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A festival full of highlights and one drunk stockbroker

Nick Dove conceded that when he submitted a Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival volunteer application...

Nick Dove conceded that when he submitted a Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival volunteer application over the Internet he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

The 19-year-old snowboard instructor from Ottawa said he had heard the festival was "pretty cool" but his interest grew dramatically when he learned that volunteers got a free lunch.

"I wanted to go snowboarding here but I couldn’t go everyday because it’s pretty expensive so I thought this would be a good thing to do in between," Dove said.

But what happened in between came as a total surprise to Dove.

He met elite snowboarders, mountain bikers and skiers, but his highlight came when he was asked to pick up hip-hop diva Kia Kadiri from Vancouver.

Dove brought Kadiri and her band back to Whistler and then partied with them at Merlin’s.

Later he went to their outdoor concert and then went back to the band’s condominium for some more partying.

"I think I slept on the floor," Dove said.

"I’ve got a pretty foggy memory about it.

"To be honest, I don’t remember when I flew in here, so much has happened it’s just a blur."

Dove was also stoked that he got to meet Moka from Moka Only and the band Pocket Dwellers.

"You can party hard every day up here, it’s so hard to describe," he said.

"I’ve been to Europe and Florida and there’s no party scene like Whistler – I mean, that Gob concert (at Moe Joe’s) was off the hook.

"In the past four days I must have spent $300 on alcohol going from place to place."

Despite all his brushes with fame, Dove said the best part of volunteering was the fact that he was able to experience all aspects of the festival.

"They make the schedules up so everybody has a chance to work in different areas and you end up in all the best places."

Another person who’s job it was to be in all the best places at the right time was W1 public relations manager Mark Ross.

Ross, who used to do PR for a bank, confirmed that the event had received enormous media attention.

"The festival itself attracts all the ski press but when you add in the Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake and all the other entertainment factors you get a lot of mainstream attention as well," Ross said.

"It got huge coverage at home and in Canada and abroad as well, and that’s going to be a big part of my next month; analysing and calculating the total value of that coverage.

"For the Black Eyed Peas we had camera crews from just about every media outlet in the Lower Mainland like Much Music, MTV, CBC," Ross said. "Some of them broadcast in the region but certainly a lot of the bigger guys were using the coverage right across Canada."

The festival annually injects more than $15 million into Whistler’s economy and attracts crowds of more than 8,000 people to the key events.

This year the Black Eyed Peas and Timberlake drew a crowd of more than 11,000 people, and there were also healthy crowds at the Big Air events, the McDonald’s rail session and the photo and filmmaker showdowns.

Ross said his highlight was seeing the Peas and Timberlake perform and then having Timberlake hand out the awards for the McDonald’s rail session.

"JT was always a rumour but we knew for a little while that he was coming, what we didn’t know was that he would be presenting at the rail session, that was probably the biggest surprise," Ross said.

While the WSSF had a lot of highlights, there were also a few unexpected surprises, and the most unexpected of them all was the stockbroker who went careering over the kicker during the snowboard Big Air.

It should be noted that there have been many people attempt to "poach" events in the past but this man came up with the most notable effort to date.

The 32-year-old man was sitting on the patio at the GLC with his friends when one of them bet him $10,000 to try the jump.

The man accepted the bet then posed as a cameraman at the top of the kicker.

When there was break in competition the man, who is from the U.K. but works in New York as a stockbroker, flopped off the kicker and knocked himself out.

The impact sent the man into a "coma roll" down the transition and left him with a badly bloodied and bruised face.

After the incident the man was detained by the RCMP and left the scene pleading with officers to allow him to go back and get his skis.

"For me, seeing that idiot poach the line was a surreal moment," Ross said.

"Like everyone else I watched in disbelief as he just slipped into the run and took to the air – there was shock, basically followed by relief when we saw he was OK.

"I’ve heard that the rumours were true that he is a stockbroker out of New York who should know a lot better, but apparently he was seriously embarrassed by the whole thing."

While there were clearly some awkward moments, the overall consensus on this year’s WSSF is that it was a marvelous event.

Doug Perry, Director of W1, the company that puts on the WSSF, said his highlight came on the final day of the festival as he walked through the village.

"A lot of people came up and kept telling me they had a great time and had a lot of fun – that’s what it’s all about for me," Perry said.