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Published: February 8th 2009
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Cumberland Lake
Exploring the Comox Valley in the run up to the season opening. So! At last!
Here I am on an island in the Pacific Ocean doing the unthinkable!
Over a year ago now I turned my back on my nice comfortable life in Bristol because I was driven by an uncontrollable urge to pursue a life in the mountains. And now here I am, a red Snowboard Instructors jacket hanging up in my locker, and a steady flow of Dollars going into a Canadian bank account every fortnight. And it is everything I imagined it would be, and more. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...
Back in January 2008 I left the UK for Fernie in Canada where I did the Nonstop Snowboard Instructors Course. I arrived with a board that was too long, a stance that was too wide, and a lovely bit of counter rotation going on.
Three months later and I returned to the UK as CASI Level 2 Instructor, a Park Instructor, a Carving Instructor, and a new girlfriend on my arm. To celebrate, I headed off to New Zealand for a two month Winter season in Cardrona where I decided to hang around with some of the world's best riders just so I could
Cumberland
Wandering round a nearby town, trying to find something that's open! feel like an idiot.
When I returned in August, England was all over the place - house prices were plummeting, food prices were soaring, and it had been one of the wettest summers on record. So Andrea and I surrounded ourselves with resort guides and maps of North America and began to write a shortlist of potential resorts in which to spend the 2009 season. I did a little freelance graphic design again to top up the bank account, and Andrea managed to persuade the NHS to give her six months off from her physiotherapy job.
After a month of sending our resumés off to various mountain resorts, we were eventually offered jobs as Level 2 instructors at the Mount Washington resort on Vancouver Island. Snowboarding on an Island in the Pacific - superb! And so, on the last day of November, we packed up our snowboards, said emotional farewells at Heathrow airport (again), and set off for the west coast of Canada.
We spent the first few days in Vancouver where we were looked after by and old school friend, Gary and his lovely family. We used the time to get over the jet lag, and
Our house on the hill!
Our little bit of England, nestling at the base of the Green Chairlift. sort out our SINs (Social Insurance Numbers) so we could get Canadian Bank Accounts. We then headed over to the Island itself where we spent two memorable weeks in a Hostel in the town of Courtenay, enjoying the delights of drug dealing in the corridors, and lying in bed relaxing to the bass heavy music coming from the strip club downstairs.
But things improved dramatically when we got a reply to an ad we'd put on the Mt Washington website looking for a place to rent. A young guy and his wife had two luxury town houses to rent up on the mountain and were looking for a couple to look after them over the season.
All we had to do was to make sure the guests cleaned and tidied before they left, empty the garbage, and keep the driveways and balcony's clear of snow. In return we were given our own suite in one of the properties rent free. We could not believe our luck. And to top it all off, we were about a hundred yards from the chair lift!
So, here we are two months in and we've well and truly settled. Unlike the
The living room.
Andrea enjoying the couch at the end of a hard day at the office. snow.
Last year Mt Washington closed it's lifts in mid April with the most snow of any Canadian resort. But so far we've been enjoying ridiculously high temperatures and slushy, rocky slopes so our boards are already covered in gouges and scratches. The conditions also seem to be keeping the Canadian public away so we have the slopes (well, 40 of the 60) virtually to ourselves.
That said, it really is one of the most stunning resorts. Each morning the instructors are given the privilege of "First Run", to check out the conditions on the slopes. And to stand on top of that mountain and see the sun slowly rise up out of the Pacific Ocean is one of life's truly amazing moments. No matter how icy that first run is, that view at 8.30am sets me up for the day. Truly, truly amazing.
So our daily routine goes something like this.
7.45am Walk up the beginner hill to work (lift doesn't open 'till 9am. Buggers!)
8.20am Morning meeting - role call, snow report, slope conditions, etc.
8.30am First run.
9.00am First "line up". All instructors report to line ups when lesson sheets are handed out
Oh, so this is physical labour...
Clearing the front balcony before it collapses! One down, three to go. saying how many students in each lesson, what level the riders are etc. Lessons can vary from 1 hour to 2 and a half hours so you can miss subsequent line ups. If you don't get a lesson you can go riding!
9.30am Second line up.
10.00am Third line up.
11.00am Fourth line up.
1.00pm Fifth line up.
1.30pm Sixth and final line up. If you don' get a lesson here you're free to ride for the afternoon!
3.30pm Lifts close. Last lessons arrive back. Everyone heads to Fat Teddy's Bar for pitchers of Kokanee! (If we have the money...)
5.30pm I cook a lovely meal for dinner! (OK, Andrea does most of the cooking...)
7.00pm Round someone's house for a bit of socialising, or relax at home on the couch watching a crappy DVD. (We don't have cable, just a selection of films such as Drill bit Taylor and Made Of Honor. Oh joy.)
On our 2 days off each week we tend to get the bus down into Courtenay to do a weekly grocery shop as fresh food is pretty limited up on the mountain. The only other times we venture from our house on the hill
Andrea the rocker!
Our little get together all went horribly wrong as soon as Guitar Hero was plugged in. is if there's some staff event going on such as a party, or a Dodge ball game or something. Otherwise it's just us, the snow, and a bit of night riding every now and again (the slopes are open 'till 9.30pm at weekends).
So there you go! Our life as snowboard instructors. And being the professionals that we are we very rarely go out boozing. I for one learned my lesson from Fernie, so this season it's orange juice for me all the way. I would absolutely never get to the state where I had to be carried home by my lovely girlfriend because I had too much Jack Daniels during a toga party, because that is not the behavior of a 38 year old. Andrea on the other hand is a raging alcoholic.
Paul.
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