om – in hinduism, the om mantra is the name of god, the vibration of the supreme.

click here for the wiki entry for om

for me, om is a more than just a powerful mantra.  it represents a community of people in ontario who quickly became the family i chose for myself.

in 1999 i was invited to a summer soulstice celebration by my friends roland and leanne.  i can’t believe i still have the map to the location.  then again, i have pretty much documented and saved the last 20 years of my life through images and in my scrapbooks.

having attended the destiny world electronic music festival the year before, i was excited to be a participant in something more than just rave camping.   what happened at om changed my life forever.

what blew me away about om was the overwhelming sense of cOMmunity i felt in the participants.  i saw conscious and realized people celebrate together in a beautiful environment and show respect for the land.  it was so clean because people were picking up after themselves.  it was my first leave no trace festival, and it would not be my last.

i saw children running through a daisy field with their mother.  i saw dogs playing with their human best friend.  when i asked “is this your dog?” a young man replied “he’s his own dog, i’m just his friend.”

the opening ceremonies included a summer soulstice gathering where all 500 participants stood in a circle, held hands and chanted “om”.  it was a powerful and life changing mOMent.

after seeing that it is possible to celebrate in a beautiful environment and leave no trace with a conscious community that respects each other and the earth, i never returned to the rave camping of the world electronic music festival.

the summer soulstice falls around my birthday, so for the next 7 years i celebrated my birthday at om.  i couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than at om.

Om Summer Solstice Festival 2004 a film by Peter Mettler edited by Lester Alfonso (part 1 of 2)

Om Summer Solstice Festival 2004 a film by Peter Mettler edited by Lester Alfonso (part 2 of 2)

what made om so special and unique was the cOMmunity.  after my 1999 om experience, i began to interact with the om community through the om email list.  aaah, the daze before myspace and facebook.

being able to converse and interact outside the festival was an amazing experience in building community.  it reached a point where we decided to host pot luck dinners so that we could put names to faces.  so began the age of monthly pot luck dinners with OMies.

since then, i have been honoured to build some of the most amazing relationships that i continue to enjoy today.  i’ve matured with my omies, i’ve been there to celebrate omies tying the knot, and i was overjoyed when my omies began having children.

ॐ and the om community has had such a profound impact on my life that i chose to have an om tattooed on my left shoulder.

i believe that one day i will have water inked beneath my om.  until then, i like it on fire

last week, megan and i went to her school, the alberta college of art and design, to finish her final sculpture project.  one of her friends, shawn ayerst, had a glass sculpture display in the main hall.  we decided to czech it out.  what we found was one of the most inspiring pieces of experiential art i have ever experienced.

shawn is a ridiculously talented artist studying glass at acad.  his piece on display in the main hall included 6 magnificently crafted glass megaphones on tall stands.

each glass megaphone was connected to their own individual source of sound.  the sound being amplified was the om mantra in six different voices.  not only was this glass installation fascinating to look at, it overwhelmed me with the vibrations of the supreme.

shawn created a brilliant glass installation and made the space holy by adding ॐ.

i was blown away by this art installation, not only for its beauty but its ability to trigger so many memories and so much love.  thanks shawn.  it reminded me how powerful and important om is to me, both the mantra and the cOMmunity i’ve chosen as my family.  it made me miss my omies.  it encouraged me to write this blog entry.

to all of my omies that are reading this, i miss and love each and every one of you.  you have made such a huge impact on my life and have inspired me to live a life filled with more passion, colour and love.  i am blessed and honoured to have you in my life.

if life isn’t about building intentional cOMmunities, i’d be the only person on the planet.

