Blowing it hard in Vernon.... Left the shitvan and crew behind on this one. skatebum style, i got a ride with Big Picnic honcho Brad Tomlison, then made him come find me to get his gas money. I wasn't feeling well when the trip started, and by the time Brad had gotten my whining ass over the mountains and too his grandma's house in Winfield you could see the swelling in the top of my mouth from what ever was horribly wrong with my sinus cavity. The next morning i felt better, but the weather had stayed just as bad. Brad dropped me off at the race course and made his way to Kelowna to help set up for skylands. The Vernon DH race course is short, i hear its about a 40 second drop in the dry. but it was wet, and hella slick. After a first practise run trying to take the corner three wide with Banting and Mac, i decided to maybe try something that made sense, sliding in the rain. Long storey short, I never did figure out the course, crashed all over the damn place and qualified 39th outta 71. Spent the night at my uncle murrays, had some beers with Tommy from salt Lake, passed out and woke up to sunshine. After a great breakfast and saying goodbye to Murray, we started the mornings freeride runs, most people do better in the dry, but i didn't mananage to make a single clean run, lots of excuses, but next year I aim to do better. I watched James Kelly bail and dislocate his ankle, almost headed for giants head on Reimer's new (to him) bus and ended up filling the backseat of Kelcey's (owner of switchback)truck. Hid in the back of a Uhaul to sleep before the morning ferry ride, and had my first experence as a stow away. Spent the next day at the nanimo skate house, loafing about until it was time to skate. My wife mandi and her friend Kelcey came to pick us up, and after a quick slash down the local retarded steep hill we headed for ladysmith. Just before ladysmith the rain set in, so we decided to head all the way home, fortunatly for us, as the sun was setting the rain stopped and we got to hit a malahat strata favorite, Kelcey got her first deer encounter over with and we called it a weekend. Shitvan's rolling on skylands next weekend.