Dave Bishop

Words, Interview: Doug Bishop Photos: cko, Harvey, mauii, JeffVideo: Derek, Cam, Snow Snakes, JimmyFor those of you with ADD, I've put the video links at the top of the article, so they're easier to find.  Low QualityHigh Quality

Every other media source has it’s chance to select certain people within our industry, and run profiles on them in their various outlets to the ski world as a whole. We really have never done a lot of that here at NS, and I decided that it was time to give our two cents. I asked cko if it would be alright if I chose a few people to write profiles on, and gather as much media as I possibly could. With that said, the first guy I picked was my brother, Dave Bishop.  Dave's unique skiing style, and his strange views of life as a whole are something that are quite refreshing in our world of skiing.  It's hard to classify Dave into a category of skiers, as he constantly does his own thing.   I was sure that he would provide interesting content for the community of Newschoolers, and whether you like it or not, at least it's something different from the usual stuff you see.

Dave Bishop showing he loves skiing dearly.

Dave chilling with Colby West and Alex Balsen in Whistler.I’ve used whatever I could find, both picturess and video, and put together something that just shows you who this guy Dave really is. I also sent him a few interview questions, and he went completely crazy with the answers and has produced what could go down in history as the longest interview of all time. I think it’s a pretty good read, and you’ll find the time worth it to get Dave’s unique visions of the world of skiing.  That being said, make sure to take a few breaks while you're reading it.  If you're looking for something entertaining, listen to NSRadio while you read!So without further ado, I introduce to you Mr. David Michael Bishop. (stuntfreak on NS)Doug: First off, I know you’re nervous about having something only about you on the frontpage of NS…. Why? (and you’re my brother, so yes I’m going for the throat right off the bat) Dave: My first thought is that I really don’t have a good reason. But as I consider it a little more, maybe I do have some thoughts into this. On the whole, I guess I’m pretty shy when it comes to talking about my self. I don’t like the idea of shameless self promotion and I can’t stand it when people start bragging about themselves and how great they are and so on. But just because you’re my brother, I suppose I can make an exception. I feel like maybe this is my chance for me to share a bit of insight on my take on skiing and to a greater extent, my views on life in general. That said, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say this, a lot of times when people say or write things, it is a quick response to the situation at hand and sometimes you say things that you didn’t mean or perhaps it gets interpreted incorrectly. So I will try to be as straight forwards as possible and clear in what I am trying to say. That said, I’ve just mixed my self a gin and tonic and now I can start shamelessly promotion how great I am! Just kidding, but not about the g+t. Doug: What is your first memory of the sport of skiing? Dave: Wow… well, I’ve been skiing for 22 years now (holy crap, has it really been that long?) and every single one of them, on the majority, has been at my home mountain of Blue Mountain in Collingwood Ontario. Well, the official address is something like RR#3, Collingwood, Ontario, but who’s counting anyways? Sorry… first memory. Hmm… there are so many ones, but the earliest I can remember is not really a memory, but more of an image of my tiny ass at the bright young age of about 4 or 5 (give or take), rockin’ skis about 2 feet long and these big blue mittens. Now these mittens were probably my favourite thing at the time and they were my last line of defence against the evil rope tow that I was trying to conquer that day. I don’t know if any of you have ever used a rope tow, but being the little squirt I was, had no gripping strength whatsoever. So off I go towards that whirling rope of destruction and victory, all wrapped in one. I build my might up and grasp onto it with all the little strength I had and really didn’t do a very good job. So the rope slips in my hands and really starts shredding my precious mittens. I think in the course of that season (from what I recall anyways), I went through several pairs those guys, with each consecutively becoming my favourite weapon in the fight for elevation. Doug: Tell us about yourself. What do you do, where do you live, where do you ski, do you like bananas, and whatever else you feel like blabbing about… Dave: alright… well, I was born in a little town in south western Ontario called London (not to be confused with the real one in England…or are you supposed to call it Britain?) where I spent the entirety of my childhood. In the fashion of so many ski families, we made the 6 hour round trip weekly up to Blue Mountain where I spent most of my years in the racing program, bashing gates on icy steeps. After high school, I moved to Steel Town, also known as Hamilton, where I enrolled at McMaster University for Mechanical Engineering and Management. For anyone that cares, this is a combination engineering degree with a minor in business, with a couple of mixed classes along the way. Right now I’m in year 6 of 5 (so I took some time off to go skiing, do you blame me?) with my eyes set on graduation in April of 2006.

