Chronicles of a Dredi Knight

~...do what makes you the happiest...~

2009-11-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
"to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." - willie shakespizzo

randnorm video

normdate 24.11.9

sun peaks resort in kamloops, british columbia, is holding a contest that has my name written all over it. they are looking for the first sun peaks snow bum.

One winner will spend three months on the slopes of Sun Peaks with a free place to sleep, food to keep them energized, flights to get them here, plus outerwear, gear and a season’s pass for carving up the powder.

so what exactly does being the sun peaks snow bum mean? click here to find out.

for those of you who have been following my adventures online through my site, my blog, and facebook, you know i'm already a snow bum...now sun peaks is willing to foot the bill.

here is my video entry to be the sun peaks snow bum. big thanks to philbot for lending me all of his cameras, to khing jamez for helping me film at c.o.p., captain q, ida, stacey, ketchup, rae rae and megan for being extras in my video, and most importantly dani bayliss for editing the video.

please go here and leave a comment

this contest was made for me.

after making it into the top 20 finalists *yay* i was required to submit a written assignment.

Please tell us about your most memorable travel experience in a minimum of 400 words, and a maximum of 500.

here is what i submitted, with pikchaz (of course)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each year, at the end of March, my friends and I embark on a weeklong storm-chasing mission across the interior of British Columbia in search of powder. This road trip from Calgary to Vancouver involves riding six mountains in seven days. We call it EpiTrip.

On the shred menu for EpiTrip 2009 was Fernie, Kimberley, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Whitewater, and Red Mountain.

Spending the 2006 snow season in Nelson gave me the opportunity to explore and familiarize myself with the vast backcountry at Whitewater.

It had been three years since I was out in the Whitewater backcountry, and I was excited to share the pristine Out of Bounds Kootenay powder with my friends.

With our boards on our backs, snowshoes on our feet, and our transceivers set to transmit, we began our hike towards Ymir ridge to shred the champagne powder that falls in 5 Mile Basin.

When we reached the top of the ridge, we were a bit further away from where I had originally planned for us to drop in.

With knee high powder and trees tempting us, we decided to eat one of our packed meals and drop in right there.

Floating through insane amounts of untouched snow while screaming for joy at the top of our lungs made us forget that it took us an hour to hike there.

When we reached the bottom of the basin, the smiles on our faces dwarfed the painted visage of the Joker. It was perhaps the best snow I had ever ridden in my life.

After an hour forging a new path through the snow and being surrounded by 60ft tall trees, I became concerned about our location. It should not have taken us that long to get back to the bottom of 5 Mile Basin. With daylight fading, we decided to hike up the side of the mountain so we could get a better idea of where we were. When we were high enough to see the peaks, it was then that I realized why they call it 5 Mile Basin.

Untouched knee high powder and a steep incline is amazing when you are riding down it, but it’s the opposite experience when you are hiking up it in snowshoes.

It took us 9 hours to hike out of the backcountry. We emerged at 2am. Our friends had filed missing persons reports with the police and thanks to my Facebook status update, B.C. Search and Rescue knew where to start their search for us. A helicopter was scheduled for 6am to get us out of there. We had enough food and clothing to spend the night, but there was no way I was going to sleep under a tree when I knew I could walk home.

That was the most challenging task I had ever conquered, both physically and mentally. Combined with riding the best snow of my life, especially by moonlight, it was the most memorable travel experience of my life…and I lived to tell the tale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i have a 20min phone interview with sun peaks tomorrow at 1pm and then it is left for the judges to decide if i should be the snow bum.

thanks to all of you for your support. i'll keep you posted via my blog and facebook.

regardless of who they choose to be the snow bum, i will continue to embrace snowboarding every single day through work...

...shred every single weekend until may 2-4 weekend (yay ontario slang!)

helmet cam vid of me haulin' ass down wiwaxy at lake louise on saturday.

part1.

part2.

i will also wake up beside a woman i love (we moved in together, but that's another story), surround myself with the most amazing of people, give thanks for every blessing that comes my way, and do what makes me the happiest.

looks like i win no matter what.

fuck yeah!

~*...normaste...*~

~...demo day at norquay...~

2009-03-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
"man is what he believes." - anton chekhov

randnorm video

normdate 16.3.9

ask anyone who works in a snow/skate shop and you'll hear the same thing: we aren't working at a shop because we get paid well, we're here for the perks. its a blessing for me to be able to embrace my passion for people, snowboarding and technology every single day at work...and the perks are killer!

once a year, product reps have a combined demo day at the mountain for all the local shops. a free day of snowboarding with an all you can eat buffet of next year's snowboards and bindings? fuck yeah!!!

this year's demo day was at mt.norquay, the closest resort to banff. its significantly smaller than sunshine or louise, but still fun...especially when its free ;)

burton, capita, union, ride and forum were all there with next year's product offering waiting for us to rip.

it had been snowing all night, so there was a nice layer of fresh covering the resort. we ended up doing laps in the park which was right there looking out over the demo tents. because most people were giving the jumps and rails a good session, they failed to notice the untouched snow on the edges of the fenced off park. fresh lines have been hard to come by this season, so i'll take whatever i can get.

the goal of demo day is to get people who are actually selling the boards to the customers on the boards they are trying to sling. there is no better way to describe the features of a board than riding it for yourself. of course, the reviews we write need to hype the product and encourage people to buy it, but seeing as this is my personal blog i'm going to be brutally honest. there is no brand loyalty from me, so i'll tell you if i didn't like it.

let's start with the biggest manufacturer of them all, burton.

first on the plate was the burton custom v-rocker 159 with burton cartel est bindings.

just when you thought the most progressive snowboard in the history of snowboarding couldn't get any better, burton adds v-rocker technology and makes it slightly softer than the production custom you know and love. the result is buttery smooth performance with ninja like control, pop and flexibility.

for the unrelenting performance seeker looking to take their all mountain game to the next level, the custom v-rocker will get you there faster. if you can't do it on a custom v-rocker, give up. <--- can you tell i'm trying to sling boards, eh? *ha*

fyi, here is the tech behind the v-rocker. its burton's answer to lib-tech's banana technology.

there's a reason why the cartel is the binding most professional snowboarders turn to when they want to annihilate everything in sight. the ample amounts of gel in the heel strap makes for a super comfy ride while the newly padded ultra toe cap keeps your foot locked in place. add panache to your all-mountain assault with these bindings on your ICS board.

next on the plate was the burton method 155 with burton exile bindings.

burton's most expensive snowboard was the vapor which retails for $1249 for just the board alone! well, perhaps burton didn't like the fact that the lib-tech cygnus x-1 boasts more tech than the vapor and costs $100 more. the answer was the burton method which will retail for $1700!!! that's just the board!

the method is what happens when the largest manufacturer in the industry
removes all limitations of expense and takes every resource they have
available to create a snowboard. this board is lighter than your boots.
hell, it's lighter than your bindings! annihilating everything with
lightweight precision and powerful response, the method is a smoke
weight dream machine so technically refined that when you get stuck in
the flats, a dozen honeyed virgins come out from the trees to push you.
unleash a method on any terrain and you'll be screaming burtonhu akbar
in no time! <--- wow, i'm such a racist fuck!

i normally don't ride boards this small (155cm) but i had to try it out. first off, the board is so ridiculously thin i thought for sure i'd bust it in half with the first butter i did on it. i was pleasantly surprised. this stick is fukkin' solid, and holy shit does it haul ass! less weight = faster!!! i took the method out for a couple bombing runs and i couldn't get over how fast and precise it was. its up there as one of the best snowboards i have ever ridden. i wouldn't say its worth the $1700 price tag, but if you've got that kind of money to spend on the best then this is the board for you. beginners need not apply.

at first glance, the extra gel padding on the heel strap of the burton exile binding looks odd. once you ride 'em, you'll ask yourself why you've been riding anything less. the heel strap holds your foot in place like nothing else i've ridden,
and are goddam comfy. the exiles are an excellent addition to the burton offering of all mountain freestyle bindings.

the next rig to sink my teeth into was the ride machete 161wide with ride contraband bindings.

as soon as lib-tech introduced banana technology two seasons ago, every mfg jumped on the reverse camber train. it makes your snowboard feel more like a skateboard with less hangups. you can nose and tail press for daze with reverse camber.

the mellow rocker on the ride machete provides the perfect balance between
energy and stability. heli-accessed pillow lines, shit-your-pants
alaskan gnar, stadium kickers, or 30ft street rails - you can dissect
all elements with surgical precision, warp speed and second nature
agility with a machete attached to your feet.

the ride contraband bindings are as easy to get into as a pair of flows but without the ghey. no more wasting time getting in an out of your bindings while you lap the park or session that street rail, one ratchet is all you have to deal with. the addition of the super sticky ride grip on the v-strap makes sure your toes stay put. quick, light, deadly as fuck.

what i really think: i've been riding this year's contrabands on my ride society 157 this season.

ride was successful at minimizing the time it takes to get in and out of your bindings by removing the toe strap and replacing it with the v-strap. unfortunately, i found that my big feet don't work very well with the v-strap. after multiple times tweaking out the binding for my boot, i still found that the v doesn't sit in the middle of my foot like its supposed to. when i tighten the binding, it ends up pulling my foot outwards to the edge of the binding *boo* surprisingly, the v-strap did give me more response in my toe than i thought, but in the end i prefer a toe cap. if you're a park rat and street rail addikt that wants to spend less time buckling in and more time shredding, then this soft flexing binding might work for you. but if you are an all mountain freestyle kind of snowboarder, i'd suggest a stiffer binding with a toe cap.

back up to the buffet again for another helping of gear, i gave the capita stairmaster 158 and union cadet bindings a rip.

if you're into tasting the all-terrain sampler platter on a daily basis, the capita stairmaster will help you dish out some serious damage. you might wonder where the trucks and wheels go, cause this stick is pretty much a skateboard for the snow. slay everything from peak to park without breaking your bank. fuck yeah!

now onto union. it seems like every jib kid is on the union train, and its just picking up steam with each year. if you like union bindings then you'll love the affordable cadet. these bindings are everything you expect and demand from Union, wrapped up in a deliciously bomb proof magnesium aluminum package.

