Vancouver showdown over the city recap
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I never could have predicted how much excitement and interesting turn of events could happen in a 24hour trip across the boarder. Off the bat this trip had a downhill motion; we arrived at the train station 5 minutes prior to departure to Vancouver, and as I attempted to pay I was instantly reminded that you need a passport to travel to another county (you think id remember this with how much I travel, but nope forgot it) so we rushed back to the house as Colin began unpacking my snowboard stuff Incase I didn't make it back. With seconds to spare and thanks to Jeremy I arrived back passport in hand ready to head to Canada.
Arriving to Vancouver at a mellow 11:30 at night, no phone service, and only an address of a hostel in mind we hopped a taxi and made our way downtown. Just our luck the hostel had closed its doors for the night, and we were shit out of luck. Convent enough just down the road was another hostel which was still open, we got a room, grabbed a beer and called it a night.
The bright sun glistened as it shined through the morning dew on our big window overlooking the Vancouver space needle. The twin bunk bed had made for a plenty sufficient nights rest. and as we washed up in the communal bathroom our sights were high for the day ahead of us. With a cup of subpar coffee, and a random muffin in hand. We wondered the streets looking for this "C" bus we had heard rumors as the ideal transportation up to the contest venue of Grouse Mountain. A few minutes at the bus stop and the language barrier was picked up on as there was no "C" bus and we were actually looking for the SEAbus which was exactly that a transport across the water to N Vancouver.
The 336 bus cruised up the hill, passengers suited up in snowboard gear and ready to enjoy the beautiful saturday at the resort. Lift ticket and bib in hand we made A quick outfit change at the base of the slopes and headed up to check out the course. 2 Beautiful 65+ ft jumps arose above the stunning Vancouver skyline, giving off the feeling of jumping over the city. Aside from some sticky snow and not quite the steepest landings these jumps were perfect. Smooth take offs, a nice straight line, and clean sides gave the excited spectators one heck of a show.
The field was narrowed down to ten after semi-finals with some awesome riders and good friends Matt's Kullisek and Colin Spencer having a bit of speed troubles and barley missing the cut. Bummed to not be able shred along side of them in the finals but always stoked to have good homies out there with you. The bluebird skies and recent absence of park put me in an awesome mood and I was able to stomp my semi finals run seating me second into finals. As the speed continued to get slower the amazing park crew did everything that had to make the course as fast as possible. When it came down to it only a few riders really had the speed to throw their best moves, not to say there wasn't some great riding. But I personally know I felt a bit to slow to perform what I wanted. Resulting in a landed safety run placing me in 4th place, just .1 out of third place. Either way, always stoked to make finals and just need to use this momentum for the ride shakedown in montreal this weekend.
Until than, a last minute ride from a random awesome photographer and we still missed the train back to Bellingham. Just 5 minutes late of the cut off to buy tickets we were forced to take the greyhound bus. A few more bucks a bit more effort of a ride but in the end still a ride down to Bellingham.
Traveling is always an adventure, it never hurts to have a good buddy along side and an open imagination to what can happen along the way.
http://www.snowboardcanada.com/news_article?news_id=2046
http://grousepark.com/2012/03/26/the-5th-annual-quiksilver-showdown-over-the-city/
http://push.ca/snowboarding/video/videos.aspx?ASPostID=55096
Gdp!!
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