Add/View Comments (0)

Day 1
I was pretty nervous when I left home and took a flight to Vancouver BC. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to snowboard as good as the others, but when I went, you're organized into groups depending on your level. It was silly of me to worry, but when i did go, the campers were pretty chill so it didn't even matter anyways. Well anyways, when I landed in Vancouver, I met so many people at the airport going to Whistler Summer Snowboard Camp. When we all boarded the camp bus/shuttle I met even MORE people. During the evening, we were to meet at the mountain room (a huge room with a big screen tv). There we were introduced to all the coaches and info about the camp, like camp rules, schedual, and activites. When i got to my room, there I met my 2 roomates! They were the same level as me at snowboarding and same age too! They were also in my group which was cool. I made friends really quick.

Day 2-6

The park is siiiiiiiick. They have their own terrain on Blackcomb Mountain, with jumps, rails, boxes, and a tent that you can just chill at if you're tired or hungry. The weather felt like it was 20 degrees, it was so hot! I think that's really cool, the weather being really warm and being able to snowboard. I know what you're thinking, but no! The snow isn't all slush! There's plenty of snow and the groomers of their camp groom it everyday so it's all good. I got a pretty sick goggle tan.

Activites

Out of all the activites, I've got to say that bungee jumping was my favourite! You're there with all your friends going bungee jumping! There's other activities like wakeboarding, paintball, mountain biking, driving range/miniputt, skateboarding, indoor rockclimbing, games room/movie lounge, pool/hot tub at the hotel, tennis/volleyball/dodgeball, or just chilling at Whistler Village!

 Add/View Comments (0)

 Add/View Comments (0)

Damn... Any harsh bails this season?..... Fractured my arm last weekend. Was damn pissed. Doin' flips are fun.. but sucks to f&%k up. Mind you I was off the snow and in the gym doin them. gimme 2 weeks and ill be back in riding.

 Add/View Comments (0)

 Add/View Comments (0)

We're stoked to have Etienne Gilbert as one of our newest Pro coaches. Etienne brings to Core Camps a ton of experience as he's Camp of Champion's head coach in the summers. Etienne moved from Quebec to Whistler in 1998 and has since risen to become one of Canada's top Pros. He's had sick video parts throughout the last decade and more recently with Sandbox and Sugar Shack. Snowboard Canada also just did a 10 page story/interview  about Etienne in their 2009 Buyer's guide issue. Welcome to the team.
Other new pro coaches for this year: Chris Dufficy and Chris Wimbles.

Core Snowboard Camps is the ultimate winter snowboard freestyle, free-ride and snowboard instructor training camp in Canada.
www.coresnowboardcamps.com



 Add/View Comments (0)

Hmmm the snow is pretty sweet but the parks never seem to be built till half way through the season on grouse mt. pretty lame, went up and there was only 3 small rails jibable. maybe this week will have something worth shreddin. 

 Add/View Comments (0)

Well we went to ride @ Norway on Saturday. We were there about 15 minutes on our seconds run when One of my sons friends went down hard. The kid (Matt) already had a broken right hand. So we had to take him to the hospital. after being there six hours we finally knew for sure that he had broken his collar bone. I'll post up x-rays later. It's a pretty sick break, it broke completely in half. He was in a lot of pain. So needless to say we really didn't get to ride that day. O well there's always next weekend.

 Add/View Comments (0)

OK so heres the thing, YES I'm Girl but you know what I'm lookin for guy riders cause any girl that ive ridden with sux and cant keep up I even had a  guy
buddy that wouldnt do do parks with me or black runs on fresh powed days.

Ive seen lots of regulars at the quicksliver park so if your one of them let me know, im always hiking the park.

Just  to let you boys know im super easy to get along with and got one of those crazy outgoing personalities that lots of girls dont have  (not trying to knock anyone just saying i hate drama queens). Im always the chick that goes out with guys on a guys night out type a thing ( i dont know how it ends up that way, being a tomboy or somethin i guess)

Aight seeing that this year is starting off slow (hasnt even started yet) Im gettin real frustrated and POed. If Grouse would just open Id been shredding it till rock bottom.

Id love to upload pics for you all but the upload mobile here dont work at all so i cant even post up mugshots.

for now facebook will have to do


 Im hooking up with different rider this year. Really into gettin some good quality footage , both photo  and video ( I actually have a proper video camera) I have some Creative works  im planning and  will post them on Youtube when there done.

As much as id love to take it up to whistler i cant afford it. so local mountains  will have to do.

im out in burnaby so if your a local rider lets jam.

