Skiing on Grouse Mountain – lots of languages and cultures met and heard
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Todd Wong performs a
freestyle ski trick called a “tip roll” – while skiing on Grouse
Mountain on Wednesday – photo Richard Montagna.
It was FREE ski day at Grouse Mountain on
Wednesday. I have always liked skiing at Grouse, especially since
I practically grew up skiing there during my North Vancouver high
school years. We would take our skis to school, store them in our
lockers, then head up to the hill with our ski-buddies by bus or driven
by parents.
Back in the late 1970's it was very rare to see Chinese-Canadians
skiing. Yes… Wayne Wong was still a big name in freestyle
skiing. Skiing asians would be most likely multigenerational
Asian-Canadians – not new immigrants as skiing was generally a foreign
concept. Occasionally, there would also be a few visiting
tourists from Japan.
But on Wednesday I saw lots of skiing and snowboarding Asians. I
heard Korean, Japanese and Mandarin spoken in the lift line-ups.
I spoke with many young Asians who were students in Greater Vancouver,
and even one Korean father who bought a ski pass so he could ski with
his kids. Vancouver's ethnic make up has changed a lot in the
past 30 years and so has the ski culture. Snow boarders
outnumbered skiers 80% to 20%.
On Dec 16th, the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is having a
“snow day” event, to help us keep fit, have fun, and provide
non-paddling activities for a wonderful group of people. We will
be snow-boarding and skiing on Grouse Mountain.
Hey Todd!
I didn't know you're a hot dogger! Trés cool Buddy!
David