| Vague-a-lame...

Happy International Surfing Day!!!

I brought my friend Jean-Olivier at the vague-a-guy in Verdun for his 1st Canadian surf session and it was really fun. He used to surf a lot in La Reunion and Hawaii but like most people here, he didn't know that Montreal is actually a great spot... and now he's hooked again :)

I can regularly stand up now on my G-Rocker and start to control a bit more, it was tough just to get there but worth it! Still need to work on my bracing to stay up longer. Peace.

| Québec city and van stuff...

Ce Jeudi nous sommes allés à Québec pour une visite chez New-west, j'avais un tas de modifications a faire sur le van avant mes prochaines sorties en camping. En effet la liste était conséquente:

- Installation d'un ventilateur de toit / mise-en-été du système d'eau / installation de moustiquaires sur les fenêtres arrières / changer une ceinture de sécurité et ajout de supports pour sangles.

Ca va etre plus pratique pour suspendre ce que je veux (4 knobs)...

Le ventilateur est super important car il peut faire très chaud durant l'été à l'intérieur du véhicule. La bonne nouvelle c'est que Sylvain m'a gracieusement fait une surprise en enlevant les stickers NW des fenêtres, pas facile a faire alors un grand merci, il n'a plus l'air d'un van-demo :)
La compagnie nous a prêté une voiture de service pendant la duree des travaux et nous en avons profité pour aller faire un tour dans la capitale tiens! Ca faisait longtemps que nous n'avions pas mis les pieds à Québec et on oublie vite que c'est une très belle ville au passé colonial évident, l'architecture rappelle beaucoup la France et l'ambiance est bien différente de Montréal.

L'Ecole d'Architecture, on se croirait a Paris...

Ce fut une belle journée et je vais pouvoir enfin tester ce modèle de van en camping dès le weekend prochain lors du stage de SUP en eaux-vives a Ottawa, can't wait! bises <3

| Whitewater Weekend...

On demarre notre premiere collaboration avec Pop Spirit et Paddlefit, rejoignez-nous pour un WE de decouverte du SUP en eaux-vives (Pushbutton rapids) a Owl Rafting. Ca va etre enoOrme!

Information: info@popspirit.ca - info@paddlefit.com

| Un bon Dimanche a Montreal...

Des qu'on trouve un peu de temps pour se balader on en profite pour faire du velo et decouvrir des coins qu'on ne connait pas. Hier on a fait une belle boucle en prenant notre temps (3h quand meme). Apres ca je suis alle surfer pendant encore 2h a la vague-a-Guy, je commence enfin a me lever mais ce n'est pas gagne, bref grosse fatigue mais quel bon Dimanche!

Semaine precedente a Lachine

| Instructor Basic SUP course flatwater...

whoaAaah that was an intense weekend, we have just completed an Instructor's course in basic SUP flatwater Level 01 with Julien Nantais from Pop Spirit and Unda. He was assisted by Jodi, Rosaire and an apprentice as it was a large class of about 10 students.

It was very windy and chilly at the start of the day on Saturday but the weather gradually improved, there were tiny rolling waves which were pretty fun to surf. The class was very interesting and we all learned a lot, whether it was about pure technical gestures, fundamentals, water safety or about managing a class of beginners. On Sunday we primarily focused on short teaching exercises (using awesome tools like KISS or IDEAS) and we learned 2 efficient safety rescue tricks.

Nice people, beautiful spot and lots of fun that's about what SUP is all about, big thank to the instructors for their knowledge, passion and their patience!
It gave me the opportunity to try the surf quad fin setup that i bought in L.A and it felt great, better tracking than the tiny whitewater fins for sure, plus they look nice right. I can't wait to know if we are certified so we could move on to phase II.

| Expedition Art in L.A - Part 02...

In the following days we had quite a busy schedule. On Friday, after a yummy seafood breakfast stop, we paid a morning visit to the California Wildlife Center and checked on the rescued baby elephant seals and sea lions. 

the center is located in a dry valley on the beautiful hills of Malibu and we had a great time talking to the local scientists, staff and volunteers, very brave and friendly bunch! This is the main reason why the Gnomon Animal Show was started, because Travis and David wanted to do something for all those starving baby seals washing up along the beaches of Southern California.

cute and super noisy pups, marked and cared

we then left to go back near Universal Studios to get prepared for the gallery show and to pick up Terryl. She is such a great person, quite sure she is an elf and I'm glad to finally meet her, we all headed back to the Gnomon workshop in Hollywood. It was a nice cosy event as usual, with lots of interesting people and some beautiful oeuvres d'art were presented. I have been a big admirer of Claire wendling for a long time and here she was (accompanied by Stuart Ng), trying to move around incognito, but Manny wouldn't let her stay that way :) she is super cool and so humble it's unbelievable. I've let her try Art Rage on my Galaxy Note 4 and... voila, her first cellphone sketch! Pretty nice no? even though she is not proud of this digital doodle, Claire you're the best!

Joined by the amazing Claire Wendling and Terryl Whitlatch!

Damn I really missed you Kristy, David and Manny, so much fun it's weird as time stops when we are hanging out right? Hey everyone you should check David's excellent little documentary about the seals, it's worth it. The demos and line up of instructors was once again top notch, I've learned a lot, met some incredible people like Ms. Mallory, Kory Heinzen and Jonathan Kuo. Thanks a lot Gnomon (Alex, Travis and the whole crew) for hosting such a meaningful event. See y'all again soon!

Manny's moving talk...

See the Gnomon Animal Livestream here > http://livestream.com/gnomon/animal

| Expedition Art in L.A - Part 01...

It's good to be back in the city of Angels, i booked a place at Venice Beach Suites & Hotels which is conveniently located near the skatepark and it was great to see my old buddy David Levy who is now happily married and the proud daddy of an incredible cute baby! We had a great day walking around Venice Beach and Marina Del Rey.

Marina Del Rey dry canals...

The area has certainly changed and improved, there are now hip coffee places (like Café Collage) next to good vegan restaurants (Seed) beside the usual surf shops and heteroclite crowd, i also found a nice quad fin setup for my SUP at Mollusk. It was a long and tiring day since Montreal but it was worth every second, tomorrow the show will start at the Gnomon Gallery.