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