My end note here is this. Im all about the love and progression of the sport. No dissin or commercial, or selfish shi*t! keep the Positive Energy, Ride till it hurts and then turn it up anothernotch cuz thats what makes it worth it.

Jess (J girl)



 Add/View Comments (1)

It's sick out there for early season hiking. So Pete and The Blend crew got some face shots in the blower lake effect snow.

With so much snow and great snowmaking temps, Holiday Valley is set to open early on November 20th.  We'll be there...

 Add/View Comments (0)

Effective April 1 - 30, 2003 the Forest Service will be implementing and enforcing a Supervisor's Closure on Vail Mountain, which will prohibit unauthorized access to the Minnie's Deck area where the end-of-season BB&B event has occurred. The Forest Service issued a directive to Vail Resorts under the terms of their special use permit to shut down the BB&B event on Vail Mountain. Historically the BB&B event has taken place at Minnie's Deck and the event had evolved into a gathering of as many as 2,000 people. The behavior of participants posed serious risks to public health and safety as well as caused resource damage. The Supervisor's Closure will be in effect to ensure protection of public health and safety.

So, with a stroke of the pen, the US Forest Service ended the infamous end-of-season party on Vail Mountain, ending a 22 year tradition.  Know by many variations, Boobs, Boomers and Beers; Buns, Boobs, and Beers; Boobs, Booze and Brews, etc, (BB&B) was held on the second Tuesday in April as a way for Vail valley residents and employees to blow off some steam at the end of the season.  The event started in 1980 as a small end-of-season birthday party on Minnie's deck. BB&B devolved into an orgy of drinking, snowball fights and raucous behavior. During the last several years, partiers spent days before BB&B building large snow forts, stashing large quantities of alcoholic beverages, and, too often, hauling up more illicit substances.

Historically, the end of season party probably started much earlier with the Great Race.  This season-ender was usually held in Lionshead and People would dress up in all kinds of wild costumes. A photo of Vail local hooligan Packy Walker standing on the winner’s podium wearing nothing but a fig leaf and his gold medal made the front page of the Vail Trail newspaper. After Vail executives and lawyers killed that event people continued to get costumed up and party at Minnie's Deck.  In those days it was called the mountain formal.  Costumes included top hats and suits as well as high school prom dresses, horrible powder-blue tuxedoes and ballerina tutus.  The event grew and was combined with Warren Miller’s Mad Mountain Marathon and the Rubber Legs Slalom.  The race involved 150 or more slalom gates at the bottom of Vail Mountain and the event raised money for local charities.

When I was there in the spring of 2002, my brother Travis, his wife Michelle, Mayela and I went to the BB&B.  We all carried backpacks loaded with beers, booze and buds.  When we arrived at Minnie's deck the atmosphere was relaxed and people were lounging on the deck in the sun enjoying the event.  We set up camp on the deck and in one of the nearby snow forts crafted by a group of Beaver Creek's happyshack community.  We took some runs and explored the other various snow forts in the woods.  It was amazing the elaborate complex of forts and the adornments within.  Some had full Ice sculpture bars complete with barstools carved from compacted snow.  Others were complete igloos with only a small portal in the roof for ventilation.  Another was an elaborate maze to thwart cops and security spies.

As the day continued, there were jam sessions on the numerous rails that had been created in the woods.  One was a 50 foot long triple wave that dumped out into the main area opening.  Eventually the traditional snowball fight erupted with the main focus from the snow forts surrounding the opening at Minnie's deck.  Some forts were equipped with water balloon launchers.  A couple of times I snuck out through the woods with my snowboard to take runs down born free.  After riding the gondola back up to the top, I'd come rolling into the woods with my pants down and flipping the crowd off in my black afro.  The trick was to ride fast and get to the fort as quickly as possible.  Poor unfortunate souls that tried to follow in the wake turbulence of my entry would get blasted into oblivion.  I would stand on the wall and yell out obscenities to the enemy forts.  The response was a furious barage of snowballs.  People were getting pissed because we were getting bombed with snow.  One time, standing on the wall, I took a water balloon launcher shot to the chest that blasted me flat on my back.  Heffe came right up like a  medic with the Jaegermeister bottle to nurse me back to insanity.