*Dave sometimes tries to make ads for Salomon.   Sadly, they rejected this one as it "didn't fit into the company image"*School has been a pretty major part of my life, for just about as long as I can remember. Not to say that I let it take over my life, but when you been at it for almost 19 years, you can’t deny that it is a part of your life. But as with most things in life, I believe, you must have a balance to keep yourself sane. So though out it all, I’ve been a weekend warrior, charging hard on the slopes in the winter to try to relieve the stress. School has been keeping me busy as of late, I have my final year project on the go right now which is redesigning and building a 3 finger, two joint per finger robotic hand, so that has been taking up a fair chunk of my time. What else can I say… I do like bananas, in fact I try to have them every morning with my cereal, but being as broke as I am, can’t always afford the delicious monkey treat. I dunno, I like being outside a lot. In fact, for those of you not familiar with Ontario geography, I have the wonderful feature of the Canadian shield running almost through my back yard. I’m not entirely sure who found it first, but a mere hop skip and a jump away from my house here is a drainage sewer that runs underneath the 403 and connects onto a golf course which has a path along side of it which leads to a forest trail which leads to a path up the escarpment which leads to a cliff to climb up which has a really spectacular view of the Dundas valley. This mission has been a staple of entertainment in my stint here in Hamilton. I tell you, a backpack full of beers, a few friends and storming up the mountain to that view will beat a night at the bar any day of the week. Hard work has its virtues, but like I said before, you have to balance it with fun. And I think the same goes both ways, you can get sick of having too much fun if you’re not being productive. Alright… I’ll cut myself off there. Doug: You work in both winter and summer building parks… What do you like about working as a park staff? Dave: I’ll divide that question up into two parts, as I sort of work as park staff in two different locations, Blue Mountain and High North Ski Camp. Firstly, Blue Mountain park staff is the shit. I think my favourite part about it all is having to wake up early on a Monday morning. Anyone who has been to any resort knows that on weekends, the traffic is ridiculous and the line ups are atrocious. With Blue, come Monday, the crowds are gone, everything is freshly groomed and the public doesn’t even show up until about 11. Now with the location of my place up there, which is right at the top of the mountain, that first run in the morning to get to work, is before the mountain even opens. There is nothing quite like cruising switch down the little chute to the top of happy valley and then straight lining the rest of the mountain, not another soul in sight. The only sounds in the constant beeping of groomers backing up to finish off the final touches of a hard nights work, only to arrive at the bottom of my second home, Badlands terrain park. The actually work the job requires can be a lot at times, but when your fixing the features that you are going to be “testing for safety” all day long, it really isn’t too bad. To me, the testing is the best part of the job. Getting paid to session the stuff that you built with your buddies is definitely my idea of a good job. Don’t get me wrong here, there is lots of hourly maintenance that needs to happen, but when you get to reap the rewards, they are well worth the effort. Secondly, High North Ski Camp. Where do you even begin to describe this dream world? I attended this camp for the first time when I was 18. And it was the week that changed my life. It was very strange to think back at that week and realise that that was the stone that started the avalanche, but I think that is what the camp is all about.

Shane has done an incredible job at creating what I describe as, “a little piece of the dream”. So when you called me about the job while I was working for a brick layer one summer, picking up 70 pound rocks for 8-12 hours a day… I knew that I had to take it. That summer was probably the best one of my life. Never before had I been able to ski that many days in a row. Never before did I have access to such amazing features, day after day after day. For six weeks, I was just happy to be Dave Bishop, doing exactly what I love doing.

