Dear Interweb,
In high school I had a sense of dread about the question, “What are you going to do with your life?” Quietly, I knew that Plan A was to be a high performance/professional skier. But I knew I needed Plan B and an answer that would stop the questioning. I can’t remember how it started but my response towards the end was, “I want to be an astronaut”. I loved the look on people’s faces as I said it. After all, it is generally the answer one expects from a 10 year old boy. However, it quickly became a serious response as it suited my academic strengths plus my enjoyment of intense physical challenges. So, I researched the requirements and discovered that 20/20 eyesight is required, which I don’t have. The real blow was that the laser surgery effects on the eyes aren’t compatible with space travel. I think I would still like to be astronaut for my next career so I’ll just keep skiing and going to school, collecting a few PhDs and wait out the technology. Ha!
But in the meantime… I was thrilled that I got to be in space, at least virtually, for this Electric ad! Check it out in the inside back cover of the latest Freeskier Magazine.
And also check out fellow Albertan Mike Henitiuck on the cover! Yea!
Sincerely,
RozG
Post-Script: Thank you Jimbo Morgan and Bryn Hughes for shooting the photo!
During these last few months, I have been so busy with school, dryland training and friends that I haven’t been on the blogging-train. As ski season approaches, I hope to once again become a more consistent blogger. As my friend Joel pointed out, recently I’ve been referring to everything in Top 5s. So, here is:
My Top 5 List of Favourites for Quest Fall 2009:
1. My roommate Adrienne and the events that went on in our room. Adrienne is one of the most caring and lovely people I know. Our room hosted the Cheese and Wine Society, Girls Night, Cosmo Club Meetings, movie nights, floor meetings, and a lot of tea drinking.
Adrienne and I on her 19th Birthday
Adrienne, a farmer and I, Spinelli from the cartoon Recess, doing our best impersonations of our characters on Halloween. (An event that almost could have made my top 5)
2. Dance parties of epic proportions.. These songs were always sung at the top of our lungs with dramatic dance moves:
Wolf Like Me, TV on the Radio
Paper Planes, MIA
Deceptacon, Le Tigre
Great DJ, The Tings Tings
3. Neuroscience (October block) with a fabulous professor,Megan Bulloch. I was challenged by the course and fascinated by so many aspects of the huge field of neuroscience so it has further expanded my future career list which is much longer than “top 5”. My final paper was on psychophysiological aspects of psychopathy. Though researching and thinking about psychopaths for a month was slightly disturbing, it was the most fascinating subject I have ever written about. (If you are interested in the pychophysiological differences in repeat violent criminals or people that just lack empathy, we can talk about it!)
4. Cross country mountain biking in Squamish. The rush of adrenaline surrounded by beautiful, lush forests is one of the best feelings ever. The strength in my legs for the upcoming ski season is pretty great too! If you’re ever biking in Squamish, check out Roller Coaster and Psuga Tsuga.
5. Purple Pants Sunday Games Nights. It somehow evolved over the semester to a weekly event consisting of four of us wearing purple long underwear/spandex/tights playing Bananagrams and card games. As silly as it sounds, it really was an integral part of my fall.
As I wrote this list, I realize I could have made it my “top 10 or 20” list as I tried to fit a few things into each point and ended up leaving out some other favourite things, courses, and friends. So I’ve realized that I only mention “top 5” as a point of reference but I likely have way more than five on any “top list of things”!
P.S. My brother, Luke, came to visit and stayed with us at Quest. That should have been on my list but, along with several other things, I couldn’t figure out how to fit it into the other top 5s.
P.P.S. Having my truck towed because of illegal parking when we went to Vancouver for a girl’s day was NOT a favourite thing, even though the day itself and the friends I went with, could easily have been on this list.
My favourite girls: Becca, Adrienne, Olenka, myself and Michaela on Granville Island in Vancouver
I missed a few days of my chemistry block to fly down to Boulder for the Spyder Annual Sales meeting, a quick photo shoot and a large Spyder party. It was awesome to meet the great people at Spyder as well as to see Boulder for the first time. But, the most special event was to see that my previous team manager, Chad Buckridge, has come back to Spyder. hoorah!
A bug on a Spyder coat in the salesroom...ha
Rob is a sweet designer for Spyder who might be working on an epic Roz suit...
