[bobsten]

I spent five months in New Zealand in 2009; 4.5 of those in Christchurch and the rest in Rotorua. If you have a desirable skillset I'd say living in Auckland or Hamilton would be pretty amazing, Auckland about 3 Hours from Rotorua and Hamilton being 1.5.

The South Island is absolutely awesome as well. Christchurch was great until it rained and you weren't allowed to ride on the Port Hills Tracks, but as soon as it dried, you were good to go. The DH is great, the XC is better, and the competition is out the roof.

I think Southstar Shuttles are running in more areas than just Christchurch and Rotorua at this point as well; I heard rumors of Nelson but it doesn't look like that is the case on their website.

I fell in love with NZ while I was there and am really striving to make my dream a reality: moving back there. I do think that having a strong skillset is extremely important and being 1 year out of university hasn't really given me that yet...

 

[marshalolson]

French Alpes have better connection and resorts. PDS is connected do swiss resorts by lifts

it is also full of frenchies (just kidding, but try skiing cham on a pow day.)

 

[sethimus]

San Remo and prolly similar french equivalents are not that far away from morzine - also there is a season in between in such high mountains? Im sure that pretty close to morzine you can find year round snow resorts. It may not be exatly in the PDS area but I doubt its were Socket will find the job he is looking for. I was thinking about it myself though I dont yet have enough skills to sell and If I was in his place French/Swiss alpes boarder for sure.
Insbruck would be good if he was more after snow than biking because Nordpark is pretty far from whistler and mayerhofen and stubai parks are pretty unknown right now.


Also - Graz - 50km from Maribor,100km from Semmering,130 from Javornik, 150km from Schladming, 200km from Wagrain. Not bad if you are willing to use your car a bit.

the park in the stubai valley isn't even open yet, more a 2011 thing...

 

[I.van]

Anyone got any suggestions? Learning a new language in order to live/work is something I'm entirely willing to try to do. Morzine? Les Deux Alpes? San Remo? Nice? Barcelona? Rotorua? Nelson (either BC or NZ)? Dunedin? Cairns? Vancouver? Squamish? Are? Hafjell? San Remo?

I would rate both Rotorua and Queenstown (by a fair margin) ahead of Cairns in terms of trail variety and quality. Cairns has some great technical Downhill, and is gaining some sweet singletrack at the mo', but push runs in the humidity blows and a lot of the tracks get overgrown every year in the monsoon season.

Find a Swiss girl.

 

[bizutch]

Wherever Buckow lives...his pic's are always epic sauce.

buckow is Ben Walker. Morgins is his locale.

 

[gemini2k]

buckow is Ben Walker. Morgins is his locale.

Can you hook me up with his address, SS#, ph. # and annual net income too?

 

[norbar]

the park in the stubai valley isn't even open yet, more a 2011 thing...

Any news about the trails etc? Not much info on the net right now

 

[TrailzHozer]

DH is dead.

 

[FlipFantasia]

yeah, I went to Morzine (PDS), lots of lifts is cool, but I'll be staying in Whistler...

 

[Froggy]

Got to come out to the North East... been most everywhere..
North East is cheap lots of races you can go to.. mountains are all over with good ski resorts putting money into bike programs.. tracks are some of the best terrain around..

 

[WBC]

Having grown up in the PNW (Now living in Bellingham), I have to say I would be really hard pressed to think of a better place to live for riding. Kamloops/Kelowna are only a few hours away, same with Van Isle, Vanc, Whistler, hotspots in WA, etc. There's just so much easily accessible, amazing riding. I've never ridden in Europe or Aus, but over the years I've made friends with riders from all over and it's pretty unanimous that nothing compares to here. I was in NZ this past Winter and I loved the country and the trails were really good. We rode Rotorua, Levin, Wellington, Nelson (incl nevis), Queenstown, Christchurch, Duneiden and a couple others?? and it was all really fun and I was sad to leave. That said, when I got home and hit the trails for the first time back, it felt real good.