Now digging at High North is very different from Blue. It is hard labour. No machines to help build things. No nightly grooming to fix the imperfections. And a constant race with the sun to keep the glacier and protruding rocks at bay. But every day, you make the jumps the way you want them to be. You put the rails where you want them to be. You are the one that gives the campers a little slice of summer skiing heaven. As long as Tony, followed by Doug, thought you were doing it right and didn’t make you redo it. Plus you got to ski with a crew of guys that charge so hard, it will blow your mind.That is where I got to meet the brother’s from others mothers: The Olenicks. But that is a story in of it’s self and this answer is getting a little long. Doug: I know you like doing comps, which is different from a lot of skiers these days. Do you still like comps, what makes you like them? Dave: I definitely think that competitions have their place in the ski world. I get the competitive urge sometimes and it’s nice to have an outlet, or at least a reason to try really hard on a day. But they can ultimately be frustrating sometimes. It comes down to who is having a good day that day and to a large extent, what the judges think of you. I say what the judges think of you instead of what they think of your skiing, because I am still waiting for the day that someone comes up with a good, unbiased judging system.More often than not, like many things in life, it comes out as a big Bro down with all the guys you know, or maybe know of. And don’t even get me started about fashion during competitions. Many times it seems like it matters more what you’re wearing than what you’re doing. But again, that is whole other story. That being said, I still do compete and do enjoy them, especially when I’m having a good day. But that is the name of the game; you can’t take the victory without expecting to lose sometimes. Even in the loss, there are always valuable things to learn and especially when you travel to compete somewhere, you get to check out new mountains, meet new people and see new sights.Last year I went to VT Open and really skied like garbage. Just got my ass handed to me on a dirty plate. I stuck my run, but was simply just out classed (or was it judging?...moohawhahwahwaw… we’ll never know…). But I did get to ski some epic tree runs with Matt Bergey and James Grant and watch James throw his brother Charles off the deck after we rigged a game of kings and made him chug one of the nastiest drinks I’ve seen to date. Or the US Open last year. Wow, that was a real disaster. Four guys packed into my ’93 civic, driving 27 hours to Vail, only to be put on the waiting list for 2 days (which were basically my first days of the season) and then fell both runs on the very first rail. A real shit sandwich if you ask me, but afterwards when the pressure was gone, we had some epic hikes in Outer Mongolia Bowl (I say epic because I’m from Ontario and have no idea what big mountain is all about), ripped some serious tree’s in Blue Sky Basin and discovered that yes, you can make creative devices out of a snowball if you need to.

But the best comp of the year, by far, is the Triple Challenge at Blue every year in March. It is by far and away the most fun you will have in a competition anywhere. The pressure is non-existent, the competitors are all your friends (and if they aren’t at the beginning, they will be at the end) and there is not one drop of attitude amongst the bunch. I guess this comp is the one that really keeps me going on comps in general. I just have so much fun at this one, it always seems to keep my optimistic about the others, hoping they will deliver as much fun as the Triple Challenge. But like I said, every comp always has some good to it, so I’m sure I’m not going to stop doing them for quite some time now. Unless my car explodes, I guess that might stop me. Doug: What about shooting? (you skiing, someone else shooting) Do you have a preference between shooting video or pictures? Why? Dave: Video is awesome and terrible at the same time. I like it in the sense that you can see what you’ve been doing and perhaps get a bit of a feel for how your progressing, but I can’t stand waiting around to get to that point. I’m a huge advocate of fast laps and anything that slows me out of my rhythm really screws up whatever momentum I’ve built up that day. The other reason that I don’t like video is how concentrated people are upon it. It sort of takes over a lot of the time. Part of my dislike comes from realising that we live in a hugely media influenced society, constantly being bombarded with messages of how to live, eat, sleep and breathe and how powerful these messages can change the way a person thinks. I realise that most of my distaste comes from the corporate brainwashing that occurs almost everywhere you turn, pushing you to buy this, forcing you to look like that, dragging you into their consumer traps of consumption. I know that this hardly relates to ski video’s, but there are some similarities. It is very strange to look at the entertainment industry as a whole, which I feel we are all sort of involved in. The figures that are seen as “famous”, are often not the ones capable of the greatest acts, of the most stunning performances, but often are just in the right place at the right time. I really shouldn’t complain about something like that, as life generally works in a similar fashion. My biggest problem comes when people start to get obsessed with being on camera, and more specifically, the attention that revolves around being the face on the big screen. Maybe