what i really think: i hate union bindings and the toe cap sucks donkey balls. i remember my first demo day two years ago at norquay when i rode union bindings and i hated how the toe cap slipped on my boot. two years later, their toe cap still sucks shit. maybe i was riding the affordable price point binding cause their higher end bindings had a toe cap similar to the burton ultra toe cap. but not the binding i was riding. there's also a reason why we warranty more union bindings than any other...either the peeps who ride them ride harder than most or the bindings suck. i'm leaning towards the second. i will never ride union bindings by choice.

with room still left in my stomach, i went up for my final plate of gearness and gave the burton easy living 158 with burton triad bindings a rip.

the easy living replaces the un.inc line maintaining the signature blunt nose shape you know and love. wow this board is fun to ride! poppy, powerful, and responsive, the burton easy living will make you jump for joy like you just found the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. if you see the mountain as one huge skate park full of infinite possibilities, the easy living is the stick you need to unleash incredibly smooth and ultra fast lines up, off and over everything in sight.

the triad delivers. the cartel heel strap makes the bindings luxuriously comfy while the CO2 highback gives you maad response. it's the perfect balance of comfort and control combined with the proven performance of EST. devour everything in your path with these all-around freestyle machines.

the best part of demo day is that i get to shred with peeps i work with, and holy shit these guys shred hard. its great to have a wolfpack of guys to shred with who are better than you are and push you to ride harder.

its a great opportunity to hang with the people you work with and shred. have i mentioned how much i love my job?

gettin' down with the skiimo bromance

the burton repz lb, aaron and bridgette

apres drinks in the lodge

pray for snow!

~*...normaste...*~

~...its all about girl talk...~

2009-02-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
"true happiness... arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self." - joseph addison

randnorm video

normdate 27.2.9
what the? two blog updates from normurai in the same week? shit is gettin' crazy up in this humpy bumpy.

move over z-trip, girl talk is the new mash up king! (he actually mixes). in june of last year, girl talk dropped his latest release 'feed the animals' for FREE! more like name your price, and if you want to pay nothing you can. genius!

i've been playing this album to the ground and it is deadly shit.

go here and download it...FOR FREE!
dat's right kiddies, FREE! any price grants the download of this album.

here is the tracklisting...for only the first song!

1. "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)" - 4:45
0:01 UGK with OutKast "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)"
0:01 Spencer Davis Group "Gimme Some Lovin'"
0:01 Roy Orbison "Oh Pretty Woman"
0:42 DJ Funk "Pump That Shit"
0:55 Cupid "Cupid Shuffle"
1:08 Pete Townshend "Let My Love Open the Door"
1:19 Unk "Walk It Out"
1:59 Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take It"
2:04 Huey Lewis and the News "The Heart of Rock & Roll"
2:13 Lil Mama "G-Slide (Tour Bus)"
2:29 Ludacris "What's Your Fantasy"
2:36 Temple of the Dog "Hunger Strike"
2:48 Birdman featuring Lil Wayne "Pop Bottles"
3:01 Rage Against the Machine "Freedom"
3:02 Birdman and Lil Wayne "Pop Bottles"
3:02 Aaliyah featuring Timbaland "We Need a Resolution"
3:05 T.I. "What You Know"
3:15 Lil Wayne "Stuntin' Like My Daddy"
3:17 Edwin Starr "War"
3:41 Sinead O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U"
4:13 Shawnna "Gettin' Some" (which samples "Blowjob Betty" by Too Short)
4:32 Jay-Z "Big Pimpin'" (which samples "Khosara" by Abdel Halim Hafez)
4:33 Kelis "Bossy"

and just when you thought it couldn't get any crazier, a fan decided to create a video mashup for 6 of the songs from feed the animals. watch these vids and prepare to have your mind blown.

Girl Talk- Feed The Animals "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Music Video (2 of 14)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Music Video (3 of 14)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Music Video (4 of 14)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Music Video (7 of 14)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Music Video (10 of 14)

~*...normaste...*~

~...too busy snowboarding to blog? almost...~

2009-02-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

normdate 26.2.9

yeah, i know...a blog entry from normurai. who'd a thunk? what's it been, like a year since i've made a blog entry? facebook has pretty much consumed my blog and given me what i've always wanted to achieve with this medium...a feed to the people following my life. email updates on my status and pikcha updates is something my blog could never do. and in the words of my friend steve, "i just come to your blog to look at the pictures."

randnorm mind grenade Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again. - Og Mandino

randnorm pikcha

a bunny after my own heart

randnorm video

so if you've been wondering what i've been up to lately, you obviously don't know me that well. there is a reason i left the best friends in the universe to move out west...i came to chase the snow.

despite our lack of new snow this season (its been rather bleak until this week), i have been blessed to have enjoyed the peaks of 9 different mountains this season. here's a quick recap of the mountains i have been shredding this season, through pikchaz of course ;)

i've got a resorts of the canadian rockies super season pass that allows me ride nakiska, lake louise, fernie, and kimberley as much as i want!

i ride lake louise the most. only 2hrs from calgary, bigger than sunshine, and i know the mountain.

taken in december on the only pow day i've experienced at the lake this season

kicking horse mountain resort - golden, bc

sometimes getting to the good stuff at kicking horse requires a gnarly hike

nakiska - kanaskis country, ab

canada olympic park - calgary, ab

i still volunteer to teach snowboarding once a week with the canadian association of disabled skiers (cads). my student is liam, my good friend kale's younger brother. i've been his instructor for the last three seasons. he is autistic and a lot of fun to ride with. i just ride switch and bounce around while he rips down on his heel edge. i ride c.o.p. for free anyways, so its just a fun night a week to play around.

kimberley - kimberley, b.c.
a small but really fun resort with lots of untouched goodness. we found this tree with a ball of snow on top of it. the goal was to wappy it with our boards and try to knock down the snow. such a fun little session.

lisa gettin' bob gnarly

yamnuska avalanche training course - kananskis backcountry
i can't believe it took me this long to take this course

panorama mountain resort - panorama, b.c.
a weekend shredding with the zombees at pano complete with chalet suite and hot tub is a recipe for good times.

whistler blackcomb - whistler, b.c.
got to rip whistler with my homie adam c. also got to demo next year's lib tech trs 159 btx. it is the best all mountain snowboard i have ever ridden!

fags got money too, ya know?

the source is everywhere!

after the third ridiculously hawt shred goddess from the uk got into the ganjala with me, i had to take a pik for keepsake.

mt.baker - washington state, u.s.a.
headed down to the states with my cousins to rip baker pow. unfortunately, like all of the west, there was no new snow. still had a great time.

whitewater - nelson, b.c.
fuck, this place is my favourite resort of all time...and its not because i spent a season here in 2006. even without new snow, the possibilities are endless at this resort. it is the best in the world. don't tell anyone ;)

revelstoke mountain resort - revelstoke, b.c.
we headed to revvy from nakusp, and because of a huge tractor trailor on the ferry we weren't allowed on it. dude, i was fukkin pissed because there was room for us in front of the rig *grrr* so we got to the hill super late but paid to ride anyways. i did finally get to ride with my friend cathy, and most importantly my friends elsbeth and regan who were visiting from yellowknife. we spent the night at their hotel and i got to catch up with elsbeth. she fukkin' rules. regan rules. their son, lief, also rules *d'uh*

hittin' fernie and the lake this weekend, then marmot next weekend, and at the end of the month, ketchup, karen and i will embark on our epitrip: 5 mountains in 6 daze, then the vangroovy bman recompressino on the sunshine coast. fuck yayer!

thanks for reading.

pray for snow.

~*...normaste...*~

~...look, a blog entry...burton demo day 2k8...~

2008-02-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

randnorm thursday event in black rock city 2007

lightsaber battle of certainty
7:30am - 11:30am

A battle like no other ever produced. 10,000 toy light sabers will be given away at ten locations surrounding the man at dusk. Pick up your weapon of peace and join us for a dance of certainty!
The swords will be available at dusk at each of the ten triangular pylons, between the esplanade and the man.

hosted by wattos junk yard

photo by nokturnal

randnorm mind grenade
all religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. - albert einstein

randnorm pikcha

randnorm video

perhaps the funniest bail ever caught on camera...okay, funniest one of me caught on camera ;) i am attempting to master the flail arm jutsu technique.

normdate 28.2.8

holy shit, a blog entry! bet you never thought you'd see that again, eh? no, facebook hasn't completely squeezed the last breath out of my blog!

yeah, life here in the cspot is busy and amazing. i started the year off with a promotion to manager of the online store for the source and i've been shredding the shit out of snow. this town is a whole lot of alright. i've also been blessed to have friends from home come visit me and ride the rockies with me. its so good to see people i've known for years, even better to share with them my passion for snowboarding and my home mountains.

elsbeth and regan are in town from yellowknife for a wedding. they brought with them their new bundle of joy, 9week old lief isaac edward fielding. he is precious.

regan's brother, jim, is also in town for the wedding with his wife and their son wyatt. new life...hooray!

on monday, regan, dave and i made the journey to sunshine village to enjoy a day of shredding snow. it had not snowed in the rockies in over a week, so we were expecting hard pack. the unexpected surprise was the blue bird skies.