~*…normaste…*~

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normdate 23.3.10

how do you get kids on the sales floor to sell your brand over another?  you take them snowboarding and get them wasted, that’s how.  free shit goes a long way.  i was fortunate enough to be one of the select shop employees to be invited to fernie for two days of shredding and partying courtesy of ride snowboards and oakley.

to say that our chalet at the base of the mountain was pimpin would be an understatement.   a log cabin with ten bedrooms, sixteen beds, seven bathrooms, a hot tub and games room is more like a mountain mansion.

add some libations…

some fireworks…

and a mansion full of dudes…

and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a gnarly two days of shredding at fernie.  oh yah, and one girl.  let’s just say she liked the ratio a lot better than we did

we decided to continue our evening celebrations at the local bar and pub.  i will never get used to being the only coloured person at a bar…living in toronto spoiled me.

on the menu for my first day of riding at fernie was the 2011 ride highlife 161 with a pair of ride contraband bindings.

waking up in this mansion of a chalet at the base of a mountain is truly an amazing feeling.

the roman candle assault continued on the chair lift

suckas!

the birthday boy, scottie ’send it’ burns

there was still enough snow to ride, despite the significant lack of fresh snow we’ve had this season.

but just as good as snow is a good krew of peeps to ride with, and the posse we had with us were pretty fukkin’ skilled.

more booze than we can drink.  more food than we can eat.  a huge log mansion with a games room.  and snowboarding.  fuck yeah!

so many reasons to be thankful.  i love my job!

even though there was no new snow, i’m not going to complain about blue bird skies and riding in a hoodie…for free   spring riding rulez!

pick a board and a pair of oakleys and let’s rip…

my knee is still kind of fucked from dropping that 12ft cliff at louise in january, so i couldn’t shred…but i could ride.  i’m not about to fuck myself for life by pushing it harder than my body can handle.  instead, i played photographer which worked out perfektly because i had a very skilled group of snowboarders to snap shots of.

ripping the park.

we reached the top of the bear chair to find this staring at us

regardless of how hung over we were, ripping fresh lines on a warm blue bird day was too hard to pass up…all we had to do was hike it.

no problem.  compared to hiking 9hrs out of the whitewater backcountry last year, a 30 minute hike is a walk in the park…and so worth it.

you’ll have so many pow slashes…

400 pow slashes!!!

we were shredding so fast mother nature was like “slow down”…

and we were like “fuck you!” and kicked her in the teeth with our energy legs!!!

sendin’ it!

so greasy!

it was really hard riding with a bunch of guys who were bouncing off and over everything in sight and me not being able to do anything but charge.  this huck rut was so much fun…

it was almost too irresistible.  so i decided to hit it, just a simple method air.  i landed it easily, but the impact on my knee unpleasantly reminded me that i should not be jumping.  its just not worth it.  i am thankful that my season wasn’t over because of the injury in the first place.  next season i’ll be back full force.  until then, i am grateful to be able to ride at all.

this dude hiked out to this cliff.  we were fortunate to be on the chair to watch all of his efforts go up in smoke, or should i say powder.

the mountain got the best of him this time…*ouch*

it is so rad to shred with a good and skilled krew on a day of wacky boarding…

i’m glad someone threw a japan air for me…

warm weather = puddle slashes!!!

brett sent a wave with this puddle slash…

…and totally soaked this girl *sucka*

normally i would give a full review of the boards and bindings i rode, but unfortunately i couldn’t really push the boards and see what they could do because of my knee.  i rode a ride highlife, a ride society ul, and a ride crush all with the only xl pair of ride contraband bindings there.  the boards turned left and right, i could stop on the them, and ride switch.  yup, that’s pretty much all i can say about them…besides being super fun!

czech out ride snowboards and oakley goggles.

big ups to the ride krew and oakley boys for an incredible two days at fernie.  free snowboarding, free chalet, free food, free booze… this is why i do what i do.

fuck yeah!