Now that said, if you can work out some way to rock the endless summers, a NZ/PNW combo would be pretty unreal.

If you do head to NZ, I was the biggest fan of Christchurch because of the city/trails/beaches combo, and Duneiden has the benefit of the shuttle road going through the campus housing - tons of talent to look at on the ride up! I think Nevis was my best day of riding for sure, but Nelson is a strange town and the black flies blow so, so, so much ass.

 

[dilzy]

What do you do for a living? That will heavily influence this part.

Socket=Mechanical Engineer; Me=Offshore Engineer. I'm not particularly fussed on working as an offshore engineer I've decided, as I'm more interested in free time than pay.

I'm also a qualified builder. I'm not too fussed on the idea of the States, more leaning towards Europe.

Switzerland seems the most appealing; however someone mentioned that Switzerland is devoid of jobs and very costly. I think the whole of Europe is rather in the **** as far as employment goes these days.

The problem with having an Engineering degree yet being relatively inexperienced is that you can't work as a consultant, so you have to work full time and with Engineering, it generally cuts into your days off as well in my experience.

 

[gemini2k]

SoCal? Having spent some time riding in NZ and the east coast I can say the trails here are beyond compare (IFFFFF you know where to look). Hard to beat year round riding and a huge variety of XC/AM/DH trails out your back door. I doubt there are many places you can do 3, 10 minute DH runs and grab 6k of vert after leaving work at 5pm...in the middle of winter (and those are the short trails). Jump trails are lacking for sure.

Lots of driving and insanely high cost of living are probably the only drawbacks. Well that and the nanny/police state that is CA these days. Only protected left turns, speed bumps in every parking lots, cops everywhere, sky high taxes. Grrrrrr, makes me so angry

But you forget about that when you have winter weekends where you spend one day skiing in the Sierras, the next day riding lift access in 60 degree weather, and the third day bbq-ing on the beach in 70 degree weather.

Although the whole culture in NZ is f-ing awesome. Dedicated DH trails on public land? National courses with 10ft drops and 40ft doubles on public land? Sick.

 

[djjohnr]

Socket=Mechanical Engineer; Me=Offshore Engineer. I'm not particularly fussed on working as an offshore engineer I've decided, as I'm more interested in free time than pay.

I'm also a qualified builder. I'm not too fussed on the idea of the States, more leaning towards Europe.

Switzerland seems the most appealing; however someone mentioned that Switzerland is devoid of jobs and very costly. I think the whole of Europe is rather in the **** as far as employment goes these days.

The problem with having an Engineering degree yet being relatively inexperienced is that you can't work as a consultant, so you have to work full time and with Engineering, it generally cuts into your days off as well in my experience.

Generally you can get a job in the US if you have a hard to find skill set. I've worked with plenty of folks that were able to get work visas because they had experience with niche programming languages/applications. Getting into the EU is generally the same deal. During the dotcom boom, a great way into the EU was to go work in Ireland for a couple of years, after that you could go anywhere. I believe that's closed up now, but it's worth looking into.

 

[dilzy]

Generally you can get a job in the US if you have a hard to find skill set. I've worked with plenty of folks that were able to get work visas because they had experience with niche programming languages/applications. Getting into the EU is generally the same deal. During the dotcom boom, a great way into the EU was to go work in Ireland for a couple of years, after that you could go anywhere. I believe that's closed up now, but it's worth looking into.

UK citizen.

 

[Steve M]

San Remo and prolly similar french equivalents are not that far away from morzine - also there is a season in between in such high mountains? Im sure that pretty close to morzine you can find year round snow resorts. It may not be exatly in the PDS area but I doubt its were Socket will find the job he is looking for. I was thinking about it myself though I dont yet have enough skills to sell and If I was in his place French/Swiss alpes boarder for sure.
Insbruck would be good if he was more after snow than biking because Nordpark is pretty far from whistler and mayerhofen and stubai parks are pretty unknown right now.


Also - Graz - 50km from Maribor,100km from Semmering,130 from Javornik, 150km from Schladming, 200km from Wagrain. Not bad if you are willing to use your car a bit.