*sigh* the rockies are majestic and beautiful. i sound like a broken record repeating my sentiments about these ancient and wise mountains, but that's cause they fukkin rool!

regan became a new daddy just over two months ago. dave became a daddy for the second time less than two months ago. for both of them, it has been baby baby baby for the last few months. it was good to have them both out enjoying themselves without having to think about their kids for a day (thanks to sam and elsbeth...we love you girls!)

you many notice the radtastik quality of the pix i'm including in this blog. this is because of my new toy, a canon eos 30d digital slr camera. work bought it so that i could take pikchaz of our team riders and product shots. now i have a real camera to capture and shape the world around me. watch out!

sunshine village was actually sunny and warm. this is an anomaly. there's a reason why this resort is nicknamed overcast village...but not on monday!

it was also the annual burton demo day at sunshine, an opportunity for shops to come out and ride next year's burton lineup. sunshine at sunshine village, new boards to demo, and good friends to shred with. things were shaping up to be one of those memorable mondays.

riding the sunshine ganjala

sunshine at sunshine village...who'd a thunk?

it turns out that regan went to high school with the burton rep, aaron corrigan. watching aaron's reaction when i arrived with regan was great.

it was then that aaron realized that he had met me before at regan's bachelor party in huntsville. he was supposed to make it to regan and elsbeth's wedding, but could only come to the bachelor party weekend. every day my world becomes smaller and more intimate.

now time to talk gear. there are many reasons why burton is no.1 in the snowboard industry. first off, burton is rider owned. there is no better way to understand a sport than to be passionate about it, and jake burton is a legend in snowboarding. most importantly, burton makes killer gear. their boards are deadly as fuck, and i was beyond excited to put a new rig together and give 'er a rip.

the '09 burton cast of boards...ghetto stitched for your viewing pleasure.

walking into a room full of boards to demo is such a rad feeling. so much opportunity, so many boards, so little time. its even better when you're about to get gnarly on boards that aren't even in the store yet. dope shit, son!

burton love and the burton fix. dude, the love has naked chixxx on it. how can you not get stoked riding it?

the women's lineup.

burton se7en and the burton un inc line

burton custom and burton custom x

we had a good krew reppin' the source at the demo. just grab a stick, pick some bindings, put 'er together, take her for a rip. *sigh*

i decided to start my morning off with perhaps the deadliest set up ever...a burton custom x 164w with co2 est bindings. the board was black with red x's on it, and the bindings were black with yellow and green x's on 'em. pure rasta steez. as if this set up was not made for me.

i think i might have screwed myself over with my first demo choice because once you've ridden a custom x everything else pales in comparison. its like going to the bmw dealership and test driving an m series first. sure, the other bmw's are deadly shit, but after driving the m, it just doesn't make sense to drive anything else.

the custom x is the pimp daddy of the burton lineup. it does everything you can throw at it, and it does it with such style and precision you won't want to ride anything else. it devours the groomers at high speeds with zero chatter, and it annihilates booters of all shapes and sizes. there is nothing this board can't do.

not too often has the snowboarding industry seen an innovation in board design that has significantly improved the way a board rides. the infinite channel system is one of those leaps forward in board design. mounting your bindings is so easy with an ics board and a pair of est bindings. tighten two screws and you're ready to go. plus you can tighten your bindings with your foot still buckled in. center your stance and duck it for a gnarly park session with your bros, then quickly set your stance back for that unexpected powder rip through the trees. the possibilities are endless.

if you can only have one stick in your quiver to rip everything from big mountain to big booters, the custom x is your best choice.

just when you thought the co2 bindings could not get better, burton introduces the co2 est binding. combined with a burton ics board, the co2 est bindings give you infinite stance options that you can adjust on the fly without ever having to unbuckle your boot. deadly shit! these bindings were ridiculously responsive both on the hard packed groomers and in the park. as you think it, these bindings respond, which made me much more confident going mach 10 down the piste.

with the mounting screws on the outside of the binding, the est bindings have eliminated the need for a baseplate and instead replaced it with layers of eva foam to absorb vibrations. the eva foam is now covered in a thin, durable but still flexible plastic so that it doesn't get hacked up and worn out. finally, burton has perfected the baseless binding resulting in a board that has a true flex without any deadspots. your board rides and feels the way it should. riding regular baseplate bindings after riding a pair of est bindings no longer makes sense to me, especially when they respond like the co2.

the cored out burton ultra cap straps on the co2 worked well with my non burton boots, eliminating the need for the burton grip fit. the result is a lighter more flexible toe cap that grabs your toe better than before.

these bindings are hands down the best pair of bindings i have ever had the pleasure of riding.

did i mention it was sunny at sunshine village?

the next board i rode was a jussi oksanen 159 with a pair of triad bindings.

burton operator, jussi oksanen pro, and jeremy jones pro model.

we decided to give goat's eye a rip. fyi, when riding the rockies expect rocks.

safety meeting

if you've seen jussi ride, you know that he shreds everything with unmatched speed and style. so it makes sense that his pro model was designed to annihilate everything from the backcountry to the park. this stick butters beautifully in the park and has so much pop you can actually jump as high as jussi. i sure did. why you gotta look at me like i'm lying?

what impressed me the most about the jussi pro model was how solid this board was at high speeds on the groomers. i made the assumption that the jussi was designed for annihilating everything in a park, which it does, but it also holds a solid edge at high speeds with almost no chatter. for the park jib rat who also likes to rip the big mountain, the jussi delivers.

at first glance, the burton triad bindings look like they mean business. once you buckle in, you realize that these bindings ain't jokin' around...the triads are deadly as fuck and ready to rip the shit out of anything. the ample amount of gel in the heel strap makes the triad feel like your riding with leather sofas on your feet, but don't let the comfort level fool you. the triad is a very responsive binding thanks to a contoured gel infused toe cap and a highback it borrowed from its older brother, the co2. if you want a binding that kills it in everywhere and makes love to your feet, look no further than the triad.

t6, operator, x8

the next stick i ripped was a burton operator 160. new for next season, the operator is a fun directional sidecut board that rides smooth and fast on the hard pack. its mellow enough for a beginner rider to feel comfortable pushing their limits, and stiff enough for an advanced rider to rip the shit out of the piste at high speeds. if you've ridden a burton air, you will love the operator. lively and predictable, the operator is a perfect combination of versatility and fun.

i was kind of ridiculously stoked to ride my next board, the burton love.

i chose the 159 with the tennis hoochie and tossed a pair of p1 speed zone bindings on 'er.

it was time to give the sunshine park a rip with my homies from work.

steve nachti stylin' a pair of iridium oakley frogskins. old skewl, son!

source boyz dunnie, sanny, and nachti

nachti, dunnie, and sanny rippin' the synchro tail blockz

the guys i work with are not only passionate about snowboarding, they are actually really fukkin good at snowboarding. i was stoked to ride with them.

evan buckling into the fix, burton's zero camber park board. we called it burtonana technology because its burton's answer to the popular banana lib tech.

this year, the resorts of the canadian rockies decided to eliminate all man made jumps at their resorts for the safety of their clients. NO JUMPS! at first i thought it was ridiculous. why not do what other resorts do and have people sign away any liability before using the park? then i realized it was simply a money making decision. no jumps means that the resort does not have to build or maintain jumps. that means more money in their pockets. in the end, there is only a small percent of snowboarders who actually ride the big jumps who this decision affected. good thing for me, i was riding with some of those snowboarders at sunshine, which did have big jumps.

sanny gettin' big on a love

nachti rippin' an indy tuck knee on a burton deuce

big jumps at sunshine in the sunshine

nachti 5-0 on the box

brett 'sanny' sandford dialing a backside cab 540

dunnie doing his rendition of the back cab 4

you're probably wondering how the love rides. dude, there is a half naked chick on this board! i could go on about the buttery edges, its smooth and creamy carves, and how it takes trannies better than an old white guy in bangkok, but i'd just be telling you things you already know and expect from a love. shit, you could ollie the moon on this thing! and just when you thought the love could not take your park game any higher, burton goes and puts an 80s playboy centerfold on it! seriously dood, how can you not get stoked to ride a board with a naked chick on it? did i mention that her ass is on the base? the love is guaranteed to fill your park and big mountain adventures with more spunk and make uptight moms snarl with disgust. sounds like a perfekt combination to me.

lunch. time to play with the settings on my new camera.

the problem with pulling my dreads through my helmet vents is that i have to keep my helmet on until the end of the day. it takes a good 15mins to get my hair through the vents.

my last board for the day was the burton vapor ics with a pair of burton cartel est bindings.

we had enough time left in the day to do one more park run.

sanny tweakin' out a rocket air in the sunshine

the burton vapor is a fast, electric carving knife with more tech than any other board on earth. the vaporskin carbon topsheet has significantly dropped the weight of this board while adding insane pop. lighter is faster, and this board hauls ass. combined with the ridiculously fast sintered wfo base, the vapor allows you to ride any terrain with more speed and control than you ever thought possible. absolutely zero chatter at high speeds, but don't let how stiff it is stop you from stompin' ruts, rollers, and booters. the vapor is smooth on take offs and landings, and can handle everything you can throw at it with panache. it is the ferrari of the snowboards. if you can afford a ferrari, why wouldn't you buy one?

you're probably wondering how burton made their signature all mountain cadillac of bindings even better. simple, add extra sensory technology to it and combine it with an infinite channel system snowboard. the cartel highback you know and love is now lighter, stronger, and more responsive. plus you can jack your forward lean more than any other bindings out there.
the cored out ultra cap strap, introduced last year on the burton doom ltd bindings, now grace the cartels. light and flexible, the ultra toe cap did not slip at all and connected my feet to my board better than any other toe cap i have tried. less is more.

if you're looking for a pair of bindings that can help you dominate everything from big mountain to the park and reach the level of master freestyle jedi, the force is strong with the cartel est.

girls who ride are hawt.

we rounded up our krew for the 20minute ride out and said goodbye to sunshine.

our ride out krew

regan and aaron

dave likes treating the ski out like a race, so he was already waiting in the truck for us.

come to think of it, skiers seem to spend lots of time waiting for snowboarders.

what an amazing day at sunshine. i love the rockies. i love my friends. i love my job. there is so much in my life that i am thankful for.

snow. fuck yeah!

~*...normaste...*~

~...aprés burn...~

2007-10-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

randnorm daily event in black rock city 2007

Punani Trim Parlor
12:00pm-4:00pm

We'll be open from noon til 5pm Mon-Fri. Come by to be pampered and play in our gong and chime garden. All services are provided with respect and permission, fun and laughter, but it is an adult activity. The Greenman thanks you for 7 wonderfilled years. A receptionist is available to make your reservation. Please come early as we are usually booked by Weds.

