~*...bluebird skies, markham in da cspot and tubby dog...*~

normdate 11.3.7

its beginning to feel a lot like spring in this town, but i know it won't last long. on friday it was 16degrees! i got to wear shorts to work \m/^_^\m/

saturday was also ridiculously warm, so i decided to hit up canada olympic park and enjoy the blue skies and sunny weather. hooray riding in a hoodie!


one piece outfits rool!


yay spring!


with the sun shining brightly against the clear blue skies, it was a perfekt opportunity for me to snap some shots in the park. i decided to bring my canon powershot g3. its bigger and bulkier than my ghetto fab epson camera, but it sure does take better pikchaz...and with a perfektly built jump like this, i was guaranteed to snap some gnarly pix.


and snap gnarly shots i did...




actually, these shots are best enjoyed at full res, so make sure you click on the next few shots to see them full size. they are epic!



skiing might be for fags, but these guys are definitely tops.




everbody loves the sunshine!




lift off










snowboarding is not about lifestyle, its about life...style is just an option.










i got to rip next year's forum travis kennedy and the forum platform bindings


really soft flex to this board makes it ideal for rippin' the park. it was a bit shorter than i'd like, and it was the first board that i've ever run out of board with on a pivot, landing me on my face a few times. the '08 forum platform bindings felt like the burton p1s (forum is owned by burton so they share tech). tonnes of gel in the heel strap made these bindings ridiculously comfy, balanced out by a little too much give in responsiveness. though soft and bouncy on my feet, i prefer a stiffer heel strap for more response. overall, a fun board for the o.g. who lives in the park.



what an awesome day at c.o.p. and my day was about to get even better. when i got home, my good friend graham had just arrived from edmonton with his roommate zack. we decided to take kuma for a walk at nosehill park and toss around a frisbee. graham is one of my favourite peeps to throw around a frisbee with.



my best friend mel, who also lived with graham in toronto, was visiting calgary for work. we were stoked to see her. she had no idea that graham was going to be with me. i love surprises.


mel was so stoked to see us, and we were excited to see her too.


when we asked mel if she had ever been to tubby dog, her response was of course "what's tubby dog?" it didn't take much to convince her that she needed to experience tubby dog while in calgary.



zack and grahm both ordered the ultimate gripper...yes, that is a fried egg on top.




mel ordered an a-bomb, complete with bacon and potato chips! bacon! that's a good jew...




i ordered the special of the week: the brutus ceasar. this dog is bacon wrapped, and like the grippers it is deep fried!






mel couldn't believe that a place like tuby dog existed. to commemorate her losing her tubby dog virginity, graham bought her an official tubby dog tee. lookin' good babe!


i miss my best friend. it was so fukkin rad to have here in calgary!


tubby dog kinda kicks the shit out of your body. digesting that much food takes a lot of energy. within minutes of arriving at mel's hotel room, i promptly passed out. it was relax time...


tired and exhausted from our tubby dog experience, we said our goodbyes to mel and headed back to my place for some video game aktion. i love you mel! it was so awesome to see you.


the rest of the night was spent drunk and playing star wars battlefront 2. man, i have missed nights of vids with graham.

we had brunch at lido sunday morning serenaded by beatz from the jukebox. nothin like eating bacon and eggs while listenin to the emotions, prince, and the jackson 5.

it is always awesome to see you graham. next time, we ride!

with our bellies full, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways...graham and zack on their way back to edmonton, and me on my way to enjoy another warm and sunny day at c.o.p.




looks like the sun even brings the cowboys out to the hill...


yeehaw!


my coworker brett was announcing a competition.


another awesome opportunity to take some pix




rippin the rail






contemplating the super pipe


this pipe is 23ft high. even making a kickturn on this pipe is gnarly, yet alone catchin' air.




first place went to one of our source riders, jed anderson.


congratz jed!


the competitors


silver medal in the women's slopestyle was won by source rider breanna stangeland.


congratz to the competitors and the winners of the c.o.p. slopestlye comp.

what an awesome weekend! good friends, sunny skies, and tubby dog. fuck yeah!

~*...normaste...*~

~*...its not eastern standard time...*~

since my laptop was gifted to me last june in toronto, i haven't ever changed the time on it from eastern standard time to mountain time, so my clock is always 2hrs ahead. i've gotten good at knowing that the real time is two hours before the time it says on my laptop...except for today.

maybe cause its so warm and sunny out, a beautiful 13 degrees right now, that my brain ain't workin' right...but i saw on my laptop that it was almost 4pm, so i packed up and drove to pick kristin up from work.

not even the car clock, which was the right time, clued me in to the reality that it was really 2pm and not 4pm. convinced that it was almost 4pm, i was trying to change the car clock while driving wondering why it was showing the wrong time.

it wasn't until i made it to kristin's office and she said "what are you doing here so early? are you here to take me to drink beers on a patio?" that i realized my error.

