When I came to Canada over 12 years ago amongst the many pieces of advice I
received was "If you are going to live in Canada then you need to get in to
winter sports"
The closest I ever got to Canada and winter sports in the UK was watching
Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards compete on the ski hill at the Calgary Olympics.
Amazingly for an Englishman who had hardly ever skied he did not come last –
a Frenchman broke his leg on the first day and was placed last – Eddie came in
2nd last. Out of adversity comes triumph!
I tried skiing a few years ago in Banff, but never made it off the nursery
slopes and carpet ride!
With children who are Canadian and likely will be living here for many more
winters than me the need to do winter sports is perhaps more acute. So we
recently signed my two up for an introductory program.
Well there are obviously no English genes in them at all!
They have both taken to it as if it was a natural thing to do and my son
after just 3 weeks is already taking on the black diamond runs (it is Chicopee
in Kitchener – but the map still says black runs!).
We are now spending upwards of 5 hours there every Sunday and I am just
loving watching them try something new, without pre-conceived ideas or the
thought of failure – it's much more about where will this take me next week.
Some lessons for us all.