Hosted by Punani Trim Parlor at 4:15 and Desert

the 'R cube is 10ft tall. the middle 'E' cube is 6inches tall.
photo by tristan savtier

randnorm mind grenade
What we see depends mainly on what we look for. ~John Lubbock

randnorm video

it seems that recovering from the burn takes its toll not only on my body, my awareness, and my life, but also my blog. these are the remembered highlights of my life for september 2007.

normdate 8.9.7

you know that beautiful older home that you see and think "oh man the creative things i would do if i owned that home"? well, my friends taco and lara live in a home like that, and when you enter it, you discover that they've already done the things you wished you could do with their home. it is simply beautiful, just like they are, and i was blessed to call their home my home for the month of september while they took their time returning from the burn.

their home is located in the queen street part of calgary. having access to all of the amenities of 17th ave, i knew i had to return to that hood and call it home.

their neighbours home is a piece of art. can you believe that their neighbours have never been to burning man?

i am unbelievably thankful for having taco and lara in my life. they are such a beautiful, caring, and loving couple. thank you guys for opening up your home to me, for providing me a place to stay. without you, my burn would not have been possible. i am forever grateful to you for the kindness you showed to me. thank you.

normdate 22.9.7

rob invited me to another calgary stampeders game. it also turned out that my friends jason and chrissy also had tickets to the game. it was about to turn into one of those saturday afternoons.

they say the largest city in saskatchewan is calgary, and its never more true than when the riders play the stamps. waiting for the train i was not swimming in a sea of red as per the norm when the stamps play, instead it was a sea of green.

saskatchewan fans have some peculiar traditions when the rough riders play, more specifically the use of watermelons as head ornaments.

its safe to sat that saskatchewan residents were the first to catch wind of the oil and gas boom in calgary...and chase it.

it felt like a christmas tree at mcmahon stadium.

tailgating can really kick the shit out of you. i'm still amazed that the law lets us drink beer openly in a parking lot. as long as your beer is in a cup, you're good. plus, they don't search you at the gate so you can bring in a couple traveller beers in your pocket and avoid the $5.50 concession beers.

red is best

before the game, we had polished off a two four of kokanee. we refueled with 30 more at halftime. let's just say that the second half of the game was kind of a blur.

by the time the game was over, the riders beat the stamps, and i was fukkin shmammered and couldn't give a shit who won. what a way to spend a saturday afternoon....par for the course at a stampeders game.

it was great gettin' hammered with you chrissy and jay

i stumbled back to dae's place after the game. skateboarding while drunk is sort of a challenge.

i immediately passed out at dae's place and woke up four hours later by a phone call. i had made plans with a beautiful goddess that evening. we met up, but unfortunately i was hung over and ill from an afternoon of drinking. let's just say that throwing up out the side of a car isn't really the best way to impress a girl. we haven't spoken since. oops.

normdate 23.9.7

a pair of sacred armbands designed by my friend scotty were supposed to make their way to me at the burn. scotty and i had designed them over a year ago. he spent the summer crafting them. i was hoping to wield their power at the burn. scotty sent them down to the burn with a friend of his. our paths never crossed. that was my only disappointment at burning man.

i had them ups'd to my office and was so unbelievably excited to wear them. they were made for me. they were made from curves from my body, from my scrapook. they were made with love. the attract energy. they were made with love, and are as unique as i am.

the black stone is obsidian.

blessings to you jedi master scotty hunter for creating such powerful and beautiful sacred garments for me. to contact scotty, please visit his tribe profile here

my friend jessie q was having an intentional gathering at her place in celebration of her newly completed healing space. jessie q is a powerful young jedi, skilled in the art of shiatsu. she surrounds herself with wise, activated, and beautiful souls. i am honoured to be one of them.

sharing the power of my sacred garments

the power of contact

two jedis

blissings to you jessie q. i wish you nothing but joy and success with your healing space.

~*...normaste...*~

~...pre burn 2k7...~

2007-10-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

randnorm monday event in black rock city 2007
Spatch's Naked Masage Parlor
12:00pm-3:00pm
Give a massage, get a massage!

At Spatch’s sinfully delicious Naked Massage Parlor, located in the Pleasure Garden, pairs are welcome to relax in their most natural state. Spatch and her minions will guide each couple through multi-handed massage so that both partners can learn new massage techniques together and enjoy the benefits of being touched in a safe, friendly environment.

Sign ups begin each morning, so come by early to add your names to the list. The Massage Parlor will open around lunchtime.
Adult pairs only -- must be 18+ to enter and participate.
All boundaries are respected, but please be comfortable with full nudity.
This is NOT a sex party.
No creepy single men or spectators allowed.
This is a no-camera event.

Hosted by Pleasure Garden

photo by scott london

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand. ~ Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of US (1856 - 1924)

randnorm video

freestyle fire poi

normdate: long time after the memories i'm trying to remember

finding a balance between recording my life through words and pikchaz here in my blog and actually living my life has been a difficult challenge. its very similar to my skrapbooks. bringing out my book and asking someone to write in it takes the focus away from the moment and onto my scrapbook. kind of like taking a photo, our attempt at trying to capture a moment, freezeframing it so we can revisit it at a later time. in our haste to capture that moment, we take something away from it. the best part of the moment is to be there in the moment.

its been almost two months since my last blog entry. so much has happened to me. my life has been made infinitely brighter. i am more aware. i am more creative. i am loved more than i was before. i love more than i did before. from burning man to brennan and bev's wedding, my life has been a roller coaster of love, imagination, and creativity that i've had no time to sit down and record it, remember it. thank god i take pikchaz of everything;) plus, thanks to facebook, my attention has been diverted. perhaps there is more of an audience there than here. but it doesn't mean i'm going to let this blog die...

so i'm going to condense the last two months of my life into three parts...pre burning man, the burn (which will come in separate parts), and apres burn.

this is me remembering who i was and what i did before burning man. enjoy the ride.

normdate 14.8.7

i agreed to babysit kristin's younger brothers while linda and kristin's sister, toni, went to the hilary duff concert. they had the meet and greet tickets which meant they got to meet hilary duff before the concert, then enjoy the show from front row center! seeing as i couldn't just give toni my scrapbook to have hilary sign, i pulled out my calligraphy pen and wrote a little something to be autographed.

toni asked me "do you like hilary duff?"

i answered "not because of her music." ;)

i also got a signed photo of hilary too. hooray!

turns out that ms.duff's successes are bigger than she is. actually, she's kinda tiny...

don't know why i wasted blog time on hilary duff. maybe i'm just stoked to have her autograph. i also wouldn't kick her out of my bedroom for eating crackers.

sunday ultimate krew!

god i love playing ultimate!

carving my new staff for the burn. more like recreating the design of my old staff onto a new one.

playing dress up at work in the ronin jumpsuit. you'd be surprised how well this full piece outfit sells.

my friend daiva was having a pre burn party here in the cspot, one week before burning man. one of the best parts of burning man is the explosion of creativity that happens inside of you.

i was never really one for fun fur, even in my raving days...but the burn kind of turned me on to the joy of fur! its amazing what you can create with fun fur, a sewing machine, and a healthy sprinkling of imagination. this outfit was the result.

captain q and kale

kale and her partner hitoshi also tuned into the creativity of the burn and crafted a pair of yip yip costumes.

just in case you forgot what a yip yip is, here's a little youtube reminder.

furvert, kale and kane

daiva's party was a perfekt way to start tuning into the radical creative energy of the burn. radical self expression, creativity, and imagination...and some fukkin kewl peeps to celebrate it with. this town is a whole lot of alright.

of course there was fire

kale had decided to take her life in a new and amazing direction by moving to vancouver to live with her partner, hitoshi. it was time for a new chapter in her life, and mine too. the week before the burn was the last week i would call edgemont my home. my next home would be black rock city.

goodbye kale. i love you. thank you for everything.

goodbye gramma. goodbye bruce.

goodbye kuma. you truly are the greatest dog in the universe.

i wish you nothing but joy and happiness in your life together.

the week before burning man is such a blur. there is so much planning involved to survive in the desert for a week. it really is the most harsh of environments, and we are going to live there for a week.

my work was also having their annual park sale. we're talkin huge! get rid of all of last year's winter stock at ridiculous prices. it also takes an insane amount of set up and preparation. i worked two 15hour days in a row getting the park ready for the sale...and getting myself ready for burning man. plus, i was moving out of my home in edgemont so i had to pack up everything i owned and move it before i left for the burn.

my hard work setting up for the sale was rewarded with a jacket gifted to my from my boss. it was the forum slapaho reversible jacket. pure playa wear. i could not wait to wear it at home.

it was time to say goodbye to my home of one year, and journey to my new place of residence in the black rock desert.

black rock city or bust!

~*...normaste...*~

~...across canada and back again...~

2007-08-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

randnorm event in black rock city 2007
Slut Cultivation 101
7:00-8:30pm
This isn't your mom's whore-ticulture class! You can come as you are but
you're not leaving until you're slut-abulous! Come to Slutgarden and place your raw seed in our experienced hands. We'll cultivate you for a night on the playa with sound, libations and of course- slutwear! You will flower and cast your bloom onto the slutadelic winds...
Hosted by Slutgarden

photo by tristan savatier

randnorm pikcha

my friendz jay and tarzie with their bodies turned into a canvas

randnorm mind grenade
if you can't be good, be careful - anon

randnorm video

essential viewing ^^^

normdate 2.8.7

graham drove in from edmonton and picked me up from work today. his car was packed full of all his belongings. he had made a decision to leave alberta and head back home to toronto to live...and i was going to join him for the drive!

i've never driven across canada, and was very excited to see this country...but not until after we enjoyed a delicious steak dinner at the keg. daam they know how to cook a steak *mmmmm*

two men about to start a long drive

visiting our friend toby before hittin' the road...gangsta!

are we there yet by the dream warriors became our theme song for the trip

fueling up one last time in calgary

we were on the trans canada by 10pm with a 40hr adventure across canada awaiting us.

first stop: medicine hat, alberta, home of the world's largest teepee.

graham took the first shift of driving. we never ran out of things to talk about. graham and i are good like that.

i took over the wheel in saskatchewan and let graham catch some rest. thank god i had red bull!

normdate 3.8.7

now i've heard that the praires were flat, but i didn't really notice it because we drove across them at night...that is until i watched the sunrise. it was breathtaking to see so much sky in a rainbow of technicolour. it was a perfekt way to greet the day.

even though the sign said this town was friendly, we decided to skip the visit and just take a pikcha of the sign instead ;)

just outside of moosejaw, we came across an antique car show. of course we had to stop and take pikchaz. i love old cars. to keep them on the road after so many years takes so much care and love. these car owners are passionate about cars, and it shows.