The one man Jamaica Ski team, Errol and I modeling the same jacket. I think it looks better on me...
Delicious king crab straight off the NorthWestern fishing boat, made famous by the Discovery Channel's show "The Deadliest Catch". It was amazing!
The Spyder team: Errol Kerr, Julian Carr, Colby West and me plus two models in speed suits at the Spyder party
I am happy to be part of such an amazing group of people! Thank you to Grant, Chad and Rob for making my trip excellent!
I decided to get Twitter! Follow me at roz_g (not rozg or roz-g). I was anti-Twitter for awhile, but I have actually enjoyed “Tweeting” as well as following my friends’ updates and thoughts. Hopefully, I will figure out how to connect it to this blog soon!
My very first full page ad came out in SBCSkier a week ago. And…it’s the back cover! (It’s also in the Freeskier Women’s edition). It’s pretty exciting walking into 7Elevens and grocery stores to see my face on a back of a magazine. Thanks to to Kombi for the ad! And to Felix Rioux for the candid shot!
Psyched!
To read about the glove I designed for Kombi, check out my post from February. Thank you to all the shops that are carrying my design this year!
On our way down to New Zealand, Justin and I stopped over on the lovely little island of Rarotonga. My favourite Auntie Yo and three cousins, Aaron, Joel and Evan, happened to be there for summer vacation. It was a perfect opportunity to visit my awesome family, adjust to the time change and travel and have a mini tropical vacation. We had an awesome time snorkeling, finding and opening coconuts, having hermit crab races, enjoying the beach etc. Thank you Auntie Yo for having us! It was so wonderful to see you all!
My Auntie Yo, Myself and Evan at our beach house
Justin after his first coconut tree climbing adventure
Aaron and Joel working through the many layers of the best coconut ever
Evan and I in the Jungle!
Aaron, Joel, Evan, Justin, Myself and Auntie Yo on a hike
Justin tackling one of the biggest and best burgers ever, The Palace Burger.
Chickens roamed freely on Rarotonga, which led to a lot of "Why did the Chicken cross the road?" jokes
My cousins and I after an awesome dinner
On our way from Rarotonga to Queenstown, I stayed with Justin’s extended family in Aukland for a night,(Justin stayed there for a week after). Before I flew to begin my adventures in Queenstown, we did a morning of site-seeing. Thank you Anne, Rob and Grant for showing me around!
Justin and I on One Tree Hill
I am currently in the lovely Kiwi town of Queenstown. I am on my first “solo-mission”. I rented my own vehicle (my mantra has been “stay left, stay left!”) and didn’t arrange accommodation with teammates or friends. Through some awesome people in Canada (thanks Gabe!) I got hooked up with a place to stay at the RedBull house. My house-mates are some great snowboarders from the Czech Republic (Martin, Jan and Sarka), Slovenia (Silka) and Quebec (Sebtoots) as well as Zeb and Justin who work for RedBull.
View from the RedBull House! (Check out my sweet hoodie!)
I’ve been riding at the Remarkables, which is close to Queenstown, with some Czech riders. It has been a new experience being the only skier in a crew of coolboarders. I’ve really enjoyed watching their riding and listening to their opinions and amusing banter.
From the Remarkables parking lot: I really like the clouds in this photo. The cloud cover was really low so Queenstown was overcast but the mountain was sunny. Awesome for shredding!
The view from the road down from the Remarkables (Martin, Matie, Myself and Justin)
It was originally my plan to ride Cardrona, which is a mountain between Queenstown and Wanaka, but the Burton New Zealand Open for snowboarding was this week so the park has been closed. Congrats to my new friend Sebtoots for winning the slopestyle event today!
So stoked to be skiing again!!
Post-Script: When I first arrived at the house, two girls who work for the promotional sector of RedBull (they drive around in a decaled Mini Cooper and give out RedBull) taught me how to make a classic Kiwi breakfast called Weet-Bix, which are these logs of oatmeal-like whole wheat that you microwave with brown sugar and milk (or in my case, soy milk). I am totally addicted and think I’ll bring back a box to eat while studying on rainy Squamish days.