In the evening when security starts to herd everybody out of there is a Chinese downhill of sorts.  This race to the pub progresses down the mountain. There is one particularly steep pitch where people who are so f*cked up that they just take their skis off and hurl themselves bodily down the face, laughing their drunken asses off.  I came up to the edge and launched the hand bag I was carrying as high in the air as I could--only to find out Mayela had her camera in it.  We all ended up at the bars in Vail village till the weee hours of the morning.  It was amazing.  I'm glad I got to experience the greatest party on earth before it was over.  Good times

As kind of a sick footnote to all of this, the event has been commercialized in a couple of different forms. Never shy about making a buck off the sweat and toil of the locals Vail Resorts promptly christened Siebert's Mad Mountain Marathon and Beaver creek Blues, Brews, and Bar-B-Que. There is no limit to the depth of slime with Vail Management.

 Add/View Comments (0)

So, I have had this miserable cold for three weeks.  I feel better for a few days and then BAM I am flat on my back snuggling with a box of Kleenex again.

 Add/View Comments (0)

Thousands of stoked out Japanese snowboard fans packed the Tokyo Dome for the legendary Big Air & Quarter pipe competition of the phenomenal 6Star Swatch TTR Nissan X-Trail Jam. Shaun White with the highest combined score from both the Big Air and the Quarterpipe, claimed the first 6Star TTR Title and 1000 ranking points of the 08/09 Season.

Horgmo, Piiroinen (FIN), White and Mueller duked it out in a heated battle that certainly stepped up the level of riding. Although favoured to do well, Mueller placed only 4th in the finals with a Cab 9, behind 3rd place finisher Shaun White who found himself on the podium once again after his sick Switch BS 9. Peetu Piiroinen gave White some much needed competition in the race for the 1000 TTR ranking points by also placing in the podium in both formats. It was super close, as Piiroinen took second in the Big Air with an impressive BS 9 Cork that had the Tokyo Dome on its feet in amazement. Torstein Horgmo walked away as the Big Air champ in Tokyo thanks to his consistent riding throughout the sessions. His Switch BS 10 in the finals finally carried him right to the top of the Big Air podium and to TTR World No. 3 . The best trick was awarded to Mueller who amazed everyone in the semis with his first ever Double Backflip in a comp.

http://www.roninsnowboards.com/en/shaun-white-wins-nissan-x-trail-jam/

 Add/View Comments (0)

THE MESSAGE  - OCTOBER 2008

Welcome back to another exciting edition of THE MESSAGE.. da da da DUNNNNN.
Good new snow fiends, We got are first dusting on the Sierra's last week, so lets hope that this will be an early season for all us!  THE BLOCK, THE BLOCK is gearing up for Snowboard Season by sponsoring a bunch of snowboard premieres and parties. I just saw the new First Tracks Video,  Knock on Wood at Mont Bleu, and what a great turnout we had, THE BLOCK was soldout and Flick was dope as all hell! 

Hot Dawgs and Hand Rails

If you missed Hot Dawgs and Handrails last month, you done F@cked-up. ! Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails 5th annual snowboarding specatcular tested the skills of some of the best jumpers and jibbers in the world and paid out $15,000 in prize money!  Rio and the entire Bear Mountain Park Staff pulled off the 1st contest of the year with Grand Style!  The Dropin, The Gap, and the rails were epic and riders were stoked to be throwing down for the first time of the Season! Big props to reelcomp.com for broadcasting a live feed of the event besure to check it out on their website.

The winners in the Men's Finals were...
1st Place- Jed Anderson
2nd Place- Chas Guldemond
3rd Place- Scott Vine

and the winners in the Women's Finals are...
1st Place- Desiree Melancon
2nd Place- Marie Hucal
3rd Place- Raewyn Reid

Scott Vine brought home Best Trick. Congratulations riders! Additional Heavy Hitters were Ben Bogart, Scott Stevens, Louif Paradis, Bode Merill, Keegan Valaika, Leanne Pelosi, Elise Borelli, Nick Dirks, Zak Hale and Tim Eddy. J.P Walker, Seth Huot and Hana Beaman were chillin' at Bear and Josh Sherman and Dave Duncan were announcing! If you missed Hot Dawgz this year, we'll see you next September! Big ups to Nam for organizing the afterparty, DJ Slip Matt and Matty Mo held it done hard. If you aint heard Matty Mo got a new mixtape out so be sure to Grab Government Cheese Vol 1. 

THE BLOCK BOOTCAMP 2008

Has been rescheduled to December 1st -13th in South Lake Tahoe. We are selecting 50 lucky recruits from an applicant pool of over 500+ that I received. It has been no easy task going through the applications, so if you were selected congratulations you will be receiving your deployment orders at the end of the week!  Remember that during bootcamp you will be tested to your physical and mental limits. So do yourself a favor and start working out and jogging now. This is not going to be a walk in the park. 

