About noon on Wednesday afternoon i got an invitation to go to Baldface Lodge in Nelson BC to spend 4 days w/ the Skullcandy crew and a number of other retailers, athletes and partners from all reaches of North America… though probably the busiest and worst time to leave town, i could not say no. I found a place for Penny to stay for the weekend, waxed my board, and cleared my meetings and next thing i know its 14hrs later and im in route to a place where dreams come true.

Now when i say dreams come true in this place im not just saying my dreams…because this place is certainly bigger than me and my random antics. I have seen and heard about this place through friends, magazines and stories over the years and to be able to join an incredible crew on the trip to this epic destination with some pretty legit history, lets just say i was beside myself.

To get here we hopped a flight to Spokane, where we then met the 30′ish person crew and cruised across the border on a charter bus into Nelson BC. Once in Nelson we hopped on helicopters and took a 5min flight to Baldface Lodge. The crew and the resort itself are top shelf and i still can’t believe im here!

Conditions have been bluebird, no new snow to speak of but we managed to find some great stashes…. and we were the first cat crew to slash Baldface peak for the first time.

This evening i got a rare and truly spiritual opportunity to share a moment with a legend, two legends actually. Our guide and certainly a canadian guiding legend took Kate and myself up to a ridge right above the lodge to meet another legend, Craig Kelly. A memorial to Craig sits overlooking Baldface Lodge and sitting up there, hearing Buf talk about Craig, his history and involvement with the development of the lodge and their experiences traveling and riding together, i really felt like i was part of something special… watching and living out other people’s dreams right along side my own.

…

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Golden Gardens sunset!!!

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Okay, this is random from Friday but i just liked it.  It was at Chili Paste Thai restaurant in Fremont.  I like that the woman depicted reminds me of Frida Kahlo (a less Mexican, more Asian and not wearing a top version of her) for some reason, as well the fact that the sign was written in broken Engrish.  You don’t have to like it too, just let me have my fun mmmmk?

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Its THAT time of year again… when the world as I know it converges on Whistler for a week long celebration of snowsports, music arts and culture…and debauchery of course.

This year Orage sent a grip of evo employees and 2 lucky contest winners from Seattle up to the Orage Masters event… managers across the company nominated their hardest working employees and they were rewarded with an (almost) all expenses paid trip to Whistler as VIP’s.

Rollin’ deep at about 15 people including our contest winner Hans and his girlfriend Jennifer…we loaded up our caravan and crossed our fingers that everyone would make it across the border!  It was a pretty standard road trip..  traffic getting out of the city, gas station stops for cheap coffee and a rearview mirror dreamcatcher (see photo), Casa Que Pasa in Bham for lunch and one last potty break in Squampton before rolling in to Whistler.

After minor confusion and some tweaks w/ the lodging we got almost everyone in a bed and enough time to chill before heading to Sushi Village.  We had a reservation for 18 and managed to squeeze 23 bodies into the backroom… was cozy, but i think everyone knew eachother, and if they didn’t they do now!  evo team rider Anthony Boronowski and his rad lady friend Spencer O’brien and a couple friends dropped in to help us enjoy our feast!  it was obscene the amount of food that landed on the table.. SO good, thanks sushi village!

That night we cruised around and had a couple drinks before, during and after the big air finals and eventually called it a night.

The next day we went on the hill to ride and watch the Orage Masters “Anti Comp”.  Visibility was kind of..no wait, pretty poopy, but the comp was pretty sick.  I hadn’t seen it first hand before… good vibe, incredible talent and hillarious costumes and contributions put forth by each of the teams.

After the Masters we tried to take it easy… $5 burgers at Merlin’s and a powernap before the after party.  Mmmmmmk, next stop Amsterdam where we Ameoba’d as many people as possible.. Sophia, Schmies, Wibby, Jeff, Joey, Tyler, Cheryl, Timmers…  all my favorites.. anyhow,  eventually we made it to the Savage Beagle.  Recap = dance party + photobooth + free drinks + good times.

By the time Monday rolled around i was sad to see everyone heading out the door.  Ill be sticking around through the week to check out the Filmmaker Showdown, the Photo Showdown and all the music arts and culture Telus has to offer…. more to come….

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Yeah, Renton has a reputation, a not so good reputation. If you tell someone you are heading to Renton, you have to pronounce it “rent-in” or “rent’n” dropping the “o” so that it sounds ghetto when you reference the evolving epicenter of sprawl at the sphincter of Seattle’s wild side.

So my big brother Bret lives in Renton. If i could’ve had any say in his 2nd house purchase i most certainly would’ve swayed him to buy closer to Seattle in ooooh say Ballard or Wallingford or something…. but no, he got a quaint little 3 bedroom fixer upper off of the Maple Valley highway, a few minutes past 405. Anyhow, needless to say i kicked and screamed and a ton at first everytime i had to go visit. Over time, and as the renovations started to reshape the home as i had originally known it to be, the Renton area started to grow on me. His home went from a rotting, foundationless, cat pee saturated shell to a modern, cozy escape from my bustling city life. I now find myself spending more time in Renton in Seattle these days it seems. I mean he has the dog, the yard, the 2 car garage, fireplace…the works. Granted you can have this in the city but this one doesn’t.

Over the summer we would go for bike rides along the Maple Valley trail and would make our way into the revitalized downtown sector where i found myself almost at home. New small businesses and cafe’s are opening every day it seems and the welcoming, small town feel takes me way back.

My all time favorite is the Whistle Stop, but a close second that i recently discovered is Cafe Lure which is an extension of Calico Cheesecake and the Tapestry Saloon. We had a prawn linguine and a ceasar salad, and of course we had to try the cheesecake, we ordered a Tiramisu. All get 10’s on my score card.

