~*...ultimate, salsa, and the bow river...*~

randnorm pikcha


randnorm mind grenade
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.--Albert Einstein

randnorm video

man vs. machine - beatboxer vs. qbert

normdate 22.7.7

playing ultimate with graham last week was the highlight of my summer so far. playing with him again was pure gravy.

have i mentioned how much i love this game?

after 90minutes of running around in the crazy hot sun tossing a frisbee around with other ultimate addiktz, graham, lara, and i decided to czech out the salsa festival in kensington. all of kensington was closed to traffic for the festival. that only happens once a year, so it wa great to walk down 10th street in the blazing sun.

i was expecting to see lots of salsa dancing, but it was a different kind of salsa that this festival was celebrating. for a $3 charitable donation you received a bag of tortilla chips. then you'd spend the rest of the afternoon sampling various salsa made by the local restaurants in the kensington area. a delicious way to spend the afternoon.

there were street vendors and street performers, and thousands of calgarians out enjoying the beautiful weather and some kick ass salsa.





pimp my golf cart...hummer style




and this cart can be yours for only $14,500! you can also get a cadillac escalade ext golf cart starting at $16,500! serious what the fuck?

satisfied from another awesome morning of ultimate, and an afternoon of kensington street festival, graham headed back to edmonton. i would see him two weeks later as we drive across the country together. graham is done with alberta and is moving back to toronto. i'm going to miss him.

i ended up at a little backyard party in kensington thanks to my friend diva who i ran into after ultimate. there were turntables, and some good peeps chillin, drinkin, and dancing. i love random backyard parties :)



my friend karen and her krew were also at the party, but they weren't staying. they had plans to float down the bow river on inflatable rafts and invited me along. hey, i'm down for random adventures. take me with you!

we arrived at bow river park by c.o.p. and ran into kane, his two sons, jaycloud, and tarzie.



as we inflated the boats and suited up, it came to our attention that we were short one lifejacket, namely one for me. word is they've been cracking down on alcohol and life jackets on the bow river. when asked if i wanted to risk it, i replied "you do realize you are floating down the river with a coloured guy right?" its so easy to play the race card in this town.

floating down the bow is a common pass time in this town, and on a sunny sunday afternoon like today, the river sure was busy.







jaycloud


tarzie


our rafting krew




rafting down the bow drinkin' beers is gangsta


takin' a dip in the bow


it took us about 2hours to float from bow river park to princess island, downtown. lazing around in an inflatable boat is an awesome way to spend a sunday afternoon.

we deflated our boats near princess island and waited for our ride to pick us up. it was then that i discovered that my leather fanny pack (yes, i carry a fanny pack) was totally soaked. this wouldn't be so bad if my digital camera wasn't inside of it :( yes, the epson photo pc 800 that was gifted to my by my homeboy bobby, took a bath and is no more. this camera is over 7 years old and has been through so much. i've dropped it on cement, dropped it in snow, and loved it or years. oh the pix we've taken together *sigh* maybe this camera will bounce back from a bath in the bow, but the situation looks grimm for this camera.

from shambhala 2000 to bow river 2007, this blog entry is dedicated to the memory of my epson photo pc 800. i'm gonna miss you, ghetto less than one megapixel camera with no view screen.



*...normaste...*

~*...dc nationals regional comp...*~

randnorm pikcha



randnorm mind grenade
worrying is praying for what you do not want. - anon

randnorm video

this girl was at the comp, but did not compete...she would've won it all.


normdate 21.7.7

blue bird skies pushed the heat wave to nutz levels today. what a perfekt day to be outside at a skate comp.



the dc nationals regional competition for alberta was being held at the zero gravity skate park in cochrane, just outside of calgary. competitors had already won their local qualifiers held earlier this summer. the top 5 skaters would go on to the national competition on august 25, in montreal, quebec.

the source was hosting the competition along with dc shoes, element skateboards and red bull.. i was there to take pikchaz for the source blog, the free bbq, and watch the best in the province battle it out.



cochrane is a beautiful little town about 30 minutes north of calgary. the skate park was well laid out, with your standard fare of rails, launches, picnic table, quarter pipes, and big pool.











the girls were up first. i'm gonna come right out an say it...broads just ain't as extreme as dudes. anything boys can do girls can do too is simply not true. now i give girls maad props for goin out there and doin' there thing, but the best trick pulled by any of the girls competing was a kickflip up a bank.



what surprised me even more was that these girls won their local comps before they could compete in this competition. if this was the best showing of females in alberta, and they're pulling kick turns on a bank as a trick in a comp, that doesn't say much for female skaters.









the same goes for snowboarding too. i mean, when guys like shawn white are dialing back to back 1080s and girls are stylishly throwin' down 720s, you have to wonder if girls simply don't want to do what the guys are doing or if they can't do it. if you're a guy, you know that riding with your girlfriend means you have to hold back and not shred as hard as you normally would if you were shreddin' with your bros. of course, there are some female exceptions, and i had the pleasure of shredding with a few this past winter. sooo sexxxxy.

the girl who did win the comp had skills though, i'll give her that.


but the best female skater there was a cochrane local named kassy bailey. she's the girl skating in today's randnorm video. thing is, she missed her local comp and therefore did not qualify to compete in the regional. she would have won the entire comp, hands down. this girl was killin' it.





best trick comp on the picnic table...winner takes $100 cash!













the guys were up next, and the quality of skating reached much gnarlier levels.















best trick over the gap...winner takes $100 cash!













of course there were tonnes of kids there watching the comp, and bugging the shit out of me for free gear. "when are you guys giving away boards? can i have that board? oh, i need a new board? can you give me a free hat?" some kids were relentless in their hounding. add to that free red bull, and you've got a wack of wired kids askin for free shit. i don't think i was ever like that, or was i?





source team rider devin morrison won first place and scored himself a paid trip to montreal for the national comp next month. congratulations devin!

after a free bbq, we hung out, drank some beers and chilled out by the pool.













even this dog was up for a session


czech out his board. the grip tape was fun fur. fuck yeah!


this dog loves rippin the pool


i had my longboard with me, and took a couple runs through the park. i have to admit, i was a bit scared. the last time i rode a park was in 1998, and i ended up shattering my knee. it felt good to ride a park again, but no more rails for me. i learned my lesson last time. its cruising time now.

while at the comp, i got a call from graham. he has such a good time playing ultimate the weekend before, and he wanted more! i met up with him in calgary after the competition, and grabbed some dinner.

too excited to toss a disc, graham and i went to riley park and threw a frisbee around. we met some other frisbee addiktz in the park and played a quick game of box. four hours later, we decided that was enough frisbee for the night. yeah, time flies when you're tossin' disc.

what an awesome day! gettin' paid to cover a skate comp, and tossin' a disc with my homie. life is beautiful.

~*...normaste...*~