The Move South to Santa Barbara

Last night Mike, Tom and i arrived in Calgary after saying our goodbyes in Fernie. The bus trip was only 3 hours after being 3 hours late, so for some reason we still arrived at the time we were meant to prior to it being late...Mike and Tom left this morning to board their flight to Vancouver for a week. I stayed in Calgary for another night to organize some things and then boarded my plane to LA in the morning. I had some trouble at the airport because i didn't have a flight out of the states, only in. So they get Suspicious quickly. The flight was good, only a couple hours until touchdown. I then waited 2 hours for my bus to Santa Barbara. It was a 3 hours bus ride but it was a good one, meet some cool people. The coast road from LA to S.B is really nice, i was really stoked to be there. I borrowed a phone on the bus to call Tory to come and pick me up. It was great to see her. Her and her roommate Tyler picked me up. He seemed like a good bloke.I met her other roommate Breisa, shes Tylers girlfriend. We went out that night and i couldn't believe my eyes, the girls were amazing! The accent worked a treat and i had a fun night. The next night one of Torys friends that lives in Isle Vista was having a house party, so her friend Peggy picked us up and we drove out there. It was really quiet but i met some more cool people. That was another great night. Torys friend picked us up the next day to drive a couple hours north to Pismo beach, he was a really shit driver and kind of 

a tripper, wasnt that fond of him, but it was good anyways. Spent to day on the beach and taking photos of the beautiful Pismo beach...

Id been going out almost every night since arrival and it was great i was having a blast! Mike and Tom arrived the next day along with Dean, Jarryd and Tim. I was super stoked to see them all. Tom and Mike stayed with me and Tory while the other boys stayed at the hostel down the road. That night we went out on the town and had an awesome night. It was great, the boys were frothing as much as i was on the amount of beautiful girls. lol The next day was Floatopia its an event thats only held once a year and its been going for about 5 years with each year getting bigger and better. We were super pumped and started drinking at 10am saturday morning. We got our boardies on and drove for 20mins to I.V (Isle Vista) when we pulled up there it was packed, girls and guys EVERYWHERE!!! and we hadn't even got near the beach yet, we had to park 2km away.  

We put our booze in a bag and started to walk down, there were people everywhere drinking out the front of their house and just having a great time. I wore my ozzie flag as a cape, from the word go it worked a treat and met a heap of new crew and some more ozzies through it.

When we got to the beach there was a huge line of hundreds of people just trying to get down the beach. We finally got our first glimpse of the beach, it was something you cannot describe, it was just a trip out, i had to stop for a big and soak it all up. You couldn't see a bit of sand for 1km, it was that packed, 15- 20,000 drunk, college girls and guys in their bathers running round the beach and dancing to the various dj's along the short stretch. Its an incredible sight and the girls are like no other in the world i've seen, shit to drool over. hahahah

We had one of the best days of our lives. Getting drunk on the beach and running a muck, chatting up every girl and group we saw, such a great day. I don't know what else to say, it has to be seen and experienced. The day eventually ended with parties at 3am the next morning. We all finally met up late the next morning, it was sik and we were all hungover and yeh, trippin balls. An AMAZING day and a great night!

Heres just a couple of pics of the event mentioned above...

Snowboarding is sik!

Settling in Fernie took me a while, but when i was ready i bought myself a snowboard setup. I was really stoked trying on the boots and finding the right board for me. I had to buy everything...gloves, pants, jacket, goggles, boots and a board. Mike, Casey and i walked to the Hitching spot about 500m away where people heading up to the mountain in their cars pick up those without cars (me). The excitement of finally seeing snow and walking through the Fernie resort was sinking in. I received my season pass from the office and Mike said we should go up the Deer chair to teach me the basics. It was pretty tough, having a surfing background i wanted to use my weight alot which is the wrong thing to do. The Mountain was pretty icy as they hadnt received snow in a while so that didnt help at all. After a couple runsi definitely wasn't feeling confident but i was slowly getting the hang of it. Many many stacks later i had sore hands and a really sore ass. They then took me on some crazy runs for a beginner, a couple of black runs and some trees and i was feeling pretty sketchy. One run i slide down the ice for 150m as i fell and it was too icy to get my edge back!Over the next couple of weeks i slowly improved, by my 10th day of boarding i was feeling confident doing alot bigger turns, bigger jumps and going straighter. :) i was stoked!

