Basically the point of the blog is to keep track/ share the stories, pics, vids of myself and other fellow rippers I have/ hopefully will be meeting at UBC. More or less just to share the stoke with friends, family, enemies and strangers. I apologize for any poor grammar. Keep smiling people.
Pre Season Steezin
After a lovely summer in Dawson Creek filled with shitty summer jobs, water ramps and astro turf rails I was pretty stoked to get back to UBC. I, like any student, enjoy having the summer off, but getting back in class and the falling of the leaves makes my stomach jump with excitement for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, the local resorts are not open year-round and I don't have the resources to shred NZ or SA, so early season shredding generally calls for some form of creativity.
The fall kicked off with a quick water ramp sesh in Whistler with new found hommie, Pierre, and some bouncing on the trampolines at UBC.
These substitutes were all good and fun, but not quite the real thing. The craving for 'REAL MOUNTAINS AND REAL SKIING' took Pierre Millien, Dakota Schlag, Alex Peepre and myself (Michael Apps) on a journey deep into Kits-Country, where we dodged Lulu-Lemon moms, BMWs driving slightly below speed limit and well-behaved suburban children.
After a successful PVC rail sesh in mighty Kits, Pierre Millien, ZachCopland and myself decided to chase more pre-season shred and to session a fun little set-up at North Vancouver's Mount Seymour. Although the snow was limited it was full of good times.
Here is a pre season edit put together by Pierre Millien
VanCrewVer preseason : I Like Real Skiing. from Pierre Millien on Vimeo.
Snowvember
My experiences of opening day at ski hills have been hit or miss, more often than not it consists of shitty snow, rocks and just a few runs open. This season, however, was different at Whistler, gotta love that new Ecuadorian chick, La Niña. Opening day(s) was filled knee deep light pow, and when we were done with that shit fun jumps and rails. Smiles were had by all.
Unfortunately, early season skiing always is a bit of a tease for me, school gets heavy with midterms, essays and finals, I normally have 2-4 weeks where I turn into a robot/hermit, in which I am programmed to ignore skiing, usually a result of a semester of ignoring homework. Others, however keep skiing through this time, even in-spite of homework.
Here is another edit Pierre put together of us on opening weekends, it was enough to fuel me through exams. If you guys enjoyed the edit, feel free to hit the 'like' button on the edit :)
WHAM BAM, Screw you Exams. Lets Go Skiing
Life as a robot during exams was short lived and I was able to go skiing. Good times were had as always. Pierre Millien, Paolo Aranoff and I were able to snag 3rd chair up Glacier opening at Whistler-Blackcomb, think heli skiing pow, but much cheaper, and well not quite as badass.... That was epic but sadly friends got hurt later :( Pierre had a full torn ACL, which will put him out of the season, major bummer, kid was KILLING it. Arun stretched his ACL, but thankfully he'll be back on snow sooner than later with limited riding. Speedy recovery to you both, I wanna see both you guys on snow again soon!
Here's an edit of a tasty pow run Pierre made up Glacier before the injury :( Big ups buddy!
Whistler Glacier chair opening from Pierre Millien on Vimeo.
Home Again, Home Again, Jigitty Jig
After some excellent times and fun skiing in Whistler. I made way back home to Dawson Creek (nothing to do with the show unfortunately). I love the holidays with all its fullness of eating, drinking, visiting and presents, but one of the things I enjoy the most is not feeling guilty for skiing everyday, because I have no job or homework. BUMLIFE. Thus far, I have been able to shred whistler, Powder King and Bear Mountain (B.C., fuck California). And have been loving it. Despite not getting much snow in the last weeks or at all this season, Ryan Clément, Arun Mann and I were able to get some sweet pow pow in our venture to GNARNIA at Powder King, B.C. we just needed to hike a little, and I mean little. For those of you who haven't skied there, believe the hype, this year has been slow but we got knee deep :) if only it were a bit steeper and not so damn cold.
I'll be the first to admit, life in Vancouver has made me weak. As a kid -20c was no big deal to go skiing, now I bitch about anything colder than -10c. But toughing it out in Dawson and Bear Mountain was totally worth it. Bear Mountain had an early opening this year, and I got to spend sometime in memory lane. Thanks Bear! It was awesome seeing all the kids stoked on skiing, and all mini-shredders reppin twins :)
One of the only downsides to Van is that it has limited snow in the city despite mad urban everywhere. So when I go home to Dawson I love to take advantage of the urban with snow. After a day of shredding at PK and a delicious dinner chez-Jackson's. Malcom MacDougal and myself set out to play on this concrete drop at my former elementary school, with the MAD talented Billy Jackson catching the shots. This set-up was super fun, but the in-run was sketchy. We had to get towed for 50 meters in a Church parking lot by Andrew and his truck (thanks man!) And we over-shot the landing pretty much each time. Malcom killed it, one plus to being young is the lack development of the frontal lobe I guess, boy had no fear. Kid was flippin and hand dragging all over the place. Great sesh, after 16 hours on skis I was BEAT.
Heres Some pics by Billy Jackson of Malcom and I playing on the FR drop.
Next up is sessioning the Cresent Park Rail in D.C. and then off to the Rocky Mountains to ski Marmot Basin in Jasper. Stoked.
Merry Christmas all.
Screw Drinking Bourbon lets Slide Christmas Urban
I just finished a fine Christmas dinner with the family. I met up with local Dawson rider Josh Snyder, Billy Jackson and Andrew Jackson to hit up the Cresent Park rail in Dawson. Super fun mellow and greasy rail. Got my first successful urban experience so stoked!Heads a bit cut off, but still Sick shot taken by Billy Jackson. Visit his flickr@
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ltd1982/
Sliding some Northern BC metal (Photo Cred, Billy Jackson, © All Rights Reserved)
Second time round. Can't wait for snow in Vancouver (Photo Cred, Billy Jackson, © All Rights Reserved)
