fluid??

so that is the question do we go to fluid tonight or not
it is margaritta night as vania quite happily pointed out
now i have one Daniel Charles Butler with me
and its awesome
first time weve hung out just me and him since ummmm last february and that ummmm adventurous trip to plymouth
so he arrived in country on the 22nd
and dearest chelsea kinda forgot we were going to drive to nanamio ( where you get the ferry to vancouver from ) together and so i had to take the public transit and impliment plan B
so it started with a 30 minute trek
then a 2 hour greyhound ride in gorgeous sunshine
then another 30 minute trek
then a ferry ride to horseshoe bay
and we were late so i missed my bus so i implimented plan B version 2.0
so had to get the next one
which was absolutely packed no one else could fit in ( this was due to it being a vancouver vs montreal hockey game that night which the habs won the sods )
we then proceeded to travel from west van to downtown
hitting a car on route so everyone fell over in the bus
yep then into the middle of vancouver to take the sky train ( like a tube ) to vancouver airport
at this stage i was 40 minutes late and ready for butler to rip on me for always being late
and low and behold the little sod wasnt even there ( haha i win )
so we end up staying at my cousin gins for the night on tuesday. we also hung out with my buddy saskia and had beers and nachos while watching the game
then on weds we did the opposite trip
but the road from parksville to qualicum beach was supppper snowy and took like twice as long so we didnt arrive back till later than planned
we just crashed weds night
then thursday i had an epic day working at the boomerang then back to home to grab a butler then head out to troys birthday shindig
this included a 30 minute freezing walk while consuming a few bevvies
it was good fun we all had a few jars butler met the gang and then we missioned home as i had work the next day and dan wanted to go ride
so d b had a great day riding as it was blue skys and i had a hangover
and a hella busy green chair but i worked with cheeko and maxime ( 1 3rd of the french invasion ) and cheeko was his normal bubbly self we were sword fighting ( with ski poles ) and then a guy had a tiger hat on and i had to come out with a classic monty python quote
( from the meaning of life )
a tiger in canada
and then cheeko proceeded to shout get back get back while jabbing his ski pole at him the guy just laughed
anywhos we are going to the bar
so peace

damn Cheeko

so as the title says

damn Cheeko

him and myself decided on the bus ride home today ( i must mention after a couple of beers ) that it would be a good idea to hit up the local all you can eat fish and chips place tonight

seeing as it was only 10 dollars each

so we did and between us demolished 14 pieces of fish ( ive got to say im a little disgusted by the amount we ate ) and chips

and now im definatly in a food coma

i feel super sluggish and sleepy

darn boy

so its been a while and weve had epic powder now

yay

last weekend so the weekend of the 11th 12th ish of feb it just started bucketing snow ( courtesy of El Nina ) and it didnt stop for pretty much a week so weve had all the powder hounds out here every day

I got super lucky with my days off and scored tuesday, which just happened to be the day the boomerang finally was open ( the black double diamond runs ) , and even more luckily i was out riding with benny, chelsea, sam , em and maria just as the boom opened so we were in the first probably 20 people to get back there, it being benny and mine's first taste of the back side of the boom on 3 days worth of untouched powder

and it was incredible probably the best snowboarding ive ever had

riding in a crew with everyone getting fresh tracks and just exploring while ripping down super fast ahhh it was soo good

i only did a few runs then headed over to the front side as every man and his dog headed onto the back side and the front side was nearly as epic the glades arent as tight as on the backside so its a bit easier and it was just super fun , quick rides down and then a short 3 minute ride back up.

The next day i was working the boom with em who challenged me to a table football rematch ( at the meet and great i kind of completely destroyed her at least 5 times )

so after another great day where i got fresh tracks again ( it was equally as good as the frontside the day before ) we had a solid hour of playing hacky sack after me and big steve finished our beers ( we had decided to climb onto the lift hut for a better view and we found one so we sat up there ) see picture , shauna joined in as did grady and a couple of others after this picture was taken

so me and em went to the cona and played it was super fun then we remembered she had her hola hoops in her car so she decided to teach me how to

i kind of got it...