I slowly began to learn the mountain and the better routes to take. I began to really enjoy my time here in Fernie, it was amazing! Then like 100 christmases at once we had a big amount of snow over a couple days, like huge amount. Everyone gets excited in the town. We were out at the pub and walked outside and everyone started hugging eachother and jumping around, it was a good vibe in the air! The next morning we were up there bright and early to get amongst the fresh powder. I had heard all about how good of a feeling it was riding in powder...i finally got to experience it! It was soo amazing, and now that i was confident at jumps it was even better! It feels like floating on air and still being able to do big surfing turns. We were throwing ourselves off every small cliff and drop and hitting every jump flat out because you just cant get hurt. We spent the whole day up there just frothing at every run. More and more days of fresh powder seemed to come our way and i was loving everyday more and more.

Over the next month until i left i felt i was getting good at what i was practicing, jumps were getting bigger and i began to do some rails and boxes in the park. We did some amazing hikes that lead us to the most amazing powder, best tree runs and some beautiful untouched back country. Fernie is just another world. ITS AMAZING!!!

I came, stacked it...alot, learn from my mistakes and by the end, maybe one stack a week and it was mostly due to hitting jumps wrong...i was stoked that i had come soo far!

Here are some photos for anyone who reads this...

Thankyou soo much, hope you enjoy!

Parties in the Rockies

For a very very small country town...parties in Fernie are SIK! Almost every night of the week you can muster up the energy after riding all day and find yourself dancing and drinking the night away to a small town Dj or another tuesday messy Bingo night at the Northern. Eitherway, everynight you meet a new bunch of cool people who are all here for the same reasons....some of the best powder in the world (not coke)I could almost say there is equal time spent drinking and talking story with your mates here as there is the amount of time put into snowboarding, simply because after a day of boarding there is nothing else to do...thats just it. Cook dinner and then you have to entertain yourself for the next 6hours before bed.lol

From the beginning there was an all Australian partying crew that developed at the 'Bar Named Sue' in which we lived above.

This consisted of Michael, Leon, Toddy, Diggas, Casey, Macca, Cheffy and I. However this group was soon to rapidly expand with the meeting of new locals and fellow travelers. Ole, Glen, Tommy, Pete, Tyler, Dary, (3amigos- Dean, Tim and Jarryd), Josh, Shanty, TBar, Rory, Jenn, Brendan, Big Dan, Fiona, Heidi, Dale, Emma, Donut, Rupert, Hayley and the

 list goes on, hope i havnt missed anyone. Anyways just thought id shout out a couple names to all my old and new friends that ive made in the short time living in Fernie.

Heres a couple of pics from a few wild nights out on the town...

Discovering Fernie...the real foineeee

Discovering Fernie

January 26th- March 25th

                                        

                                                                             Night sky
                                                                  Mountain reflections
                                                      Fernie Mountains in the background
                                                                 Im soo Fast i Blurr


Armed with my Camera, several layers of clothing and some warm gloves ive slowly captured the Fernie not everyone may see while here. Freezing -28 temperatures, icy roads, dimly lit pathways and once again it just being really bloody cold i pushed on and captured Fernie by night and day. At least once a week i would venture out with just my camera hoping to capture something beautiful in this amazingly scenic small town in the Rocky Mountains. There were times i thought it was the last time id ever feel my fingers and toes, my nose numb, eyes watering but i knew there were great photos to be had. Heres just a small few of the pictures ive taken during my two months here.

Thankyou 

Fernies Main Road

                                          Train tracks leading to the Fernie Alpine Ski Resort

Our Backyard

The town that raves by night, Boards by day...Fernie also now know as Foineeeeee!

