davenighbor.com

Wingardium Leviosa North Bay!

After a busy summer as a barista at a local coffee shop denying people’s requests to draw my pretty face in their latte, I jumped in the car in Canmore, Alberta and drove 3200km across Canada to land in beautiful North Bay, Ontario. At this point I should clarify (if it isn’t obvious already) that I am not the Dave Nighbor you have come to know and love, but rather I am his better (looking) half. My name is Nicky. I should also clarify that I did absolutely no driving across Canada as I opted for sleep instead.

At this point you may be asking yourself what is more exciting than being a barista. You may also be asking yourself what could be so important in North Bay to drag me away from my important cappuccino production. The answer is simple: the third annual Dave Nighbor Summer Training Camp. Dave has been giving back to him home club of North Bay Nordic for the past few years in the form of a training camp, and this year he asked me to help him.

To be perfectly honest, I was hesitant to agree to coach a camp in North Bay as I had just finished coaching what could quite possibly be called “the world’s worst camp EVER” in Camrose, Alberta. In early August, Dave and I headed up to Camrose for five days to try and inspire a group of kids to become better athletes. I would have to say my efforts failed as the only inspiring thing I could do was agree to play the role of Hagrid in our group’s ongoing game of “Harry Potter”. Once they grew tired of Harry Potter, I thought for a second that they might be ready to train. Yet again, I was wrong because as soon as Hogwarts got boring, they attached the land of Mordor to the edge of the Hogwarts gates so that it became a super game of Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings. Good grief. The kids themselves were fun, but not a lot of quality training was ever accomplished.

Had it not been for Dave’s vouching for the awesomeness of his club, I would have never said yes. However, Dave’s assurance could not have been more bang on. For the past couple of days, North Bay’s young nordic team has shown me the eagerness to train that I have been yearning to see. These kids are all different ages and sizes and have all worked as hard as Olympic champions. Here in North Bay, I really feel as though I’m helping a group of people in a positive way and that this group truly appreciates it. Talent is oozing from these kids and I have no doubt that if they work as hard all year as they did this weekend, North Bay Nordic will be the club to watch.

This brief but amazing camp is really motivating me to get back to Calgary to coach my new crop of skiers with whom I’ll be working with this year. As long as no one casts a spell on me or calls me Hagrid, I think my upcoming season will be a good one. It’s certainly off to a good start.

Enjoying the lake after a stressful week