· Ok, don't get me wrong but the more time I spend in Canada the more I'm noticing the little differences between here and a lot of other English-speaking places I've been.
New Zealand is awesome (naturally I'd think that). Australia, particularly Melbourne, is cool, although Brisbane didn't really thrill me all that much in comparison. The small part of the USA I've seen is pretty frantic - NYC is just something else altogether.
So, what am I talking about? Canada is just awesome. The people rock for a start; I came here by myself and already I've hooked up with 4 or 5 different people who have been a mixture of both solo riders and group riders. They don't know me from a bar of soap but they've all asked if I want to go riding with them. When you say "Thank you" for something here it seems automatic for the person behind the counter (or wherever) to say "You're welcome!". I'm loving that. However, all that is getting off topic ...
What happened today? I decided to step it up a bit and go for a run down A-Line, one of the park's Black Diamond trails (advanced) runs. It's not difficult but has some pretty beasty jumps and 1 drop that I reckon looks to be about 10-15 feet high if you go straight off it (no I didn't try it - that's kinda beyond my level right now). The top part of Crank It Up was also open today which is awesome because it's only been open for a couple of days since I got here. It's got jumps that start small and get bigger which is great for people like me that suck at jumping but want to learn. I finally managed to start nailing some of the table tops which I'm pretty happy with ... not a big accomplishment for anyone that already does DH riding but it's good for me hehe. When you hit the front side of a jump and don't make it far enough to hit the back side smoothly it's called casing ... great way to get laughed at if there's anyone else around. :)
Unfortunately I didn't have the helmet cam today but I'm going to grab it tomorrow and head down A-Line and Crank It Up from the top again.
No crashes today thankfully but the bear was hanging around again. It wasn't on the trails I went on ... apparently I missed it by about 5 mins though. It's actually pretty scary knowing that the next corner might be hiding an animal that could tear you apart in a few seconds if it wasn't in the mood for a 2-wheeled enounter with something that could scare its food away. Hmmm.
To continue with the theme of showing various bits of Whistler Village here are a few more photos. I've got another video to put up on YouTube but it's pretty crappy so I'll save video action until I have something more interesting to show you all. It's been mentioned that I should make a "highlight reel" so I'll have a bash at that too. :)
Whistler Visitor Centre. I took this one just to show some of the building styles around here - it makes the whole area look really cool.
Village Stroll, Whistler Village. This is the main part of the walk through Whistler Village.
This is the area at the bottom of the runs where you enter the gondola station. Not many riders here now coz today was pretty quiet.
Something you definitely won't find in the US any time soon ...
And no, I'm not sick of riding yet although I'll probably start posting less as I know *you* will be getting sick of my riding tales! :)