~*…normaste…*~

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its oscar time, and for the first time in my life i have actually seen all of the movies that are nominated for best film.  thank you pirate ship!!!

my sister has been known to host an annual academy award party and awards an oscar replica to the person who guessed the most winners.  seeing as she lives in the cayman islands now and i’m in calgary, this blog entry will have to be my submission to her virtual academy awards party!  i don’t even have cable so i’m not even going to watch the awards show…maybe i’ll just download it later

here are the nominees for best picture and who i think is going to win…

Best Picture

• 

  Avatar

• 

  The Blind Side

  
  

• 

  District 9

  
  

• 

  An Education

  
  

• 

  The Hurt Locker

  
  

• 

  Inglourious Basterds

  
  

• 

  Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

  
  

• 

  A Serious Man

  
  

• 

  Up

  
  

• 

  Up in the Air

and the winner, according to some dude with dreadlocks on the internet, will be…….

>

>

>

>

avatar

i saw this movie twice in the theater, including the epic imax experience.  i haven’t spent money to see a movie twice in the theater since the incredibles.  i was thoroughly entertained, blown away and moved by this truly epic cinematic experience.  dances with wolves in outer space!!!  the story was good enough for an oscar in 1990, why not 20 years later as well?  even if you thought the story was lame, you’ve got to give it to james cameron for re-energizing the dying film industry.  selling out movie theaters week after week is a rare thing these days.  just because this movie made the most money, ever, doesn’t mean its a good movie.  wait a second, yes it does.  the best even

my sister flew from the cayman islands to miami so she could see avatar in imax 3d (it was only available in 2d in cayman).  yup, people are willing to fly to another country to see this movie.  maybe because this movie kicks ass!

as for the rest of the categories, i haven’t seen all of the movies nominated for them so i can’t really say.  you’re probably also reading this blog entry after the academy awards has aired because facebook takes a while to sync with external blogs.

here’s a little game to test your movie knowledge.

from a photo shoot Empire magazine organized for their 20th anniversary.

“From South Africa (Clint Eastwood) to Santa Monica (Governor Schwarzenegger) to Jack Nicholson’s house (um, Jack Nicholson), Empire trotted the globe to deliver you 27 of the planet’s biggest stars, recreating iconic performances from two decades in film, for a unique 20th birthday celebration.”

Photographs by Bradley Patrick, Sara Dunn, Keith Bernstein, Adrian Green and Robert Gallagher.

what movie is being recreated in the following photographs?
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

long live the pirate ship and dvd screeners!

~*…normaste…*~

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randnorm image

randnorm mind grenade
God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them. – Khalil Gibran

randnorm video
Holy Ghost VS Twisted Individual & MC GQ @ Baptazia – part 1

a little background on my personal relationship with jesus christ:  i was a born again christian during high school, i was baptized when i was 17, i was even an mc in a christian rap group called the ysc (youth serving christ) posse before there was even such a thing as a christian side hug.

kickin’ science, kickin’ lyrics, kickin’ rhymes about our maker.  we call him jesus christ but they say jah down in jamaica.

i bet you never would have guessed that i was on fire for the lord in my youth…then i got laid   if being a christian means i can’t have sex until marriage, i’ll pass.

in university i became friends with many amazing people who came from different cultures, and i learned that god has a plethora of names, traditions and rituals for worship.  my monotheist view of the almighty was forever shattered.

i found it difficult to say that i know the one true god to someone who calls god by a different name, or worships the almighty creator in a different way than i do. who am i to tell someone else that their truth is wrong and that i know the one real god?

Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’ – Khalil Gibran

an atlas of faith

click here to see an atlas of faith – believers as a percentage of world population

while feeding my passion for people, i learned how to say ‘thank you’ in over 60 different languages.  i’ve found that showing gratitude in the language of someone’s heart is guaranteed to trigger positive vibrations.  i began to think about the root energy of ‘thank you’.  its a conversational expression of gratitude.  that energy is expressed in every language.  it got me thinking – if the root energy is the same and made manifest in a different language, why is it just ‘thank you’?  what if the root energy of everything is the same, experiencing itself in an infinite number of ways?  maybe we all come from the same seed, we’re just trees living in a different forest.  same same but different.

expressing gratitude in so many languages helped shape my view on god.