Knock on Wood

Who wants to see some sick snowboarding action for cheap?! Well, South Lake Tahoe based First Tracks Productions is offering a special deal to friends of The Block. If you click on the following link, you'll get to a hidden page on First Tracks' site where you can purchase their new movie, "Knock on Wood" for $10 off retail! http://firsttracksproductions.com/knockonwood091317257375.html If you haven't seen the trailer for Knock on Wood, check it out for free here:

Upcoming Events

Big Bear

October 18th is the last Bear Mountain Job Fair at Snow Summit from 8am-2pm. If you got to ride Bear and cant pass the bootcamp, this is a good option for any shredder.

October 18th and 19th is the 38th Annual Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest! So if you missed the job fair you can atleast Drink it off.

October 19th @ Active Ride Shop in Le Brea - F.O.D.T. Presents "Familia"  and TWS These Days from 7-9pm with DJ Episode! Be there!

Lake Tahoe

Wednesday Oct 15th  Technine's own Eric "MessyHair" Messier aka The Snow Man, will be playing with his group "The Fiz" at Whiskey Dicks with The Mathematicians in South Lake Tahoe.


This Thursday and Every Thursday BAR24 is holding Battle of The Bands until a winner is announced on November 6th, so get down their and show your support!


Saturday, Oct 18th – Late Nite productions brings the Original Wailers back to Tahoe at Moe's Place.


Wednesday Oct 22nd – Collie Buddz  is playing at Whiskey Dicks with Rise of the Revolution and DJ Pee Wee.  Rise kills it so sure to get there early and check em out!


Wednesday Nov 12th – Pato Banton with the Mystic Roots Band and Planting Seeds! Mystic Roots is dope and Pato got love for THE BLOCK so don't miss this show!


Friday November 14th – Finger on Da Trigger presents "Familia" Premiere at Bar24, signing with the Technine Team, Snowbunny Contest, Live Performances by the worlds top VJ; DJ Crime,  Hip Hop by Concise Kilgore from the Cali Agents and more TBA Lots of other bar24 contests for lots of SWAG and giveaways! Be sure you are there!


Saturday November 15th – The Premiere and the team travel to the Sandbar in Sacramento. We got a Snowbunny contest with the Déjà vu Girls and Zsu Swimwear, a Rail Jam in the back, T9 Team Signing and so much more so be there!!!


Tuesday Nov 18th – One Block Radius come to town, Marty James, MDA and Z-Man throw a tough show, pickup there new hit "you got me" and come to the show.


Friday November 28th – Del The Funky Homosapien has been add to host the "Blizzard" Pray for Snow Party with A-Plus and Bukue-one! So mark this one down cuz its going to GO OFF in Tahoe that weekend!


Saturday December 28th– "How The Grouch Stole Christmas" with Grouch and Eli from the Living Legends! I am looking forward to this show the most! So get up on game and go buy his new album that came this past spring and be sure to celebrate X-mas with the GROUCH!!!


Ok that's all I got for ya for now, I am working a bringing a "Familia" premiere to Vegas as well as planning THE BLOCK PARTY 2009 at the SIA Tradeshow. More info when I got it all confirmed but until then, Pray for Snow and see you on THE BLOCK!


-Dirty D from THE BLOCK


PS Check out these Videos:
Live From the PALMS Pools and Bungalows - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3vhbtu7tI
Live From Hot Dawgs and Handrails - http://reelcomp.com/videos/view/6990

 Add/View Comments (0)

Last year I went out to do some shooting (photos), and it was freezing. I’m talking -20 F, then add on the windchill. It was night and I needed this shot for college project. So I went outside with a friend and did some street shots. Long story short, it was too cold and the zipper pull on my Bonfire jacket broke in half. I had to pry the tiny piece out of the actual zipper and now have a keyring as a pull. Not exactly working.

So I called up Bonfire Headquarters, which is also Salomon in case you didn’t know, and told the nice guy who answered my cry for help. He clarified to make sure it was just a zipper pull I needed promptly took my address. He said he was sending out a few zipper pulls for me, and if I didn’t see them in the mail within 2 weeks, gave me his name and said call back, but that they should leave there in a day or two. Super nice, understanding and efficient. Those guys are awesome and so are their clothes.

