I’ve been going to summer snowboard camp for a while now… previous to this summer it’s always been either up in Alyeska, Alaska, or at Mt.Hood in Oregon. This time it was Whistler, BC. One of the best camp experiences for sure… I think the first time is always the best because you have zero expectations, at least that is how I am. But I’m sure I’ll be going back there again. I coached a ton of kids, which is always amusing in its self: things kids say and think are crazy, no? Some are so on it and make me wonder what the hell I was doing at that age. And others make me just say “what the ?!” … all amazing kids. The weather was in and out all summer up there, but we never missed a day. On the good weather days it was Jeff Keenan and I, rollin’ into breakfast at 21 Steps on our BMX bikes with boots hanging from our packs. Eat some breakfast with our groups and then head over to the chair lift at the base of Blackcomb. Two chair lifts, a bus, and another chairlift and we’re at the top of the glacier. Do laps all day through the park. Mini jump, front side hip, “the dip”, mini launch ramp, kink rail, down bar, backside hip, mini launch ramp #2, get on the T-bar and do it all over again. Do that ‘til about 3 pm then roll down, smelly and sticky… put the boards in board check, boots back on the packs, bike to Lost Lake, swim till about 5 or 6, dinner, then ride home. On the not so great days, drive in, breakfast go up the glacier, straight to the small jumps where the “360 crew” which consisted of myself, Jeff and Wes Makepeace would say, “bend your knees”, “go faster”, “spin harder”, and/or “suck your knees up in the air” for a few hours, then grab some buns, cheese and meat from the lunch tent and head up to the “hoers-men hut” for ghetto mochas and put the buns and cheese concoctions in the microwave… eat and then back at it for the remainder of the day. Six days of that in a row, followed by one day of time travel then six more. Multiplied by four and that’s one entire month of my life in a nutshell. Buuuut… with all that Groundhogs’ Day action, it switched up a little for the last session. John Laing graced us with his presence and his recently dislocated shoulder. He came up to judge the Second Annual “Gromfest” and enjoy the scenery. We did a bunch of laps with the little digi still camera on “movie mode” … did a premier for Think Thank’s new video, “Thanks Brain!”, and Naptime films’, “Workplay” … both were received well and seeing the efforts put in by all the riders involved got a lot of us that had been up there all summer motivated again. NOW… fast forward,,. I’ve been workin on Dinosaurs Will Die stuff for the past three weeks or so (amid black outs and time travels… just to help keep sanity) for the past few month I’ve been working on a ‘79 Honda Hawk motorcycle. Just got my license and been taking it out and rippin’ it around. I went to downtown Vancouver for a little spin on Sunday to check out a rail contest that was going on… yeah… a rail contest in August… in the city…??? Wound up by turning this into my first pretty long trip on the bike… thought I’d go check in on Whistler and see how it was doing. I’ve pointed it down a shoot on my snowboard and gotten that “feeling” at the bottom, like, “holy fuck’n shit… that was awesome! You know… that feeling. Now let me tell you.. 100 kmph for two hours on a winding road is just like that, but times 10… or more. Rocks and shit flying at your face isn’t that rad, but I think it’s like paintball, you just get used to it. Jeff was following me up in his truck with his recently/cheaply purchased camper on it. We stopped at a Cat Lake and went for a little swim, then headed on the rest of the way. I stayed up there for the night, and then back to Surrey the next day. I can safely say the whistler is doing just fine still. Now… back to work. The “list” never gets any shorter.