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Published: February 4th 2010
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So this is the 1st time ive ever written a blog, I may ramble but hopefully it will make you feel like you are sharing my experiences as I travel over these next 5 months 😊
I guess I should start by talking about the leaving doo i attended in liverpool the night before i flew over to Canada. It was friday night and due to much persuasion (mostly from Kate) i drove up to liverpool for some Karaoke and fun times. It was great meeting Kates friend Emma and hanging out with her sister Sarah as well as seeing the surf club peoples, Karaoke was a lot more fun (and crazy) than i was expecting.
It was a really good night with some emotional farewells before i made the 5 hour drive home at 1am.
I arrived home at 6am, got 3 hours sleep, finished packing and headed to heathrow's terminal 5 with my mum and sister. The flight took 9 hours, i watched "The Ugly Truth" and some episodes of friends. I got chatting to the bloke sitting next to me who was from Tramore, near Waterford on the south coast of Ireland. I was telling him
about a surf trip i made around Ireland with friends at easter and he was recommending a load of spots to surf at next time because he's been surfing in Ireland since 1966.
I landed in Vancouver 7pm local time and took a 2hour shuttle bus to Whistler. Im staying in a Bed and Breakfast just down the road from Whistler Village which is owned and run by Paul and Helga. Paul is Dutch, he is a snowboarding instructor in the winter and a downhill mountain bike instructor in the summer. Helga is German and she is an artist and novelist. They are a lovely couple; really friendly and helpful. The B&B is really plush and well decorated with Helga's art, and its got a hot tub jacuzzi on a balcony looking out on the mountains.
I got to bed saturday night at 10pm and awoke the next day at 9am, Helga made me an amazing breakfast of omelete and Grenola (like mueseli). I headed into whistler village which is only a 5-10minute bus ride away and met up with my friend Johnny who is out here doing a snowboard season. I bought ski passes and we hit
the slopes. The snow was really nice quality but visibility was terrible- lots of fog. This is my first time snowboarding on a mountain, ive only done the indoor fake snow at home before this; so it was a bit scary but I felt so free riding down vast slopes.
We finished riding at 3.30pm (which is when the ski lifts stop) and went back to johnnys appartment which is a 5 minute walk from the slopes, then walked through Whistler village. There are lots of stage constructions and preparations going on for the winter olympics which start here in 2weeks time. Johnny had to go to work in a video rental shop so i headed back to my B&B and got in the hot tub. It's an amazing experience, just imagine its 5 degrees outside and you walk over to the balcony in nothing but your boardies and climb into a bubbling jacuzzi thats 35 degrees, theres steam coming off the water and you sit back and look over the balcony to the snow covered slopes and pine trees; get an ice cold beer in your hand and its perfection.
The next day we headed out onto
the slopes again but this time finished by going to a bar at the bottom of Blackcomb mountain, they served plates of nachos so we asked for a half sized portion and it was massive! It was a struggle for the two of us. (hopefully i'l upload a picture).
Today (wed) Johnny and I made an early start on the slopes and he had to leave at 12 to go and work but i bumped into his housemates at a bar on top of one of the slopes just after he left and they said they would show me some other slopes i hadnt been to. At this point my snowboarding skills have improved massively, i can comfortably carve both ways and have hit some jumps and pulled off some indy grabs. Im starting to really enjoy it, much more than i ever did with skiing.
We finished riding at 3.30 and i went to visit Johnny at work, the thing is people here are so friendly, if you look at a map or look a bit unsure people will come up to you and ask if you're okay. Everyone smiles at you and asks how your day's going,
its really nice. What i find funny is the lack of Canadians here though. I asked a bartender and he said the population is pretty much 45% English, 45% Austrailian and 10% Canadian. All staff here wear names tags that also say where they're from.
So I think thats pretty much all ive been up to these last five or so days, hope it hasnt been too boring reading about my everyday adventures. Im now going to try to upload some pics, hope it works! please subscribe to this blog so that when i add more you wil get email notifications, feel free to write comments and give feedback. Also send me your address if you want a postcard.
Chris
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Ben Carter
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WOOOOW
Heya Chris. Sounds like you're off to a good start. Sounds pretty sweet already. Good to see you're becoming a pro boarder :P. Keep the blog going. I reckon you'll have some interesting stories to tell. And me and Sam (says hi) will get some names of places to go and things to do when you get to Australia and New Zealand. Have a wicked time man xxxxxxxxx much love Ben