same god.  different name.

my mother is a devout christian.  her faith and personal relationship with jesus christ has given her the strength to raise three kids on her own while caring for her husband dying from an incurable disease.  she is constantly praying for me, hoping that one day i will come back to the church and realize that jesus is the answer.  there’s no need to accept an answer if i never asked a question, is there?

when things go well in my life, my mother constantly encourages me to give god all the praise and glory.  but god doesn’t make the decisions in my life, i do.  i am the sum of all of my choices.  i am who i choose to be.  my mom believes that the choices are mine, but its god that made it all possible and he therefore deserves all of the praise.  is god responsible for the shitty things in my life too?  seeing as my mom gave birth to me, and without her i would not exist, shouldn’t i give her all the praise if things go well in my life also?

if god deserves all the praise, shouldn’t he also deserve all the blame too?  maybe that’s why they invented satan, so he could shoulder all the blame and god can receive all the praise.

we’re all sailing the same endless sea of possibility, we just might not be traveling on the same vessel…or even going in the same direction…or D) none of the above.

~*…normaste…*~

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randnorm image

randnorm mind grenade
“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

randnorm link
my friend misa shared a link on my facebook wall to www.oddee.com.  it has since become one of my fave places to waste time in cyberspace.  i’ve spent a lot of my 2009 just exploring this site and having it blow my mind with the most randnorm examples of the bizarre.

Oddee.com is an entertainment blog on oddities, attracting well over two million unique visitors each month. Focused on the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world, its daily articles and sections explore subjects from Science to Advertising and Technology; over 11 million pages are read at Oddee every month.

from lists like 10 unbelievable facebook stories to the 15 most idiotic tattoos, oddee.com is filled with enuff wtf? for daze.  visit oddee.com on your next coffee break and enjoy looking at the world bizarrely different.

randnorm video
two of my favourite things – burning man 2009 dubstep montage

normdate 1.1.10

whoah!  if someone told me a year ago that in 2009 i would hike 9hrs out of the backcountry, skateboard down the las vegas strip and end up living with my lover, i would have laughed heartily and told them they were crazy…and seeing how life is full of randnormness, you can never truly predict exactly what will happen next.  or can you?  as i look back on 2009, i can’t help but smile.  thank you for creating this incredible world with me.  it is truly a beautiful, majikal and wonderous place to be.

in 2009, i had the pleasure of snowboarding over 50days at 13 different resorts across alberta, british columbia and washington state.

1. sunshine village

2. lake louise

3. nakiska

4. mt.norquay

5. marmot basin

6. fernie

7. panorama

8. kicking horse

9. revelstoke

10. whitewater

11. mt.baker

12. whistler/blackcomb

13. kimberley

holy shit that’s a lot of snowboarding!…and my backyard is the best snow playground in world.  fuck yeah, western canada!

snowboarding pretty much consumes the first 5 months of the year thanks to sunshine village being open until may 2-4 weekend.  fuck yeah, western canada!  i feel like i’m repeating myself

i did indeed ride out too far in the whitewater backcountry and had to hike 9hrs out of 5 mile basin.  click here to read the story. it was the craziest, most intense, physically challenging, mentally challenging task i have ever conquered.  gnarliest experience evar!

in july, i celebrated my brother neil’s 40th birthday with him in las vegas…

…and went skateboarding down the las vegas strip with my lover, megan.

i journeyed home to black rock city for the burning man festival and spread bunny love across the playa.

describing burning man to someone who hasn’t been before is like describing what having sex feels like to a virgin…

you can look at as many pikchaz as you want <click here to see pikchaz>

you can watch every movie ever made about it <click to see moviez>

you can talk to every person who has experienced it <skype me>

but you will never truly understand what it feels like until you experience it for yourself. big ups to my bunnyside station krew!

it actually feels good to live in a city where the hockey team actually wins games…go flames!