Want to see for yourself? Bonfire just launched the 2008-2009 website and it’s sick. I went looking into the Women’s Jacket section since I’m in the market this year again. When you get there the whole collection loads up and shows you color options and a ‘Buy’ button. There was no immediately obvious back button, but you can use the menu at the top. I learned this after hitting my browser back button and leaving the Bonfire site multiple times. What’s cool, is that when you get back to the jacket collection page, or any other, the jackets appear in different colors, so each time you go, it’s a surprise.

Thanks for reading,

Passion for Addiction

 Add/View Comments (0)

http://firsttracksproductions.com/knockonwood091317257375.html

If you haven't seen the trailer for Knock on Wood, check it out for free

 Add/View Comments (0)

Holy crap.. Did you see that Party Snake teaser yet? If so there's really only been two responses. 1. You loved it and can't wait to see more or 2. You hated it and wish it would die. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground on this on. Check out some of the comments I found on the Gnarcore site.

I'm still waiting on a revised teaser before I post it directly in the furious blog but you can check the rough version out on the Gnarcore site or find it on FB. There's some pretty funny comments there too:

39 Comments:

Sarah Ann Thoms (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 8:47pm on September 6th, 2008
sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick

Justin Van Der Poelen (Ottawa, ON) wrote
at 8:59pm on September 6th, 2008
looks sick boys!

Jeff Keenan (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 9:32pm on September 6th, 2008
f*ckING shi*t........

Danny Koriath (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:05pm on September 6th, 2008
a**holes

Christopher Robert Miller (Emily Carr) wrote
at 11:18pm on September 6th, 2008
f*ckyeah.

Dave Cashen (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 12:02am on September 7th, 2008
Killer Boots!

Andrew Prost (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 12:15am on September 7th, 2008
f*ckya

Kenneth Micheal Edwards wrote
at 12:21am on September 7th, 2008
lookin sweet can't wait to see it

Alex Watt (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 1:11am on September 7th, 2008
I love it...Aww i miss you boys,., cant wait till im back near the hill.. lets hit up whis .. come visit ill be moving there in 2 months!!!!

Troy Erickson wrote
at 1:59am on September 7th, 2008
a.k.a...skids 5?

Raymond Bishop (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:31am on September 7th, 2008
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Max Honegger (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:42am on September 7th, 2008
this is AMAZING! MOST ANTICIPATED SNOWBOARD FILM EVER!

Thomas Richards (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 11:03am on September 7th, 2008
hahaha. Yeah! this is siiiick. Im hyped to see the rest

Alex Ploughman (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 1:05pm on September 7th, 2008
so stoked

Mike Rutter (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 4:08pm on September 7th, 2008
yeeeaaa!

Chad Erik Iverson (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 5:19pm on September 7th, 2008
i'm excited/scared for my life....for the premiere...

Laura McIsaac (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 6:12pm on September 7th, 2008
too good

Damon Pyett wrote
at 7:16pm on September 7th, 2008
um oh jeez.

Lee Pipes (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:22pm on September 7th, 2008
Hey Damon, we're tryin' to promote a clean video for the kids.. We would appreciate you not using the lords name in vein, thanks.

Ian Campbell Cymet (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:38pm on September 7th, 2008
whens the premeir?

Michael Warhurst (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 11:02pm on September 7th, 2008
wheres da tittys

David Frederick (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 11:52pm on September 7th, 2008
i don't know what to say!?!?!? UNREAL!!

Andrew Heneghan (Simon Fraser) wrote
at 7:40am on September 8th, 2008
tease of the century
killah

Mark Brophy (Memorial University) wrote
at 11:14am on September 8th, 2008
f*ck this is so rad.

Matt Standish (Simon Fraser) wrote
at 2:11pm on September 8th, 2008
such a stripper song

Marc-antoine Duguay wrote
at 5:40pm on September 8th, 2008
so neff!!!

Geoff Stinson (Alpha Secondary School) wrote
at 9:03pm on September 8th, 2008
wildercats?

Chris Halindy wrote
at 10:22pm on September 8th, 2008
f*ckING SICK JESUS CHRIST
!

Nick Doucette (Seycove Secondary School) wrote
at 11:17pm on September 8th, 2008
i have a hard on for this up comin season

Pat O (Holy Heart Of Mary High) wrote
at 5:34am on September 9th, 2008
wow.

Melanie Prokop wrote
at 3:50pm on September 9th, 2008
RAG GNAR!