but im still pretty bad

i then worked thursday through sunday on the green chair and it was probably the busiest ive ever seen it

even busier than christmas week

but i managed to keep calm and not kill anyone

i even enjoyed it most of the time

except for the instance when i had to grab a young lady from falling out of the chair and shove her back in ( at head height ) and while doing this her board swung round in a perfect arc and cracked right into my ribs

i went down pretty much like a sack o spuds

not so fun

but today was on the boom and had a real good time i was working with one of the new french lads so was trying to speak some french and darn im rusty im going to make a good effort to speak some french each day to polish off the old grey matter

and then again after work someone busted out the hacky sack

and streuth me and grady were on it as was man tracker

was some freaky zone we were in when man tracker flicked it up to me and it went over my head so i turned and bicycled kicked it and grady some how managed to keep it in play for us to go around the world again

man tracker managed the same move later on

but the amazing one was cheeko

who joined in on his crutches .... ( he fractured his ankle hitting a tree stump )

and managed to kick it with his good foot, while his crutch dug in spinning him off balance, kind of fell and then managed to kick it with his bad foot for man tracker to keep the sack up

was incredible

and on the subject of injuries

ive managed to stay pretty free ( touch wood ) but a few of the boys have gone down hard this past week cheeko with his ankle rutter did his knee cap ( surgery jobby as the cap moved but the leg didnt ) and flo who has broken his humerous cleany

ive just tweaked my knee so im back to wearing the brace

anyway

peace

hallo

righto

im sat in the kitchen of my new place

well room in a new place

its a nice little place ( emphasis on little)

im sat drinking a lemsip with honey and a little fireball ( local whiskey )

as im still trying to shake this cold which has been festering since pretty much christmas

but luckily i have the next couple of days off so i can look after myself a little

so last time i was in victoria

im back in courtenay now

on the corner of 11th and fitzgerald

its good to be out of the hostel its my first night in the new house and im enjoying the just quiet

also im looking forward to a good kip with no peruvians snoring or drunken aussies stumbling through the dorm with their ipods blaring

im still really enjoying my time here snowboarding most days

got my knee crocked again yesterday just as i was getting it back to where it was before it got crocked first time round

this time i was helping up a youngster and said youngster flailed around with their snowboard on getting what i must admit was a fantastic arc on it straight into my knee

oh ho hum was the exact phrase used

so staying off it will help

the snow here is pretty icey at the moment

we had 5 cms a couple of nights ago but we could really use a good dump

im getting rather excited as a certain mr butler junior is coming out in a few weeks to help celebrate my 21st

dad always told me i would be lucky to survive till 16 so 21 really is a milestone for myself

its been pretty much all work for the past couple of weeks other than the few days off when ive just snowboarded really

i find that if i spend a day where i dont up to the mountain i get fidgity and wonder what the snow is like and how the visability is

i think im turning into what is known as a powder fiend

all the liftys seem to be a little down due to the lack of powder at the moment

same syndrome as surfers when the seas flat

weve had a good couple of nights out as a group

one for doms 19th (legal drinking age here)

and another was a nice little shindig at faffo's to celebrate getting paid so we had a few drinks at her place even the bosses showed up it was a nice chilled evening

we had a mount washingtons got talent event the other night

where the liftys very own mr p rudder came a creditable second before getting kicked out of the bar for ummmm de robing

truely hilarious

ive started hitting the features in the snowpark

one of the english instructors , jay, is also a park instructor so he took me and a couple of others through the park to just show us the basics

so we hit the medium stuff straight off

and now im trying the small stuff and cant seem to do it

just over jump it or in the case of the box it just kicks my arse everytime

im super glad im wearing my helmet its saved me a few times now definatly my most sensible purchase in 2010

weve endured temps as low as minus 15 in the past couple of weeks its been freezing luckily my new favourite hoodie is quilted so it keeps me resonably warm

anyway time for bed

cheerio chaps

oh this is a picture of my christmas eve 2010

before i lost not my camera

but somehow just the battery

blaah

happy new year

happy new year guys
so its 9 am im sat in vic drinking a cuppa at my old place
i got here 12 hours ago as both my knees are a little knackered at the moment so coming down here for a couple of days will stop me riding and give them some down time
also my good friend em is heading back to aus on the 20th and i wouldnt be able to get down here between now and then to say ta rah
i had a strange christmas and new year
it was the first one away from home and as all the guys were working all the time ( its the busiest time of year for the mountain ) it didnt really feel like christmas
me and the guys partied most of the time to make up for this so a few hungover days at work lead me to taking a couple of weeks off of the partying
give the organs a little time to relax

so we had that fantastic snow all the way up till the holiday break and then suddenly it was bright sunshine for literally the entire christmas and new year period perfect conditions
all the groomed runs were super fast and i was so glad that ive taken to wearing a helmet after a few ass over tit bails
one of them was literally 3 full rotations
the neck did feel a little compressed after that but after a good nights sleep it was fine
at the time i did think that man if i was a gymnast that would have been a perfect ten score

