Colorado Video!

As promised here's the video from our Colorado/Copper Camp!

Copper Camp Part 2

Hey there,

The second half of the camp went by in a flash. My days riding the pipe were limited with the start of the Grand Prix training so I made the most of every day I went up. On my last day training, I had a really good session hiking the pipe getting some tricks back. I love sessions like that, it's all about me pushing my limits and progressing. I get in the zone and visualize my trick as I'm hiking up. I've been working on my body awareness. On this day, I started off with a trick that has been a struggle for me in the past: the back 5. After I was landing them consistently I decided to move onto the switch frontside (AKA cab) 5. I was getting them around pretty well and this was a good start for the season.

The pipe got super busy as the trip went on. This crowd is all waiting to drop in.

 In addition to pipe riding, I also practiced jumps one day at Breckenridge and jibbing one day at Keystone. I met up with my buddy Robby at Breck and we jumped for about 4 hours straight. It was sick to get some tricks back on the jumps, I was pretty rusty! The next day I felt like I had been running a marathon and then been hit by a bus at the finish line. If anyone thinks snowboarding is an easy sport, they are seriously misguided. Once I had recovered, Kyle and I bused over to Keystone (1.5 hours) to check out their park. For that early in the season, heck even for mid winter, their park is amazing! They had 4 different jump lines, from beginner to 'oh my god!' big as well as tons of fun rails and boxes to jib. Solid day.

Kyle and I at Keystone

And Again

 I also took advantage of the Grand Prix competition to see what the big guns in snowboarding are throwing down in the halfpipe. Unfortunately, no Canadian men made it to the top 16 finals but Sarah Conrad squeaked in on the female side and ended up in 8th place. The finals were unreal! Everyone in it was amazing, the guy that qualified in 16th dropped in and did a perfect 1260 about 10 feet out - and it only got better from there. Yah I know, ridiculous right! Double corks were the hot trick that the top guys were doing. Louie Vito took the title with back to back double corks and solid riding. It was super good for us to watch the contest to see where we need to be in order to compete at this level.

Some of the world's best snowboarders getting ready to drop at the Grand Prix

I'm still waiting on some footage from Joe to complete my video edit from the trip - stay tuned for that.

I had to put this in... Joe about to chow down on his birthday desert! Look at those hearts.

 Overall that was one awesome trip. We were able to rip the halfpipe before anyone riding in Canada or most world for that matter. It was a great way to kickstart our season and set the tone for the year. I learned a lot and I'm stoked for what the season has in store. Now I'm glad to be back in Canada and Whistler for a bit before I head home for a quick trip over the holidays to Yellowknife.

Sunset from the plane window

Peace,

A M

Copper Camp Part 1

 Greetings!

After talking to some of our friends who were in Colorado last year, Kyle and I made the call change and extend our planned dates. I was originally going to come down after the Grand Prix for about 10 days to ride the amazing halfpipe but we found out that there is another contest after the Grand Prix with only 2 spots for Canadians. Instead we decided to come down on November 24th, hoping that they would have a halfpipe up at that time of year. They usually have the first one in North America but early season is always a bit of a gamble with snow conditions. Its really cool that our club WVSC was cool with the trip, Joe for coming for so long and Rob for allowing the head coach to be out of Whistler for so long. I like to thank Northern Canada Ventures Corporation for their sponsorship which has made this camp possible for me!

Copper Mountain Sign - Kyle's photo

 When we arrived at Copper Mountain, we saw that they were cutting the halfpipe, a great sign that it would be done soon. Little did we know that our timing could not have been better and the pipe was ready for our first day on snow! Its been great to get the feeling of riding halfpipe again. I have some awesome new equipment this year thanks to a very kind contribution from Overlander Sports. My new board (the Burton Vapor) feels amazing in the halfpipe. I've been feeling pretty confident riding for this early in the season, despite some aches & pains from the body as it isn't used to riding this much anymore. I've been learning a lot more on this trip about tuning my board. I might do a 'How To: tune your board' video on the blog pretty soon.

Laser precision shaped halfpipe! - KT photo

Fixing the edge

Our place has a sweet waxing station underground

Sunny day, nice halfipe, you know we're pumped!

