Words: Eve Northmore, Photos: Erin Helstern

In between coaching on Thursday and Billabong Flaunt It on Saturday, we found some precious moments to get out off the hill for an adventure. With the Billabong crew in town for the event and a limited time frame, we set up an easy spot at a playground in Collingwood. Richard Roth had taken me here years ago to shoot when the Rugged Riders crew came to town from Quebec. Gasp! Yes I doubled up. Those pics never surfaced and it was about 5 years ago, so I figured it was back on the market. If you live, ride, or are under the age of 12 in Collingwood, you probably know this spot. It has several great swing sets, slides and forts as well as an infamous rail heading out to Georgian Bay nearby. The concrete tubes are a mellow hit, easy to get to and also is lit up. Banger, I thought and a banger it was. Good times ensued.

Jackie working hard, however, not really hard enough to break a sweat. More like working at a medium pace.

Cold certified chillin’. The crew wondering what the heck concrete tubes are doing scattered around a playground.

Towing into the abyss. Banshee Bungee. A must have. Watch out or it will take your mittens off!

Jessica Woolsey.  Hit after hit, everyone got many turns rotating between dropping in and towing the bungee out.

Laura Brace.

Billabong Rider Victoria Marshall.

Erika Langman.

Eve’s Coach Demo 1: How to successfully gap a concrete tube.

Eve’s Coach Demo 2: How to unsuccessfully gap a concrete tube.

Gap to side impact landing. This ended my participation portion of the activity and was the start of a new late night adventure.

Hospital visits, that’s what friends are for.

4 painful hours later an X- Ray showed no damage except for some deep bruising, which has now since reared it’s ugly head on my body. It hurt to stand, it hurt to sit, mostly, it hurt to laugh which was especially noted when there happened to be numerous x rated ailments going on with other patients around me. As soon as we could we booked it out of there, driving over the hospital curb in a truck convoy to save on the parking tab, only to get dinged outside my house later that morning. Karma.

We made it home with 4 hours of sleep left before we had to be up and on hill for Flaunt It. We were judging, so the day wasn’t too taxing on our bodies, just our brains. All in all, a very successful night to lead into a very successful weekend!

Bonus: Speaking of bails: Check out the Flaunt It Best Bail. If you haven’t seen it already, this is a doozy!

Until next time…

Peace,

Eve

Roxy’s Ride Days snowboard program is off and running, working to produce a new crop of avid freestyle jibbers and jumpers. No more 50-50’s and methods, cruising runs trying to keep up with boyfriends and wondering what that strange mish mash of metal and plastic is used for. We live in Ontario, the land of 72-second runs and fresh corduroy tracks. There is only so much heel to toe you can do in a day (for me about an hrs worth tops before I want to run to the nearest bar for après). If you aren’t in the park, I honestly don’t know how you can bear to keep this as a past time. We’re pushing these girls hard to earn their snowboard stripes. And the more girls we meet over the years in the Ride Days the more we see that the basic stuff freestyle riders know is completely foreign to so many out there. In the words of Tom Havorford, "here are the tails and if you are missing out, it’s not too late to come try it out for a day."

Season Passes! The program runs for 8 weeks across various resorts from East to West and North to South including: Beaver Valley, Blue Mountain, Horseshoe Valley, Glen Eden and Lakeridge. Our partner resorts can be ever so generous and welcoming. Building a good relationship with resort and park staff is key.

Sounds like a case of the Mondays. Our week starts on Mondays at Lakeridge in Uxbridge. Coaches Meg Watson and Ashley Braun (DC rider) warm the girls up to those mysterious freestyle skills before heading into the park.

Glen Eden was literally titty packed the first day with 22 girls coming from the Toronto and West of the city. Laura Brace and Meg Watson go over session details before the girls arrive.

A snowy night at Blue Mountain. With the season we have had, snowflakes the size of golf balls is a straight up God send.

The core girls were right into the rail setup, as they should be! Of course it can’t be a snowboard program without bails and injuries. Where’s that waiver! A front board to chin split here isn’t too devastating. If you aren’t falling, you aren’t learning.