plus i find that classic car enthusiasts are also more likely to have custom license plates, and i am a big fan of collecting photos of custom plates. they are as unique as the person who got the plate, especially seeing as there can be only one spelling of that plate in the province.

next stop, friendly manitoba and the capital city of winterpeg.

a little disc tossin' in the bright and warm manitoba sun

before the sun had set, we had finally made it to ontario. hooray!

even though we were in ontario, driving across ontario takes longer than driving through alberta, saskatchewan, and manitoba combined!

my own park, fuck yeah!

i was dying for a beer, so graham agreed to stop off in kenora so i could quench my thirst. thanks graham. you fukkin rool dood!

the bugs in kenora are rather unusual.

grrrrr

we actually saw a momma black bear and two of her cubs cross the highway. i thought black bears would be much much larger, like 800lb bears! momma was more like 400lbs, though still large enough to eat me!

normdate 4.8.7

after a little nap, we greeted the morning sun in city of thunder bay, superior by nature.

only 18 more hours of driving to go! but first, a quick stop at eagle canyon adventures to cross canada's longest suspension bridge.

there were two bridges, with the larger spanning over 300ft! the views were simply breathtaking.

good thing for us, there were showers at the eagle canyon adventures resort. both graham and i were smellin' kinda funky. aaah, to be clean!

next stop, wawa, ontario! the landscape is beautiful there, but there's not really much else to see in wawa besides the big wild goose.

as we left wawa, we came across this rv that was also travelling across the country from alberta, more specifically rocky mountain house. i love that they were recording their journey in the dirt of their vehicle. noice!

the big looney (not the big nickle). i have no idea what town it was in. their claim to fame is a big loonie. maybe there's a reason why i've forgotten the name of their town.

more unusual bugs on the journey home...a stretched one, just for you fred!

after visiting more tim hortons on our tripthan i have fingers to count, we finally came across a tim's that had the big tim! yes, we had been searching for the big tim since we left calgary. it had been discontinued because too many people were seriously burning themselves by trying to drink out of it. it holds one and a half pots of coffee. i can understand why people would want to try and drink out of it.

in winterpeg, graham had purchased a flashlight that is powered by shaking it. he wondered if shaking it for an extended period of time would make the light shine brighter and longer. so he proceeded to shake the flashlight for a full hour, non stop! i kept on heckling him about giving the flashlight a better handjob than he gives himself. after a full hour of shaking it, graham turned the flashlight on only to find out that he had broken it from excessive shaking! ahahahahahahahaha! *tear* ahahahahahaha!

with only a few hours left before we arrived in toronto, graham and i were eager to bring our journey across the country to an end.

we arrived in markham at 2:30am, and stopped in to visit our friend chris and meghan at chris' house. it was so good to be out of the car that had been our home for the last 50hours. it was even better to be around good friends that i've missed. the reason for my journey was beginning to spiral from being in the company of friends once again.

after a beer and some incredible company, we made the quick 5 minute drive from chris' place to graham's parents' home and passed the fuck out. aaah, sleeping in a bed instead of a car seat. to say that i slept well was an understatement.

normdate 5.8.7

did i mention that sleeping in a bed kicked ass?

i woke up around noon and enjoyed a nice hot shower. i emerged feeling refreshed, new, reborn, and in familiar territory. my older brother was very good friends with graham's older brother, bryan, and spent a good deal of time at the cairns' home. i've been good friends with graham for years too, and have also spent a good amount of time in the carins' home. i dont think they're going to move out of this home any time soon.

graham and bryan

once the car was unloaded, graham took me to scarborough town center to meet up with my sister. on our way there, we made a quick stop at the markham cemetery to visit my dad.

scarborough town center was a trip for me. for the first time since i moved to calgary, i was no longer a visible minority! everywhere i looked i saw each colour of the rainbow - white, black, brown, yellow, red. it was an awesome reminder of how multicultural and diverse the greater toronto area is. i had almost forgotten what it felt like to NOT be the only coloured guy in the room.

seeing thalia after a full year was great. i really do miss her and her silly antics. she is a shopaholic, and was upset that we were late to pick her up. being late left her in the mall to shop, and she just can't control herself. its all about the deals...and optimum points at shoppers ;)

graham was kind enough to drive my sister and i out to brooklin where my mom lives. it was my mom's birthday, and i was excited to be able to spend it with her.

mom opening her presents from thalia and i

being around family again felt good, it felt right, it felt like home.

my mom's friend was hosting a combined bday party and baby shower, around the corner from my mom's home. i'm used to hearing my mom speak, but most of my friends have never heard a chinese woman speak with a jamaican accent. it really is quite funny if you're not used to it. actually, i am used to it and its still funny!

my mom's bday party was hosted by a friend of my mom who is also jamaican. actually, the entire party was full of jamaicans...about 50 of them. i can't remember the last time i was surrounded by so many jamaicans. there were more jamaicans there than i had seen all year in calgary ;)

new life

the ladies of the day

i also can't remember the last time i was around so much good home cooked jamaican food.

happy birthday mom!

i was so glad i was able to spend my mother's birthday with her and my sister.

my whirlwind weekend was about to continue through toronto. thalia and i hitched a ride back to scarborough with some of my mom's friends. after dropping off my gear at thalia's place, i jumped in a cab and spent the night a friend's place ;) distance does more than make the heart grow fonder, it makes the loins grow hotter too. i'm not about to complain.

normdate 6.8.7

as if my weekend wasn't already jam packed and insane, my monday was about to be even more nucking futz. i was on the subway by 10am on my way to see darryl and isa, and meet the new addition to their family, ronin.

ronin was born at the beginning of june. i was so excited to meet him, and see isa, darryl, and their daughter valentina again.

seeing darryl and isa brought out so much light in me. i love them so much. i've missed them so much...and valentina has gotten so big!

meeting ronin was incredible. new life floors me. so much possibility. so much beauty. so much crying ;) i said to isa "look, he has your eyes...sleepy."

ronin wright olsen

the first family shot

i geeked out with darryl for a bit as we enjoyed a beer together. darryl has a ps3 and an xbox 360, both of them live and online. its kind of geek heaven at darryl and isa's place, and yes both of them are video game nerds.

spending time with darryl and isa was so amazing. i used to spend so much time at their place, watching survivor, playing video games, and just hanging out. meeting ronin was a highlight of my year! it was difficult for me to pull myself away, but my monday was about to get even more crazy!

my next stop was lunch at zelda's, my fav little trailer trash restaurant in the gaybourhood just up the street from darryl and isa's place. my sister and some of her friends were already there waiting for me.

the food, the patio, and the atmosphere of zelda's is like no other. i love it! its fabulous...and spending the afternoon there with good friends in the beautiful august sun made it even better.

my good friend taylor

scott and christina

3 pitchers of sangria later shared with danielle, scott, christina, allie, thalia, mark, greg, and more, it was time to head down to the lake for the promise cherry beach soundsystem. this event is the best free outdoor weekly event i have ever been to. awesome beats and incredible peeps, all down by the lake every sunday afternoon for free! i knew i'd run into so many people that i miss and love at cherry beach, and i did.

angela and i at cherry beach

dancing at cherry beach with friends that i miss and love made me question why i chose to move away. my friends in toronto are like treasure to me. you make me the richest man in the world. any opportunity i have to roll around in treasure, i will take...even if it means i have to drive 50 hours across canada to do it.

i love you guys so much! i am so blessed to have you in my life.

and just when you thought it was over...graham came and picked me up at the beach and we headed uptown to meet up with brennan, bev, graeme, and tucker at the rose and crown. they had just returned from a roadtrip to baltimore for the virgin music festival with our friend ron rivlin.

ron is a good friend of ours from university, and a successful booking agent living in los angeles. he is also the manager of the israeli psy trance duo infected mushroom. to put it simply, when you party with ron you party like a rockstar, and that's exactly what these kats had just done. they didn't just party like rock stars, their "all access artist" passes meant they were treated like rock stars. oh man, the stories these guys shared with me and the energy that was emanating was as intense as the vibes i was giving off. an insane weekend with friends.

on the drive back to my sister's place with brennan and krew, i don't think i've laughed more incessantly in my life. it was like we were riding a lughing rollercoaster with our best friends.

what a perfekt way to end off perhaps the craziest weekend of my life. i love you guys, and i'll see you in october at brennan and bev's wedding.

normdate 7.8.7

i didn't really get much sleep, more like a 4 hour nap. graham picked me up from sister's place at 6am to take me to the airport. by 7:30am, i was on a plane heading back to calgary.

what a nucking futz weekend. driving 50 hours across canada with graham, celebrating my mom's birthday, meeting ronin wright olsen, drinking on zelda's patio with friends, dancing with people i love at cherry beach, and laughing my ass off with more people i love and miss! yes, it was a crazy weekend. thank god i got to sleep on the plane.

and just to make things even more intense, when i arrived back in calgary i went straight to work!

craaazy!

needless to say, i passed the fuck out when i got home.

~*...normaste...*~

~...the battle of alberta...~

2007-07-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

source team rider riley boland at shaw millennium park

randnorm mind grenade
There is no present or future. Only the past repeating itself over and over again.
~Eugene O'Neill

randnorm video

calgary go skateboarding day 2007 - filmed and edited by james barry and brock mitchell

normdate 28.7.7

working for the source has rekindled my passion for skateboarding. being a pikcha whore, i also get to combine my passion for teknology with my passion for skateboarding...and get paid to shoot skate comps :)

in the sweltering hot sun, the skate teams of alberta's finest skate shops met on the battlefield of shaw millennium park to compete for the title of best shop team in the province.

each shop was represented by four of their best skaters who ripped up the park in two five minute sessions. the quality of skateboarders in this town is top notch, and shaw millennium park is world class...its actually the largest free outdoor skatepark in the world.

source rider devin morrison

source rider riley boland, rippin' it

best trick contest on the rail

best trick over the gap

best trick over the barricade

when the battle was finally over, the source skateboard team emerged victorious and defended the title o best skate shop team in alberta. congratulations guys.

but the battle of alberta was not over yet. i jumped on the ctrain and met up with kristin's step mom, linda (complete with kids) and step uncle, patrick, at mcmahon stadium to watch the calgary stampeders take on the bc lions.

pre game festivities were already under way in the parking lot. it was tailgate party time!

die bc!

go stamps go

normurai and antonia

there were more black people in the stands this time around

at half time i joked to linda that there were more black people at this game than the home opener. she laughed and said that it was because i was in the cheap seats. i watched the second half in the season ticket holders area, the same place we sat during the home opener, and you know what?...there were no black people in our section. linda's joke was actually true. brothers can't afford season tickets :P

i had a pretty constant flow of alcohol going since i arrived, and by the third quarter i had the desired effekt. ok, more like i was annihilated.

the calgary stampeders were also annihilated by the bc lions. next time boys.

thanks linda for the ticket to the game. thanks patrick for gettin' me smashed.

needless to say, after the game i went home and passed the fuck out! the battle of alberta had finally come to an end.