We arrived in the States just in time for American Thanksgiving. It's always tough to organize international trip when you aren't allowed to bring food along. To make things a little more confusing, we decided to go green and save money by not renting a car for this trip. After our first day on hill, we were supposed to go grocery shopping but we were already starving when we saw this 'Thanksgiving Special' sign. Full turkey dinner for under $20, SOLD! When in Rome right? Turkey dinner is too good to pass up, just listen to KABA!

I'm loving it, Joe wishing he didn't eat so much

Who knew? My boot strap doubles as a mustache!

The following day was Black Friday. Once again, we had to experience this American event so we bused it to the Outlet Stores in Silverthorn. It was definitely not as crazy as I thought it might be but there were some mad deals! How mad? Well I better not say... I may have bought some Christmas presents of some people that may read this.

Loungin in Copper Village!

This year was my first year that could have competed in the Grand Prix - a huge contest circuit in the States that's used to pick to American Olympic Freestyle Team. After talking it over with my coach, we decided that it would actually be better for me to just focus on training right now so that I can make some serious progress this year without needing to worry about competing this early in the season. It was a tough call because I've wanted to compete in a Grand Prix for a while but I'm sure the decision with pay off later this year and next year when I will have a run that will be able to compete at that level. I decided to stay to watch the Grand Prix next week. So I will be here for just over another week. I'm planning on riding Breckenridge or Keystone next week which have amazing snowboard parks!

Joe's been taking a bunch of video and I've also been taking some with my new GoPro. I'll try to get some up here soon! Until then take it easy,

A

FSC Architects & Engineers steps up sponsorship to Crystal Globe!

FSC Architects & Engineers continue to amaze me! For the third year in a row they have sponsored me at my highest level to help ensure that I have adequate funding to follow my training schedule for the year. When I added the Crystal Globe level to my sponsorship package this year I wasn't sure if anyone would even consider sponsoring me to that extend - however, this level of support is now crucial for me to progress in my athletic career as the costs of training and traveling continue to escalate. I'm very thankful to have the amazing support of community leaders like FSC to help me achieve my goals!

Me standing with FSC partners Kevin Hodgins, Jerry Jaud and Warren McLeod

 To view the official press release regarding the sponsorship go to the Sport North website. Here it is below:

News Release

FSC Architects & Engineers Announce Top Level Sponsorship for High Performance Snowboarder Andrew Matthews

November 22, 2010 - FSC Architects & Engineers have announced that they will continue to support Andrew Matthews in his high performance athletic training again this year, increasing their sponsorship to his new ‘Crystal Globe’ level. The new sponsorship will allow Matthews to continue to pursue excellence in his sport. It will allow him to participate in training camps and competitions that would have otherwise been too expensive for him to cover.

“When I added the Crystal Globe level to my sponsorship proposal this year, I wasn’t sure if anyone would even consider supporting me to that extent,” acknowledged Matthews. “FSC continues to amaze me with how supportive they are of high performance sport in the North. This funding will make a huge difference in allowing me to train and compete at the elite level that I need to in order to make it to the next step of my athletic career. When Warren told me that FSC was going to step up to the Crystal Globe level I was at a loss for words, so I just gave him a hug. Crystal Globes are very prestigious awards presented to athletes that are on the very top of their game and win the annual World Cup Tour. FSC continues to lead the community in high performance sponsorship and they are definitely on top of their game!”

Warren McLeod, a principal at FSC said that the company feels strongly about supporting high performance sport in the North, “FSC believes that supporting highly visible athletes from the North encourages the development of healthy communities by inspiring other youth to follow in their footsteps.  Andrew has and will continue to be a positive role model for all Northerners and we are more than happy to help him as he pursues his dreams.”

Andrew has recently moved into the Whistler Athlete Village, which will be his base for training this winter, and started back on snow training. He heads to Copper Mountain, Colorado this Wednesday, November 24^th, for some early season halfpipe training. This will give him a competitive edge over many Canadian riders who won’t be able to train in a halfpipe until late December.