it stems from my shy nature or my dislike for glory hogs, but more to the point, I don’t understand how people can get anything done if all they are doing is standing around waiting for people to notice what they are doing. If these individuals put half the effort into what they were actually doing instead of worrying about their image, I think we would have a whole lot more talent out there.Now that I think about it, ski videos really have nothing to do with corporate brainwashing, but I still really don’t like that stuff and thought I should share it with you. But all that aside, I have captured some really amazing things on video. Some day when I have the time, I want to put together a video from my trip across the country and back this summer and call it “The Fanny Pack Adventures”. I’ll let you guys figure that one out for yourselves. Though most of the footage I end up taking is usually ridiculous, funny (by funny I mean drunk) and weird things that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. Very rarely do I actually ever get any ski footage of myself or anyone else. For the guys I ski with, it usually ends up being one of us that has to film, and no one ever wants to take a lap off to be camera bitch. I mean, who wants to film when you could be skiing? Doug: What is your very favorite part of the sport of skiing? Dave: hmm… I suppose for me it is the moments that I find. That one beautiful instant where everything seems to melt away and all that you’re left with is perfect clarity of right now. It comes through at many different times and with different intensities. Anything from a wicked carve down some steeps, to a couple tight turns in the trees, to huckin’ switch tricks over a 70 foot jump, to just cruising around with your buddies. I think the focus that one can obtain while on skis, is the greatest part of skiing. If I could focus even half as much on something other than skiing, I’m pretty sure some sort of success would be inevitable. On top of this all, there is one single great thing about skiing. The one moment where everything really comes together for me… The backflip. A really big one. Just try on for size and see if you can argue. Doug: What do you think of the entire world of skiing as a whole? I know you’re not a big guy to “believe the hype”, so throw out a few thoughts both positive and negative about how everything is… Dave: Well, you gotta hand it to the powers that be in skiing, the sport has come leaps and bounds from where it first started. There are unprecedented numbers of kids picking up twin tipped skis and charging hard. Through this increased growth has come increased industry support and infrastructure. There are far more outlets for people getting into this type of skiing (I still don’t really like any of the words used to describe this type of stuff… freeskiing? Newschool? Just skiing? I dunno…), coaches that can teach you all the basics, shops strictly dedicated to our cause, camps that will offer summer skiing and the list goes on. Industry has really started to take notice, as the number of twin tipped sales increases; their support for the local riders has increased as well. I remember a day when there were like 10 sponsored riders in the whole country and now the numbers are growing on a daily basis. The skill level is also through the roof. It is truly unbelievable to see what some people are doing these days. It is a constant struggle just to keep up, and to be on top of the game, it would seem to take nothing short of complete dedication. With this competitiveness come some of the problems that I have mentioned before. There are people constantly fighting for the spotlight, for recognition, to be the top dog of the day or to become that new household name. I guess that difference boils down to considering it a pastime versus a sport. Sports are competitive by nature, but pastimes are just a pleasurable way to kill some time. Either way, it is damn hell ass fun and I’m not going to stop. One other strange thing about skiing as a sport, well strange considering most of the other sports I did growing up were team sports, is that it is always an individual competition, with few exceptions. This oftentimes distances people to a certain extent. It almost gets a little catty at times, with people taking it very personally if you perform better than they are on a given day, competition or not. This can extend into the showy attitude I was talking about earlier and then further distance themselves from their peers. For me, it is way more fun to be skiing with a crew of guys who are just out to have a good time, then to be worrying whether some guy did a cab this way 540 and you only did a cab that way 360. I’m not trying to knock progression, just when people take it too seriously, it just seems like they aren’t even having fun anymore. Doug: Where is your favorite place in the whole wide world to ski?Dave: Blue Mountain. It’s home and I love it. Though, we don’t ever get any powder, so that is a bit of a draw back. I really like Vail. I made my first trip to Mammoth last spring and it was fucking incredible. The park is immaculate and when I was there, it snowed for 5 days straight and then, BAM, blue bird. Best skiing I’ve ever had. Whistler/Blackcomb is pretty badass too, but I’ve never really been there on a good snow year, so I can’t really say from experience. But yeah…the most fun I have is at Blue. Doug: Lots of people are all over the corked spins today… it’s all they do. However, when I watch you ski you’ve got a TON of flipping in your tricks. Why haven’t you caught onto the cork trend?

