Christmas vacations!

Hi everybody! What have you planned for your Christmas vacations? Personally, I planned many things that I wanted to share with you. First of all, I will go to Riviere-du-Loup and pass a week at my mom’s house. She will certainly bring me to do some shopping and to spoil me with gifts and delicious desserts. It will be pretty cool to see my family and enjoy their company as I will tell them about me and my time in Rimouski. They will certainly ask about my program, my apartment and what I do in my free times. I cannot wait to see my cousins again and, for some of them, their newborn babies. It’s always nice to see how fast the children grow up and what they have to show you (because they are proud to show their little tricks or abilities to everybody!). I will certainly go to do some snowboard too. I and my brothers will be reunited; it’s going to be fun to ride with them in Mont St-Mathieu and maybe Mont St-Anne in Quebec if we find the time to. I have some friends who use to ride too, so I will invite them to come with us. It’ll be great to go have a beer with them around a pizza in a restaurant or in a quiet bar to talk and get news from them. It’s been a long time I’ve seen much of them so I’m sure to get some interesting news. This makes me think about Marc-Antoine, who have a snowmobile and used to ride with me last winter. We had some great time visiting the Lac Pohenegamook and its outside activities and installations when we did snowmobile last January, and it is always fun to go to different places year after year. We plan to start from Riviere-du-Loup and come to Rimouski, then going back by St-Narcisse, Biencourt and Cabano. I don’t know exactly how much time we will spend in this trip, but I know it will be an investment because I love to ride my snowmobile, it is an outside activity and I will be with my best friend. Inviting one or two more of them could be nice too; the more we are, the funnier it is! It will be interesting to share this passion with those who never took place on a snowmobile. When I go on trips like those, I always propose to stop somewhere to have a great lunch and enjoy a break before going back home. These experiences will become great memories that I will be able to share with you this winter.That approximately what I will be doing in vacations; I hope you will enjoy yours and I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

snowboard season

Hi everybody! I write to you today because I feel like snow is coming soon... and it makes me think of snowboard! I am so happy when I see that winter season is setting up! I need to prepare my stuff, like my board, my boots and my clothes. First of all, I have to get my board waxed at the beginning of each winter. I go to Alternative or Sport Expert when I do it. I also ask them to check if the board is correctly sharpened. I don’t need to have it sharpened each year; one shot is enough for two or even three years. Then, I verify each screws and nuts on the bindings of the board. It is important to check them many times during the season because I don’t want to break them in the middle of the day, during a descent. It would be bad to get back home and buy the stuff to repair them instead of being in the mountains and having fun... I also check my boots to see if the sole is torn or if the bindings are worn out. I spray “protector” stuff on the boots for them to keep their colors even if they are in contact with snow and some possible dirt in the woods and to avoid water passing through the material of the boots. Then, I wash my coat every winter because it is so nice and colourful that I want it to be clean and attractive. When you fall in the mountains or when you sit to wait for some friends, your clothes are always getting dirt after the whole season. That’s why it is important to get it cleaned. My pants are getting cleaned too, but they are black so it doesn’t really appear like dirty. Finally, there’s the physical preparation I need to do; I need to stretch my legs and shoulders muscles to be in a great shape and perform. It is useful to train a lot during fall season to be ready to descend without getting tired or unable to continue for physical matters. Here in Rimouski, it’s not so important but when you go in a big mountain (descending during ten to fifteen minutes), it matters to be in great physical condition. Every season is a great fun for me because I’m always well prepared so I enjoy my rides properly and completely! Have a nice winter everybody!

Wake up

I am totally agreeing with people who go down the streets to fight for our rights because it is an undeniable fact: we are being eaten by those “corporations” and “governments” who were supposed to be there to help us in the first place. Corporations were supposed to provide us goods to live comfortably and governments were supposed to manage our taxes and put it into health care and education. What’s really happening? Corporations are swallowing us in their over-consumption mental program and governments are stealing our money to have parties and first-class seats in their trips “to conclude friendships and business relations”. They are taking LARGE advantages of their jobs and it went too far to me! Those people who dared “Occupy” the streets are alarmed of these problems and are trying to make us understand this sick society. Because she is sick! We shouldn’t be arguing about how much to pay for tuition fees, for health care or for whatever we need to live happily and comfortably. We’ve paid for such services since forever; why don’t we have a sufficient amount of money to set the problem? It is because some 5-10% of the people are living with 95% of the money and financial resources. We always fought for our rights, at least since The Universal Declaration for Human Right was written... Now that we entered the 21^st century, it seems like everything is changing, changing so fast that we are missing the bus… We’re so busy in our 40/week, traffic jam and ecological problems that we don’t pay attention to what these guys are doing, and of course they won’t warn us to do so. So would you please wake up from your bad dreams and get your responsibilities done, responsibilities like understanding the political and economical world we’re living in, responsibilities like preparing a nice and “liv-able” future for the next generations because right now we’re just going off the trail. We’re actually on highway to hell because we think for ourselves only. I think that occupying the streets to express our rights and wishes for a better world is a great way to start a great movement for human rights and for a better society.