~*...normaste...*~

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

2007-07-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

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...~

2007-07-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

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...*~

~...markham reunion in the cspot...~

2007-07-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
"Love all men as God, even if they hurt or shame you. Be like Gandhi and Christ." - Sri Neem Karoli Baba

randnorm video

kinda tugs at your heart this video does...

normdate 14.7.7

after a delicious breakfast, graham and i joined the masses of harry potter fans and went to see the order of the phoenix.

we had wanted to see it in imax, but we were kind of on jamaican time and missed it. that's alright, the movie was still epic on a regular sized movie screen. these movies keep on getting better and better with each new chapter, and definitely darker.

join dumbledore's army here. EXPELLIARMUS!!

these kids sure have grown up since the first movie

fully satisfied from our harry potter feast of magic and imagination, graham and i enjoyed a bbq at our friend todd's place. todd grew up in markham with graham and i. our friend jimmy simpson, who also grew up with us in markham, was visiting calgary and stayin' with todd. add fred to the mix, and you've got yourself a good 'ol markham reunion.

jimmy and graham

our bbq chef, el skoby

being around that many old markham faces was a breath of fresh air for me. it reminded me of where i've come from, and how blessed i am to still have these friends in my life.

but the highlight of my weekend would come the next day...graham and i played our first game of ultimate frisbee together since 2005. yeah, its been two years since we played a full game together, which is an eternity for us frisbee addiktz.

normdate 15.7.7

randnorm lamborghini we saw on our way to the field.

you don't know how excited i was to play frisbee with graham. he was my disc tossing partner in toronto. we played in a toronto league for two years, and i can't count how many evenings we spent at trinity bellwoods park just tossing a frisbee around. yes, both of us are quite passionate about ultimate.

this was also the first time graham would play a full game in two years. he was prepared for his body to be one big bag of hurt after, and even during, but it would be worth it.

playing ultimate with my usual sunday krew is always fun, but playingwith graham made it amazing! most definitely one of the highlights of my summer so far. actually, every time graham comes to town we have the best time...but he's done with alberta and will be moving back to toronto in august. seeing me kicks ass, but i'm not enough to keep him in this province. we have such amazing friends back home, so i understand why he made the choice. i'm going to miss you graham!

showered and smellin' fresh after an intense game of ultimate, graham and i hooked up with our friend amy downtown. amy was visiting from toronto as well (seems like lots of people roll through this town).

as if our bodies weren't hurting enough after our ultimate game, we took amy to tubby dog for dinner. yeah, eating a 1/3lb hotdog takes a lot of energy to consume, and leaves you very exhausted after. so good!

fred, stacie-rae, todd, tara, and jimmy joined us as well. jimmy needed his tubby dog cherry popped. its a must for all who come to calgary. you have never eaten anything like this before.

it was definitely nap time after tubby dog. graham went back to edmonton, amy back to her hotel, and the rest of us markhamites ended up at todd's house to recover from our tubby dog experience.

what an awesome weekend filled with old friends, gigantic hot dogs, and 175grams of disc tossin goodness.

fuck yeah!

~*...normaste...*~

~...erotic art, big sausages, and yeehaw...~

2007-07-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
"it's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out." - sri neem karoli baba

randnorm video

*ahahahahaha*

normdate 13.7.7

graham came to visit me this weekend. i love it when he visits. he is a breath of fresh air for me, he is family to me. he is my piece of ontario here in alberta. he loves coming to see me in calgary too. we get silly, dorky, laughy, and nerdy together. we'll break out in song randomly, start dancing in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason, and just be our silly selves.

graham is just a good person to have around.

graham and i went to an erotic art show held at the artpoint gallery and studios here in calgary. i had no idea what to expect. erotic art? what's that, and how is it different from porn? we were about to find out.

erotic art shows include bellydancing...

...and goths

...and pleather

...and food

...and fire dancers

oh yah, and erotic art

you can really work up an appetite looking at erotic art, so as is tradition when graham comes to town, we went to tubby dog. the special was the buck mcoy II: a ukey (ukranian sausage) on a bed of maple baked beans topped with mustard, ketchup, hasbrowns, a sausage patty, a fried egg, bbq sauce and space cheese. yeah, its a whole lotta sausage, so graham and i split it.

kristin loathes tubby dog. ever since that one night where we hung out there for two hours, she has a severe hate on for tubby dog. i guess a hot dog joint with a dj and cartoons projected on the walls isn't her thang...but her boyfriend, hitoshi, was in town and wanted to soak up a little stampede action, so they met up with us at tubby dog. kristin actually ate a hot dog! then we cruised the red mile (17th ave) and hitoshi got to experience the largest concentration of cowboy hats in the world ;)

this is closest you will ever get to seeing kristin in a cowboy hat.

saying goodbye to kristin's friend at the yardhouse

randnormly running into my friend spark

a good erotic, tubby dog filled night of yeehaw!

~*...normaste...*~

~...the calgary stampede...~

2007-07-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction. - cowboy proverb

randnorm video

corb lund - the truck got stuck
mighty neighbourly. nighty neighbourly.

every year, for ten daze, the not so little city of calgary becomes host to what has been called the greatest outdoor show on earth: the calgary stampede. i have never seen more horses, more cowboy hats, more hay, more yeehaw, more yahoo, in my entire life. it is the highest concentration of cowboy spirit you will ever find in one place for the duration of the stampede. it is one huge cowboy party, and being the stampede virgin i was, i decided to take it all in. let's just say that it was one hell of a party.

normdate 6.7.7

it seems that native calgarians are sick of the stampede, and do their best to avoid the city and the shenanigans that take place. okay, maybe not every person in the city.

the downtown core shuts down for the stampede parade. all of the oil and gas companies, which pretty much makes up most of the downtown skyscrapers, close their doors and give their workers a paid day off to enjoy the parade and the stampede celebrations.

i was on the ctrain heading to work when i decided to see what all the parade hullabaloo was about.

most windows in the city get into the stampede spirit.

the theme of stampede this year was in support of breast cancer research, which meant that there was a lot of pink in this town. the wrangler slogan for the week was "are you tough enough to wear pink?"

as i noticed all the pink cowboys, i couldn't help but think to myself "you do realize how gay a pink cowboy is don't you?" i guess the pink theme was good news for the fags in calgary, cause they'd fit right in. there is even a gay rodeo here. yup, the alberta rockies gay rodeo association have their own rodeo, but it does happen one week before the actual stampede ;)

i had never seen more horses in my life than in the calgary stampede parade.

the only bull riding i saw

the parade was full of many diverse floats

even bonhomme was there

of course there were marching bands

every race can wear a cowboy hat...even chinese!

...and phillipinas

...and english birds visiting from dubai

as i sneakily took the above pikcha, she tapped me on the shoulder and said "you know you're going to have to pay me for that pikcha." busted! so i said "here is my card. come find me, i'll send you the pikcha, then you can tell me how much i owe." ;)

normdate 7.7.7.

yes, today was the luckiest day of the century. 7/7/7 or maybe 7/7/77 is even luckier. it was also the birthday of the dalai lama.

some businesses close for stampede, others close for the birthday of the dalai lama.

a big stampede tradition is the stampede breakfast. pancakes and sausage or bacon are served every morning across the city, FOR FREE! yup, all you have to do is show up and you'll get served free breakfast. its a hippie's dream, you just gotta know where they are happening. thank god for www.stampedebreakfast.com ;)

i was fortunate enough to come across a stampede breakfast in kensington, so i decided to experience my first real stampede breakfast.

of course there was music provided by a three piece band playin' from the flat bed of a pickup truck. its only right...;)

yee fukkin haw!

our kensington shop is currently undergoing a facelift, which provided excellent advertising space for our stampede hoedown on monday with the swollen members.

i spent the rest of the day escaping the stampede with kristin and her grandma's extended family surrounded by the rockie mountains in canmore. any opportunity to be in the mountains i'll take. yes, they really do rule that much.

normdate 9.7.7

the source stampede party was going down at tequila nightclub. we closed up the warehouse early just for the ocassion, read to get our drink on early. i arrived at the club just after 4pm and met up with my boss and the manager of our kensington shop. being the only ones there so goddam early, we decided to get drunk. jagerbombs anyone?

the club started to fill up around 7pm. i was already half in the bag by that time. hooray free booze! hooray stampede!

partyin' with a bunch of skateboarders and snowboarders with open bar gets messy real fast.

when your boss is smashed on a monday night and all of the staff from the shops are also smashed, its a pretty good sign that productivity the next day will be at an annual low. stampede...fuck yeah!

by the time the sun set, which is about 10:30pm 'round these parts in the summer, i was kinda drunk. free booze has that effekt on me. my friend daemond joined me at the club, and more debuchery ensued.

daemond had this crazy notion that we should go pick up some chicks near the stampede ground and bring them back to the club before the swollen members took the stage. supposedly, stampede is the easiest time of the year to pick up chicks, especially scantilly clad slutty ones. i needed some fresh air so i agreed to join him on this silly adventure. i was of no use though, as i just sat outside the stampede grounds watching daemond attempt to convince girls to join us for the free show.

unsuccessful, we began our journey back to the club. daemond was not too impressed that i didn't help him out, or that most of the girls were underage so they couldn't join us at the club anyways. in addition to me being too drunk to help him out, i'm just not a "hey dude, lets go pick up chicks" kind of guy.

