Shouldice and Blais: Freestylin’ Road Warriors

LAC-BEAUPORT, Que.

Freestyle aerialists Warren “Wookie” Shouldice and Ryan Blais are about to embark on a, 4,500-kilometre, 45-plus hour road trip in separate cars from their summer training base here to their homes in Alberta.

It’s a mind-numbing trip they’ve done for a decade now and they do it in a mini convoy, talking to each other on walkie-talkie transistors to help each other stay awake and break the monotony. Last night, along with teammate Kyle Nissen, they shared some of their wacky experiences from over the years.

FAST FOOD

Warren: I think we were driving somewhere in the middle of the U.S.

Ryan: It was North Dakota, because there’s a section where like literally for 12 hours almost you don’t turn once. You can fall asleep and just drive.

Warren: I think I pulled up next to him and I had all this food my Mom gave me in the car, carrots and grapes. He was giving me like the ‘I’m hungry’ sign.

Ryan: I was unprepared. He had all the food.

Warren: So I started throwing carrots at him, window to window across the road. We were driving fast, like 100 kilometers an hour.

Ryan: The first couple, he would throw it out and miss my car. Then we managed to get timing just right where he’d be like 13 feet in front of me and he’d just whip it and sure enough it would come into my car. I’d grab the carrot and munch away.

NOT SO WELCOME

Ryan: We stopped once midway through, pulled off on the side of the road in a town called Welcome.

Warren: Welcome, Minnesota. Worst town on earth!

Ryan: The three of us were convoying, me, Wook and Kyle. We pulled up and we’re sleeping in a car trying to get some rest and we’re kind of off to the side of a motel. This woman comes out and knocks on my window and tells us we have to leave, we have to pay. I had to get out of my car and pay her $20 to leave us alone and get some sleep.

MUSICAL CARS

Ryan: Another time me and Kyle, in Chicago, we were stuck in traffic, we were convoying again. Every time we’d stop, we’d do this drill where he’d get out of his car, I’d get out of my car and we’d switch cars.

Kyle: We’d be like 10 cars apart, so you’d wait for the traffic to stop and then just be running in the middle of traffic and hopping into each other’s cars.

UNWELCOME COMPANY

Ryan: I once picked up a hitch hiker in Calgary on my way to Quebec so I could have someone to talk to. I thought if things work out well, maybe we could share some of the driving. His sign said he was going to Nova Scotia so I could take him 80 per cent of the way. But I told him I was only going to Regina so I could ditch him part way in case it didn’t work out.

Just taking him to Regina was too long. This guy was a criminal. He stunk. He was trying to get to Nova Scota before his ex-girlfriend, who was taking the Greyhound, so that when she got off the bus he could beat up her new boyfriend in front of her. And when I ditched him in Regina, he asked me for money.

NOT SO PERFECT STORM

Ryan: I got stuck in a tornado once … All of sudden every station had a national broadcast weather warning: 'Tornado, blah, blah, blah.' It was so dark, torrential downpour, no one was driving faster than say 25k on the highway. Finally, I got so scared I called 911.

She told me the next time I could stop safely to pull off and don’t stop under an overpass, because I guess there’s a suction that can happen. She said ‘If you start hearing this low thud, thud, thud that gets quicker and has a deep bass, that's the tornado. Pull over and go lay in the ditch.’ I was like ‘Omygod.' I’m freakin’ out. … Every year, something crazy happens.

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Shouldice and Blais were still debating about the best route to take last night when they start their journey tomorrow. Safe travels, boys.

All-Canadian podium

CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE TORONTO STAR

From left, Silver medallist Perianne Jones, gold medallist Sara Renner and bronze medallist Brittany Webster of Canada stand on the podium at the medal ceremony after the women's 5km cross-country event at the Winter Games NZ on August 25, 2009 in Wanaka, New Zealand.

Kershaw and Harvey, Twittering Odd Couple

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Devon Kershaw knows teamwork ... and squishy boots.

I’m a rookie at Twitter – about a month or so into it – but one of the things I’ve been enjoying is the banter between cross-country skiers Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey.

These guys are a Twittering Odd Couple, the kings of kibbitz.

It’s one of those things you have to follow for a while to get the real flavour, but one has to be impressed at the dynamic between these two guys and what it says in general about the camaraderie on a men’s cross-country ski team, which was an impressive fifth in the men’s 4 x 10 km relay at last year’s worlds.

