busy month in a nutshell

so much for a mellow winter. it seems as i've been as busy as always or more so.
After leaving colorado in december, I went back to squamish for a few days. prior to heading to the eastern townships in quebec for xmas.

First i proposed to my girl kimmie while riding powder under a full moon (the night riding video from december). she said yes, we laughed for a bit then kept riding until 230am. I've done some pretty intimidating things in my life and asking that question was way up there!
Went to quebec for xmas, rode at jay peak a little and even more fun took my 23 month old nephew on his first turns on a snowboard. He was LOSING it. just babbling and laughing the whole way down. He loved it. It was probably one of the funnest things i've done on my snowboard. So we went for a few more laps until he passed out.

Back to Squamish for new years. A few days on my splitboard exploring new zones (ie getting lost and scoring) and it was off to calgary for 2 days to ride pipe with the national team. It started snowing in the mountains so i bolted to revelstoke for a day on the hill there with my old friends joey vosburgh and chris payne. 55cm on a new hill with good guides. thank you!

The next few days were for remembering a gold old friend, Greg Todds. Greg basically invented the super pipe and noboarding, and he showed me how to freeride way back when we lived in lake louise. He passed away in an avalanche in 2005 and there's been a memorial noboard race for him every year. This was my first year having the time to attend the weekend and it was awesome. Great crew of old friends celebrating GT. Loved it. can't wait for next year.
you can check out more from GT's weekend on Spencer's blog at push.ca..

www.push.ca/blogs/spencerfrancey/archive/2011/01/26/6th-annual-gt-memori...

Back to squamish for a few days of riding here then it was off to spain for the FIS
world championships.
Spain this year had very little snow outside of the event site. actually none. amazingly they pulled off a good event. the weather and snow could have been a little better, but cant control that part. The pipe was primarily super icy and pretty bumpy. I had a pretty terrible week. Poor food (for me) and the pipe was like my kryptonite. For the semi finals day, it was sunny and i was feeling good. Then the wind picked up, alot. Being 6'2" and riding a 161cm board i'm not found of hucking in the wind on an icy pipe. I just couldn't get a decent run together and ended up in 18th place. I couldn't wait to leave.

Got home and promptly went to the island to go surfing for a few days. While i was in spain, it had rained pretty high on whistler so all the snow was pretty hard, so surfing was the logical choice with swell in the water. shoulder high to a few feet overhead and glassy the whole trip.

I've been riding the hill for a few days since the island (park's epic on blackcomb) and getting caught up on everything since i haven't been in front of a computer much lately (or bad internet connections). Finally snowed again last night and today, and it's supposed to clear up this week so hopefully we'll get a few good days in the backcountry prior to heading to calgary for the canadian open.

enjoy the 2 videos and some photos from my last month.

jl

to make spines more intimidating, add trees. SUPER fun line in a new zone.

taking my 23 month old nephew for his first riding experience

i always wonder what people at owls head think when they see a canoe in the lake while they're skiing.

sometimes getting lost in the woods and barely getting any turns in while splitboarding is worth it.

if you ever want a noboard pad, call Cholo burns

the course for the 5th annual GT memorial noboard race.

pick a stick and good luck

long time friend and old lake louise local, Chris Soper and I at GT's memorial

trouble andrew rocking the crowd for GT's memorial.

GT memorial race times. Congrats to Ave for taking the win.
i was pretty stoked on my first lap ever there. i mostly wanted to hit a pillow line that no one had hit yet. turns out it was good line for time too

i think it's scott penner's kids' noboard at the memorial

al clark and johan olofson's custom noboards (left and right ones). GT's memorial

gt's memorial. work your way up a few KM of logging roads and you're there.

sunset on mt atwell and garibaldi

myslef, mikka haast, dom vallee, ingrid and jp auclair. going for a trek in the blackcomb backcountry.

stumbled across this little guy while in the woods

I'm not much for sledding, but it's useful to be good on them. figuring out my 4 stroke yamaha..

dave b.

dave B. going for some pillows on his noboard

noboarding is like learning to shred all over again. little airs suddenly become hard again

la molina spain, FIS world champs

she was crazy enough to say yes. Kimmie and me up on a ridge at the end of another fun day of shredding.