Post-post-Script: Even though I’ve really enjoyed the Czech snowboarders, I was really happy that my favourite Aussie, Anna Segal, had a sleep over. Check out her blog: http://www.annasegal.blogspot.com/
Our coach, Trennon, recently built our team a fanpage on Facebook. Trennon has been writing awesome updates about our team for several years (they are usually so good that I post them on my blog!) Our fanpage on facebook will be an easy way for the public to view the reports.
If you have facebook, become our fan here! Trennon (and the rest of the team) will be updating it frequently with news, pictures and videos.
If you don’t have facebook, check our webpage: http://www.canadiansuperpipe.com/2009/ (It will be updated soon!)
I decided that if LOST could summarize 3 seasons in 8 minutes, then I could summarize my June/July in a few paragraphs.
In mid-June, The Field Ecology course ended brilliantly with a 3-day hike on Flores Island through the “Wild Side Trail” to explore its biodiversity. I highly recommended going there if you’re in the Tofino, BC area.
My classmate, Bryn and I, hiking through the forest
Late June to mid-July, I was in Whistler, contracted to coach tramp for Momentum Ski Camps. The plan was to do intense dryland training plus ski the glacier. (A few days into it, COC asked me to coach at the tramp at water ramp which helped cover some living expenses in Whistler.) I had several awesome ski days on the glacier, did a fill-in ski coaching day, felt some progress in some things I was working on and then… had a speed issue on the 80-90 foot step-up jump, ending with my SI joint jammed. I felt lucky that it was just a 3 week recovery period. I was also bummed because there was only 3 weeks left for Momentum. Instead of heading home, I finished my tramp coaching commitments (which I love to do especially when a camper gets a trick for the first time!), did some rehab, spent some fun time socializing with Justin, ski friends and Luke G (who was there as the assistant video guy for Momentum), and left Whistler feeling almost healed and relaxed, ready to get strong again.
One of my favourite trampoline campers, Noah, and I at the water ramp trampolines. (Check out my sweet Voleurz Hoodie!)
All around awesome camper/friend Megan Clinton and I at a party!
Stretching before a big day on the Glacier!
Time in Calgary with family and friends is always so good for my soul. I went to the Calgary International Folk Fest as I always do (since I was 6 years old) seeing some favourites, hearing some new music and doing some serious all night dancing at the volunteer after party (as a guest of my Quest friends, Samahdi, Anna, Britanny and Carmen, who were volunteers this year).
Dancing at the Folk Fest!
Brit, Samadhi and I watching some bands on the grass
And now I’m almost up to date. Next blog: trip to Cook Islands with Justin before heading to New Zealand to shred!
Roz G
P.S. I really admired how Justin dealt with not being able to go and kill it on the glacier all summer (because of his healing collarbone). He was enthusiastically coaching for Momentum but carefully waiting for his wing to heal. He cheered on his campers and friends’ accomplishments and never complained even though I know he was dying to hit it all. Seeing him take it in stride was a lesson for me in how to deal with my own disappointment this summer.
I spent three days last week hiking, camping and learning near Chaekamus Lake, an old growth forest very close to Whistler. The trip was led by our professor, Nobi Suzuki, who is a very endearing Japanese man with an immense knowledge, expertise, and love of nature. Though we were collecting data on biodiversity, sampling the forest for deadwood, familiarizing ourselves with herbs, shrubs and trees of the area, discussing readings from our textbook and listening to Nobi for over 10 hours a day, it didn’t feel like school. Nobi’s absolute love of nature was infectious and we were all enthralled with the new awareness of all he pointed out. The trip was truly “Quest-style”- innovative and intimate.
In the forest!
Our little class learning about ecosystems on the beautiful lake
My group members, Celeta and Bryn, identifying plants
The most inspiring and charming time was early each morning. We rose very early to listen to bird calls, learning to identify birds by their individual sound. From a lifetime of experience of doing studies in forests (wildlife/bird conservation, etc.), Nobi is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about identifying birdcalls. He listened to the all birds as if he was conducting an orchestra. I wish I had a video of it! Then, throughout the day, he would stop us suddenly, pointing upwards towards a sound, saying, “listen: ja-JA-JA-ja-JA-JA”, hoping we’d recognize them as easily as he did (that’s the call for a Steller’s Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri ). We didn’t…but we were completely enchanted nonetheless.
Post-script: The weather was amazing and we found a little time each day to enjoy the vistas and hangout in the sun.
The View from our Campsite