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I have a fetish with old decrepit barns. Is that weird? I’m absolutely enthralled by them. I always have been. I grew up traveling the states every summer with the P’s. We’d pack up in their RV and travel the states. The end goal was always the east coast to visit my mom’s family. Grandpap and Grandma were in Pennsylvania and the sister, Uncles and Aunts scattered amongst Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and so on. So yeah, each summer we’d pick a new route and by the time i was out of college i had hit all 50 US states. Yeah, there were a couple trips i had to pepper in there on my own, and my brother and i had stopped traveling with mom and dad in our first couple years in high school when we discovered alcohol, the opposite sex and well, basically just trouble.

So in our travels it was easy to get bored as a kid sitting in the backseat of a dually pickup hauling a 5th wheel, or riding shotgun next to my dad in the Jayco “C” class. You can only play the handheld Blackjack game so many times with out wanting to throw it out the window, or rather dad wanting to throw you out the window from the annoying beeps and sounds the game makes. We would eat, sleep, me and my brother would fight, you know how it goes. You’d find yourself staring blindly at the repetitive landscapes for miles, and miles, and miles… and when something, anything comes up it is exciting… barns happened to be one of those somethings for me. I would start to notice their different shapes, ailing states, or in more rare cases the new life surrounding them.

To this day i always notice barns along my travels. Each time i pass one i think how cool it would be to do a Barn Calendar. Okay, maybe cool isn’t the right word, but i’d get a lot of satisfaction out of taking a US Roadtrip with no mission other than to get shots of barns, maybe do some random artsy filmy things with them….

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So I’m watching Fox News right now and just heard that homeless people are able to register to vote using landmarks such as park benches or other physical structures within a neighborhood as their permanent address, ha! Good for those homeless people who are interested in making their voice heard. I can’t imagine how distant any change could seem for someone in their position, and the thought of voting must seem like a waste of time but I think their efforts speak volumes to the need for change.

In other news, Kim Jong Il is very ill with a life threatening infliction…speaking of change, I wonder what lies ahead for North Korea, the North and South conflict. I wonder if ill see a peaceful resolution in Korea in my lifetime? I really believe that change is upon us… not just here in the states, global tides are turning.

Politics aside, they are reporting 19” inches of snow in upstate New York and even some snow on the ground in New Jersey. Can’t wait to see some of those numbers on the West Coast soon! Being here in Costa Rica has brought a sense of calm and introduced a needed balance to my life at this time… something that somewhat mirrors the sense of euphoria that overcomes me when I’m in the mountains, around mountain people, more specifically Whistler. I look around at people who live and breathe high tide and have situated their lives around being near the surf and this lazy or rather less is more way of life. Though duly needed at this time in my life- it opened my eyes to what will hopefully become my balance – I however know that this life isn’t my life. I thrive on change and upward movement, knowledge, discovery and adventures. I can’t wait to strip down to almost nothing and to surf again but more than that, I can’t wait to be back in the NW with about 4 layers of breathable, water resistant materials on my back with a 149cm piece of wood under my feet…. As these kids love surfing, I love snowboarding and I can’t wait to get back home to drown myself in what I love…the industry, the people and the pure exhilarating that nothing, absolutely nothing else in this world can give to me as snowboarding can.

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High tide isn’t till 2:45 today so there’s a lot of time to be productive before we head out to the water today… in an effort to save a couple bucks I headed out to do some grocery shopping, mail some postcards and maybe do some souvenir shopping.  I hopped on andrew’s bike and dropped into a few spots to see if they could mail my postcards and ran into a ton of dead ends, meh, ill do it later.  The street vendors and local shops weren’t quite open, the streets were just barely waking up at a lazy 10:00am.  Some street vendors were opening their shutters, but most were still closed.  I peddled on and ended up at Mas X Menos, the local grocery store.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon I chilled out, made some great Costa Rican coffee, had some breakfast and read for a bit until it was time to go surfing!

Sooooooo, not sure if I have yet to mention it but my friend Andrew Hansen is a Saint.  Those of you who know Andrew, aka Hammer, you already know this.  For those of you who have yet to be graced by his presence, ill have you know that I could spend the rest of my life in an aggressive pursuit for someone kinder and more considerate than this man, and I would be hard pressed to find someone who rivals his spirit.  Anyhow, why am I kissing this guys ass you might be wondering?  Please don’t mistake my praise for ass kissing.  Every day that my foot stepped in the water (with a 1 day exception), Andrew had biked with both of our boards down to Playa Hidalgo where the beaches were a bit sandier and waves a bit more forgiving than the beach right out front of his house.  I tried to carry my own board today and I would’ve lost my ass in damage fees on the board if I were to try.  The problem was that my arms were just way to short and the board was way to long for me to carry it on the bike…and the beach was just a little too far for a walk.  Thank you Hammer, I love you!

So today was my 2nd best day of surfing, ever!  Right about when we got to the beach it started its usual afternoon monsoon!  It was an incredible downpour and it was so much fun being out in the water when it was pouring.  It was like being in the shower, but with a swimsuit, a rashgaurd, a surfboard under your arm and about a dozen other people sharing it with you.   I spent the couple hours paddling out farther than I had before, I’m getting better at reading the sets sand paddling which makes things a lot more enjoyable.  I stood up and rode some larger’ish waves (large for me!) and felt myself being swept up and was able to really get comfortable with the water underneath me, I even attempted to turn the board a bit… I really wish I had some warm waters and decent waves to go home to, I’m going to miss this but I am looking forward to home.

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