James was gracious enough to take me up to Cypress mountain for some snowboarding action, I was a bit apprehensive as I know James is fanatical and I was worried I'd be spoiling his day. Luckily James was good enough to find some areas that we both enjoyed, the runs we were doing were generally thick with powder so I did feel that I could crash all day and not worry about it. In fact I was the source of some amusement at the lift queues as I looked like a living abominable snowman!

We ran into James' friend Mark towards the end of the morning, he uses telemark skis and is simply amazing to watch. He's a naturally modest guy, very easy going and fun to be with, so this was a fantastic day!

Mark and James

Powder! Powder!

About to run into half a dozen trees.....

 

Well, we woke up to a fantastic white Christmas, my first ever in fact.

We drove over to Jac's house for some yummy Christmas lunch with the Bateman family, followed by plenty of wine and beers before crashing out. George was on form and ridiculously excited over so many present arriving at once, he didn't seem to know what to do with himself. :)

George by the tree

 

Father and son making George's new toy

A White Christmas

Well we had plenty of snow overnight, so Jac and I decided to hit Grouse Mountain for a bit of sister-brother time. Jackie was an amazingly good snowboarder of course, despite not hitting the slopes for a couple of years, so it was up to me to try and keep up.

The snow was amazing and we were flying high all day, a great intro to a snowboarding season!

Some snow

Jac get's ready to throw some moves

Grouse just has some amazing views!

Well, the snow has fallen but the local longboarding crew doesn't stop just because it's a bit cold. With temperatures hitting negative figures, we bombed a local hill until our fingers were numb and our feet were tingling.

I finally felt confident enough to hit the hills with the big boys, although I trashed my shorts and put my gloves to good use. Of course, no one else was dumb enough to wear shorts, I was just trying to blend in :)

Another fun, if mental, day.

 

As I said in an earlier post, the local Longboarding scene is huge in Vancouver and the locals are big on organised events. Striker, I don't know his real name, likes to organise a toy rally every Christmas for the local kids. The toys are deposited at the local t.v. station headquarters, and every longboarder is asked to bring along a $5 gift.

I turned up with a couple of water pistols, not expecting much, but Striker and a few others turned up in Santa costumes and we skated through the middle of Vancouver! 40 skaters, going through red lights, overtaking cars, stopping traffic and generally having a whale of a time. Luckily Canadians are very easy going, so even the cops were simply laughing along. I can't imagine what would happen if we tried this through the city of London!

We finished off with a cruise around the seawall, Stanly park. A fun filled and exhausting day.

 

 

CTV headquarters, delivering our presents.

Striker

 

Downtown

Stanley Park

 

 

Striker, exhausted after a long day.

The Sunshine Coast is really a summer destination, but we took in a few of the local sites (secretly hoping not to run into a grumpy bear that had forgotten to hibernate)

 

Secret Beach, not so secret with a great big signpost.

 

 

 

 

West Canada is the home of longboarding, so I figured that I had to partake whilst in the homeland.  So I picked up a board from the Landyachtz factory and practiced standing upright.

In Vancouver, the longboard community is very strong and they have a great number of organised events. For the winter, this is a weekly "Saturday Session" where they bomb hills and slide corners. I was lucky enough to be around for the first one of the winter so popped along only to find out that I was the oldest by a good ten years and seriously lacking in the ability department. (The first person I talked to was "Scoot", the current world downhill champion)
So I took out my camera and watched the carnage.

We "bombed" about 4 hills, spending around 30-45 minutes at each spot before it became too "hot". Combined with the amount of weed being smoked made this feel like a bit of a dodgy endevour, but it was worth it for the good laugh I had.

I also found my dream car, "The Eh Team" van. Awesome.

I rented a flat on the Sunshine Coast, in Vancouver, for a month as a place to relax and generally have a good time. The apartment was the top half of a house and was pretty fantastic looking, the views were spectacular and the location was handy for the shops and restaurants. The local fish restaurant, Smittys Oyster Bar, had a special surf 'n' turf which I'll never forget, amazing steak and lobster.

Unfortunately we had the landlady from hell, who wouldn't leave us alone and complained about the amount of electricity we were using (in the middle of winter?)

Anyway, it was a great location but we were very glad to leave at the end of the month.

 

The view

 

The Lounge

The local transportation

 

Whilst James, Jac, George, Poppy and myself were taking a walk along Kitsilano beach, we came across a reporter about to do a live weather report. Well, before we knew it she had roped George into appearing with her on the live broadcast.

We were in a mixture of shock and hilarity. Brilliant.

Jac and James managed to get hold of the footage later, something to be used later in his life when he's a professional cyclist?

Halloween in North America is obviously a big thing and I was stoked to be around for it. George and his best friend, Evan, went trick or treating and it was hilarious to see their faces once they realised that free candy was in the offering.
George was in a fireman's outfit, courtesy of Granny Annie, and Evan was Bob the Builder.
By the end of the night, the two kids were barging past door openers and shoveling fists full of candy into their carrier bags, but they looked so cute that no one minded.

Then, once George had gone to bed, we shared the candy between us, fully aware that George will have forgotten by the morning and that "it's bad for him anyway"
I briefly felt guilty, but the chocolate was too good. :)



George preparing to go out



George and best friend, Evan



"Give us Candy!"