TORONTO RAPTORS

Jose Calderon is my favourite basketball player for three reasons:

1. He led the Toronto Raptors to an upset win against the NBA's number one team, the 33-7 Boston Celtics tonight, scoring 24 points with 13 rebounds.

2. He's a 6-3 clutch playing point guard who sets plays like a young Steve Nash, hits 3's all day, and isn't afraid of going to the net.

3. He's a Right to Play Athlete Ambassador, and donated $100 to RTP for each of his season high 14 assists he made during the game when he announced his commitment to RTP. Nice!

Keep it up Raps, see you in Orlando!

LENOVO OLYMPIC TORCH DAY

Lenovo, a worldwide Olympic Partner, and one of my personal sponsors designed the Olympic Torch to be used in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch Relay. Lenovo makes thinkpad notebook computers, like this sweet one I'm typing on right now. Since Toronto wasn't on the list of cities to be visited during the official relay, Lenovo managed to get the torch to our great city for a press day with the Special Olympics. Representing Canada's 31 000 Special Olympians is 4 time Gold Medallist in power lifting, Russel Gerber. This guy is strong! He can deadlift over 400lbs! Russell and I got to hang out with the Torch all day, do interviews and sign autographs for all our fans. Check out all of Russell's hardware hangin' off his neck... 4 Golds!

A big thanks to Lenovo for their incredible support of the Olympic movement.

RIGHT TO PLAY SCHOOL VISITS

I visited three schools this week on behalf of Right to Play to talk about my recent trip to Liberia, and discuss how the schools can partner with RTP to fundraise and spread awareness. Crescent School in Toronto, St. Mildred's in Oakville, and Hillfield in Hamilton were all amazing to talk to, and expressed sincere interest and enthusiasm about working with Right to Play, click for more information on the RTP school programs. Thanks to all the schools for their interest and support of Right to Play, and way to go!!

Pictured above at St. Mildred's are two St. Millies student representatives, Larry Cain their Phys Ed teacher and Olympic Champ in C1 500m and, the RTP red-ball, and myself in the wicked-loud RTP jacket.

FEMALE SKI JUMPING FOR 2010

This has been a very hot topic in the media lately. James Christie at the Globe and Mail recently asked me what I thought about it, so here is his article. I think the IOC and VANOC have a really great opportunity to promote gender equality in sport, and significanlty raise the profile and level of international competition in a growing discipline. The COC is backing them, yeah Mike! Also, check out http://www.jumplikeagirl.com/ and http://www.fastandfemale.com/.

TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT!

Happy New Year! It's been over a month since I've posted, and all my fans are going crazy emailing me for updates. Ok, actually just surfer Pat. But I care about Pat, and I like to think that there are at least 3 other people not including my parents who read my blog... so I apologize. It won't happen again!

It's been a busy month. I finished up my fall paddling camp in Florida paddling mit zee Germans with a 5-day 165km haul on Dec. 15th and flew home to a strangely wintery but welcomed Oakville Ontario before xmas. Taking full advantage I cross country skied as much as I could at Hilton Falls Conservation area in Milton, but the hikers, dog walkers and warm weather quickly took their toll on their once beautifully groomed trails. I managed to stay on my skis a lot with a short trip out West for New Years, and an awesome trip to Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec for the development team ski camp (as pictured above, spot escaped convict/mountainman Ian Mortimer to score a personally signed vankayak.com teacozy, email me from the contact page). It's depressingly springlike now in Oakville, with absolutely no snow to be found anywhere. My new skis are collecting dust in the corner, and I'm having serious winter-withdrawal symptoms. "Summer" starts in less than a month now for our sun-seeking-squad, so it would be nice if we could enjoy the winter sports during the few short weeks we've got at home. *Bummer*

The only thing I wanted for Christmas but didn't get was a pair of snowshoes; I'm thankful that I didn't get them for two reasons... 1. it isn't winter here, and 2. all the nordic skiers I've asked have informed me that snowshoeing is much less cool than rollerblading. I did get some wicked presents though... My brother Luke got me a harmonica and a headlamp, which I used night skiing with Corey in Ottawa (uh, just the lamp), My mom got a Tanzanian family two chickens and a rooster in my name, which is even more evidence that I have a cool mom. And Dad hooked me up with a rad take anywhere hammock (ham-uh k -noun: a hanging bed of canvas or rope netting, the french word is hamac, and it's pronounced the same... ahem).

South African sprint kayak superstar Shaun Rubenstein now has a site of his own... check it out, and now maybe he'll link to here too!?

More news soon...