Fight for Silver and Bronze

With less than a month to go till the Olympic halfpipe event, it seems like Olympic gold has already been decided before the torch even reaches Vancouver. Shaun White threw down a Double McTwist 12 in practice at the Grand Prix. Given that he doesn’t fall, come February, the race won’t be for gold. It’ll be a duel for runner up.

Marcus’s Music Friday

Many of you Grouse locals may know Park Crew veteran, Marcus Cartwright. A staple on the Grouse Mountain scene, Marcus also has quite the ear for hip hop. Starting next week, Marcus is gonna drop a weekly track, maybe two, maybe…actually, however many he feels like. To kick things off, here’s a bomb track that sums up all of 2009 and rings in 2010. As Marcus says, better late than never. I’m pretty sure he stole that from somewhere though. You can follow along with the lyrics and the track is available as a free download too.

2009 Rap Up – Skillz

A Day With The Grouse Pro Team

Recently, there was a competition up on the site in which three riding related questions were asked. This month’s winner, Eric Behn, won an Oakley prize pack as well as a day of riding for him and three buddies with the Grouse pro team!

Despite the lack of snow, I think I can speak for all of us when I say it was still a super awesome day. Check out how the session went down!

Still Kickin’

There may not be much snow on the mountain right now but that doesn’t mean the park isn’t still awesome! The park crew has used a little creativity and worked their asses off to somehow keep the Quik Park as sick as it always is. The best feature in the park right now is the up box. There are a bunch of other rails and boxes but the up box is definitely number one. Frodo and I went up the mountain last night to do some shooting and got a couple decent shots. They’re all of the one box, but we did our best to get creative.

Get up the mountain tomorrow night for the Oakley Night Jam, it’s gonna be fun no matter what. If you can’t get up the mountain, then you should go to Centennial Theater to check out the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, which starts tomorrow and goes till the 29th. So, if you’re sitting at home tomorrow night complaining that there’s nothing to do, then now there’s no excuse! Here are some shots to get you stoked for the Oakley Night Jam!

Frodo tailpressing the box

Frodo's shifty out

Frodo with a shifty off the box, over the city

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billhawleyphotography/4292754847/in/photostream/

(caption: Frodo with another shifty off the up box over the city)

now on to whistler peace!

~Bill

Oakley Night Jams, Scene 2, Take 2

Just wanted to let all you kids know that the Oakley Night Jams for January has been rescheduled to this coming Friday, the 22nd. Location is to be determined, but will probably be in the Quiksilver Terrain Park. I know there’s not a lot of snow, but we’re making up for that by giving away a bunch of free stuff, so you can’t really say no to that. It’ll be a good time, for sure. Come up, bring friends! If it rains again, I’m going to be really pissed off. More pissed off than if I were to die by shark attack.

Sam

A New Home

Hey there!

Unfortunately, I haven’t had internet for the past week, but this weekend I did have the opportunity to ride some powder up in Whistler. I’m sure most of you remember former bloggers, park crew and Grouse riders Dan and Nathan Jonas, Scott Titterington, Liam Casey, James Anderson and Ryan Belich. This year, they flew from the Grouse nest and are all living together in a house in Alta Vista, Whistler. It’s been nice to catch up and ride some powder with them at their new home mountain. The six of them have been continuing to kill it in Whistler and after seeing them the past few weekends, it seems like their loving it up there. They’re all really cool guys and are doing great things up in Whistler this year. Here are some photos of what they have been up to lately, and also some shots from last year at Grouse.

Surface riders Liam Casey and Eliel Hindert

$Ryan's fractured wrist$

Ryan's fractured wrist

James and Liam

Dan at Grouse last season

Scott in a Snuggie

Snow photos by Scott Titterington

Have fun, Grouse!

-Alice

Another Introduction

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bill Hawley. Born and raised seven minutes from the mountains in North Vancouver, I’m a new addition to the Grouse Park Blog and very grateful for it! As much as I’m new to the blog, I’m not so new to the mountain. I started skiing at Grouse when I was 3 years old and it just became the regular thing to do after school and on weekends. Things progressed from there and when I was about 12 years old, I picked up my parents little point and shoot camera, took a few pictures around the house to keep myself busy and that’s when I realized what I wanted to do for fun. Skiing and photography. Now, I’m finally starting to combine the two and it’s proving to be the most kick ass thing I know how to do.

So, now that you know who I am, don’t be shy if you see me up the mountain, I’m the guy wearing the bright blue jacket and pants looking like I shouldn’t be shredding the park. Come say hi and maybe strike up a conversation! The temperature’s dropping a little bit, so let’s be optimistic and say that’s a sign of snow on the way. Here’s some of my most recent shots to keep you stoked on the season, enjoy!

Park crew Adam Nicholls spinning the step down before the rain came

Kyle Jasper getting inverted on Blackcomb

Fred Hawley dropping in powder on Blackcomb