Matthews’ first major competition is the Burton Canadian Open Global Series which will be the first week of February. He is hoping on improving on his last year’s performance where he made it to the qualifying round in slopestyle. “I’ve set some high goals this year, and for the next four years,” explains Matthews. “With the help of community leaders like FSC, I believe I have what it takes to achieve these goals.”

For more information visit:

www.andrewmatthews.ca

www.andrewsnowboarding.blogspot.com

www.fsc.ca; or contact:

NWT Boardsport Association                            Warren McLeod, P. Eng., Principal

(867) 920‐2997                                                                 (867) 920‐2882

Exploring, Adventures and Snowboarding!

As I mentioned on Friday, Whistler mountain opened!! It's been a long wait over the summer but really... why wait? Since I arrived in BC I've been super busy exploring, getting settled into my new place and going on adventures. There is so much to do in BC! Kyle Thomas (my new roomate who's been my good friend and training buddy since I met him riding in my first snowboard club 6 years ago) and I decided to take advantage of the short time we had before the hill opened to head out to Tofino for a surfing trip.

Heading out on the Ferry

November in Tofino is cold, I have to get the photo without the hood though!

On our second day in Tofino we were exploring a trail to South Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park. We were out on the beach trying to find a way to get onto this big rock by the ocean, little did we know that a black bear cub was hanging out on the same beach. We were so oblivious until we got within 20 feet of the bear and Kyle mentioned something along the lines of "Hey I think that's a bear." I look up and my heart starts racing. My immediate thought was to get as far from the cub as quick as possible in case we were between the Mom and her cub. Kyle had to remind me that running probably wasn't the best thing to do (I'm probably faster than him so it would have been fine for me, haha). Once we got far enough away we watched the cub for a bit with no sign of Mom before heading down the trail. Further down on another beach we almost ran into more wildlife, this time a beached seal. I've never seen a live seal before so it was cool but I felt bad for the guy, he wasn't moving much.

Such a cool bridge!

The other 2 days we spent surfing. I've started to really, really like surfing. It's a similar feeling to floating over powder on your snowboard (which is one of the best feelings). On the first day I met up with some good friends from Yellowknife - Kelsey, Josh & Danielle for a fun surf session. Josh and Dani had to catch a bus so they only got a taste of the surfing but it was great to see them nonetheless.

I should really start reading signs...

I'm going surfing!

Getting the picture like a true tourist

Hello black bear! You can see our tracks on the bottom right. Scary!

Poor seal :(

Kyle checking out the rain forest

Kyle's ride!

These photos are from a hike we did just down the highway from our new place. You don't have to go far to see some pretty spectacular nature in Whistler.

We want you!...to be as goofy as us!

Freestyle hiking

Ali & me

The new pad, in the Athlete's Village. Couldn't ask for a better place

Opening Day on Whistler would not be complete without a super early morning, followed by huge lines of skiers and boarders eager to get back on snow. Every in Whistler was in a great mood after getting their fix of snow in for the day. We had a blast riding some fresh snow, jumping off every little bump and even riding the mini snowboard park they have set up.

Me, Kyle and Chase - stoked on our first day!

Fresh track are awesome!

Yeah Snowboarding!!!

Chase Harley's Edit

Today was opening day for the winter on Whistler! Early morning, long lineups, burning legs - so much fun!! More on that later but first: I met up with my buddy Chase today for some laps and he mentioned this snowboard edit that he made of my friends and I from last season. He has some serious skills in the editing and filming departments. I was pumped on it, check out this video!

Dryland Training Video

In the past couple months I've been in YK pushing it with my training. Here's a video of one of my recent training sessions, getting creative at the YK Racquet Club. I've been able to balance on these balls for a while and I've been thinking about trying this since I read about a bmx rider doing it.

Now it's one of the most exciting times of the year for me. I just moved into the Athlete Village in Whistler. I've already met a bunch of my neighbors, one of which is Thomsen d'Hont, among lots of other high performance athletes. It's going to be awesome living here this year! There is tons of snow on the mountain and there have been rumours that it might open next week. Awww yeahhhh!!!

TC Group of Companies Continue Support for 3rd year!