26th January 2009

4am is not the best time of day to arrive in a small dimly lit town receiving -20 temperatures.

Firstly i did not know where to go, just i had to get to the 'Bar Name Sue'

It was cold and i was weaving my way through the streets with my backpack rolling on my skateboard along the icy roads. After a good hour i saw a pub with a pamphlet on the window with info about something on at the Bar Named Sue, but it had no address. I started to walk away until i heard some music coming form where i was just reading in the window...turns out there were people inside dancing. I knocked on the window and someone came to my aid, turns out they were having a staff party that night and i was in fact at the bar named sue...Luck went my way.

They gave me a bed for the night. In the morning i began introducing myself to the resident travellers. They were all super nice and knew Mike, the guy i work with back home. As always i promise myself an interesting beginning to each new town, i kept to my promise...

 

Over the next two months i would learn to snowboard, drink myself silly at various raves and pub events, explore Fernies back streets armed with my camera but haggled by the below zero conditions, get better at snowboarding, make a heap of new and great friends, put myself in some intense situations on some amazing hikes through Fernies picturesque mountain ranges, feel the floating feeling of boarding in fresh powder snow and overall experience some unique small town fun while making many friends everywhere and anywhere. Thanks a bunch Foineeeeeee!

Vancouver BC, Canada

This morning i arrived super early in Vancouver from Oahu. I walked out of the airport and realised it is colder than i expected. Knowing where i had to go i boarded my bus, transfered onto another bus to get into the heart of this beautiful yet dark and cold city.Arriving at my hostel on Granville st i was stoked and ready for some sleep. I got my keys and walked to my room and went straight to bed. Waking up at 2pm i wandered downstairs to the kitchen and had a look around. I ended up meeting a young girl (Meg) from Sydney there. We exchanged stories and then went walking down to the harbor.  It was a really foggy day but i was still stoked to have finally arrived in Canada. Meg said there was a party

 on at her friends house that night and asked if i'd be interested in going, so i said yes.

The party was cool and there were some other ozzies there and a couple 

of canadians so it was great to speak to some locals.

Two days later i found myself on a ferry with Meg going across the channel to Vancouver Island for a couple of days. Upon arrival we realised we got off at the wrong terminal and it was going to cost us a 40 CAD taxi ride to the motel. We had no choice...

The next day Meg got pretty sick so we stayed inside for the following couple of days and tried to research some prices on hostels and locations on the other side of the island... turns out it was really expensive, we decided neither of us could afford the transit and accomodation so we caught the ferry back to Vancouver.

 Throughout the following 3days prior to my departure to Fernie we explored Stanley Park on bikes, i walked all throughout Vancouver taking photos and checked out many clubs and pubs for the best places to go.

However it was time to say goodbye and leave to go snowboarding in Fernie, BC

Aloha Hawaiin Family and friends

5th December 2008

Arriving on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, i was excited to be back in the tropical climate and amongst the relaxed nature of the locals. I slept the night in the airport before boarding the first plane in the morning to the Big Island where i was greeted by Ant Olayon, my fourth brother :)I was soo stoked to be back there and couldn't wait to see the rest of the family. They were just as excited to see me as i was to see them. I was lovi

ng every moment!

Over the next 2 months i surfed until my heart was content and ready to burst, saw lava flowing into the ocean for the first time in my life, swam with turtles just near 

to our local surf break, boarded and kayaked down the snow covered slopes of Mauna Kea at 14,000ft, searched, discovered and surfed new breaks, sat inside playing mariokart while we received 14 inches of rain in one day, hiked along the rugged coastline of the Big Island and Oahu, saw some amazing waterfalls, spent my 2nd Christmas in Hawaii, surfed with BodyBoarding legend Mike Stewart and overall just had the most amazing time and experienced everything most travellers would dream of...

Id like to thank the Olayon Family, all the boys (you guys know who you are...best mates for life) and anyone else that made it such an amazing experience again.

Thankyou