California! Unfortunatly my nights out in the village were filled with lots of people way too caught up in the image of being cool. I wasn't nearly as big a fan of the bar scene of Whistler as I was the endless, raw beauty of the area! While meeting many of Ron's friends (some who happen to be some of the best riders in the world) I realized that there is a great atmosphere among those who are there for the world class riding conditions.
Even though I've had an amzing time in both Van and Whistler, I'm headed to Thailand on Tuesday morning, and I can't wait to get going.