Graz - hahah F**K NO. I spent several hours in that city and hated every minute, that place is a dump. Nothing at all to do with local cops trying to fine me 500 euros for driving down a street that was apparently a pedestrian mall but didn't have any signs that I could see that indicated this...

p.s. Living the Dhers dream is the title and i don't think that anywhere else even comes close. Dreams aren't reality, and after having spent two seasons in Whis myself i can tell you that i don't think Whis is reality either.

So DHers dream = WBP and environs, everywhere else reality encroaches in some sense.

Whistler isn't reality, and while the lifestyle is pretty insane in the short term, it's also a hard place to live for those of us who don't want to spend every 2nd day hungover as hell or dealing with other such tools. Accommodation is extremely expensive, wages are generally low (and "real" jobs are pretty hard to come by unless you happen to be an experienced chef or hotel manager), yadda yadda, and while in the short term I'm prepared to deal with that, in the long term I want something a bit more stable than having to find a new house every few months.

Malaga in Spain is a good alternative for year round riding. There you have a real city, the mediterranean and good food. Not that near to the alps in winter though.

My own thoughts about the downhill dream means going with my GF at least 3 years and live a normal life with a proper job. The only difference from my current situation is new friends and mountains within a decent distance.

Spain is somewhere I'd definitely consider. Heard good things about Malaga and that other bike park near Barcelona (or was that it?). Spanish food is awesome too, and I like the weather and the idea of year-round riding with the possibility of ski holidays relatively nearby. Anyone got any idea what the economic/job situation there is like? Don't speak a word of Spanish (yet) but like I said, willing to learn!

 

[sethimus]

probably the worst in europe after greece, over 20% unemployement rate...

 

[descente]

i think CA is the place to be if you want year round. there is a reason the athertons, monster energy, and just about everybody else spends the winters training here. mild weather, and if you aren't afraid of a little driving there is an unbelievable diversity in terrain here.

 

[Tomasis]

for me living in Sweden, Malaga in Spain sounds interesting I'd go if I find freelance job in digital media industry at first. Cheap living there in Spain compared to French Alpes or Sweden, I can always drive up or take a train from Spain to Alpes. Hm, so close to the dream.

 

[matsO]

OSLO?

You have downhill in town @ Holmenkollen where you take the tram up the hill, yes bikes are allowed. It is near to Drammen and Hafjell which are both awsome places. You can probably get a job.
Not as exotic as the alps or Malaga maybe, but it is a place where you can actually go ride everyday after work.

+ girls

 

[Steve M]

OSLO?

You have downhill in town @ Holmenkollen where you take the tram up the hill, yes bikes are allowed. It is near to Drammen and Hafjell which are both awsome places. You can probably get a job.
Not as exotic as the alps or Malaga maybe, but it is a place where you can actually go ride everyday after work.

+ girls

Yeah? Anyone know what it's like trying to get a job there at the moment? I've been there but only for a couple of days, didn't have the opportunity to really find out much about the place other than that it's REALLY expensive (are wages in line with the cost of living there?) and you have to drive really really slowly on the highways. How long does it take to drive to Hafjell/Drammen?

I'm not a huge fan of the super short Scandinavian winter days, but the girls alone would be considered awesome winter sport!

 

[Tomasis]

forget norwegian girls, lol.

 

[matsO]

lookey lookey no touchey!

If you have the skillset then there should be no problem. I do not know about the living costs, but most swedish people there shares a flat with a few others.

They have a lack of good technical engineers. Look into norconsult.com for work, that is the biggest multi consultant in Norway.

 

[worship_mud]

Also - Graz - 50km from Maribor,100km from Semmering,130 from Javornik, 150km from Schladming, 200km from Wagrain. Not bad if you are willing to use your car a bit.

graz is a fantastic city! if your in the automotive industry, there's Steyr to work for, and as mentioned above a LOT of riding / skiing in the worlds best resorts within a 2h drive. and it's not as bad as socket wrote, i guess that he'd get shot if he tried such a stunt in the US...
Also graz has a rather interesting cultural scene / night life due to the fact that it was the european cultural capital a few years ago.
i'd live in Graz if i wouldn't live in maribor...