so i ended up working about 12 or 13 out of 14 days which just left me dead but it was all good fun as everyone was as busy so we just got on with it
although as i got the green chair boss position ive spent most of my time either picking kids up at one end or throwing them on the chair at the other
needs a lot of patience and im learning to just roll with it

i did get angry at one pair though
but after i had vented everything else was finne
although the buzzer in the top lift hut is right at ear level and on new years day the buzzer was soo piercing and i did wince every time it went off
said buzzer has now been covered with a sock just to take the edge off

some of the sunrises and sunsets ive seen from the top of lifts have just been beautiful views of the mountains and sea with scenery that looks like someones photo shopped it
the best is the backside of the boomerang
a lift that goes up and over a peak
you can see all the way across to mainland bc
and the rockies
and just breath taking

i officially love tree runs now
having spent the past couple of weeks on groomed runs as soon as we got some fresh snow just 25 cm or so it was straight into the gladed areas
i had the day off along with cody and english edd
so we went
shralpin ( riding )
we started off trying out the frontside of the boomerang ( the double black diamond only lift ) and the glades there still needed more snow so we went lower to the riptide glades ( single black diamond ) and just awesome boarding in there
we were playing follow my line
everyone trying to take an even more squirrelly line each run
as well we were playing lets see how fast we can do this
so a hella lot of fun was had
my favourite line was probably the one were we dropped down the steepest part of the glades through the tightest trees ( generally about 2ft gaps if not less ) and then out of nowhere there was a good 5 to 6 ft drop
didnt realise
hit it fast got some air and managed to keep it was awesome feeling
anyway
peace guys
happy new year

powder powder and ohhh umm more powder

first things first
ryan kessler just scored an awesome single handed goal to put the canucks up 2 1 against columbus
woooo
so myself disco and sammy are sat watching the hockey
its pretty much the standard evening 3 times a week a couple of beers while watching the games
love it !
secondly
im acheing all over
2 huge party nights the rookie party ( messy night white tee shirts and permanant markers were the name of the game ) and the meet and greet ( where the table football machine got dominated my time in sixth form obviously wasnt wasted ) as well as 2 days of solid powder greatness
so yeh not a lot of sleep with 6 hours of snowboarding a day in deep fresh crisp gorgeous powder and im pretty much dead
but ive got a 6 day on the bounce stint on the lifts
im really excited for my ride breaks tomorrow as when i left the hill it had been snowing for a good hour and was coming down hard so more fresh powder will rock tomorrow
im working the sunrise lift which so far is my favourite (despite it taking 2 good shots at me and it knocking me head over tit and the resulting shoulder hurting like a bugger )
its got some of the most full on fun runs on the mountain
i think im going to session my fave little loop of lintons into the cat track ( a thinish winding track through the trees, which is primarilly a snowmobile route ) and then onto invitation which is a steep wide blast straight down with a few big old rollers to get your air on
i could sesh that all day
haha so i had a great day today
i spent pretty much all day riding with little jorden
shes a super sick chick she race's moto x and is just always happy and positive its infectious
But before i went riding with her me and little cody had a couple of runs through the glades
was fun but we got super stuck at one point on a little roll into an uphill bit and darn it was hardwork

so yeh riding with jorden was awesome she was just like lets go here i think i rode here before
and that was the start of our powder adventure
through the trees just bombing it off little jumps and stuff sooo much fun
all though we got lost a few times it rocked

then we bumped into english edd and his mate tom so we rode with them off of the hawk lift just bombing the runs sometimes through the trees sometimes on the groomers but hell it was fun

one time off the top of the lift i bumped into rudder troy and nic so we went and had a fun little sesh just looning around getting the surf style going

we were just loving hitting big back side turns and sort of bashing lips just spraying everything everywhere
i wish we had got some pics of that

then the day was over so we dropped off our gear and headed to fat teddys for a well earned beer