Mikey Luke (St. John's, NL) wrote
at 3:50pm on September 9th, 2008
Holy shi*t f*ck superstar......loves dem GT backflips!!! Woooooooooo

Clint Omelaniec (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 1:22pm yesterday
'bout time.

greasin.

Tia Skye Alexandra Iverson (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 5:55pm yesterday
oh dear god...
this shi*t is out of control!

Andrew Mark Geeves wrote
at 6:19pm yesterday
how do i get a snakebullet board ?

Andrew Mark Geeves wrote
at 6:19pm yesterday
where** not how.

Adam Balon (Saskatoon, SK) wrote
at 8:28pm yesterday
wicked.

David Douglass Brocklebank (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 7:02am
D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DAMN.

Matthew Godard (Vancouver, BC) wrote
at 10:16am
f*ckin unreal....free poor Growers in the snow cave!!

DVD art's in the works. Here's some rough Idea's.



I forgot about this, Its an oldie but a goody!



Oh Yeah Zeddy's B-day is at Joey's up on Granville this Friday. Contact Dave@iseyewear.com to RSVP

 Add/View Comments (0)

So last month I entered a local skate comp in Park City, and I totally took 1st place.  Cool huh?  I knew my practice would pay off one day!  It was my first and only comp so far... and I will have to admit... Competing makes me sick.  Like people who get sick when they speak in public, I got sick to my stomach each time I dropped in for my one minute run.  Dang. 



 Add/View Comments (0)

Late in the season, a common pastime among snowboarders is the infamous gaper hunt. After witnessing this activity in various places, I've been struggling with a very important question: what is the proper pronunciation of the word “gaper”. Everyone seems to have their own take on it and I'd like to take a little time to investigate the etymology of the word.

Conventional wisdom would have you look to a word's spelling to get an idea of how to pronounce it. Using this logic, the most obvious answer for the proper pronunciation is gey-per. If we look to the definition of a gaper, however, we're led to believe that the pronunciation doesn't follow standard english syntatical expectations.

The Urban Dictionary defines a gaper as:

... a skier or snowboarder who is completely clueless. Usually distinguished by bright colored clothes and a gaper gap -- the gap between the goggles and a helmet/hat. Gaper's are known to do the "Gaper Tuck" which is an attempt at being a ski racer by tucking, however, it is done incorrectly with the poles sticking straight up like thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening! Gapers also sit at the bottom of jumps and try and go big off table tops in the park.

From this definition, we're led to believe that the term gaper has its roots in the description of the gap for which they are known. From this, one would assume that the correct pronunciation of the word is in fact gap-per. So the confusion is understandable when trying to figure out how to properly pronounce the term.

The Urban Dictionary, however, also provides another definition for the word GAPER as “an acronym that stand[s] for Guaranteed Accident Prone on Every Run.” This definition has no reference to the distinctive gaper gap which seems to be one of the roots of the word. If we rely on this definition, there is no need to break the rules of syntax and the word can be pronounced gey-per.

Gaper in Other Contexts

The word gaper also has meanings in other contexts. Wikipedia describes gapers as stone heads, often depicting a black man, located on the fronts of buildings in the Netherlands to indicate that these building are pharmacies. The gaper represents the assistant of the travelling apothecary who was the forefather of the modern pharmacist. This assistant would pretend to be a sick man only to miraculously feel better (and perform a dance) after taking the pill given to him by the apothecary. So in the Netherlands, the word Gaper is somewhat representative of a charlatan. This relates to the modern definition of the word since gaper's in ski resorts will often profess to a higher degree of skill than they actually have. This doesn't help in the search for the correct pronunciation of the word, however, since I don't speak the Dutch language.

The simplest definition of a gaper that I have found so far, is “a person or thing that gapes”¹. This definition actually provides a phonetic spelling for the word, which is in fact gey-per, as one would expect. This description also agrees with the more colloquial definition of the word as gapers are often seen in the middle of Whistler Village, in their rear-entry boot and neon one-piece glory, gaping at the scenery through the lense of a camera (that is when they aren't seen as a streak of neon laying down wide carves on the cat track).

The Verdict

Following this long and arduous Google search, I think the question of the pronunciation of the word gaper can finally be laid to rest. I motion that the correct pronunciation heretofore be gey-per; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If they insist on pronouncing it gap-per, refer them to this study which should convince them that they are wrong-headed. Although this study cannot be considered complete by any stretch of the imagination, I'm pretty confident that it is the most in-depth investigation into the etymology of the word gaper that you'll be able to find (I'm not sure if that makes me sad or proud).

 Add/View Comments (3)