White Rock Bowl Series, Ahoy!

Yesterday brought us up to three quarters of the way through the funnest skate contest series this side of over there. So far this summer, good times have been had at Seylynn on Canada Day and Griffin on July 16th. Yesterday was the White Rock instalment and, as can be expected of almost any sunny day, it was a great day to be out on the water.

Waking up at 10am to rain and thickish clouds seemed like a bad sign, but the hail of cuss words that I unleashed at the sky seemed to do the trick because the atmospheric hassles started to thin out, the sky started to brighten, and after a quick confirmation call to Seb, Cronzy and I were in The Hearse and headed to White Rock. Hurrah.

After a stop at the 41st & Cambie liquor supercenter and few minor navigational second-guesses, we arrived at Ward's Marina just off Crescent Beach. Our greeting of "permission to come aboard the Conbrio, Skipper?" was answered with, "permission granted!" and we were on our way out to the friendly seas. The last time I'd been sailing was back at Camp Kawabi in Minden, Ontario in 1989 when I was about 15. We were ripping around Big Hawk Lake on a catamaran, me in full trapeze hiking position, when one of our crew moved too far front on one of the pontoons. The pontoon dug in, the boat flipped, and I got pitched like a rock from a slingshot. So you could say that I had a score to settle with the sailboats. Well consider the hatchet buried. We cruised around for about five hours, enjoyed a few beers, soaked up some sun, heard the one about the Florida Hurricane back in 1975... I even took the helm for a while and, since I'm here writing this, did somewhat of an ok job ("anyone watching'll either think you're new or a little drunk").

So yeah, the White Rock bowl series was a great time. I'm a little foggy on the trifling details... like who showed up, who was ripping, who won, etc., but if I had to pick a few favourites it would probably be safe to go with Swell, Dave 57, Shane Hunter, Dave Boyce, and Stevie D. Next up... Whistler on Sunday, August 13th. I try to go to that seething anthill of a tourist mecca once a year or less, so the summer Bowl Series finale provides me with the perfect opportunity to fill my quota whilst taking in some great skateboarding and enjoying an evening of entertaining shenanigans.

Photo courtesy of Brian Teutsch