First up, this is my contest entry for the Cat Skiing at Mustang Powder Contest. I’ve never been catskiing or catboarding before, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to try it out!

The contest asks for a blog post, but I also thought I’d include a video just for fun. It’s a little silly, it was filmed and edited late at night in the midst of chaos. Still, I think I’d be a great candidate to win the contest and I’ve put together some reasons why ( in text, just in case):

- I am extremely passionate about snowboarding and I’m constantly on the hunt for deep, fresh powder lines
- I’d love to take high quality photographs and videos of the catboarding experience; I’ve got a ton of equipment such as a DSLR with fisheye and telephoto, an HD video camcorder/DSLR, and a helmet mounted or board mounted GoPro HD camera which can help capture the experience
- I’m always on the lookout for new adventures!
- I have my AST-1 avalanche certificate so I know some of the basic safety principles for the trip
- I love road trips!
- I’d love to post about the experience on my blog and Twitter

Cross your fingers for me, friends!

ALSO, I thought this would be as good a place as any to post the winner of the contest I held for the Volcom Snowboard jacket!

Congratulations to the winner. Again, please excuse the silliness, as this was even later in the night. Winner, please e-mail me at allie@vancityallie.com. If I do not hear from the winner within 2 weeks I will do a re-draw.

Thanks to everyone for entering!

My legs are STILL sore from last Sunday. Song from Chixdiggit, filmed entirely hand-held on a Nikon D90 at Whistler Blackcomb. Click the video above!

In other news, I am very happy to say that this blog has come a long way since I started it just over a year ago! It’s been a fun ride, and I’ve really enjoyed meeting bloggers from Vancouver and around the world… exploring new places, sharing my photography and video, and frequently embarrassing myself on my blog.

Bear with me, I’m going to toot my own horn for a paragraph. I can’t help it! I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started the VancityAllie blog (although I’ve been blogging since I was 12 years old)…

In the past year, the blog has really surpassed my expectations and we’ve hit 1,632,517 unique visitors over the past year and 2,466,670 page views! 16 HD videos, over 1400 of my own photos uploaded, and a Twitter account with nearly 3,000 followers! We’ve got great rankings on Google and are averaging 100,000 to 300,000 unique visitors a month depending on content and time of year.

P.S. Did you enter the Westbeach contest below? We already have 114 entries!

Okay, now that that is out of the way…

I’m really excited about some of the trips we have coming up this December and next year. I’ll have lots more on the blog… more videos, more photos and more contests! But don’t worry, I’m still the same old me… clumsy, nerdy, and prone to ramble…

Hope everyone is excited for the Holiday season!

Update (November 30, 2009 10:30 AM PST): I will be doing the draw tonight for the Westbeach outerwear and post the results tomorrow. Stay tuned!

So here we go, HD video footage featuring…

• Several surf trips to Tofino this summer with friends, and by ourselves
• Underwater housing footage (in-ocean shots)
• Long lens surf shots
• GoPro camera footage (camera attached to the board)
• Us reeling in crabs off the dock and cooking them
• A few different timelapses
• Us doing stupid stuff
• Allan, J, Venus, Trev, and myself
• Fantastic music from the Planet Smashers (thanks guys, how could I NOT use your song) …

Click the video above to view. Short vid, about 3 minutes. Safe for work.

It’s about 30 hours of footage rolled into one tiny video. You’ll also notice the underwater housing fogs up… yeah, we accidentally tore the new housing and tried to patch it up with tent glue. Then we used it in the ocean anyway. Well, it leaked. Haha. And uh, I kind of broke my Nikon. Soooooo, now I have to get it fixed.

So stupidity aside, let me know what you think!

Thanks for watching!

The forecast for the weekend: Rain, rain and more rain. But when you’re in a wetsuit, surfing in the ocean in the rain is a glorious experience. Who cares about rain when you are already wet?

Our tarps and tent have always been 3-season and very waterproof, so rain isn’t much of a downer when we are out there. Another side benefit is that there are always less people out camping and surfing when it is raining. I love waking up, hitting the surf on the rising tide (whenever that may be), and then spending the day in the tent with Allan… reading books, watching movies on my Zune, or just being together. I sleep best when there is rain pattering on the tent.

If you’re going to live on the “Wet Coast”, then you have to suck it up sometimes, let everything go… and just enjoy the rain for what it is.

In other news, this past weekend I picked up an underwater housing on clearance from Leo’s Camera. I purchased the Ewa-Marine U-AX housing for my Nikon D90 DSLR, but really any DSLR should work in this case. Everywhere I looked online the prices were $250-500 US. And amazingly… it was only $175 CAD at Leo’s on Clearance. No returns, but hey… at that price you just can’t say no. (They still have some if anyone is looking for one!)

I actually have a Fantasea (har har) brand camera housing, but it’s quite heavy and bulky… and as I realized, best used for scuba diving. The real problem is I couldn’t adapt the housing from my D50 to the D80 and eventually my D90… and so the video controls don’t work on it.

So this new housing will hopefully give me the flexibility of changing the video settings and other controls, while still leaving open the possibility of later changing cameras.