awesome day
awesome snow
awesome company
just awesome

tj

the aussie invasion

hey guys
so its about the 8 of december
have been in the courtenay area since the 22nd dont quote me on that though.
My conclusion is i love it up here
got a great crew of lads and lasses most of them seem to be those aussies though
so ive learned how to say i am from australia from cam
it goes something like this
im frommmm 'stralllliiiaaaa
he's one of the cona lads
The cona lads being Cam aka disco Austin aka snowflake ed aka ed... (hasnt done anything stupid enough to get a nickname) sam (the one local guy in the entire hostel) and myself aka weasley (we could all see that one coming)
The crew has changed a little from the start we lost dando, flo, zac and will various houses around town but they still pop in for a little table football session or if theres something going on in an evening this seems to be the converging place.
so to work
we've opened
did that last friday (the 3rd)
luckily i had the day off so with austin and johno ( my future roomie up on the mountain ) we spent the day boarding and we had blue sky weather
it was fantastic
hit up the powder for the first time ever in my life and darn its fun just hearing that crumple crumple under your feet
takes a bit of getting used to but im starting to get it
friday night was chilled as we had been on the beers on thursday as we had the day off on friday
then saturday had my first real day of work
i was on the hawk lift ( its a high speed 6 pack lift ) its possibly the busiest lift on the mountain as it gives access to the boomer lift (this is the lift to the back side of the mountain which is full on double black runs ) but also has a couple of super easy green runs and a few fun blue runs so every man and his dog and his kid come through this lift as it has the most varied terrain.
and it was awesome
another blue sky day
there was 6 of us working it instead of the usual 4 just because it was opening weekend so we paired up into 3 teams
me and dezy
austin and the south african girl
then the 2 aussie lasses faf and caris
so that made 1 brit 1 south african and 4 aussies a nice commenwealth team
we did all the set up put the gates out sorted the ramp out stuck up the signs tested the instrument panels worked and they we fired her up
me and desy took first shift at the bottom with faf and caris up the top
austin and his partner went for a ride break
then we rotated so me and desy were up the top with faf and caris riding
we kept rotating throughout the day
it worked a treat
so got in a good hour and a half of riding in total
was stokkkeeed
sunday i was on the whiskey jack with dave'o mattie and ed
sunday couldnt have been any different to saturday
cold winds fog and snow
the best place to be was at the top of the lift in the drive station hut
it was soooo warm
due to the weather and the lack of people coming on the lift we just had a half day so we were all done by midday so riding was the name of the game
sunday night we ended up at faf's place and we had a little gathering
monday was a day off so rode all day
monday night was karioke in the avalanche
it resulted in someone deciding that we (as a group of lifties ) should sing bohemian rhapsody
only problem was when it was time only me and alex went up with the rest of them either being wusses or out having a fag
so we were left up there to die untill suddenly the other 8 of us ran up jumped onto the stage and we rocked it out haha
tuesday was more riding but we had this horrible super wet powder that just stuck so you couldnt get anywhere fast and as it was snow/raining you got super soaked after a few mins so after 4 or 5 runs me and ben (aussie ben) decided to go sit and drink coffee / hot chocolate in the lodge
it was a great idea got warm drank free hot chocolate
and i even bumped into mike the mechanic from kabuki
was good to catch up
and thats that
love
x

weekend off

hey guys
so this is the first post of the Mt Washington BC era
im still in the cona
and will be for a month which im excited about as we have a great crew of guys here some Aussies a couple of Brits a German or 2 and the token Canadian.
We've done our lifty training which included char lift evacuations which basically meant half the group sat up on the lifts for 45 mins to an hour (we of course were second to last so it was an hour) in a blizzard.
I was on a chair with Austin and Ed and unfortunatly our chair was missing the safety bar and as te chair stopped austin looked down and mentioned that heights wernt really his thing.
a load of waiting around later heckling the people saving us we were rescued
this involved throwing up a rope to the haul rope ( the heavy cable the chairs are attached to) and then a kind of wooden chair gets tied to the rope
then you get on the rope and are belayed down to safety
well thats the plan but our guys struggled a little the fact that the girl who was belaying us deffo didnt weigh as much as us resulted in someone having to put weight on her.
All down safe then we swapped round
A bunch of us have got nick names already and then range from the obvious oi weasley ( or weasel ) to me to disco for cam ( a result of him crip walking through every dance floor he sees) lens cap for conrad the big ol kiwi who took 150 pics on friday night with the lens cap on. Then theres ryan who looks scarily like mc lovin so that was a given
you guys get the idea
As we've had early starts in a evening its been pretty much grab a beer and watch the hockey or play some table football (im the cona's undisputed champ atm )
but we've been told that the starts get even earlier
as the bus that runs to the mountain leaves at 630 am
ahh well just means late nights are off the cards a lil more
the liftys have got the party rep already after friday and saturday with other departments trying to organise stuff also but they dont seem to be able to
50 lifties hitting courtenay on friday was a sight to be seen

anyway i think thats about that

oh yeh 42 cm of snow on thursday and another 30 cm on friday morning
and another 20 cm last night

so we are opening on the 3rd :) woop

peace