My very own Piasta 3-String CigarBox Guitar with dual pickups My friend David Piasta makes musical instruments in Wilson Creek. Cigar-box guitars, dulcitars, drums, and just plain instruments of strangeness that are as captivating as they are different. Some have necks made of wood from pallets. Others are fully formed from old church pews or [...]
It’s Sunshine Coast Arts Crawl Weekend… and the ShroomFest… and Sechelt Arts Festival – time to break out the rubber boots and get out and about on the Sunshine Coast.
Above is the Bigpacific.com Mushroom Playlist, a collection of short videos that includes a story I wrote about last year’s festival and foray with Larry Davis, including a fairly decent clip of some mushroom identification, as well as a chanterelle identification from another picker’s Langdale foray – but don’t use it as identification yourself. Always [...]
That’s right! Tomorrow is your chance to get out on the water for some standup paddleboard demos, beginner and advanced paddle stroke clinics… and you can even enter a short or long course race and test your mettle against other Sunshine Coast paddleboard enthusiasts. Demos are $5, and race entry fees are $15. All funds [...]
13 year old Magnus Manson has been declared the winner of the Sunshine Coast Mountain Bike Film Competition after intense online voting and the final vote cast by extreme freeride photographer Bjorn Enga. Magnus has won $1000 of bike/camera gear, and will have his film shown on Sunshine TV Network screens in Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, [...]
The Halfmoon Bay Apple Festival always comes as a surprise – like most Halfmoon Bay events, there’s an element of whimsy that translates into never quite knowing when events are going to be happening until about a week before. We stopped in at the Apple Fest in between our mushroom foray and the identification session [...]
by Editor/Publisher Laurie McConnell I have known Colleen Friesen for about 2 years now, and you know how a person comes into your life through a normal avenue like being hired to help with a web site and not only does that but brings in a patch of light and ‘snorkage’ to boot? That’s Colleen. [...]
Blues fans mark off the first weekend in June for the 8th annual Pender Harbour Blues Festival. June 3, 4, 5 – a weekend full of the blues served up just the way you like it. Johnny Ferreira, rock and roll sax star, with the sensational Nadine States, opens the weekend Friday, June 3, at [...]
Okay, so it didn’t hurt much after the orientation last Saturday… but I didn’t say it was easy. I think I’d have a better chance of creating a brand new political party and having it elected than figuring out paddling. This is just one of the strokes used in dragon boating, though it is more [...]
by Editor/Publisher Laurie McConnell READ: Introduction to Paddling READ: First Team Paddle READ: Would I steer you wrong? I’ve managed to continue my atrocious habit of collecting hyper-adventurous friends. This is a problem, since I lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle, ensconced as I usually am in my office cockpit. There must be some unconscious yearning [...]
Wow, exciting times on the Sunshine Coast. Whales are back along the shore for the first time in many years, drawing crowds out to piers, swim docks, beaches and walking paths hoping for a glimpse. There was some Facebook buzz earlier in the week that there had been a live birth of a baby (calf) [...]
by Laurie McConnell Editor/Publisher Bigpacific.com Guide to the Sunshine Coast Apologies for Vimeo’s sudden difficulties in dealing with video shot on the iPhone in portrait mode! Wow. The second weekend in June is always a very good time to be out and about in Gibsons… not only for those who groove to what falls into [...]
by Laurie McConnell Editor/Publisher, Bigpacific.com’s Guide to the Coast Every weekend April through October, I love visiting the Sechelt Farmer and Artisans Market at the Ravens Cry Theatre lot just across from St. Mary’s Hospital. For one thing, I always stop at Greta’s for freshly made bannock with home preserves (today it was blackberry/blueberry – [...]
SECHELT FARMER & ARTISAN MARKET FUN Our friend Dean Brooks (we call him MathGuy as he is a prodigious intellect in this field) is up visiting for the weekend, on his first holiday in seven years. We decided he needed a REAL getaway, so we’ve been getting him out doing things ever since we got [...]
The oceanfront, 1905 Historic Lund Hotel is located at the tip of BC’s beautiful Sunshine Coast, at the Gateway to the renowned Desolation Sound near Powell River. Since built by the Swedish Thulin brothers who founded Lund, the hotel has served as the heart of this quaint village. The hotel now features 31 renovated guest [...]