So let’s hope the surf videos and photos turn out with this. I’ll let you know the full review when I get back!

And yes, that HD surf video I promised… it’s still coming I’ll combine the footage with the stuff I get this weekend to put together something cool.

Hope everyone has a fabulous long weekend!

Check out the video. It is really fun. Includes highlights such as:
- Snowboarding in the middle of July in 35 degree Celcius weather
- Me falling on my butt on a box in the snowpark
- NESTEA girls
- Footage of The Stills performing at the event (and music)
- Full coverage of the NESTEA setup complete with volleyball court, rail jams, and blueberry mojitos!
- Whistler Blackcomb
- LIGHTNING AND THUNDERSTORMS from the weekend!

Make sure you watch till the end

Before we got started, Allan and I headed to (the best) breakfast in Whistler at Elements. We’ve been coming here for several years now and it really is awesome.

Their famous stuffed french toast… takes 20 minutes to make. This is the banana and caramelized pecans stuffed french toast. They also have ham and brie stuffed french toast! Mmmm…

The classic breakfast, bacon and eggs there. The potato tartlet and double smoked bacon are always highlights.

The hotel room that NESTEA put us up in was awesome! Hilton Whistler in a suite room! Loved the fireplace, and the fridge stocked with NESTEA, plus the welcome package!

Volleyball and microfiber towel!

The amazing event that NESTEA set up. Check out the sand they trucked in from a local quarry for the volleyball courts.

The Chill on the Hill tent, with all the wonderful people who made it all happen! Notice the sexy Olympic snowboarders, and the Burton Custom X’s they were giving away for rail jam prizes.

The rail jam they set up for the event… they brought in ridiculous amounts of snow to set this up on Whistler. CRAZY!

Boarders lining up to hit the rails. Lots of great getups.

They were some awesome snowboarders out there.

Some neat tricks.

Also loved the blueberry mojitos made with NESTEA. We drank several of these thanks to the girls!

My Malolo dude says THUMBS UP to the event!

Free open bar from NESTEA was fabulous. They served up a VIP lunch in Steeps on Whistler, and the bartender there made some amazing drinks. I loved his gin fizz with fresh local Pemberton strawberries! Mmmm!

Protest the Hero performing for the crowd. They loved it.

Allan and I also took the Peak2Peak over to Blackcomb for the glacier, including the bus, and a chairlift to get up there.

It was rocky, but not too bad. Can’t complain about boarding in July

Got the fisheye out… what a great view.

Boarding without a helmet, not a great idea, but it was so freaking hot out.

Here I am looking incredibly classy swatting away a million horse flies and mosquitoes. It was BUGGY out there! I got a few nasty bites. If you’re wondering what the hell I am doing in my sequence in the video… well, now you know. I’m so coordinated.

The Stills lead singer.

The Stills performing at the end of the event… what a great set up. A concert on the top of the hill, with the gondolas going past, hot and sunny, with a gorgeous backdrop. Amazing.

After the event we quickly changed in the car and headed into the village to one of my favourite restaurants in the whole world, Araxi.

We’ve been coming here for a few years now, and each time the service is impeccable, the food is mouth-watering, and the drinks are luscious.

We tried a couple different appetizers. Here’s the Ahi Tuna. (I don’t eat sushi/raw food but Allan said it was great). I tried the saffron cauliflower and the fresh cherry tomatoes and they were great.

Here’s the Pemberton squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta with a red pepper sauce. SO. Good. And so creative! Chef James Walt is amazing.

The cheese souffle… delicate. Loved the almonds with the mushroom cream sauce.

This BC halibut was to die for. Flavourful herbs across the top, and a delicious sauce. I added a Qualicum scallop which was amazing. (If you’re looking to buy Qualicum scallops locally, you can get them at Granville Island.)

Allan got the Trio of Pork (from Paradise Valley) which had pulled pork ravioli (so good), pork tenderloin, and slow cooked pork belly with chanterelles.

We got some side dishes… the mushrooms were reaaally good, and the beans were fresh. Love how Chef Walt gets almost all his ingredients locally. He actually lives in Pemberton.

For dessert we had the lemon tart with goat cheese ice cream. Fresh local blueberries.

We also tried the ice cream sandwich which had a lovely chocolate hazelnut crust.

After dinner we headed back to Vancouver.. it was a photographers dream and nightmare, all at the same time. We had a golden sunset, TWO rainbows, and lightning. I swear just after I snapped this photo a lightning bolt struck right between the two rainbows. Would have been the most amazing photo. I was a bit heartbroken I didn’t luck out and capture it.

How can you not fall in love with the west coast? A golden sunset through streams of rain.

We managed to catch some lightning, but I didn’t get many good photos. Check out the end of the video above for some better shots of the lightning along the sea-to-sky highway.

Phew! That’s a lot of photos! Hope you enjoyed the post

Sunny, slushy, and pretty mellow conditions. We hopped around on a few things but mostly ripped around on the groomers. A really fun day. Shay is absolutely AWESOME in person and every good thing anyone has ever said about her is 100% true. I somehow managed to delete the pictures off my camera, so Shay has been kind enough to let me repost her pics. I also never manage to get photos of myself filming etc, so it’s really neat to see. Thanks Shay!

