River Boarding or You want me to do What!!!!

Ah this post has been a long time coming. I meant to do it right after I got back from my trip but I have not had any time until now. Ok so by now most of you know that my friend Paul is getting married on the 6th of August. For his bachelor party he wanted to do something different, don’t aks me why he had the right to plan his own bachelor party but he did. So he decided we where going River Boarding with this Company called Esprit. So incase you don’t know what river boarding is let me explain the details. You know how sometimes people like to go white water rafting. Well someone one day must have though well that looks like fun but that raft is so cramped why don’t I just get this oversized novelty flutter board and jump right in. Ta Da, River boarding was born.

The day started out nice and sunny, we got up for breakfast and where instructed as to what we where going to be doing for the day. I went over picked up a set of fins and a wet suite ( $10 extra fro the suite but well worth it of you like not being cut up by rocks ). We got on the bus at 8 am and they took us on a nice 1h dive to the entry point. The safety lecture we received on the way was very informative describing what to do if we fell out of the raft, how to handle ourselves in the raft and how to get the hell out of the rapids if we find ourselves stuck in them. Of course this was all pointless as we where trying to swim in the rapids. Out River board guide simply said whatever you do don’t let go of the board and that was about it.

Now if I describe the entire day then this post will end up being several pages longer than I want to type so let me just point out the highlights. The first set of rapids where supposed to get the boarders and rafters a bit of practice in easier water. Let me describe what I remember of the first rapid. It when something like this.

Hmm I don’t se anything up ahead but I hear them, I wonder where they are......... Ah the water seems to drop up ahead that must be them........Oh that sure looks like a steep drop off............FUCK What the hell am I doing, why am I in the Ottawa river gripping a freaking piece of foam for dear life...........Big Wave.......Shit I just fell off of the piece of foam, must remember how to get back on........Im being spun around, im going to die aren’t I........Ah I made it back on, flat water again, must pass out now.......................That was fun let’s do it again.

Ok now there where quite a few rapids that day but there was only 1 I remembered the name of, “The Dragons Tongue”. I remember this one cause it’s the only one we ere not allowed to go down on boards. Class 5 rapid with a huge drop into a middle pool then another smaller drop. At the bottom however was a place where we where allowed to go surfing. At some points where water flows very fast over a shallow ledge you get a standing wave forming you can surf. That is what is depicted on the bottom of the web page I linked to. My best time is around 20 seconds on the wave, I was able to get on to my knees and kneel on the board, then the front of the board bit into the water and I was thrown into the water. Lot’s of fun.

Ok 3 big memory, the first rapid has a set of 3 features. We where to hit 2 of them as the third was too dangerous, that feature was named the something like the Greyhound shredder and consisted of a bunch of sharp rocks pointing out of the water. We hit the first wave and were instructed to turn hard right to take the second channel as the afore mentioned sharp pointy rocks where in the left hand channel. Two things scared the Shit out of me here first off was the island I did not see separating the channels until the last min. barely missing on my way though. Second was the biggest wave of the day that picked me up and launched me through he air flipping me upside down in the process, I was able to get back on my board quickly by this point however as I have had some practice before this point. I think every one was thrown off their boards at this point and it was the thing they decided to show us in the video they made during the day. And if we wanted a copy of this video on a bright and shiny CD it would only cost us the small sum of $50. Aren’t they generous.

Anyway I survived the day and had one of the best adventures of my life. This is defiantly not something for everyone, I would recommend it only to very good swimmers but if you are ever up fore and awesome challenge I defiantly recommend River boarding over rafting, who needs a boat when you have a chunk of Styrofoam with handles.

MMORadio is off the Air!

Ok just so you know it is now 4:00 in the morning. I was finishing up a book so i would not have to bring it home on the plane friday when uppon compleation I had some difficulty sleeping. I thought I would jump onto the internet and brows soem webcomic/fourms to pass the time till I was tired and what do i come across but an email from a friend of mine explaining that MMORadio is off the air. naturaly i thoght she was pulling my leg when i stumbled across this.

Well, as you may have noticed, MMORadio has stopped broadcasting. Due to a variety, of technical, financial, and personnel issues... we can no longer continue to broadcast. On behalf of everyone that worked so very hard on making MMORadio the #1 Gaming radio station... I would like to thank you, the listeners, for becoming a part of our lives, and allowing us into yours. I tip my hat to everyone that has made this station what it was. We won't forget. And... on behalf of Radiowave and myself, we will miss each and every one of you. So... keep rockin' boys and girls.
Buddha

Im not sure what really happened but if they where in trouble then they sure did keep it a good secret because i would never have guess that today would be there last day. I was fairly busy all day so i never tuned in. MMORadio has been pretty much the only radio station i have lisened to for the past 8 months or so, it was just so damn good everything else was compleate crap and unworty of my time.

Not sure what I will lisent too now, my own music I guess but it doesn't have all the personality the DJ's and listiners brough to the station.

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Ok and update on the MMORadio story. Apparently form what I understand is there have been problems with money and hoasting as well as some of the rules the DJ's where forced to follow. Then the GM's in charge of the station sent out an email and immedeatly half of the DJ's quit. They have arranged to stay on air but many of the good DJ's are gone. We will see how well the station sruvives.