Beaver Valley Saturday and Sunday program brings the mini shreds out in the park. Don’t mistake mini shreds with mini skills. With airbag training and one of the top parks in Ontario, their skills are getting a steroid injection this season.

Jess and I stay amped with post session laps at the Catalina Wine Mixer. If you have had the glorious pleasure of riding a private resort and you have seen the movie Step Brothers, you would understand why we call it that. The snow is always softer, the sun is always brighter, the beer is always better and the lift lines are always shorter.

The end to a long week. Ugh. Thank you Jess for getting me to pull over for a photo op of the lookout over Georgian Bay. You will be happy to know after trying to charge me $40.00 a “Good Samaritan”, pulled us out. “What’s it worth to you to get out of there he says”. Seriously, I’ll just call CAA then. Thanks friend.

Teaser for Blog #4. Check back next week! 

Words: Eve Northmore, Photos: Dave Stewart

 WSF Crew Hits the ParkScapers Terrain Park Building Course.

The WSF crew joined a packed room of 40 some odd park staff from across Ontario to take part in the 2012 ParkScapers course this past December. One of the few park specific courses along with Cutters Camp offered. There is an in class component followed by an on hill part later in the season.  We have 2 parkstaff on our crew, Erika Langman from Blue Mountain Events and Jess Woolsey from Horseshoe Valley. Park staff or not, it’s great knowledge to have in general, especially if you are running events or doing any building of your own… knowledge is power they say.

Hairpin turns ahead??

We rolled with the Blue Mountain crew in the staff van bright and early down the winding backroads of Orangeville to Caledon ski club.

Upon arrival at Caledon Ski Club

Jess & Caleb Bosse from Beaver Valley waiting out front. The early December snow dusting on the hill. Yaayyyyy Ontario!

Another badge for the pile.

A packed room. Course coordinator Sean Letton from Georgian Peaks, running the show.

Girls be reppin

We spotted one other lady from Snow Valley management in attendance in addition to the three of us in a sea of boys and men. Great odds if we were lookin’ for love!

 Class time...

We were good students, participating in the group work to design and present our own park. That artistic monstrosity at the bottom is a barrel bonk we named “The Watertower!”  We also drank lots and lots of free coffee and listened very attentively.

Speakers.

Caleb Bosse of Beaver Valley spoke about different types of features. While Steve Jarrett, a man of many hats including SBC publisher spoke about events.

SPEAKING OF PARKS…

Check out this majestic wonder being built for the 2012 season at Bear Mountain:

PEACE!

Until next time,

Eve

By Eve Northmore, WSF Co-Founder

I spent my long summer days in the snow capped mountains and icy summer waters of Revelstoke BC; a big difference from the picturesque cottage country of Muskoka I am accustomed to.

But alas it was time to return to Ontario to get ready for yet another Glorious winter season.  Winters in Ontario are just so epic I couldn’t wait to get home! I had my most precious worldly possessions (gun, dirt bike and a couple boxes of homemade wine) packed up in the Roxy truck as soon as the leaves started to change.

Of course, all of this is not actually by choice, I live in the backwards world of summers out west and winters back east. It’s crazy I know. I am back in action and already several months into the Women’s Snowboard Federation game. Homebase for the winter is an 8000sq ft granite shop in the small Muskoka town of Baysville. I like to refer to it as “heaven on earth”. A place where all of my worldly possessions can be used to their full extent without so much as a whisper from the non-existent neighbors on the 300 acre property.

From my Muskoka office this season’s event schedule has been planned and is well under way. We have had a productive and busy fall with a Peepshow Premiere & Art Show at the Baitshop Gallery followed by a fantastic Toronto Ski & Snowboard show. 

Thanks to the quiet month of November with no snow, I’m now caught up on rest and relaxation. The WSF is ready for another season filled with cross Canada events, 8 week coaching programs, courses, comps and camaraderie. We have hired 6 new staff, lost 1 (temporarily) to motherhood and have added west coast dates to our Roxy Ride Days coaching sessions tour.

Stay tuned over the winter months as we jam as many shenanigans into one season as we can and if we happen to be in your hood, just shoot us a line (Facebook, Twitter) to join in the fun.

Bye for now,

Eve