Kershaw, 26, is considered the leader of the team, a guy who’s been slogging away at it for years to make a steady climb up the ladder and in the last few years has had some big breakthroughs.

Harvey, who turns 21 on Sept. 7, is a phenom, the son of former Canadian great Pierre Harvey, and a kid who hit the podium last year in his first season on the World Cup campaign.

Kershaw and Harvey continually trade little jibes in their Twitter posts, sometimes letting us in on the little pranks they pull on each other. There was Kershaw bemoaning the fact that Harvey had soaked his ski boots just before a race the other day in New Zealand. He vowed revenge and followed through, only to have Harvey chime in later that it was nice to race in dry feet since he’d been able to use his “pursuit” boots instead that day.

In a recent email exchange, Kershaw wrote about the importance of the cameraderie on the team:

"Our team (the Canadian men's team) has an amazing team dynamic. We all want the same thing - international success, yet we truly understand that the best way for anyone to achieve that is to work together in a positive, fun environment. We all have amazing training days when each one of us can feel invincible, and others when each of us are dragging our sorry behinds' through workouts, struggling just to get it done - and through it all we have a great group suffering and succeeding together as we prepare for a season.

"Of course there are times when things get strained - that's life. But for the most part we all get along really well. I think it's pretty unique for an individual sport - because when we are done training we'll call and hang out, go for coffee, play tennis or even go on spring vacations together to warmer locales. That's after spending months and months on the road together. To me that speaks volumes.

"Like in hockey - a happy team is a fast team. We all strive to know ourselves and when we are comfortable with who we are then things just click along in relative harmony. Camaraderie is key, because the reality is that in one's career there are going to be a lot more defeats that successes. Believing, supporting and celebrating every success that a team has (no matter if it's you or not) only helps solidify the fact that all the hard work you are putting in as a group is paying off - and your day will come in the sun."

Okay, Devon, enough of the lofty ideals, what we really want to know is what it was like racing along in those squishy boots.

Canada's Olympians Sing It Loud, Sing It Proud

You may have missed this when it was posted on Canada Day, a group of this country’s finest Winter Olympians belting out the anthem. It was edited by Chris So of our ace multimedia team at the Star.

It’s quite cute and really worth a gander:

There’s no subtitles identifying the athletes yet, unfortunately – this is a work in progress that will eventually be posted on our Olympic site.

So, let me help you out with this for now. The video opens with 2006 Olympic skeleton champion Duff Gibson, now a coach, with his sons Taye (in green shirt) and Gedion.

Then we have an incomparable quartet from the women’s ski team (from L to R) Shona Rubens, Emily Brydon, Britt Janyk, and Kelly VanderBeek.

Then there’s members of the Canadian long track speed skating team (You can play “Where’s Cindy” and try to spot Cindy Klassen, five-time medalist from the Turin Olympics). World champion Christine Nesbitt is in green to the left and just behind her left shoulder is Olympic medal contender Denny Morrison. The group is carried by medical team leader Gordon Bosworth, (red jacket, folically challenged), an opera caliber singer imported from Great Britain.

They’re followed by alpine skier Jan Hudec wrapped in the flag. The reason he looks like he’s moving funny is he’s actually on a stationary bike, part of his rehab from his latest knee injury. They were all reluctant to sing, but no one more than Hudec. The only thing that probably swayed him was the presence and encouragement of his mom Vladi that day.

The Bob-a-runs are next, bobsledders Jenny Ciochetti, Lyndon Rush and Helen Upperton (she of the bom-de-bom).

The guy holding the mic is snowboarder Matt Morison, who’s in the barn at the family’s hobby farm in Burketon, Ont. I don’t feel so bad after hearing young Mr. Morison sing the anthem. I mean my wife and daughter won’t let me sing in our house because the experience is too painful for them.

But I will say that Matt was a tremendous sport, as were all the athletes who sang for us.

New winner Kabush out-chugged Yao Ming at Beijing Olympics

Victoria's Geoff Kabush pulled off his first ever World Cup mountain bike victory on home soil yesterday in Bromont, Que., even if he was unrecognizable to anyone but his Mom afterwards, buried beneath all that mud as he crossed the finish line.

Kabush is a real character as well as a gritty competitor. 