 

[Santa Maria]

graz is a fantastic city! if your in the automotive industry, there's Steyr to work for, and as mentioned above a LOT of riding / skiing in the worlds best resorts within a 2h drive. and it's not as bad as socket wrote, i guess that he'd get shot if he tried such a stunt in the US...
Also graz has a rather interesting cultural scene / night life due to the fact that it was the european cultural capital a few years ago.
i'd live in Graz if i wouldn't live in maribor...

I studied and lived in Graz for aroung 6 years and as worship_mud said it is a great city. Great XC Trails in Graz too and a decent DH Track as well. Some Bikeparks within one or two hours reach including the famous schladming and Maribor WC DH Tracks.

If you like to ski pow in the winter - then Austria is the way to go. The first real freeride spot (obertauern) is - depending on road conditions - 2 and half hours away.......

 

[norbar]

graz is a fantastic city! if your in the automotive industry, there's Steyr to work for, and as mentioned above a LOT of riding / skiing in the worlds best resorts within a 2h drive. and it's not as bad as socket wrote, i guess that he'd get shot if he tried such a stunt in the US...
Also graz has a rather interesting cultural scene / night life due to the fact that it was the european cultural capital a few years ago.
i'd live in Graz if i wouldn't live in maribor...

I never was in graz for more than a couple of hours but every time I got the feel its a city like this. Every summer Im in there or Maribor Im asking myself why Im still here and not moving to these cities

 

[shirk007]

Whistler isn't reality, and while the lifestyle is pretty insane in the short term, it's also a hard place to live for those of us who don't want to spend every 2nd day hungover as hell or dealing with other such tools. Accommodation is extremely expensive, wages are generally low (and "real" jobs are pretty hard to come by unless you happen to be an experienced chef or hotel manager), yadda yadda, and while in the short term I'm prepared to deal with that, in the long term I want something a bit more stable than having to find a new house every few months.

You are doing it wrong.

I have a bunch of friends living there and seem to get on with real life just fine.

And no I have not lived there, but I've spend EVERY weekend there from November to May for the last 4 winters I have a good understanding of the place. There really is two communities there, the seasonals and those that have set down roots. You make an effort to be part of the community and it's a whole different world there.

To the rest of the topic North Vancouver is a riders paradise. World class riding of all types at your finger tips, the only thing lacking is the true high alpine lift serve DH of the alps, but how long is that stuff really open? Cost of living might be high here but it's a damn fine trade off for the best playground going.

 

[Steve M]

You are doing it wrong.

I have a bunch of friends living there and seem to get on with real life just fine.

And no I have not lived there, but I've spend EVERY weekend there from November to May for the last 4 winters I have a good understanding of the place. There really is two communities there, the seasonals and those that have set down roots. You make an effort to be part of the community and it's a whole different world there.

To the rest of the topic North Vancouver is a riders paradise. World class riding of all types at your finger tips, the only thing lacking is the true high alpine lift serve DH of the alps, but how long is that stuff really open? Cost of living might be high here but it's a damn fine trade off for the best playground going.

Right, so you haven't lived there (vs me spending the past two seasons living there..) but I'm "doing it wrong" by being repeatedly ****ed over by landlords, having to work pretty low-grade jobs for low wages, and having to deal with every imaginable retarded situation involving alcohol and/or drugs, commonly involving people from Vancouver who are up for the weekend and think they either own the place or have the right to trash the place. I've spent the time there, I've got plenty of friends there, as far as most people are concerned I WAS a "local", but like a lot of people who have actually lived there, despite the amazing opportunities to ride/ski/party, it's just a very difficult place to get ahead. Yep, you can live there and have a killer time and just deal with having no money and having to move house every friggin season, but I've done that already, want something new. Right now Squamish is looking kind of attractive actually, something one or two rungs down the ladder of intensity and one or two rungs up the ladder of stability/maintainable lifestyle.

