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Published: January 27th 2008
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View from the living room.
View from the living room. It makes getting up in the mornings that much easier. Finally! A spare few minutes to myself!
Sorry for the delay in emailing but it's honestly been non stop since I got here.
Firstly, a massive, massive thank you for my bionic watch, Canadian cash, AMAZINGLY flattering video (cheers Andy!), and especially, ESPECIALLY, that card. It is quite simply a work of genius, and should be in some kind of design book. Seriously, the time and effort that has gone in to that card is very humbling. So an extra big thank you to main man Mike (man love to you too mate!), and lovely Lisa for her photography skills (lady Lappin love with lashings of thrust babey!) And of course, thank you thank you thank you to all the lovely Bray Leino babes who stripped and posed for the film posters. I hope you've had them all enlarged, framed, and hung around the office!
So far life here is exceeding all expectations. My average day consists of;
1) Up at 7.30 for breakfast at 8.00am.
2) On the hill for 9.30, meet up with instructor for "style and technique" lessons at 10.00.
3) Ride until 12.30. Stop for a sarnie.
4) More technique lessons until 3.30 (carving,
View from the back door.
The first thing I see when I step out the door in the morning. riding backwards etc.)
5) Bus back to The "Lodge" (HQ)
6) All meet for a talk in the dining room about equipment - how to wax and tune a board, looking after boots and bindings (average life of a boot is 100 riding days), etc etc.
7) Back to our house (I'm sharing with 4 others) to continue making our mini kicker park in the front yard. (I'll send pictures when I unpack my camera!)
8) Shower, change and then a 5 minute walk back to the Lodge for dinner. (It's -27ºC at night bye-the-way. That 5 minute walk is a killer!)
9) After dinner we might go across the road to watch the ice hockey game if the Fernie Ghostriders are playing, or if a local snowboard shop is having a party, we'll go to that.
10) Collapse around 11.00pm. Bed.
This is a refection on the first week anyway. Once I get the first two weeks out of the way I'm gonna try and stay in a lot more during the week. It's hard to get my head around the fact that we're not actually here on holiday! I shared a lift yesterday with a guy that
was here with a load of mates on a two week holiday. He had been here a week already and was telling me all about the mountain, the town, the bars etc. I just nodded - I didn't have the heart to tell him I live here.
Next, let's get the cold thing out of the way.
Imagine if you will being locked in a freezer, with ice cubes instead of clothes. Imagine a world where your jeans turn to cardboard within two minutes of walking down the street. And checking for white spots on people's faces (the beginnings of frost bite) is compulsory after each run. Welcome to the world of -27ºC my friends! I have never felt anything like it. It's like someone has rubbed sandpaper on your face. I will never complain about being cold in England again!
The town itself is a typical small Canadian town with a typical small town community. We've had a visit from the mayor, and the town Sherriff gave us a stern talking to the other day (any drunken behaviour in the street will mean a night in the "crowbar Hotel"). Hitch hiking is part of everyday life,
and if you stand on the street looking like you're lost for too long, a pick up truck will soon stop, ask you where you want to go, and then give you a lift there. (It's true. It's happened to me.) We've also had a talk by the local mountain patrol about avalanches. Apparently a rain fall in December has created a very unstable layer (new snow has nothing to grip to) which means that avalanches are a real problem this year - even on groomed runs. So we've all be given tranceivers for free. But we're all pretty safe with the instructors watching our backs.
As for the snowboarding lessons, well, I quite simply have died and gone to heaven. I get up every morning, hitch a ride to the mountain, and I'm taught by a collection of some of the best riders in the world. Honestly, these are the guys I read about in snowboarding magazines and DVDs. They are incredible. And they are teaching me how to snowboard! Just an amazing experience. Already my riding has improved massively and we haven't even started on the off piste yet! Just lovin' every bloody second of it.
Fernie ski resort.
And yep, it really is this quiet during the week. It's absolutely dumping snow outside right now, so most of us have taken the afternoon off to rest before lessons tomorrow. So now I'm off to buy some new bindings before Ryan my instructor "personally slings those God damn Flows in the God damn bin". And then I'm gonna grab a slice of Carrot cake from my friend Sarah at the bakery, and then, oh I dunno - maybe have a soak in the hot tub with a couple of girls at the Lodge...
Now I've set this blog thing up I'll try and keep it going and add something once a week.
So I'll, like, totally, like, speak to y'all soon?
Awsome!
Lapster.
(P.S. mum - being with instructors all day means that being caught in an avalanche is not going to happen. I swear.)
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