Canadian Adventures with Ben Brisbourne!

The Verdict

benbrisbourne — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:02:17 +0000

About 2 1/2 months ago I was finally able to get an MRI to ascertain the cause of my back pain. It turns out that I fractured 2 of my vertebrae (l4 and l5) at the base of my spine, and as such I’ve been unable to do any real exercise since receiving this diagnosis a few months ago. I’m now still waiting on treatment or recommendation as to what I should do next, the only medical advice given has been rest it. Orthopaedic surgeon appointment June 20th, it really is a joke considering I actually broke it almost 14 months previously and this is the first specialist I’m able to see.

Post Canada…

benbrisbourne — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:36:13 +0000

The Ottawa was far to much fun, and after 2 months of paddling and a back that seems insistent on making any playboating painful with no signs of recovery I returned to the UK in July. Unfortunately I never managed to get the funds for a trip to Uganada so have spent the last near 2 months at home going for an occasional session on Great Britain’s finest whitewater… (really?)

Heres the video from my time on the Ottawa, short and sweeeet. Hoping to head back there next summer for a high water season if I’m lucky!

End of exams – Trip to Niagara Falls + Moving to the Ottawa

benbrisbourne — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:22:12 +0000

So exams fininshed around April 20th, and with 10days before I planned to leave Toronto in search of kayaking for my final 2 months, a few of us headed to Niagara Falls for a day. This was a really worthwhile trip, and if anyone is out around the area I really recommend going. At first I was concerned the falls themselves might be really touristy and whilst decent might be just another standard thing to do whilst I was here. Thankfully I was wrong, the falls were really spectacular, and even the town itself which is known to be like a tacky version of Blackpool, was still decent. Note – ‘Baconator’ burgers from Wendys probably reduce lifespan considerably. Didn’t end up going on maid of the mist, which would have just added to the experience, but it was good enough just being able to stand a few meters away from the lip of such a spectacular landmark.

View of both Falls

Standing right next to the edge

Went out a few more times in Toronto, then headed out to the Petawawa last weekend for the hell or high water river race, followed on Sunday by heading to the Ottawa for some surfing at garberator, a nice big playwave on the main channel.

Lovers rapid on the Petawawa

Photos of the Ottawa to follow soon. Since moving to Esprit rafting I’ve managed to get myself a great setup for the next 2 months, it’s going to be a great time!

Photos from the Salmon River, 3/04

benbrisbourne — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:16:40 +0000

All Photos by Scott Parker. More from the day at http://www.scottparker50.ca/recent_pics/index.htm

About to enter the first hole...

Punching through the foam pile

Over the lip

Getting the line

Sticking to it

Lining Up

Pulling through

Final month of lectures

benbrisbourne — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:00:39 +0000

As expected, waters rose to biblicale levels a few weeks ago, and my first day out paddling was spent driving round looking for places to paddle that werent so high it was either A) deadly or B) pointlessly boring. Finally on the second day we found Credit, about 45mins from Toronto, a good re-cap into bigger water with some long nice wave trains.

Work continued, but as did paddling. With my boat arriving and river levels dropping from the epic levels 2 weeks before, we headed out to do Beaver Creek, a nice Class 3 with some interesting rapids, expecially as the first rapid, double drop, possibly approaching a grade 4 in higher water was the hardest on the river and the first moving water my boat had seen. An accidental bow stall when attempting to punch the 2nd hole off an 8ft drop instantly gave me the feel for it, and I havent looked back since. I did have an interesting experience with a sharp rock, shallow water and almost (but thankfully not) my face. At least the helmet didnt break…

With river levels still dropping, I got out twice last weekend, the Moira (very shallow) and the Salmon River were both fairly relaxed rivers with a few more interesting rapids. Photos to follow. Its raining and even thundering as I write this, something that hasnt happened in a long while, hopefully there will be something running this weekend. Though with exams on Monday and Wednseday I should probably revise.

Lectures in Toronto ended as of Good Friday, it’s certainly gone far too quickly. The last few weeks have been extremely busy with work and I’m currently preparing for the next 2 weeks of exams when I will finish on April 19th. Im currently looking into accommodation options for the next 2 months, with a cottage at the get-in for the Ottawa being preferable. Shall have to see how that goes.