The Chief

So this Sunday I was awoken by the telephone call. Some friends of mine at the college decided they where going to clime The Chief today and wondered if i wanted to come. Well I heard the trail is much like the Grouse Grind so I thought why not, should be fun. As Frank had to work (wimped out i say), there was 3 of us, Peter, Alex and me.

Now The Chief is a giant granet wall or monolith that juts out of the surounding rock at Squamish, BC. It is a haven for rock climbers because of it's huge sheer rock face and easy access. It really is an impressive site and has world class rock climbing. As you can see from the picture the rock face it quite sheer, we didn't go that way. You see around the back side of The Chief is a nice sloping trail, a much easier trip than the font face.



We started out the day at the Shannon Falls parking lot. From there we traveled along a fairly flat path to the base of the mountain. The trail begins going up a valley between 2 rock faces. The basic route is traveling up through the valley on the right side of The Chief around the the back side of the mountain. From there we traveled along the back until we reached the back fo the 2nd peak. From that point we began traveling up several switchbacks until we reached the edge of the tree line. From that point on the path was much more difficult. There were some fairly steep inclines that required assistance from a rope to travel up. We then traveled through a crack in the rock face until we reached a the ladder to the summit. It truth the ladder was not really nessessary but it made the trip easier. Once we reached the top of the ladder we where pretty much on top of the Chief, the rest of the hike was gently sloping rock, the kind you would find in northern Ontario. 5 min traveling put us at the summit at just under 700 m (2200 feet) elevation. The hike up took about 1h 40 min at a fairly leasurely pace conducive to several photo oppertunities. Better description found here but they take the first summit not the second which is slightly higher in elevation.

The top was truly amazing. You basically stood at the edge of a very steep cliff, overlooking the entire Squamish valley. You could see several big mountains in the region, including mount Garibaldi. I will be putting the pictures up on my website hopefully tonight so that you can see the trail conditions and the view from the top.

We finished off the day with a stop at the pub for a beer and a movie as it was Sunday and that is movie night at the college. The Life Aquatic was up that night. A very enjoyable movie, I highly recommend it.

Poast Kung Fu Musings

After returning to my room after another superb Tuesday kung fu movie i decided to open up Open Office and type up a blog entry on all that has been happening in the las couple of days. Now im a big fan of kung fu movies and i have found these tuesday showing to be quite enjoyable over the summer. It makes me want to get back into training again. One of the people I used to train with in Kingston has moved back to BC. He lives on the sunshine cost to be specific. I saw him down on Granville Island last time i was there. We exchanged emails and as usual it has been sitting in my wallet since then.

This is a recurring problem for me, i do things with the best of intentions but i always seem to forget and let them slip by me. It is one of the character flaws i have that bothers me. I try to keep in touch with people but communication always seems to break down if i don't see them every day. This is in party why i started my blog, to help keep in touch with my friends i don't see any more. Of course like usually i updated daily then bi-daily and now it is lucky if a week or 2 goes by when i write something. It's not that i don't want to say anything, i think about something during the day that would be a good entry but I either forget about it or don't have time to update. I of course tell myself this time ill try harder to update more often but it never happens. This lat weekend i wanted to phone a bunch of my old friends but it never happened again because i was busy and when i had time i just didn't think about it. Wanting to call home when im on top of a mountain after a 2h hike does not help unless i remember when i get home.

Oh well all i can to is try my best and with that in mind here is a short update to what is going on. I have been feeling a lot better lately. Some of you may know i was having some strange dizzy spells a while back that lasted 3 or 4 weeks. It started several days after my last dive but they seem to have gone away. I received the test results from my CT scan today and it seems everything is fine. The Doctors have know idea what was wrong with me, mabe a virus, mabe a small air embelisim, mabe stress, who knows but it is gone now and i feel great so im happy.

The Rovers have been planning an event we are calling the amazing rover race. Basically it's like the amazing race only around Vancouver and with rovers. 2 weekends ago I spend all Saturday checking our locations in Vancouver with the other rovers and planning the race route. We still have a few things to finalize but in a couple of weeks it will be ready for a test run. I'm looking froward to that.

On the VG front, i have gotten into a new game called City of Heros. It's a cool MMO where you play the role of a superhero and travel around Paragon city fighting crime. I have already created a fire throwing mage named Exiton and an Ex Wrestler turned Martial arts super hero named The Divine Hippie. It is very different from other RPG's i have played. The mechanics are so different i would need an entire post to explain it so just check out the site if you are interested.

Ill be coming home on the 22^nd and i have lots of stuff to do. Of course there is Paul and Debbie's wedding which will take up much of my time but i also want to visit with my other friends and family. It is a bit shorter visit this summer, only 2 and a half weeks. I really cant take any more time off work this summer. Also as you know I frequently listen to MMORadio and 2 of the DJ's Psion and Lady Electrolyte live close to Brantford and they have invited me to visit while im in town so i hope to take a day and go say hi. It should be fun I talk to them frequently on line and it would be nice to meet them.

Well it's almost midnight and this post is already too long so I think that is it for now. I am really not sure how many people even read this blog any more as i don't get too many comments. At least it's a good way to vent. I should really send on an email to my old kung fu friend tomorrow.