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