Kayaking is about to begin!

benbrisbourne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:27:14 +0000

So after weeks of pool sessions, the weather sounds like its about to turn! Due to the fact the rivers have been frozen the past few months its been really frustrating, but forecast says its raining this weekend so should hopefully be out.

Weekend before last I headed out to the Toronto Outdoor Show to:

1) Purchase some kit – I’m proud of my new PFD. On special at about £85 from a company called Salus – http://salusmarine.com/product/darwinex.html It actually has a maple leaf embroidered on the reverse, YES!

2) Investigate into paddling the Ottawa in May/June – No really certainties yet, but it will definetly happen, spoke to numerous rafting and kayaking companies about it and I’m currently networking to try and sort it out. (Also looking into kayaking the White Nile in Uganda in July/August once im back, finance depending)

In other news, Ive finally bought a boat, Wavesport Project 45, 2nd hand from the US, getting it shipped here (via Bufallo on the border). Should have it in about a week. Actually cant wait to get it – its going to be better than christmas when its here…

Obviously an amazing playboat. ALLLRIIIGHHTTT!

Ive just got round to painting my helmet, something I said I’d do almost a year ago. Might look abit untidy up close but im pleased with it, wont notice it on the river anyway! It also has my name in big letters on the back, just in case I can’t remember who I am. Hoping the paint doesnt chip off the first time I use it…

Custom designed Shred-Ready!

Got some video clips off Tom Wade a while ago showing some playboating on the Dee back in Christmas in a Pyranha Burn, put them into one clip:

Thats enough for now. Will post more regularly from now on hopefully!

Reading Week Trip to Montreal

benbrisbourne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:03:39 +0000

So, during reading week, a few of us from co-op decided it would be great to spend a few days in Montreal, a piece of French-Canada thats is just so much different to the life I’d got used to in Toronto. After a 6 hour bus journey to Ottawa, then a further 2 hours from Ottawa to Montreal we arrived at around 10.30pm on friday evening. Tiring. Started off the excursion with some fantastic ‘poutine’ – they make it best in Montreal (it’s essentially fries, cheese curds and gravy), I proceeded to have this for the 2 nights afterwards aswell. For some weird reason the normal poutin was called ‘The Vladamir’ – no idea why!

Saturday we went to a awesome crepe house, then walked through the city to the St. Lawrence river for some ice skating. Montreal was much more like a European city, with buildings that were older than a century.

Montreal City

Was reassuring that despite not skating for about 10 years, I managed to get the hang of it… sort of.

Ice Skating on the St. Lawrence

We then got some more food on saturday evening, watched some of the Olympics and headed to a few French bars for some beers and live music, where we ‘acquired’ a horn from Le Carnival de Quebec – this has since become invaluable, particularly in the celebrations after Canada beat the US in the hockey! (Patriotism and street-celebrating was brilliant)

They sounded really good!

Ships on the frozen St. Lawrence

Headed to the science museum on one of the wharfs on the St. Lawrence River (to give an idea of the rivers size, check that photo above!) on the Sunday for some fun with all the ‘hands on’ activity exhibits which was hilarious. After moving a ball with the power of the mind, finding out how we would look at age 75, and creating a giant bubble around ourselves, we deserved some food. More poutine and alcohol were certainly called for.

Headed back Monday afternoon with a huge dent in my finances but after a great weekend, and had to endure the 8 hours back by greyhound. (Yes, people in North America use racing dogs to travel long distances…)

Oh yeh, I forgot about my blog…

benbrisbourne — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:05:17 +0000

Its been a long time, pretty much a month in fact. In fact, if I were to say what constitutes a long time, I’d say this was it!

The last month has been a really good one, having really settled into Canadian lifestyle and despite the huge work load at Toronto (particularly as I’ve just had mid-term exams) I’ve been loving it. Ill cover what Ive been up to over a few posts, too much to go through at once.