Check out the video. Hope you like it. I especially like the part where J and Allan ride over the house. I of course am wearing my Canucks jersey, as part of my “playoff beard” tradition. A little departure from my normal boarding getup, but still fun.

I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with my progression this year. I’ve been boarding for 1.5 years now, and in the past year I’ve spent more time filming and photographing others than I have focusing on developing my skills. Next season I need to make sure I focus more on that. I’ve kinda regressed, actually. But I’ve really enjoyed making little movies so perhaps a balance/compromise is best

Shay and I

Filming Allan coming down the slope

Filming J

——–

In other news, the Canucks play the Blackhawks tonight at 5:00 pm. It’s sure to be a big game, and I think the Canucks are going to bounce back. I’d like to see a tough road win. Really, really excited.

That’s it for now folks. Accessible Twilight filming is on a lull this week, and this is one of the busiest weeks in terms of work for me ever. Plus next week I’ll be heading to Monreal for work, so I’ve got lots to do!

Phew!

I had some time last night to edit up a video from my day on my new Malolo board on Saturday at Whistler Blackcomb and also the last good powder day we had at Cypress. There’s a little more footage of me riding this time, and also I had to feature the rad shirt I got from Zac at Hybrid Sessions… so make sure you watch till the end of the vid. It’s pretty funny. Check out the video below:

It’s nearing the end of the snowboard season, and almost time to switch it up to surfing. I’m going to get one more weekend in at the end of April with the famous Miss Shay from Shayboarder at the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler Blackcomb. Should be awesome.

Thanks Zac for the awesome shirt! Somehow you could predict the future that it would match my new board.

I’ve been working hard at work this week to make sure I get my time in and all my work done before the Easter long weekend. Gotta leave for the ferry early on Thursday, and it’s off to my favourite spot in the whole world… Tofino! Surfing for 4 glorious blissful days. Too bad the forecast is rain all weekend, but that’s not going to stop me from getting excited about finally getting back in the water and making some turns.

So I finally had a chance to do some video editing this weekend. I’ve put together the footage from the Mount Washington snowboarding trip to Courtenay on Vancouver Island in February, as well as the huge Big White bus trip to Kelowna.

Check out the video above! Video features… tree runs, powder runs, rails, jumps, and lots of silliness of course. Oh, and leg wrestling. Make sure you watch to the very end of the video Video is totally safe for work.

Here are also a few pictures from the two trips…

Big White was great… here’s a view from the chairlift.

We had a huge group together (54 people)… it was definitely crazy.

Yup, it was Big White-out for a few moments that weekend.

The Telus Park at Big White was awesome… boarder cross, rails, jumps and tons of everything.

My friend Adrian (above) and Chris made it up from San Francisco. They are two of my good friends from university and it was wonderful to see them again.

The private hot tubs in our cabins were awesome! And frequently used.

The view from Mount Washington on the Island is probably one of the most beautiful views you will ever see snowboarding. Wow!

Amy and Tom show off their goggles in the bar.

Teddy Bear stands are necessary, even in the snow.

The tequila was incredible… and yes, many drinking games were played…

… including the now infamous “BOXHEAD” game…

A huge vat of pasta was cooked for dinner, plus a huge breakfast in the morning. Group meals!

We had a great group.

In the meantime, here is a little recap of the ski trip to Sun Peaks two weekends ago. The snow wasn’t great and we didn’t get any fresh snow at all, so most of it was spent ripping around the mountain doing little jumps and having fun… and the evenings spent drinking, doing some stupid things

Check out the video by clicking above! Note: This video is not 100% work safe, but it’s not too bad. Featuring snowboarding at Sun Peaks, our condo there, drinking, wrestling, and tequila drinking.

Trev and J on the hill..

Our condo was great!..

Getting out the Patron on the hill..

Some of the group getting ready to go out to the bar..

Our group hit the dance floor hard, haha..

We wandered around a bit afterwards on the way home after a long night out..

… like running around on snowbanks

Yes. It’s finally done.

It took a little while to edit this all together because of all the different cameras, the length of song, the amount of footage, and how busy I’ve been lately. It isn’t the best edit I could have done, but I think how fun the snowboarding trips this past holiday were comes across, and that’s what matters.

The HD snowboarding movie is cut to the song “Kids” by MGMT. This song was blatantly ripped off from Travis Rice’s That’s It, That’s All.

There’s two parts to the clip… the first is Christmas Day at Hemlock Mountain, and the second takes place over New Years Eve (and Day of course) at Apex Mountain in Penticton, BC. We had great conditions and lots of pow despite the sparse coverage for both trips.

Highlights include Christmas breakfast, lots of powder boarding, some jumps, some noobie boarding by yours truly, some great boarding by Allan, J, and Trev… the New Years Eve countdown, and lots of funny dancing. Oh, and keep your eye out for “The Zoidberg.”

Check out the video on Vimeo. You can also download the full video there to your harddrive if you don’t like streaming video. Let me know what you think!