Popular among his peers, his blog for Cyclingnews.com last year ran under the banner "Mr. Congeniality."  In the pictures accompanying a blog post from the Beijing Games, he looks like a cross between Ricky Bobby in Talledega Nights and one of the Hanson Brothers.

Olympic triathlon champ Simon Whitfield ranks him as one of the funniest people he knows.  Considering the crowd that Whitfield travels with, that's high praise indeed.

Kabush wasn't at all satisfied wiith his performance at the Beijing Games after finishing 20th. The Olympic highlight for Kabush was getting into a beer chugging contest at the Closing Ceremonies with basketball star Yao Ming, who at first declared that he didn't drink.

This video got a lot of air time on YouTube after the Olympics. Watch to see the 6-foot-2, 165-pound Canuck bravely taking on the 7-foot-6, 310-pound Chinese legend on his own turf.  Tsing Tao was their weapon of choice.  You determine the winner.

The Snow, Ice and Sweat Tour

Here are some images from our tour out West with Canada's Winter Olympians:

Olympic speed skating champ Clara Hughes gritting it out.

Ditto for training partner Kristina Groves.

Jeremy Wotherspoon (right) tossing the medicine ball with Jamie Gregg.

Ski racer Britt Janyk takes flight.

Janyk gives teammate Emily Brydon a back massage ... Good thing she's not wearing her ski boots!!!

Gymnast Casey Sandy Sticking To Plan To Get To The Olympics

Brampton’s Casey Sandy seems like a soft-spoken guy, not the type given to making waves, but it’s clear he still feels the sting of being left off the men’s gymnastics team for the Beijing Olympics.

GRACE CHIU/GYMNASTICS CANADA

Casey Sandy pulled down top honours from the NCAA.

Sandy, once described by his university coach Randy Jepson as the “Rodney Dangerfield” of NCAA gymnastics," played a major role in helping Canada earn a team berth for the Olympics at the 2007 worlds after star Kyle Shewfelt shattered both his legs.

But Sandy’s attempts to make it to his first Games were undercut because he missed a key qualification meet during exam week at Penn State. He said he didn’t realize that meet was part of the qualification criteria.

He doesn’t make a big deal about it now, but admits he isn’t completely over it.

“I’m a little bit bitter about it, but I try not to let it get to me, I try to move on,” he said.

Part of that moving on is competing at this week’s national championships in Hamilton, where he hopes to establish himself as an important part of the puzzle on the men’s side leading to the 2012 London Olympics.

“One of my goals growing up was to go to the Olympics, so it definitely is a big motivator for me,” said Sandy.

“My friends and family all want me to keep going to go to the next Olympics. … It’s a matter of how my body stands up to it the next couple of years. But that’s what I plan on doing.”

He finished his stellar collegiate career on a huge high, winning the Nissen-Emery Award, gymnastics' version of the Heisman Trophy. He didn’t think he’d cop the honour because it never usually goes to a non-American.

Majoring in sciences, Sandy has one semester left and is looking at a career in pharmacy. He said his experience at Penn State was “awesome.”

“I’m kind of sad to leave now. You have to eventually move on to other experiences.”

In Danica Patrick’s World, Cheaters Can Definitely Prosper

UPDATE – June 2, 2009

Race car driver Danica Patrick’s spinning her wheels on her cheating comments.

Patrick is now claiming her comments about being willing to cheat to win in Sports Illustrated (see below) were “a bad joke.” Count U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart among those who are not amused.

“In one interview, she undercut what millions of parents try their best to teach their kids every day in this country, that winners never cheat and cheaters never win,” Tygart told Associated Press.

Bet it doesn’t cost Patrick any endorsements, though.

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Race car driver Danica Patrick would be willing to cheat to win the Indianapolis 500.

She makes that much clear in the current issue of Sports Illustrated in an interview with Dan Patrick, who asks her if she’d take a performance enhancing drug if she knew she would not get caught and it would allow her to win the Indy 500.

“Well, then it’s not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out?” replies Danica.

So you would do it? she’s asked.

“Yeah, it would be like finding a gray area,” she said. “In motorsports, we work in the gray areas a lot. You’re trying to find where the holes are in the rule book.”

The holes in the American race car driving hero’s morals are readily apparent. It remains to be seen if Patrick gets flak for being such a shabby role model in the U.S., where she’s been a marketer’s dream and has revved a lot of male engines by appearing in the SI Swimsuit issue.