I am pleased to announce that TC Group of Companies will be sponsoring me for the third year in a row at the Gold Level! TC continues to play a huge roll in allowing me to pursue my dreams. I'm very excited that they are continuing to sponsor me and give me the best chance of achieving my goals. True to their slogan, they are allowing me to 'Build for the Future'. I look forward to representing them throughout the year.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Tony and Elaine for their continuous support!

TC Group of Companies, whose principals are Tony Chang and Elaine MacDonald-
Grundy, is a diverse real estate organization with residential and commercial properties
across Canada. For more information, please visit TC Group's website: www.tcent.ca.

Get Stoked!

Days are getting shorter, the air's getting colder, its beginning to look a lot like... snowboarding time! In Yellowknife it's pretty much winter already, shred season started yesterday! At this time of year, all the new shred flicks come out and get us stoked for the year. Here's a teaser of a ski & snowboard video that I have a couple shots in to give you a taste.

Inspirational Athletes

Clara Hughes is amazing. Her list of accomplishments could easily fill this page. One that stands out for me is that she's one of few athletes in the world to ever medal in both summer and winter Olympics! Amazing, I know! She's very passionate about promoting sports for kids and donated $10,000 to Right To Play after winning gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the 5000 m. I was fortunate enough to meet her at the Champions for Children Dinner. She spoke passionately about how proud she is to be Canadian and how sport really changed her life. Very cool. It just goes to show that you can achieve anything if you set your mind to it.

I would like to say Thank You to Sport North for putting on such an amazing event. They brought up Clara, along with 2 other Olympians up to help raise money to allow kids to participate in sports.

Clara & I, look at the ton of medals she has!

On another note, my good friend Mike Gilday just qualified for the World Cup Circuit in Short Track Speedskating. He's killing it this season and I'm really stoked for him. Check his blog here: http://mgilday.blogspot.com/. Congrats man!

As for myself, I'm getting ready for when the mountains turn white. I'm back home in Yellowknife now for a while. I've been planning out my season and there is so much cool stuff going on, I can't wait! I'm currently working on my sponsorship proposal to help me fund my upcoming season. I'm lucky that the NWT community has been very supportive of my athletic career. If you, or someone you know, are interested in supporting me please contact me via email: andrewmatthews4@gmail.com.

Here are some photos from a recent workout at Body Works. Francis Chang has recently sold the original gym in Yellowknife. After so many years it's still a great place to workout! Thanks Francis for your support over the years!

I remember one time I was doing this one time with a few girls around and I slammed on the hard wood!

After meeting with my physiotherapist Andree on my recent trip to BC, I have a bunch of new core X exercises.

That's all for now folks!

Andrew

Wakeskating!

Howdy!

I've been meaning to update my blog for a while now. There's a lot of things I want to post about so instead of doing one massive post, I'm going to do a few shorter ones here with lots of photos.

Here are some pictures from a wakeskating (like wakeboarding but your feet are not attached to the board) session (possibly the last of the year??) with my family a little while ago. Wakeskating takes a lot of balance and board control, its also a blast!

Wetsuit weather is officially here in YK

Bryana, smiling her entire run :)

Practicing my switch front boards for winter

Face plant!

Front board(slide)

- A M

Mountain Bike Madness Camp!

The month of July was one of the busiest months of my life. Most of my time went into organizing and instructing at my camp: Mountain Bike Madness (MBM) Camp. It was my 5th summer running the camp since Thomsen d'Hont and I started it. This was definitely one of the best summers on record for the camp. We had nice weather, great kids and tons of fun! Some of the highlights this year were weekly photo scavenger hunts, playing 'bike', exploring new trails and having my birthday party on the last day of camp. The kids made me 8 cakes and deserts!

For more info about the camp check out our website: www.mountainbikemadnesscamp.com.

MBM Camp!

Daniel: Leading the pack on the Rat Lake trail

Group in air: 5 points!

Me showing Thomas how to clean his chain

Look at those shirts!!

- Andy

Robjn Taylor films

Who is Robjn Taylor? Well he is an amazing snowboarder. You can find him lapping through the Black Park on pretty much any day from December to May, stomping tricks you could only think of attempting in Amp 3 with his signature Robjn style. He also helps out coaching for WVSC on the weekends and has taught me a lot over the past few years. Mostly how to have a great time on a board with your friends. And that, is one of the best lessons of all.

