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