Dave: I dunno. Maybe it was because I’m a lot better at flipping than I am at corks. They make a bit more sense in my head, I dunno why. Maybe it was all the gymnastics I did as a kid. I like corked spins though. I finally learned how to do corked 5’s this summer and they are a pretty damn fun to do. But I do rather enjoy the weightless feeling you get in a flip trick.Doug: Your flips do look really fun, and I’m actually quite stoked to see you do more flippy stuff than the same old cab 10’s that lots of other people are doing. You have a very unique style in your skiing, what do you think gives you this? What are you thinking when you’re in the air? Dave: I have a unique style? Sweet! I have no idea where it comes from. I just try to keep on doing whatever it is I’ve been doing since I started skiing. Charge hard and let your skiing work itself out while you go. When I’m in the air, most of the time I’m just enjoying being up there. Sometimes I even have life revelations. I remember this one backflip I did two summers ago at High North, I was trying so hard to just let my body go limp so I could realllllllly float it out and I actually felt my ankles relax. That was a very incredible feeling. And the one back flip I did at the Triple Challenge this year (which was the biggest one I’ve ever done in my life), I think I was just thinking about how amazing a night it was, how everything was really working out for me, how much I enjoyed that day, how pretty I thought the lights were and lastly, where the fuck is the ground and shouldn’t it be here by now? Doug: Who are your favorite people to ski with? You don’t have to say me just because I’m interviewing you either… <sniff, sniff…> Dave: Well, doug, just to make you sniffle a little more, I’m going to put you on the top of the list. There really isn’t anything quite like ripping fast laps with your brother. We’ve been skiing together for as long as I’ve been skiing, so I don’t think there is anyone out there that I ski better with than you. Second… Snow Snakes, what?!! The guys at Blue have been with me since the beginning… Dan, Alex, Mark, Max, Charles… an unbeatable force! who else… The Diggers of High North… Maheu, Bedard, Tony, Pete, Mike, Still-Baxter, Colby, Meg (have you made my hat yet?), Evan… wow… who else… Ariane, little mike, Nate Dawg, McIver and all the park staff at the Badlands. Doug: Best moment in your skiing career… Dave: I would have to say hands down was the first year I clinched the title at the Triple Challenge Big Air in 2003. It was the finals… running late, as all comps do. We had been sitting around for about a hundred years waiting to go, the speed was changing, we were tired from a day of competing in slopestyle and of course the snowboarders had to go first. Just before they dropped us in, they gave us the fantastic news that it was going to be a one run final. One shot. One jump. One last chance.Now before this night, I had never hit a jump as big as the one there. It was only about 60 feet or so with a 12 foot step-down, but if the biggest you’d ever hit was 40 footers, this thing was massive. On top of that, it was the first big comp (not that it was very big, but it was big to me) that I had ever been in. So the start list was to be reverse of qualifying position. Last place goes first, first place goes last. The starter couldn’t tell us who was going, because he didn’t have the list, it was being called up from below. So nervously we all sat around, idly pacing, worrying about in-run speeds, a real tight wound bunch. Then after the snowboarders had dropped (it was about 1030 pm at this point and was supposed to finish at 9), they started calling out skiers. No one could see the landing from where we were, so all we had to go on was the crowd’s reaction. It came down to the last three guys, me, Andy Stewart and Tom Dolozel. Andy dropped. I expected to drop next, after all, what the heck was I doing up here in the first place, I didn’t know what the shit I was doing up there, I’d never hit a jump this big before, I’d never been to a finals… Tom Drops… I’d never expect to land a jump this big, I’d never thought to be competing against these guys… “Dave Bishop, you’re up dude.” The radio squawked “Dave Bishop dropping…”. The only thing I could think about was,” holy shit… I’m about to jump with $2000 on the line. Well, no use worrying about it now”. So in I dropped. Charging in hard, hop switch, into the tranny… and then this amazing calm came over me. It was sort of like I wasn’t even really there. I put the landing gear down, stomped the shit out of it and rode away $2000 richer. Doug: What do you consider makes a better skier: Having a huge bag of tricks but a little less style, or having a small bag of tricks and just dripping with style everywhere? Dave: Tough call. I think I prefer a huge bag of tricks with lots of style. But that is being picky. Doug: Who is your biggest influence in skiing? Dave: I would have to say my dad. He is the ultimate ski bum. The bum that is not a bum at all. He works a lot, but always makes the time to go rip the zipper line whenever he can. He’s been doing it for a whole lot longer than I’ve been alive and I hope someday to be able to live the ski bum lifestyle as classy as he does it. But mostly it is probably you there Dougie. You were always the one who pushed the limits farther than anyone else around. It was a different time when we started to get into this shit. There weren’t other people doing it so that you could learn by watching. If you learned by watching, that meant you ended up hating skiers because snowboarders were the only ones in the park and they sure were friendly with those snowballs. But you stuck through it and gave us a place there. You took the snowballs and got on the inside to work at the Badlands. You fought for Ontario’s right to ski in terrain parks and you won. You paved the easy road for me to