A few things – I went skiing for the first time at blue mountain back at the beginning of February with some extremely successful coaching by one Sarah Batchelor, though you wont see me joining her in SKUM any time soon I feel. After a few wipe-outs, both painful and hilarious I was ‘well up for some more’. So during reading week between my mid-terms and countless assignments a few of us ventured to Dagmar. Feeling somewhat shakey on the skis to begin with I soon got the hang of it again and got some confidence to run the steeper runs. It was great fun, but really tiny – to give an idea, this was my 2nd time skiing and we managed to do every slope twice, but better we got onto the ‘terrain park’, my first experince of anything that could be considered freestyle skiing. Awesome.

'Getting Some Air'. Photo: Auryn Stevenson

Largely the jumps went pretty well, except for this one above, which I ended up looking like this:

Oh Dear... Photo: Auryn Stevenson

It certainly felt alot bigger going over it than it looks on the photo! Another ‘highlight’ was we travelled in one of the classic american yellow school buses – just like in the movies! I say ‘highlight’, although it was interesting at first the realities were, (in typically British fashion) that there were several things that could have been improved. Mainly it wasnt anything like on the simpsons. Matt Groening tricked me through my childhood!

Overall, skiing has been really good fun though, and I hope to go again.

A weekend of work/procrastination

benbrisbourne — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:55:04 +0000

Its raining, for the first time in the 3 weeks I have been here, mainly due to the unusual warmth as this would normally fall as snow. Its somewhat depressing really, and as such the weekend has been spent indoors attempting work, though often procrastinating. Friday night’s pool session was good, and there was the thought of going paddling to the Gull at Minden today, though that will have to wait till another weekend.

http://stakeoutmovie.com/

http://www.maxbilbow.com/

Both worth a look, Max Bilbow has put the NSR movie as a free download and its worth watching, shame im missing it this year! Though I’m confident there will be many legendary exploits over here as well. In the meantime I shall have to get back on wth my work, with 5 deadlines within the next week and a half…

Left this a while…

benbrisbourne — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:05:06 +0000

Its been over a week since the last post. With a few interesting things happening on the way. Degree work has really started up now, with my first lab reports and assignments set, whilst I actually had to compile an answer worth 5% of my module grade on Wednesday on the question: “If you were a Lemming, where would you like to live in the Canadian Arctic?” Needless to say this question left me a little surprised, barely knowing what a Lemming was, let alone their preferential habitats. Still, at least it was something different to the standard Manchester lectures where most people seem like they’d really rather be somewhere else.

Shopping for textbooks has been part of the agenda, and after purchasing a photocopied resource pack and a few other books, I’m probably spending over $200, shocking, at least I’m buying second hand/splitting the cost with others, otherwise it would easily be $350…

Sightseeing highlight so far was going up the CN tower at sunset last Saturday with some much needed food at the Loose Moose afterwards whilst watching classic Ice Hockey. For those that haven’t been, the CN tower is pretty tall as buildings go, and at 553m its visible all over Toronto, despite being surrounded by some buildings that would be deemed far too tall by UK standards. Included a glass floor elevator, then another large glass floor at 346m it’s not for those with a fear of heights. Only cost $300 million to build by today’s value of the dollar, bargain!

Skyscrapers in Toronto - base of the CN tower in the foreground.

The view from the top was spectacular, and I’ll probably have to go there again before I leave. It also gave me a chance to start playing with my camera, though my success was limited, the only good photos I got were at night.

Toronto at Night

Toronto City from the CN Tower. Photo: Auryn Stevens

On the sports front a few of us from Manchester have joined the ski and snowboard club. With trips run to blue mountain every weekend it could provide the needed escape until the kayaking season starts in March. And on the kayaking side of things, I’ve finally found a uni canoe club:

http://www.mcmasterwhitewater.ca/

Its abit over an hour away from Toronto (even longer by public transport) but theres a few people who drive through Toronto to get there, looks like just the kind of thing I’m looking for. It was set up a few years back by a girl from Oxford Uni canoe club with the intention of giving Canada a taste of the UK’s University Boating style, with weekend club trips, club kit etc. After going to their pool session, I was pleased my playboating seems to be improving whilst I managed to get a few 2-end cartwheels, now just looking for that elusive 3rd end. This has definetly made me more hopeful about kayaking in the summer!