at halloween, the red mile turns into the dead mile

the c of red becomes the c of dead

in november, my lover megan and i moved into a beautiful one bedroom suite overlooking memorial park.  i know.  crazy, eh?  after 9 years of being without a partner, i have found a beautiful, radiant, shredding goddess to share my home, my life, and my heart with.  she kicks ass!

my friend spark came across a contest with my name written all over it, and sent me a link to the snow bum canada website.  sun peaks resort in kamloops, british columbia, was looking for a snow addikt to come out to the resort for three months and, well, be a snow bum.  three months of shredding at sun peaks, including food, accomodations, gear and a season pass.  this was my 60 second submission to be the first sun peaks snow bum.  huge thanks to dani bayliss for doing such an incredible job editing this video.  this girl has maad skillz!

i had 5 times more views of my video than any other submission.  i had more comments and support than any other entrant.  i am…well, if you’re reading this you already know.  i am a snow addikt and this contest was made for me.  unfortunately, sun peaks didn’t think i was the perfekt person for the job and awarded the title of first snow bum to a brazillian skier named thiago.

why didn’t i win?  well, of all of the contestants who entered, i am the closest to already living the snow bum dream.  i also run the highest risk of doing something that might disqualify me and make sun peaks look ‘bad’.

from the snow bum website:

CANCELLATION OF THE PRIZE:
Tourism Sun Peaks is entitled to cancel the prize at any time during the winner’s stay (January 4 through March 31, 2010) if the winner engages in any inappropriate, illegal or immoral behavior, excessive use of alcohol, use of artificial stimulants or use of illegal drugs, or if the winner engages in any actions which reflect negatively on Tourism Sun Peaks or any person or organization involved in the contest.

i still believe i am the best person for the job, but i understand why sun peaks chose the safer option with thiago.  having a bisexual shreadlock ninjamasian herbalist as your spokesperson is too much risk for bad press.  i’m kewl with that.  i’ll just continue to chase the storm and share my adventures, uncensored, here in my blog and through facebook.  thanks for following.

’tis the season to appreciate the presence…

i spent christmas day with megan and her parents in airdrie.  working in retail means i will only get christmas day off.  it is the only shitty thing about the job that i love…but spending christmas with my lover and her family was a whole lot of alright, especially when we got to shred sunshine on christmas day.

the annual source boxing day party is always an event to remember, or not remember…

partying with a bunch of skateboarders and snowboarders with an all you can handle bar tab can get pretty drunk…

i spent new years eve at megan’s parent’s place in airdrie.  it was super mellow and we were in bed by 12:05am…only to rise at 6am and head to sunshine village to shred.  snowboarding is my life and takes priority over partying any day.

wow, what a year.  congratulations to my sister thalia and her fiancee polo, congratulations to my brother neil and his fiancee erin.  i’m not about to get married, but i guess moving in with my lover is pretty much the same thing (if you know me).

thanks for reading my blog.  thanks for being a part of my life.  stay tuned for more adventures…

~*…normaste…*~

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normdate 26.12.09

’tis the season to be…? for me, the holiday season is about spending time with friends and family instead and not about spending money. i am so glad that the only reason i was at a mall this season was to see avatar (which kicked ass by the way).

so many people lose their shit trying to find that perfekt present for that special someone. buy buy buy. but what about the real reason for the season? no, i’m not talking about jesus (he wasn’t even born on dec.25). i’m talkin’ about feeding a fairy tale about a big jolly white man with a big beard and a red suit who delivers presents to all of the good children in the world.

where did this ‘tradition’ come from? its a western cultural phenomenon that was not invented by coca cola, despite what urban legends you may have heard. click here to read what the almighty wiki has to say about the big fat man with the bag.

when did you first learn that santa claus didn’t exist? tell me about that fateful day when you learned the truth about the man from the north pole?

santa claus, even if he is a figment of our childhood imagination, triggers joy and happiness in so many people, young and old. i guess its okay to lie if your lie brings people joy. if santa is a lie, it kinda makes you wonder if jesus is a lie too?