on our walk back, daemond approached a young woman and actually asked "are you over 18?" when she answered yes, he was about to ask her if she wanted to join us at tequila for the swollen members show when she saw me and yelled out "norm!" turns out daemond was trying to pick up nikki, my next door neighbour, or at least she was for about a month. she was on her way home from work. it wasn't a difficult task convincing her to join us for a free concert at tequila.

the swollen members took the stage around 12:30, and they surprisingly killed it!

prevail

madchild

just in case you have no idea who the swollen members are, or just forgot, here is the video for breath feturing nelly furtado

moka only wasn't there, but prevail substituted with ganja only.

girls dancin' on tables + canadian hip hop + free booze = one messy stampede monday

nikki couldn't resist a body shot from the well endowed bar staff

big ups to the source for hostin this bumpin monday night event (and for the free booze). props to the swollen members for a killer show. and to my monday night partners in crime, nikki and dae, big up yous'elf. what a memorable way to start my stampede week.

normdate 11.7.7

angel decided to get into the stampede spirit today and rock the cowgirl steez. no hat, but the bandana and cowboy boots did look hawt on her. seizing the opportunity, a randnorm photo shoot followed.

my boss's truck was outside, so we took advantage of the flatbed and continued our shoot.

kristin's company stampede party was goin' down at the infamous cowboys bar starting at lunch time. my boss' wife works with kristin, so he was also going. more gettin' smashed with the boss. yeehaw!

cowboys is a very large club, and it triples in size during stampede. the club takes over the adjacent parking lot and turns it into an outdoor venue worthy of the stampede!

country music, stetson hats, daisy dukes and cowboy bootz. i had never seen anything like it before in my life.

they even truck in hay for a true barnyard experience

cowboys bar is one of those rare establishments that will pay for the female employees' boob jobs. hey, big titties and cowboy hats are good for business. this particular busty number was takin full advantage of her employer's investment and turned them into a hefty profit.

for only $10, she would stand on a stool, pour a shot in your mouth then rub her bodacious tatas in your face. degrading to women or smart business woman? you decide.

i've seen body shots before, but i've never seen someone do so many in such a short period of time. it was like she was making a wage of $10 minute, and she was always busy. i wouldn't be surprised if she made enough money to buy a car by the end of the night.

it was ridiculous how much money was being spent. thousands of people gettin smashed and soakin' up the stampede vibes at cowboys. good thing for us, our booze and food bill was being paid for by cyries energy. thank you oil and gas!

this woman loves stampede

this dude has cowboy attitude

the cowboys bar slogan

this dood roolz

takin' a little break from the farm for some stampede shenanigans

the goddess providing the country riddimz

the band

daemond's sister, destiny, was visiting from grenada where she is studying to be a veterinarian. knowing that it would be difficult for her to truly describe what stampede at cowboys is like to her friend back in grenada, she tasked me with a mission: take pikchaz of as many waitresses as possible, especially the ones with the work bought boobs. sheed, i was doing that already, and the bar staff were very accomodating to me and my camera.

and just when you thought you've seen enough cowboy hats and fake boobs, the hawaiin tropics bikini contest got underway.

lucky for me, i was right up in the front with the judges, which gave me an excellent vantage point to take pikchaz.

i find the reactions of the crowds just as exciting as the women themselves...almost ;)

alright, i'm all for a hot bod, long legs, and big boobs...but after seeing 40 contestants in the same bathing suit, not to mention the bar staff, i kinda lost interest. so instead i started looking at shoes, and judging the contestants based on their choice of footwear. i'm such a fag sometimes.

this contestant's ink was more beautiful to me than her fake boobs.

this girl won. i think the judges made the right choice.

the awards ceremony

we had been drinkin' since noon, and at 11pm we still had many drink tickets left. so we rounded up a krew and drank the remainder of our free booze in shots.

our evening wasn't over yet. we stumbled out of cowboys and made our way to the ship and anchor where my friend fred was cooking midnight stampede breakfast. it was exactly what my body needed after 11hours of drinking.

beatz were bumpin across the street at sal's, which is where our ricockulous wednesday celebrations came to an end...after shakin' our asses to a few songs, of course. i don't remember where i got the balloons from. i was a bit drunk.

i jumped into a taxi and called it a night.

stampede is a lot of fun if you're willing to put on a hat that you may not usually wear, and rock it like you always wear one, dance to music that you would never buy, and embrace your inner cowboy. its a whole lot of yeehaw and yahoos, and a stompin' good (drunken) time.

~*...normaste...*~

~....come as you aren't...~

2007-07-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

fire+magnesium

randnorm mind grenade
"we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." - kurt vonnegut

randnorm video

made with lightning *bwahahahahahah*

normdate 30.6.7

if there ever was a place to go in calgary where i was pretty much the only coloured dood in a throng of thousands, the home opener of the calgary stampeders football game would be a good choice. hey, i'm always up for new experiences.

kristin's father, rob, has season tickets and offered me the chance to experience a real calgary experience. yeehaw!

we arrived at mcmahon stadium just in time to catch the last bit of the tailgate party phenormenon. i was about to become a tailgater.

imagine the parking lot scene of a dead show, except full of rednecks instead of hippies, and you've got yourself a good ol stampeders tailgate party. thousands of people bbq'in, drinkin' beer, and having a stompin' good time, countin' down to the kick off! pulled pork sammiches and beer...mmmmm. there sure were a lot of cowboy hats....and a lot of red...necks ;)

i'm lovin' that the two sports teams in this town claim the color red! that makes jumpin on the sports bandwagon in this town really easy for me. add the fact that its canada day weekend, and you've got a whole lotta red.

the stamps were takin' on the hamilton ti-cats. cowtown vs. steel town. 403 vs. 905.

the energy of sports fans is alive and powerful, especially at the home opener. getting thousands of people together doing the same thing, like cheering for the home team, is awesome! i'm not a big sports fan, actually i could care less about football, but i'm a people addikt and there's nothing like screaming and doing the wave with tens of thousands of people.

it was interesting being in a stadium full of as many baseball hats as there were cowboy hats.

now i know calgary has been known to be a redneck cowboy town, but with a city growing as fast as this one, that is no longer true...except at a stampeders game. the only other coloured people i saw in the stadium were on the field playing football. living here in calgary, i've gotten used to being the only non-white in places i go, but being a visible minority around tens of thousands of screaming caucasian stamps fans was a new one for me. okay, i'm exggeratin' a bit, i saw another black guy in the bathroom and two sistas in line waiting for beer.

coloured people were even more of a minority than ti-cats fans!

even more fascinating was the ti-cats back up quarterback. his name was chang. that's right, chang...a chinese quarterback.

i'd tell you how exciting the game was, and how the stamps stomped the ti-cats, but i don't really know how i can make football sound exciting. so here are some pikchaz of the game.

in the third quarter, an unexpected player made a guest appearance on the field, temporarily stopping the game.

the bunnification of the universe is exploding everywhere! never underestimate the power of BUNNY! not knowing which direction to go, the bunny decided to run the length of the field. hearing the crowd cheer when the bunny reached the endzone was almost as loud and exciting as a stamps touchdown.

BUNNY POWER FOR THE WIN!!!

after game fireworks in celebration of the stamps home opener victory and canada day.

thanks for taking me to my first stamps game, rob. it was an experience i will never forget. go stamps go!

rob dropped me off at my friend sandi and chantal's home where their annual come as you aren't party was in full swing. a costume party where you were not allowed to dress as yourself. genius!

originally, i was going to paint my skin ghost white and be a visible majority, but kissing people with white makeup on is a little more of a challenge, so i scrapped that idea. hey, priorities *mwah*

instead, i dressed up in a shirt and tie (thanks rob), rocked an "i love jesus" pin, and wielded the sword of the lord aka the book of mormon.

i also gave out tracts that had buddy jesus on the front saying "have you heard the good news?" on the back it said "jesus is coming. look busy." i'm going to hell ;)

"have you heard the good news? heil jesus!"

it was so awesome to see friends dressed up as something that they are not. we even had a fashion show where we could all strut our stuff. awesome!

what an awesome idea for a party. thank you sandi and chant for opening up your home to all of us.

~*...normaste...*~

~...go skateboarding day and summer soulstice...~

2007-06-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. ~Bern Williams

randnorm video

go skateboarding day 2006 documentary by brockonomics

normdate 21.6.7

today, all across the world, skateboarders celebrated the pure exhilaration, creativity, and spirit of one of the most influential activities in the world by blowing off all other obligations to go skateboarding!

i met up with over 200 skateboarders at city hall for go skateboarding day. skating with that many people was incredible. it reminded me of critical mass, the monthly bicycle ride through the city promoting environmentally friendly alternatives to transportation, except skaters have way more attitude ;)

there really is nothing like sharing a passion with a couple hundred other enthusiasts. snowboarding with a large krew of friends is awesome, but having over 200 skaters ride together is a site to be seen.

our skate convoy spent the afternoon stopping at all of the downtown skate spots for a gnarly group session.

there were so many people documenting the event.

including brokonomics, a source employee and the man responsible for the doc i posted as today's randnorm video.

my boss terry also showed up with his longboard

i think he and i were the only ones with longboards at this session, but we'd run into a couple longboard enthusiasts later in the afternoon.

style was everywhere

betties kinda rool

enjoyin' a killer session with a few hundred other skaters is an awesome feeling. knowing that thousands of other skaters across the world are also enjoying the raw passion of skateboarding is a fukkin rad feeling too.

our next session was td square: a set of 12 stairs and a skateproofed rail. skateproof...ha!

there are some really good skaters in this town

somtimes too gnarly for their skate...

dude, go skateboarding...

here's a vid i took as we left td square.

next session, more stairs and obstacles

finally another longoarder...a cute one.

more rails

this woman decided to keep her front row seat

no comply - milf style

we sesh'd eau claire center next where i ran into two other longboarders who were passionate about sliding.

one of them lent me his gloves, which he had custom made with cutting board plastic on the palms for sliding. he also lent me his board, a true lowriding carve board, and i experienced my first longboard slide. i leaned back too much on my first slide and scraped up my arm a bit, but i got right back on and did it right the second time. sliding is next shit. i can't wait to craft meself a pair of gloves and start sliding on my board.

while us longboarders were enjoing the open space of eau claire to carve and slide, this gap was the focus of attention for the rest of the skaters.

czech out this calgary go skateboarding day vid by polish negro

i bounced out and headed back to work after 2.5hrs of skating. documenting the event was work for me, and my boss was there too!

back at the office, mark, one of the owners of the source, was busy taking care of our gopher problem...cowboy style.

today was also the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. for the past 8 years i've celebrated the solstice at the om celebration in ontario. not being able to celebrate with my omies this year was a difficult choice for me, but i know i will see them all in october when i return for brennan and bev's wedding, and my sacrifice of summer festivals will be worth it when i stand on the playa at the end of the summer )'(

the om circle celebrating the summer soulstice in 2001.

photo by asif quadir

one of lara's friends was having a soulstice party, so i headed to lara's place after work. with the sun shining so brightly and it being the longest day of the year, we decided to do a little fun in the sun photo shoot.

the soulstice potluck was held at janine's home, a friend of lara. as i walked into the backyard, i was greeted by a beautiful sight that reminded me of hOMe.

new life enjoying her first soulstice

padawans

goddess with a padawan in the oven

what?

om

*bwahahahahaha*

*rwoar*

delicious food. amazing people. gin and tonic ;) and an amazing day skateboarding with a couple hundred skaterz. i may not have been able to celebrate soulstice with my omies in ontario, but i really can't complain about my celebrations here...okay, maybe the hangover that i'm nursing today, but i asked for that ;)

happy soulstice.

