Dave Hobson doesn’t really believe in lessons. The Alpine Supervisor of Whistler Blackcomb’s Snow School (and 2012 Supervisor of the Year)* is inclined to the philosophy that you can pretty much teach yourself anything. Except skiing and snowboarding, that is. In part, he advocates ski lessons because it’s a social experience. Putting your self in…
Category: mountain culture
How to Ski Like A Man
The failure of the world to explode in cataclysmic fireballs on the end of the Mayan calendar means those New Year resolutions you didn’t bother with suddenly demand a little attention. (It’s not too late!) Today, I told the Liftopia community that any Self Improvement journey should begin with a promise to go skiing. With…
Scripting the Wonder Reels
Why my enduring crush on Mike Douglas, Jeff Thomas and Blair Richmond, the crew at Switchback Entertainment? Because I write this: And they respond with this: To which I say: Exactly. For more on the Wonder Reels campaign, and our membership in the Church of Story, check out this blog post at Origin Design +…
Ebbs and flows
A few years ago, Gerhard Gross wrote the best article I’ve ever read in a snowboard magazine, The Science of Stoke, digging in to explain what one of the most over-used word in our mountain culture actually means, endocrinologically-speaking. His revelations about the ebb and flow of the chemical high that keeps us so addicted…
Will the Ohming Instinct Lead Even Yoga Slackers to Whistler for Wanderlust?
I think of myself as a yoga-slacker. Headstands intimidate me, yoga wear makes me self-conscious of how anti-fashion my sweat-drenched wife-beater tank top is, and I’m not a big fan of the full length mirror scene either. Despite this, I hope to be sitting, as lotus-like as I can, on the grass at Whistler Olympic…
In Memory of Doug Deeks
On the corner of my desk is a pile of borrowed books. I leave them there, taking up valuable real estate, to remind me to return them. Some day. Preferably soon. One, Ski Faster, by Lisa Feinboer Densmore, sits in a manilla envelope with Doug Deeks’ name pencilled on the label. I’ve been meaning to…
Riding the Digital Curve with Blake Jorgenson
When I sat down this spring for brunch with Blake Jorgenson at Alpine Café, around the corner from his office, he was about to hit the road… Sea Otter, Nepal to shoot for Red Bull on Freeride’s new mountain bike film and then on to Utah. In addition to owning a worn-out passport, I discovered…
Give Me Air – Rocking the Whistler Mountain Bike Park with the TREK Dirt Series
Last week, I took my brake-clenching, rear-wheel-skidding ways to the TREK Dirt Series’ Whistler Camp to see if I could benefit from a little mountain bike tuition. It fit with my summer resolution, to ride, as much as I write about riding. And having worked on projects for the Whistler Mountain Bike Park and Crankworx,…
Can you Pee in it? The Official R-280 Arc’teryx Harness Review
Technically, you can make yourself a harness with a piece of webbing, looping it around your waist and up between your legs like a Swami belt. This might be technically possible, (props to you, pioneers of rock, for all that you did with webbing, hemp, leather boots and cojones), but it’s aesthetically ridiculous and profoundly…
What Editors Want. (Time Machines, Genius Talent and Awesomeness.)
In Vancouver, New York and Zurich, they have Creative Mornings, a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types who can get up early. In Whistler, we’ve got The Point. It’s a slightly less hi-fi version of the urban hipster creative klatches. But well worth putting on your radar, if only because the old Youth Hostel…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 