Local Sports

Ouch. If you hadn’t gotten around to registering for the 2003 Test of Metal, thinking that you still almost had two months, then ouch.

After two years of remote contests in the Brandywine Bowl and Brohm Ridge respectively, the World Freestyle Snowmobile Competition was loving its new home at the Pemberton Stock Car Association track.

To some, it may seem ironic that the small land locked community of Pemberton has become a hot bed for paddling sports. Most noteworthy, is the youth dragon boat team.

Crowd of 15,000 for big air contest The evolution of freeskiing continued last weekend as some of the top new school skiers from around the world cranked things up a notch for this year’s Garnier Fructis World Skiing Invitational.

The time to trade snowboards and skis for mountain bikes has arrived. Some trails in the Whistler-Blackcomb Mountain Bike Park are now scheduled to open two weeks early, on Saturday, May 3. Park crews began clearing and preparing trails this week.

A below average snowpack in the valley bottom this year, all but gone by mid-March, has worked in favour of our local Whistler golf courses as they prepare for the upcoming season.

Cline first, McIvor third in pro category The Saab Salomon Crossmax Series wrapped up in Whistler last week as part of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. As with all the other events, the weather wasn’t perfect.

Spots are going fast for the 2003 Squamish Test of Metal, one of the premier cross-country mountain bike races in North America. As of April 15, there were just 299 of 800 spots left for the 67.

On April 9 and 10, Whistler-Blackcomb hosted the first ever Canadian Technical Ski Championships, testing skills over a range of terrain. The components of this competition were a run with big turns, a run with short turns, a mogul run and a GS race.

Although Squamish, the recreational capital of Canada, has a lot to offer its residents, there is one thing missing – a skatepark.