i come from a land down under

ok so im sat at home ( courtenay )
im listening to men at work i come from a land down under
where women glow and men plunder .....

ok back on track so the past few weeks have been crazy
since my birthday weve had spring break here which has equalled non stop 6 day weeks and even a 9 day stint
so im glad the season ends tomorrow just so i can get a real rest and a lie in
its still been snowing regularly with a dump predicted this week so the mtn has decided to open next weekend too
but my work permit has run out so i cant work

ok so the real craziness started on the last tuesday of march
vania my adorable Chilean roommate told me that there was one last CASI level 1 snowboard instructor course being run that weekend.
so i talked to tom the lad running the course and hey presto i was on it
it was running friday through sunday
unfortuantly i work friday saturday and sundays.....
so after a frantic searching of someone to swap shifts with johno the other chair boss on the green agreed to trade his weds and thurs for my fri and sat ( thanks johno i owe you big time for that ) so this was my 9 day stint
then i did the 3 day course and i passed
i must of had good karma that day
on day one we worked on our riding skills in the morning
sorting out our balance and stance on the board and then moving upwards
we then worked on our pivot and steering which was getting out weight onto the front foot in the start of the turn and just adjust it back a little
then it was onto edging control which as it sounds was having the board on a edge
then its pressure control which is all about absorbing bumps and changes of terrain
and finally timing and co ordination which basically is putting everything together and just having a good flow and nice symmetrical

this took all morning and the next 2 days for me as my riding style was horrible after 7 years of no lessons and 99 days riding that way this season
i had my weight too far back and i needed to stop breaking at the waist and keep my body more upright and my head up more

then in the afternoon we all rode switch ( so your wrong leg forward ) doing a beginner lesson to remember what it was like
so we went through the basics putting on a board skating around slide slipping etc

by this time all our brains were fried ( there was 7 of us )
out of all of us about 4 of us worked on the hill the other 3 i knew 2 simon and maddie

day 2 started and it was gorgeous outside blue skys and super warm
we finished off the second half of the beginner lesson with learning to turn and linking turns

then it was our turn to teach
si nailed the basics
then elmar rocked the skating part
i had slide slipping
it was going well until tom told the group to just follow the fall line and i hadnt taught them how to control direction yet so i ended up with them all scattered over the bunny hill doh
then we went through the rest of the lesson and ended the day with some blasts down the hawk

day 3
i was completely bricking it as today we were teaching 2 lessons each and riding and being evaluated all day
to start the day we were given a class to teach
for my first one i had a private with a 16 year old lad who wanted to go on to riding park
i had a couple of minor things go wrong but it was a pretty solid lesson

for my second lesson i had the basics for a group of 30 somethings on a stag weekend
and i nailed it
we had a great time as a group the 3 lasses joined in and pretended to be guys and we were all laughing and having a good time

and so i passed despite messing up my last run

anyway i then worked my last 3 days of the season mostly on the green chair with johno and german mel and we had a blast
on my last day mel rocked up with a load of naachos for us all and yeh it was just a super fun time and way to end the season with my buds i worked with for most of it plus any day with johno is always hilarious

so on thursday i headed down to victoria as my work permit ran out
i headed up the mtn and did a couple of runs and was going to get the ski shuttle bus down
but the bus wasnt running on thursday
so at 330 i started hitch hiking
first ride was just down the mountain to the highway and maintenance guy mike gave me a ride down
then i started to walk with the thumb out 10 mins later i got a ride from a guy who had a super sweet dog ( taz ) who was an aussie desert dog and had a light gingery and white coat in splodges
he gave me a ride to cumberland which is only 15 mins down the road but every little helps
my next ride was from one of the liftys em who gave me a ride all the way to qualicum beach
so this put me about 12 k's from parksville
i walked about 3 k and then got picked up again by a nice teacher who drove me all the way to the northen side of nanaimo
i then got another ride through nanaimo
and had to start trekking again
15 mins later a nice old bloke in a pick up picked me up and we drove all the way to duncan
this is when i hit trouble
it was getting dark and it was about 830 or 9 so my hopes of getting a ride wernt too high so i started trekking again
and probably got 5 ks before i got a ride
just before i got the ride i was at the point of just jumping the side barrier and going to sleep as i was hella tired and thaught i would have better luck in the morning
luckily a stella lass picked me up because her brother was hitch hiking in the other direction and she thaught it would give him some good karma also she said i was damn hard to see in the dark and she didnt want to be killing anyone tonight
we had a great time just chatting the entire way to victoria she was studying opera at uni
she was nice enough to drop me right to the door at my old place

right thats half the story more to come tomorrow