But one person hoping she faces criticism for her remarks is John Leonard, executive director of the American Swim Coaches Association and a strong voice in the battle against doping in his sport. He sent the SI interview to a number of journalists expressing his disgust.

Leonard said his son, who was wearing a Danica Patrick baseball cap following her 3rd place finish in the Indy 500, wanted to burn it after he read her comments in SI.

What concerns Leonard is Patrick’s flippant attitude on the drug issue.

“Laughing at cheating is really devastating,” he said.

Remembering Rob Bosinger, Canadian alpine skier

Mats Bosinger already taking after his father.

Mats Bosinger skied his first race recently at the event named for his father.

The 4-1/2 year old, a spitting image of his late father, raced in the Rob Bosinger Memorial Weekend – also known as the “Bozo Cup” -- at Sunshine Village in Banff earlier this month.

Rob Bosinger, whose nickname was “Bozo” when he raced on the Canadian alpine ski team, was just 38 and had no history of heart trouble when he died suddenly of a cardiac arrhythmia on May 20, 2005.

“Rob would have been so proud! I was so proud,” his widow, Janet Carswell-Bosinger, wrote Alpine Canada’s press chief emeritus Ed Champagne in an email. “This is a hard day for us but I know Rob would be happy for how we have all carried on and how we have honoured him with his incredible legacy.”

Rob Bosinger was making a name for himself as a coach and mentor of young skiers when he died. The “Rob Bosinger Ski Scholarship” is given out yearly to skiers in Alberta who demonstrate the qualities Bosinger exemplified: “Passion for the sport, ambition and courage, combined with talent and accomplishment, in pursuit of excellence in ski racing in Alberta.”

This year’s winners of Logan Thackray of the Banff Alpine Racers and Tony Naciuk of the Edmonton Ski Club.

Funds raised at the event go to help the Canadian Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation.

Here’s a photo of Rob Bosinger with his teammates at Whistler in March 1988. From L to R: Ralf Socher, Felix Belczyk, Dan Moar, Rob Boyd, Don Stevens, Mike Carney and Rob Bosinger.

Bruny Surin Discovers There’s No Love Lost In Tennis

Former Canadian track star Bruny Surin wasn’t too wild about the idea of his daughters trying to follow in his footsteps. So when his oldest girl showed an interest in tennis, he was all for it.

Now, he’s not so sure.

COURTESY OF THE SURIN GROUP

Surin struts his stuff at a clothing launch last week in Montreal.

“This tennis thing is so expensive, omigod,” Surin laughs over the phone last week. “What you’re going to pay for one year in track and field, that’s what I’m paying in three weeks with my daughters. That’s crazy.”

Surin chuckles again. That’s the thing about Surin. For the most part, even through all the various battles he had to fight in track and field including the ones with teammate Donovan Bailey, he always showed a great sense of humour.

But he finds nothing funny about the cut-throat attitude he’s seen in kids' tennis. His daughters, Kimberley-Ann, 15, and Katherine, 13, have made the the Quebec team and Kimberley has already been invited to train with the national team.

Surin said it’s been an eye-opening experience to see them rise through the ranks.

“When they started, my daughters were very behind the other girls,” said Surin. “They were friends with everybody. Everybody was friends with them. But as soon as my daughters improved ….

“I remember she came after one game she was crying. ‘What did I do? I don’t understand. My friend doesn’t want to talk with me anymore.’ Because that was the first time she beat her. And you know what? The parents wouldn’t even say ‘Hi’ to me anymore. I’m like ‘Okay, that’s the way it is, eh. That’s cool.’”

Surin said he’s resorted to wearing his ipod when he’s watching his girls play.

“I don’t want to hear any comments, I don’t know want to hear nothing.”

Surin is certainly a busy man these days, running his company, The Surin Group. He manages track and field athletes including Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, has a supplement line (Xistence) and has just launched a clothing line that will be sold in the store L’Aubainerie.

Surin has been involved in creating his own supplements, an onerous job in these heavily regulated times and one he sometimes wishes he never started.

“I understand what Health Canada’s doing because people were putting anything on the market, but at the same time they made this regulation Health Canada didn’t have enough people to work on the process. It’s crazy.”

His next venture could be a franchise of boutique gyms that focus more on one-to-one coaching and proper follow-up. He’s got a partner with the money to invest in the venture. What he doesn’t have right now is the time.