In addition to snowboarding, he is equally passionate and talented at Film Making. He has won the prestigious World Ski & Snowboard Festival 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown 3 times now! He has also made several intros to snowboard videos that are definitely the most original and entertaining out of all the snowboard videos.

Here are some of his entries for the 72 Hour Showdown, the top one is his latest creation. Enjoy!

Firetruck Earrings. from robjn taylor on Vimeo.

- A M

Athlete of the Year?!

OK, so this might be old news to some people but I haven't got around to blogging about it yet so here it is: This spring, I was awarded the Sport North NWT Senior Male Athlete of the Year Award! This is a huge honour for me to be considered one of the top athletes in the NWT. At the banquet I was very impressed with the accomplishments of all the other athletes. It's so difficult to compete with the rest of the country when you come from the north. Congratulations to everyone else that won awards. Keep it up!

I would like to again thank my parents, family, and sponsors for their support. They are the ones that continue to make it possible for me to pursue my dreams. I am very grateful to have them in my corner. Thank you!

Me accepting the award from First Air's Kim Poulter

I was more nervous for this speech than I was before the World Cup. Public speaking takes guts! Snowboard video playing in the background at the Elks Hall.

Weledeh MLA Bob Bromely and I posing for a photo. Thank you for nominating me Bob!

I'll end this post with an awesome quote I found:

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
-Arthur C. Clarke

I couldn't have said it any better than that,

Andy Matt

Nelson Languedoc's skateboard video

One of my roomates in the WVSC House spent a couple weeks making this skateboarding video at the Squamish skatepark. It's so cool what you can do with the right equipment. When you watch the video keep in mind that Nelson is still in high school. Nice work buddy!

48 Music Video Entry!

Last weekend I took on the challenge of making a music video for the Western Arctic Moving Pictures 48 Hour Music Video Contest. We were assigned a local band at noon on Saturday to make the video of. It was a lot of fun making the video. I've mostly filmed and edited snowboard videos so this took a lot of thinking outside the box for me. Sleep is a hard thing to come by when you're on such a tight deadline. 2 days later and I still feel like a zombie! I'll add the winning videos if/when I see them on youtube, they're wicked!

Erebus & Terror - Pretty Big Storm from Andrew Matthews on Vimeo.

- Andy

Mattafix - leading by example

I came across this music group recently that I'm really stoked on. I heard 2 of their hits on separate occasions and instantly fell in love with those songs without having any idea who the band was. Once I figure out that it was Mattafix, I checked out their myspace page to see what they're all about. I was stoked to see that their video 'Living Darfur' was filmed in a warzone in Chad, bordering Darfur, to raise awareness of the suffering of the people in the region. All artist royalties from this song will be donated to Oxfam, Crisis Action and the Save Darfur Coalition I have tons of respect for a group (or person) that uses their public profile to help put solve an issue such as this one. I hope that other artists take note of what Mattafix is doing and follow their example!

Living Darfur from Maroon Missionaries on Vimeo.

- A M

Photo Post

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well according to my calculations, this post has at least 12,000 words. Better pull out those reading glasses and get to it!Tube slide - Picture by Brendan Matthews

Stalefish grab at the Grenade Games - Brendan Photo

Loggin some airtime at the Grenade Games

I went for an epic hike in Squamish before I left BC. If you're ever around that neck of the woods, definitely hike the Chief. The first half of the hike is walking up past a waterfall and the view from the top is spectacular!

I had to do some yoga once we reached the top.

Thank you Judy at Taiga Yoga for helping me learn these poses and many more. If you are in Yellowknife, definitely check out the studio. It's so good!

Taking in the view of Squamish

Beauty panoramized

Jon going in for a closer look at the waterfalls

Back in Yellowknife, I put a snowboard movie in the ESJF film festival so we obviously had to dress up for the premier. Damn, those are some classy athletes! Michael Gilday, myself and Thomsen d'Hont

Nature is just plain awesome. A little change of scenery from my previous hike but this one was also really nice.

Bry, Lindsey, Jared and I taking it all in
Cameron Falls, no words required

- Andy