behold, the animated short that started it all…friends from a little redneck town in colorado reveals the true meaning of christmas.

i wasn’t able to go home for christmas because of work…retail doesn’t leave much room for christmas vacation. but i did go to sunshine village with megan and her dad. if i couldn’t be home with family, being on the mountains shredding was the next best thing.

the upper park was finally open, so we decided to earn some air miles. fuck my girl is rad.

megan’s dad is one of the best skiers i have ever ridden with.

it was rad to ride sunshine with someone who grew up riding this resort, and knows all of the backcountry there. there was no new snow, but if you know where to go there is always pow to rip.

the infamous extreme terrain known as delirium dive. beacon, shovel and partner mandatory.

sunshine at sunshine on christmas day. fuck yeah!

merry clitoris and happy shit to all y’all mother*shut your mouth*

~*…snowmurai…*~

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normdate 4.12.6

thanks to the epic start to the season, kicking horse began operations a week earlier this year. with it’s breathtaking panoramic views, challenging terrain, and insane powder, kicking horse is my favourite big resort. so when the idea to celebrate ketchup’s birthday in golden at our friend’s chalet presented itself, the decision to journey into british columbia to chase the storm was a no brainer.

seeing as we would have to drive by lake louise on the way to golden, my krew of ida, rae rae and khing jamez agreed to shred a half day at the lake before making it to kicking horse for opening weekend.

we were blessed with fresh snow and zero crowds. i’d almost forgotten how amazing it is to ride a resort on a weekday.

knee deep goodness the first week of december at lake louise…can i get a fuck yeah!?!

there is more snow at louise now than there was at louise in february last year. these pristine early season conditions encouraged us to czech out the best natural hit ever just out of bounds and past the rock garden. normally, this hit isn’t covered with enough snow until the end of january. lucky for us, ullr has decided to bless us with a plethora of snow so early in the season.

a quick 10minute hike and a drop in through some dense trees brought us to a canvas of untouched paradise.

there was so much snow on the hit that we had to pack it down before we could send ourselves off of it.

this did, however, require me to hike back up which is a very difficult task in waist high powder. i was barely able to gather enough speed to make it over the hit, but the powder ride out after was worth it. ripping pow in december. fuck yeah!

big ups to khing jamez for taking the above pikchaz and video.

onwards and hopwards to golden, british columbia.

normdate 5.12.9

we were staying at our friend robin’s cabin just outside of golden for the weekend. this cabin is simply gorgeous, and not just because of the hot tub.

if you’ve ever ridden kicking horse, you know that it demands all of your skill to get from the top to the bottom. it is the most challenging resort i have ever had the pleasure or riding.

feuz bowl was finally open, so we carved a bee line to redemption ridge to shred the snow that had accumulated there since it began snowing in golden this year.

we arrived back at the chalet to find a full house of amazing people and a hot tub. fuck yes!

ridiculously good looking

there was a picnic table on the patio, and a perfekt drop in beside the hot tub. it didn’t take long for us to move everything into place and start jibbing.

as i stopped to take it all in – beautiful cabin, amazing friends, and snowboarding – i was reminded that i am already living the dream i create…and it is fukkin fabulous!

it was still pretty fukkin cold the next day, but the blue bird skies made it a bit easier to bear.

happy birthday, ketchup!

not only is my girl the fukkin hawtest, she fukkin rips all kinds of terrain with style. dropping feuz bowl…so sexxxy!

ketchup, dropping!

its all about minimizing the time between unbuckling and drinking a beer in the hot tub. thanks to everyone who made it out for ketchup’s bday. big up to robin for the cabin hook.

what a great way to open up the season at kicking horse.

snowboarding…fuck yeah!

~*…snowmurai…*~

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came across this old post i made on a messageboard and i thought i’d share it here on my blog.

enjoi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

And they call some of these people “retarded”…
A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all
physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the
100-yard dash.
At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a
relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one
little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry.
The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back.
Then they all turned around and went back……every one of them.
One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.”
Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line.
Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story.
Why? Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course.