I DO NOT LIVE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME!!!

after a good laugh, i'm now back at work writing this blog entry. the clock on my laptop is now set to mountain time. i can't believe its taken me this long to change it.

eye yam sofa king wee todd it.


sometimes i'm such a fukkin stoner...and i haven't even smoked today!

there are two seasons in canada: winter and patio. good thing about chinooks in this town is that i can enjoy the patio and the snow in the same day. its gonna take more than one day of ridiculously warm weather to melt all the snow at c.o.p., and i'm gonna rip this forum travis kennedy tonight! w3rd!



hope this blog entry made you laugh.

~*...sunshine at nakiska...*~

normdate 6.3.7

i spent today riding with rob at nakiska. rob is the guidance counsellor at alternative high school here in calgary. he was chaperoning a school trip to nakiska, so i took the day off work to shred with him.



some of rob's students


i still had the rome agent 156 with me. man i love this stick. it is so much fukkin fun to ride.




it was overcast in the morning, but i didn't mind. the mountain was definitely not as packed as it is on the weekend. often times, rob and i were the only ones on the run. schweet.


seeing this fresh, i just had to hike it.












aah, the kananaskis rockies *sigh*




by afternoon, the sun was shining and the layers started coming off. hooray spring riding!


time to bust out the mirror lenses.


i haven't used my mirrored lenses since the burn *sigh*


the sun quickly turned the perfekt corduroy goodness of nakiska in chunky slush that stuck like glue to your board. i guess that's the price we pay to enjoy warm riding conditions. i'm not complaining though. actually, i can't remember a day out where i complained about the conditions. there have been less than favourable conditions, but as long as i've got my board on my feet, snow on the ground, and a lift to take me to the top, i'm happy.


riding with rob without liam, mikhail, or toni was awesome. this was the first time rob actually did a run at top speed this season. its good when he doesn't have to put the dad hat on like we he does each week at c.o.p.




a good day at nakiska riding in the sun, and a quick 1 hour drive home to calgary. having the rockies so close is a blessing...and they are even more beautiful up close.






we have the best playground right here. canada kicks ass!

more pix here in my pikcha archive.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...another day at the lake...*~

normdate 4.3.7

after very little sleep from celebrating at sheraka's place friday night, i found myself in front of the safeway at north hill mall at 7am yesterday. i was meeting up with jess (i seem to keep alot of jess' in my life), a radiant snow addikted goddess that i met at kristin's bday party last month.



jess and her friend ida were heading up to sunshine village and invited me along. as we stopped for gas, jess ran into two of her friends who were on their way to lake louise to compete in a slopestyle competition. convincing me to go to the lake instead of the village was an easy task. i prefer lake louise over sunshine village. ida, who has a sunshine village season pass, took a bit more convincing, but not that much ;)

blue skies, two goddesses, and lake louise...it was a recipe for a good day.




kootenay vibes in the rockies


jess and i decided to hang out and watch the slopestyle competition while ida got some runs in.



taking pix with my epson camera takes some maad skill as there is at least a 3 second delay between pressing the button and the actual picture being taken. as for zoom, pfft, zoom is for sissies.















majestic


after the comp, jess and i wanted to do a peak to base run, so we took the poma lift to the peak of whitehorn mountain. i have never ridden with a girl who rides as hard as jess does. its such a turn on when a goddess will ride any run with confidence, blue, black, even double black *swoon*





its even sexxxier when you ride hard and fast down a run, your eyes buggin out of your head from the nutz speed you picked up, and turning around to look for your friend only to see that she is right behind you. so hawt!



i was fortunate enough to demo next year's rome agent 156. this board is a park board designed for hittin jumps and riding rails. its superpop core lived up to its name. it made me want to pop off everything and anything!



this board flexes like crazy. so soft that you can actually see the board twist by simply moving your feet in the bindings. perfekt for bouncin' around. this board is the most fun board i've ridden all season for having fun. spinning 360 pivots and hitting jumps was taken to new heights with this board. bouncy bouncy bouncy.

unfortunately, tonnes of flex meant tonnes of board chatter at high speeds. its harder to hold your edge when your board is constantly flexing to absorb everything it comes in contact with. awesome for park, not so awesome for freeriding...then again, if you're buying this board you're not looking for a freeride stick.



the '08 390 targa bindings were comfy and responsive. i really like the ratchets on these bindings - solid hold and super smooth to release. the heel strap had removable c-flex inserts so you can adjust the flex. being aluminum, these binding were light and strong. tool-less adjustment made tweakin' out the fit of these bindings quick and easy. i was most impressed with this board and binding setup. so much fun!



another amazing day at the lake. jess, i've never ridden with a goddess who shreds as hard as you do. it was awesome rippin up the slopes with you and ida. can't wait to do it again.



snowboarding is life, everything else is just details.

~*...normaste...*~