follow. You got me the job at Blue, at High North and now you’re giving me an interview on skiings biggest website. I can’t think of anyone else in this world that has a more profound effect on my skiing. No way could I have done any of it without you. Doug: (I entered this after the interview) Wow man… I am truly crying right now… thanks Dave. J (back to the previously asked question) Which pro do you think is just absolutely on top of his game right now? Dave: I’ve always been a huge Pep fan… that guy slays it. But from what I’ve seen of this years stuff (which was rather limited), I really think that JP has got shit figured out. Plus the man has an exquisite beard and that takes real dedication. Oh, and Pete Olenick. The switch backflip is back. Yeah baby! Doug: What are your plans for the upcoming season? Dave: Well, I have to stick with school full time this winter, as it is my last year and should probably do some work on that some and then rock the weekend warrior thing once again up at Blue. But hopefully if I play my cards right, I will spend all my OSAP money that is left over to go on a trip once I graduate in April, and go find some real snow. But for this season, I have a month off at Christmas (almost), a week in February, every weekend in the winter and then a whole lifetime of time after April to search for deeper snow.Doug: What tricks are you looking to learn/work on? Do you have a specific part of skiing you want to work on? (ie. Jumps, pipe, BC, park rails, street rails) Dave: I really want to learn a totally new trick. I was trying to do a switch flat spin this summer, but it really didn’t work out the way I planned it, so I’d like to get that. Plus I’d like to work on my style… I don’t think I really like any of the grabs that I do, so I’m going to focus on doing that. And I think I’d like to work both my this way and that of spinning a little more. A specific part of skiing? I’m a pretty big fan of jumps, so inevitably I’ll spend most of my time on those, but I’d also like to practice more tricks onto, off and over rails. I really hope that I can find a good pipe somewhere this year, I feel like my pipe skills are really not very good and would really like to get those up to speed. I would absolutely love to actually get to experience some backcountry anything. I rarely get a chance to go somewhere there is backcountry and even less frequent is being with someone who would actually know what they were doing so we didn’t kill ourselves. So if anyone sees me somewhere where they know of any good stuff, lemme know! Oh and I’d like to go somewhere where there is like 6-18 feet of fresh powder. I imagine that would be pretty fun. Doug: What is the best trick that you have ever seen on a pair of skis? Dave: oooo…now that is a tough question. In the movie Tee Time there are a whole bunch of awesome tricks over some really insane gaps. A bit old schoolish style…but awesome none the less. Hmm… I guess my personal favourite would have to be… that switch 5 that pep does over pyramid gap and goes like a billion feet too far but still stomps the fuck out of it. That really made my jaw drop. The only other time my jaw hit the floor like that was when Candide first did the d-spin over Chads gap. That was gnarly too. Doug: Finally… What do you think of Newschoolers.com? No bullshit just ‘cause I work there. We get so much hate all the time we can take it… Dave: I think it’s far too addictive. I log onto it like ten times a day. I don’t even care what I’m looking at, I just need to look at something skiing and it is always changing just enough to keep you interested. I really like the posting video capabilities too. It is awesome to give the opportunity for everyone to share what they have been up to, and for junkies like me get their little fix while there is no snow on the ground. I dunno…everyone really puts the hate on everyone else in the forums though, but that is just the way of the internet. Give the people a voice and you’re bound to get some conflicting opinions. But I’m sure a lot of it is not serious. I’ll bet a lot of people make up fake names, just so they can start shit and bad mouth people that don’t even really exist. But I used to do that on the old BBS chat room servers (holy crap, did I just outdate myself?) and get a real kick out it, so I can’t really blame people for doing it. Plus the news coverage is really up to date and really damn accurate. Anything you see on the site won’t be in any magazines or videos for months, or perhaps never at all. All in all, I think it’s a great thing, except I think they should fire their VP of Sales and give me his salary. Doug: Final words? Dave: Umm…last words… like to thank my sponsors for hooking me up with the stuff I need to get it all done… AA and Drew at Salomon, Laura Seaton at Orage and Aaron at Scott. Couldn’t have done it without you guys. Doug: And the ever-important Shout-outs… Dave: If anyone ever needs some artistic advice, my buddy Mork Johnston has just about the most creative mind the world has never seen. Also to my homie Steve whom I never forgave myself for ditching out on the best summer of my life to go skiing, yeah 518! And I’d like to say what’s up to the guy’s at Yarmouth, my home for the past 3 years, all the guys in Mudslide, Matty B, Matty K and Doug, we have to have a fantasy band camp again this Christmas!!! Let’s actually get a gig going in Badlands…that would rule!Umm… and to everyone who comes up to my place in Collingwood on the weekends which makes it such a magical place. A BIG shoutout goes to my mom, who taught me that hard work can get you anything you want in life.

Finally, I want to give HUGE thanks to my girlfriend Lia for understanding my desire to pursue my winter dreams and putting up with a boyfriend who is not around enough to give you the time that you deserve. Thanks for listening and I hope I didn’t bore you too much. Peas. Dave