~*…normaste…*~

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what’s shakin’ kewl katz? welcome to the new drediknight.com website. i’m running wordpress, and i’m new at this…so please bear with me as i learn with each post.

so it looks like sun peaks opted for the someone more gay than me to be the snow bum, which is why they chose a skiier, a non canadian skiier at that

jokes aside, congratulations to thiago from brazil on becoming the first sun peaks snow bum.

a brazillian becomes the first canadian snow bum

here is a link to thaigo’s video entry:

here is a my video entry:

even though i have more than twice the views and more comments than thiago, the judging committee at sun peaks decided that he was a better choice. maybe i should’ve removed all of my recreational activities from my blog, or my cursing, or my outspoken opinions…but if you know me, you know that i ain’t about to cut my hair for nobody.

we were going to go with the slogan “if you don’t choose norm you’re an idiot!“, but then i got thinking: why would they be an idiot for choosing me? two things came to mind.

1. i’m a visible minority. not to say that thiago is white, but i was the only person of colour who even entered the contest. i know, what does skin colour have to do with it? why you gotta play the race card, normurai? well, you can’t deny the fact that the recreational sport of skiing/snowboarding is enjoyed by mostly affluent caucasian folk. that’s been changing over the past few years, thanks to snow addiktz like me, but the majority of people who go to ski resorts are primarily white. choosing a black man as a spokesperson for a white target market isn’t the best way to encourage them to come to your resort. but i could have always pushed myself as an ambassador for multiculturalism and they could have positioned themselves as a diverse family resort. i would definitely be the only shreadlock ninjamasian in kamloops. i’m used to being the only coloured person on the hill, and am always glad to see that isn’t necessarily the case all of the time.

2. my recreational activities are taboo. a quick google search for normurai or drediknight will quickly take you to my website and blog. it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that i am a proud supporter of the canadian green party or that i am polyamorous and play for both teams. sun peaks was looking for a spokesperson to represent their resort. from a marketing point of view, having a bi-sexual herbalist snowboarder as your snow bum is far from the conservative family values that they would like to associate with the resort.

as i was looking through my blog, i burst out laughing many times. i referred to myself as a racist fuck, i captioned a whistler pride sign as ‘fags got money too ya know’, i even had a pikcha of a bunny eating a weed leaf with the quote ‘a bunny after my own heart’ underneath it. yup, i’m a crass motherfucker with a big heart…it takes one to know one.

in the end, i was the only contestant in the competition who really didn’t need the gig. i never asked people to vote for me, or plead to be the snow bum because there is no snow where i live, or i have no gear or no money. i was the closest to already living the snow bum life as any of the other entries could get. not winning the contest means i get to fall back on being a snow bum. i manage the online shop for canada’s largest independently owned skate and snow shop. i surround myself with the best fukkin friends in the universe. i wake up in a beautiful home beside a woman i love. i shred the best mountains in the world for 7months of the year.

living the dream kicks fukkin ass!

i got nothin’ but love for you, thiago. if there was any other entry that i was worried about, it was yours. congratulations. you earned this win.  i’ll be out at sun peaks at the end of march.  let’s shred.

thanks to everyone who supported me. your comments were an amazing reminder of how my life has had a positive effect on so many people. i copied all of the comments into an email and sent it to my mom, telling her that if she ever wondered if she did a good job of raising me, just read the comments. the reason why i create and nurture the relationships i have in my life is because she raised me that way. my crass fukkin’ potty mouth is my own doing

FUCK YAYURAI!!!

stay tuned for more vidz and adventures from your friendly neighbourhood drediknight.

~*…normaste…*~

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randnorm pikcha

randnorm mind grenade
“to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” – willie shakespizzo

randnorm video

normdate 24.11.9

sun peaks resort in kamloops, british columbia, is holding a contest that has my name written all over it. they are looking for the first sun peaks snow bum.

