Hey Everybody,

Let me start out by writing that if you weren't at Telus festival this year you dropped the ball from a significant height... Sorry if I am rubbing anything in I just had a lot of fun this year.  Accept for when my binding broke but that's a different story.  Anyways the first competition was big air qualifying on the 10th, the comp ran smoothly with a low stress vibe among the competitors, the day was partly cloudy with a mellow mood in the air along with a really nice step-over table.  Qualifiers that made it to finals were people with name's like Chris Turpin, Ian Williams, Shinji Osada, Austin Ross, Ian Cosco....you get the idea.  The Finals were held in the usual spot at the base of Whistler on a extremely similar looking jump. I am fine with saying that I have never seen a crowd this big watching a big air in Whistler, it was an obnoxious amount of people.  Lots of style, big air/drop time and stomps were displayed and cheered for. Also the most impressive girls Big Air that I have seen, with Sarah nearly putting down a 12 and Roz pushing it, Ashley Battersby stomped a smooth switch 7 to put her in 1st.  Those skills put JF Houle upon the top of the podium, trailed by Ian Williams and Austin Ross securing third.

Now most of the competitors that competed in the Big Air also competed in the Orage Masters held earlier that day! (and some even partied after...) The Orage Masters may have been the best I have ever seen.  With Tj Schiller helping design the course, it really couldn't have got any better.  So since the day was beautiful, the course was perfect, and teams were stoked, I don't think it was to hard for anyone to have a lot of fun.  TJ was the "Manager"/"Darth Vader" of the Armada team, which placed third with Sean Logan injuring his shoulder.  The second place team was Dynastar who's theme was "pillage the village" they really came out a gave er' especially Justin Dorey who was not to far off landing his double misty deal.  K2 A.K.A the Spread Eagles were the big winner's this year, both Sean's, Ana and Frank Raymond destroyed whatever they had in front of them all day.  Frank put the down some of the most impressive Old School some people may ever see, stomping the 7 screamin' to cross, and the 9 screamin'. Decker was throwing spins either way and it was hard to tell the difference and Sean and Ana were just rounding it up with more ridiculousness.

To stomp out the last of the comps of the week was the Halfpipe.  As everyone got up that morning im sure they were excited about the day.  It was very sunny and looked really warm from inside.. but it was around -16 Celsius or something where the pipe was.  So that was unexpected but oh well, I wasn't worrying about it as much as the competitors were.  Either way it was easier to see, but icy and windy, still stylish run got put down and im sure some smile's were upon people face's, maybe headache's in their head also.  But all I know is it got done and the results were Tucker Perkins in first, Xavier Bertoni in second and Justin "J-Bone" Dorey in third.  With Tucker also winning the superhit, killing it, putting smile's on our faces.  Oh and the Concerts were really really super good too, Julian Marley, De La Soul, Blackalicious and Micheal Franti were my favorite's. So if you weren't here this year, get here next year. Have a Happy Spring, I'll write again soon.

-josh