~*...normaste...*~

~...birthday week...~

2007-06-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

randnorm pikcha

sue, normurai, and karen...norm bday 2k6

randnorm mind grenade
growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~chili davis

randnorm video

normdate 13.6.7

kale took me out for japanese this evening after sitting in a hairdressers chair for over 5 hours! she's making the first step to return her hair colour to blonde from dark red.

she is leaving for vancouver tomorrow morning to spend the weekend with her japanese boyfriend, hitoshi, so tonight was our night to celebrate my birthday together.

before our midweek drinking shenanigans got going, we stopped off at the source in kensington to participate in the first annual C1RCA/source staff ping pong challenge. the basement of the shop became the stadium for the most intense ping pong battle to ever hit the cspot.

fierce competition came from all around the city, looking to claim the most prized trophy of ping pong, the C1RCA GOLDEN LADY.

fueled by kokanee and indian short ribs courtesy of the source and C1RCA, the participants met on the ping pong battlefield playing through an excruciating round robin of ping pong mayhem.

the intensity of the competition reached critical levels, with fierce competitors like LT SMASH, SCRAP DOG & MATT (PONY BOY) RAINE taking no prisoners on their way to ping pong victory.

in the end, it was the smooth style and masterful ping pong prowess of devin morrison that claimed first place and the coveted GOLDEN LADY.

second place was claimed by matt 'pony boy' raine.

third place went to newcomer and rookie brendan.

thanks to mike and zev from C1RCA for an intense evening of ping pong madness! thanks to my boss dave from the source for the libations.

good thing i wasn't driving. hooray, birthday week had started off right.

kale and i grabbed some more boozeahol and continued our celebrations at home. we got pretty rowdy for a school night. kale is normally in bed by 8:30pm. good thing she had a flight to catch in the morning.

"pshaw...you can just sleep on the plane."

i'm glad we had a night to get silly together, kale.

normdate 14.6.7

i woke up this morning with a killer hangover. drinking on a school night until 3 in the morning can really kick the shit out of you. thank god my job is ridiculously chill, cause i was one big bag of hurt. kale wasn't doing so hot either, but all she had to do was get on a plane.

angel and i had some fun taking pix at work.

there is a fresh fruit and vegetable market just down the street from my work, which is an anormaly in our area...it is pure industrial. its even more funny because of its name...

i saw no d.j.s there. perhaps they're not in season.

this market reminds me of kensington market in toronto. the produce is fresh and the prices kick the shit out of any supermarket...and its a 2minute walk away from my work. schweet.

kale is cheap. teehee.

as angel and i left work at the end of the day, we were walking towards the train station when i saw a pair of boots sitting beside a bus stop bench. i said to angel "are those boots?" sure enough, an almost brand new pair of timberland boots sat next to the bench. they even had the timberland tag still attached to them, and looked like they had only been worn once. and wouldn't you know it, they were my size. hooray boots. happy birthday to mii!

i met up with my friend sheraka at the oolong tea house in kensington. she had just returned from thailand where she spent the last three months studying thai massage. it was so good to see her again. she is such a powerful little jedi.

we shared a cup of matcha tea before heading down the street to molly malone's where my birthday celebrations would continue with more friends and of course more libations.

birthday shots for the birthday boyz, mike and normurai

i was blessed to celebrate with a great krew of people. i even randnormly ran into my friend ashley from toronto. she had recently moved to calgary with her husband. you never know who you might run into out of nowhere.

thank you to all of the incredible people who came out to celebrate my bday. its comforting to know that no matter where i choose to be, i surround myself with kewl beanz who love me.

bless

normdate 15.6.7

i woke up on the sofa at mike's place. one of the challenges of living way the fuck up in the nw is that i have to catch the last bus home or else i'm fook'd. the last bus leaves dalhousie station at 12:43am, and i have to take the train from wherever i am to get there on time first. thank god there are sofas more central to town that i can pass out on.

mike has a most impresseive collection of video game consoles, including an original coleco vision with the atari adaaptor, nintendo entertainment system, super nintendo entertainment system, and a nintendo wii.

yes, i'm a dork and took pikchaz of his consoles.

dude even pulls out the ol skewl keep the game in with another game steez on his nes. noice.

czech his game collektion.

yes, that is frogger in there!

mike and i went out for bday breakfast together. hooray geminis.

i spent the rest of my day bloggin' and waiting for my good friend graham to arrive from edmonton. i was so excited to see him. he was my saving grace. as much as i was blessed to have so many people come out to share my bday with me, i've known all of them for less than a year. to be able to look at my own history in the face of an old friend was a comfort that i am used to having on my birthday, and graham was on his way to town to share that with me.

i was so happy to see him. i've known graham more than half of my life. he and i are also big geeks, video game geeks. we would often spend friday nights in toronto drinkin' beers and playin' video games together.

graham brought his ps2 with him. we went to the mall, grabbed me a network adaptor, a network cable as well as another copy of burnout 3 takedown. our goal was to link up our ps2s and race. can you smell the geekiness?

after an awesome steak dinner, graham and i put two televisions beside each other and attempted to link up our playstations. graham's silver ps2 was about 1/3 the size of my old skewl ps2.

and we were not successful at networking our consoles. *grrrr* why couldn't it be as easy as linking up multiple xboxes? so instead, we played split screen. it was good to chill with an old friend and be uber geeks for a night. thanks graham. i'm gonna miss you when you leave this province.

normdate 16.6.7

graham is quite skilled in the kichen, and cooked one mother of a breakfast this morning...a hell of a lot more than two people could eat. i wasn't about to complain.

with our bellies full, we jumped into graham's car and began an hour jaunt southwest or calgary towards the beautiful kananaskis country. dae, mike, and krew were camping out there for the weekend.

the weather was overcast and rather shitty, but a few clouds was not about to stop us from spending a day in the woods.

driving to the mountains is always such an incredible experience for me. they are just so huge! i never cease to marvel at their majesty, their beauty, and wonder what it would be like to shred the shit out them when they are covered in snow. hell, even when they're not covered in snow i imagine that they are. fuck do i ever love snowboarding.

we arrived at the beaver flats campground and began our search for our friends. yah, we didn't really know where the hell they were camped. after running up to a few random campers screaming out dae and mike's names, we finally arrived at the walk in camp area where they were camped. stoked to have found them, we kicked back and enjoyed a cold ale. nothin like a kokanee when you're surrounded by mountains. stoopid branding ;)

mike was busy choppin firewood

the mountains were calling us, so we gathered the troops and began exploring the vast and beautiful landscape that surrounded us.

stop. strike a pose.

go flames go

our hiking krew

even though the sun was hiding behind the clouds, the rockies are still breathtaking.

taking the low road

taking the high road back, we decided to throw a frisbee around on the road. a car drove by and then pulled over. we thought the driver was mad at us for playing in the street and wanted to have words with us. it turned out to be our friends lisa and crystal. they were driving around trying to find the campsite and came across us on the highway.

sometimes the universe is good like that. ok, all the time ;)

hooray frisbees!

daemond had some portable speakers attached to a cd player...eggselent for randnorm dance sessions in the forest, especially with some james brown.

back at camp, graham gave his brand new throwing a toss or few.

knives and kokanee...a winning combination.

jiffy pop over an open fire...genius!

normurai has just poked you

the sun poked its head out for a little bit of saturday afternoon light. hooray! but it was time for graham and i to head back to the cspot. we said goodbye, and made a beeline to tubby dog for birthday dinner. there's something about eating a 1/3pound all beef hotdog that is deep fried and covered in ham and maple syrup that takes its toll on you. the yam fries and mega thick onion rings kinda add to the slap in the face. it takes a lot of energy to eat that much food, and we were already exhausted from a day hiking in the kananaskis.

so we took a two hour nap before heading out for the night. our destination was a bar/lounge called the well. some good house beatz and sexxxy peeps made for an awesome night of dancing. the after party was just down the street, also full of awesome peeps...more specifically the steamers, a group of burners from calgary.

it was a great way to end off my birthing day. tired and exhausted, we retired back to the nw and passed the fuck out.

thanks for sharing my bday with me graham. you fukkin rool!

~*...normaste...*~

Chronicles of a Dredi Knight

~*...do what makes you the happiest...*~

~*...demo day at norquay...*~

~*...its all about girl talk...*~

~*...too busy snowboarding to blog? almost...*~

~*...look, a blog entry...burton demo day 2k8...*~

~*...aprés burn...*~

~*...pre burn 2k7...*~

~*...across canada and back again...*~

~*...the battle of alberta...*~

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

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

~*...markham reunion in the cspot...*~

~*...erotic art, big sausages, and yeehaw...*~

~*...the calgary stampede...*~

~*....come as you aren't...*~

~*...go skateboarding day and summer soulstice...*~

~*...birthday week...*~