One winner will spend three months on the slopes of Sun Peaks with a free place to sleep, food to keep them energized, flights to get them here, plus outerwear, gear and a season’s pass for carving up the powder.

so what exactly does being the sun peaks snow bum mean? click here to find out.

for those of you who have been following my adventures online through my site, my blog, and facebook, you know i’m already a snow bum…now sun peaks is willing to foot the bill.

here is my video entry to be the sun peaks snow bum. big thanks to philbot for lending me all of his cameras, to khing jamez for helping me film at c.o.p., captain q, ida, stacey, ketchup, rae rae and megan for being extras in my video, and most importantly dani bayliss for editing the video.

please go here and leave a comment

this contest was made for me.

after making it into the top 20 finalists *yay* i was required to submit a written assignment.

Please tell us about your most memorable travel experience in a minimum of 400 words, and a maximum of 500.

here is what i submitted, with pikchaz (of course)

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Each year, at the end of March, my friends and I embark on a weeklong storm-chasing mission across the interior of British Columbia in search of powder. This road trip from Calgary to Vancouver involves riding six mountains in seven days. We call it EpiTrip.

On the shred menu for EpiTrip 2009 was Fernie, Kimberley, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Whitewater, and Red Mountain.

Spending the 2006 snow season in Nelson gave me the opportunity to explore and familiarize myself with the vast backcountry at Whitewater.

It had been three years since I was out in the Whitewater backcountry, and I was excited to share the pristine Out of Bounds Kootenay powder with my friends.

With our boards on our backs, snowshoes on our feet, and our transceivers set to transmit, we began our hike towards Ymir ridge to shred the champagne powder that falls in 5 Mile Basin.

When we reached the top of the ridge, we were a bit further away from where I had originally planned for us to drop in.

With knee high powder and trees tempting us, we decided to eat one of our packed meals and drop in right there.

Floating through insane amounts of untouched snow while screaming for joy at the top of our lungs made us forget that it took us an hour to hike there.

When we reached the bottom of the basin, the smiles on our faces dwarfed the painted visage of the Joker. It was perhaps the best snow I had ever ridden in my life.

After an hour forging a new path through the snow and being surrounded by 60ft tall trees, I became concerned about our location. It should not have taken us that long to get back to the bottom of 5 Mile Basin. With daylight fading, we decided to hike up the side of the mountain so we could get a better idea of where we were. When we were high enough to see the peaks, it was then that I realized why they call it 5 Mile Basin.

Untouched knee high powder and a steep incline is amazing when you are riding down it, but it’s the opposite experience when you are hiking up it in snowshoes.

It took us 9 hours to hike out of the backcountry. We emerged at 2am. Our friends had filed missing persons reports with the police and thanks to my Facebook status update, B.C. Search and Rescue knew where to start their search for us. A helicopter was scheduled for 6am to get us out of there. We had enough food and clothing to spend the night, but there was no way I was going to sleep under a tree when I knew I could walk home.

That was the most challenging task I had ever conquered, both physically and mentally. Combined with riding the best snow of my life, especially by moonlight, it was the most memorable travel experience of my life…and I lived to tell the tale.
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i have a 20min phone interview with sun peaks tomorrow at 1pm and then it is left for the judges to decide if i should be the snow bum.

thanks to all of you for your support. i’ll keep you posted via my blog and facebook.

regardless of who they choose to be the snow bum, i will continue to embrace snowboarding every single day through work…

…shred every single weekend until may 2-4 weekend (yay ontario slang!)

helmet cam vid of me haulin’ ass down wiwaxy at lake louise on saturday.

part1.

part2.

i will also wake up beside a woman i love (we moved in together, but that’s another story), surround myself with the most amazing of people, give thanks for every blessing that comes my way, and do what makes me the happiest.

looks like i win no matter what.

fuck yeah!

~*…normaste…*~

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