Costa Rica so far

So far the trip has been great.

I´ve been to Playa Hermosa (snorkeling and diving near the Catalinas Islands), Tamarindo (Watching a 2m long leatherback turtle lay about 50 eggs), and Cano Negro - Not to be confused with Gato Negro - To see a ton of wildlife (Three toed sloths, massive iguanas, howler monkeys, crocodiles, hundreds of birds of all shapes and sizes, some pretty sweet butterflies and a lot more.

Cheryl and I are now in La Fortuna (last night we saw lava from the Arenal volcano which has been in constant eruption since 1968), and tomorrow we will be heading out to Monteverde.

I´ll be posting some pictures pretty soon, but since internet costs money over here I´ll wait until I get home :)

Depeche Mode and Costa Rica

Went to a Depeche Mode concert Wednesday. It is not really the type of music I normally listen to, so I was a bit skeptical it would be worth going. I had a great time though.

Turns out I booked a ticket to Costa Rica this week: I'm leaving Sunday. The first 4 days are booked, I have a place to stay, and I have a few dives scheduled with Bill Beard's. Not sure what I'll do for the rest of my vacation. There are some pretty sweet areas in the south, but it is still the rainy season, so I don't know if it's worth going down there this time of year.

Anyhow, here's hoping I didn't need any shots :)

Mt. Baker

Went to Mt. Baker this weekend to try something different for a change. Woke up at 5:50am to get there for 9am. We were supposed to meet up with Jen/Glade at the Raven lodge, but we missed them by a few minutes (met up with them later in the day though). It had snowed something like 9 or 12 inches overnight, so there was an abundance of snow to play with which never hurts. My board is in worse condition than it was last week at whistler, it's now starting to drag on my heel-side turns. I'm keeping an eye open on e-Bay for a new Timeless 164.

Anyhow, the hills are open and in full force over in the pacific northwest. Hopefully it stays cold over the next month so the snow pack sticks.

Whistler Opens Early!

So whistler opened November 5th. That's the earliest it's opened since I've been here.

I woke up at 5am Saturday morning to meet Glade and Jen over in the North Shore by 6. We left by 6:11 and were in whistler by 8am. We then found out that the blackcomb gondola was closed and only the blackcomb village lift was open. That caused quite the traffic jam even at that time in the morning.

Once on the hill it was great. We rode a couple of runs in fresh powder until the rest of the world woke up, and then headed out in time to miss the big rush. It was a great time: No injuries.

My board is broken though. I've had it since Nov. '99, so it's been around for a while, but now the edge is cracked in two places, and the lamination is peeling off. The wood core is also cracked (which is easy to see since the lamination is on its way out). Anyhow, so sunday I spent some time looking for a new board. I imagine I'll buy something similar to what I have already. Probably a Timeless 164 or something similar.