Halloween just passed, Movember started, cold is slowly setting... and Christmas is coming soon! This means that Canadian Tire is preparing for a big consumption rush. A lot of people already came to buy there decorations, furnitures and gifts, but a lot of them, obviously, will wait until the last few days to come and get there stuff. It means that once again my department will be full of happy, hurried, tired, excited or bored people. It means everyone's gonna pull me here or there to get what they want because they all wanna be served RIGHT NOW! I write these few lines to express what I suggest you to do for your Christmas time to be perfect. Come and see us for your gifts and products right now (don't wait until the end of the month just come right now) and you'll be sure to get what you want, or to order it and to be the first to get it from the warehouses. I strongly suggest that you come now because you'll have enough space in the store to think (on Christmas time, it is so FULL OF PEOPLE that you don't know where to start your shopping and you waste time). I can also tell you that by this time of the year, you'll wait maybe 15 minutes and the cashdeck instead of 30 minutes (or more) by Christmas time... And God knows you need time! Time to install decorations, to wrap gifts, to make some great food for your family and to shovel snow from your property! But what is the most important through all that is: HAVE FUN! Don't get stressed by this multi-tasks time, you'll forget what Christmas time means! Finally, offer your family a warm and colorful living room for you all to celebrate the next Christ's birthday!

My next trip

Today's post is about a place I will visit next year. It is Ray's MTB indoor park and it is situated in Cleveland, Ohio. This place is the first multi-terrain indoor bike park in the world. I will explain you how I'll get there, what I'll bring with me and why I chose that location for my next trip.

Though it is very long to travel by car from Quebec to Cleveland, it is not very complicated. From Riviere-du-Loup, I will drive on the highway 20 until Quebec city to cross the St-Laurent river. Then, I will exit on highway 40 West to drive through Montreal until Vaudreuil-Dorion. After that, highway 540 South will bring me back to highway 20. It ends at Quebec/Ontario line where it changes for 401 West. This highway will get me to the border of Canada and United States. I will then drive on highway 81 South and the 90 West to get to Cleveland. This trip takes about 16 hours by car, including some breaks to refresh and move. It seems very long but it is nothing when you're in good company (so are my friends!). We all speak English well so it won't be a problem if we need some help on the way.

What will I bring with me? Off course, my bike is the most important thing I need. I will bring my tools to work on my bike, to fix things up or just to make some adjustments while riding. The fact that I will ride there for three days will help me to know more about the park, my bike and my abilities. There is a technical assistance service there at the park so that I'll get some help if I break something on the bike or if I need advices to improve myself. Another point in preparing the trip is to be healthy and in a good physical condition. Riding there is easy when you simply want to have fun and ride safely, but it can become more difficult and dangerous if you want to get it technical and intense to improve in some parts of the park (jumps room for example). Being in a good physical condition helps to prevent bad injuries. The park in question is very safe, but the ambitions can sometimes lead to injuries... It's part of the sport!

Finally, I totally encourage this kind of park because it is complete. I mean that anyone who knows how to ride a bicycle can have fun in this centre. Plus, the fact that every rider has to respect a long and serious list of rules/behavior to adopt is making it accessible for anyone. The costs are low (around $50 for three days!) and the installations are professionals and well-adapted for kids, youth and adults. The centre is divised in different rooms with a principal path to ride between them. There is a off-bike section which consists in lunch tables, seats to watch the riders and a small cafeteria get some fast foooooooood! I have never seen any other park like this one so it convinced me to travel half a day to get there and make my show-off!! Seriously, as I said in a previous post, bicycle is my favorite sport and I definitly want to improve in it. I'll bring you some videos back from Ohio to show you next year!

Quick link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIhkeL5h030


Here's an overview of skills I wanna develop through years of hard work!

Move!

As you can see, sports take a great place in my life. I am not interested in starting a debate about video games vs physical activity, but here's a choice I made years ago: I could buy that new PS3 for something like $600-$700 or just invest my money in a sport I pretty much like. I chose to buy a new bicycle and I think I made a clever choice. I obviously can't tell you how many hours I rode my bike through Riviere-du-Loup (where I'm from and so proud of), Rimouski, Quebec and even Montreal, but you will surely agree that I preferred passing those uncountable hours on bike than in front of a television, getting sick of flashes, fast images and SO REALISTIC games. Youth obesity is a problem coming from the fact that video games are so real and tempting, but violence is another problem brought by war and combat games. Instead of fulling my brain with that kind of stuff, I chose to spend my time and energy on something that could make me see interesting people, beautiful places and gigantic bike shops! As I said above, I brought my bike to different cities and never regretted to do so (maybe once in Quebec where I nearly broke my shin...). I invested money in snowboarding too, and you'll get proofs of that this winter; I'll post some videos from different mountains I'm used to ride in. It is another part of the choice I made, and I will be proud to present you my videos and write to you about my weekends and holidays this winter! See you soon dear readers! Jayman

Intro

Welcome to my blog dear friends! You will get here an idea of who I am, and I suggest you to follow my blog because I will add a lot of interesting stuff all year long! See you soon!