Cost of living doesn't bother me too much IF it's justified by the lifestyle, and able to be met by the wages available!

 

[shirk007]

past two seasons living there..)

having to move house every friggin season

Like I said it's two communities up there, one is seasonal the other has set down roots. I've got co-workers that own businesses and close friends that are landlords and I've seen first hand how opportunities at places to live and jobs get passed among those that are part of the long term community.

Totally agree that idiots from Vancouver with too much booze in them are likely the worst of the lot, but it's pretty damn easy to conduct a life in Whistler and not have to deal with them.

 

[FlipFantasia]

FYI, you don't have to go out drinking every night or deal with the tars that come to party it up every weekend....I've lived here for 8 years, lived in a few places, one for 2.5 years, the latest for 5, don't get f'ed over either.....Shirk's right....yeah I struggled for the first few years, but once you're in, you're in....a couple of season's really doesn't cut it, cause basically you aren't permenant.....

 

[Steve M]

FYI, you don't have to go out drinking every night or deal with the tars that come to party it up every weekend....I've lived here for 8 years, lived in a few places, one for 2.5 years, the latest for 5, don't get f'ed over either.....Shirk's right....yeah I struggled for the first few years, but once you're in, you're in....a couple of season's really doesn't cut it, cause basically you aren't permenant.....

Yeah see I don't really want to spend a few years struggling to pay rent and dealing with the BS I've already seen enough of, just to be able to live somewhere, because there are plenty of places where I don't/wouldn't have to do that. I'm not saying it's impossible to live comfortably there, but I've already spent a considerable amount of time there and at this stage I'm not massively motivated to keep living week-to-week like that. May or may not be back next year because as you say, having been there for a while life is already easier (have two jobs I can return to plus a few places I could live), but I want to live and ride somewhere outside of the Whistler bubble too. Having a fairly subsistent lifestyle where expenses pretty much consume all your money also leaves relatively small opportunity for travelling or starting your own business. You almost have to commit entirely to living there at the expense of being able to go anywhere else easily. I suppose if it was that easy to live there long-term, everyone would do it.

edit: I sound like I'm whingeing a lot, and I suppose I am - I had a LOT of amazing times in Whistler with a lot of awesome people, I don't want to sound like I'm pissing on anyone else's choice of lifestyle or discourage anyone else from going there and checking the place out. The people who do live there permanently all love it (obviously - otherwise they'd be out of there), just not sure that I'm cut out for that lifestyle permanently.

 

[shirk007]

just not sure that I'm cut out for that lifestyle permanently.

What Flip and I are saying is that the lifestyle does change once you commit to being locked in there permanently.

My "you are doing it wrong" may have come off like I was dumping on you. But I've found that many people slag aspects of Whistler and those things are not usually the true Whistler scene that the long term locals live day to day. People bag on the Whistler party scene in the winter and it's a huge laugh because the core of the community are the ones waiting for first chair on a powder day not the ones at the bar for last call. The seasonals are there for last call, the locals are there for first chair. Once you find yourself inside that first chair pow day community the place just seems to change.

All that said I chose to move from Ontario to North Vancouver because I wanted to move lateral in my career and nothing in Whistler offered that opportunity. I looked but as a total outsider was passed over for positions I was more than qualified for and the position more than likely went to someone that had made the all important local connections.

 

[Steve M]

What Flip and I are saying is that the lifestyle does change once you commit to being locked in there permanently.

Makes sense, but my travel + career ambitions don't mesh with "committing to being locked in there permanently" - in the interim, it's not the easiest place to live

 

[gemini2k]

Having grown up in the PNW (Now living in Bellingham)

Man just rode the Galbraith trails this past weekend. That place is pretty unreal considering they are public trails in the U.S. Better stuff than you find at a lot of resorts. That combined with dirt cheap living, decent riding weather, and proximity to Whistler makes that place a pretty sweet option. Not a bad town either.

 

[stringbean]

what do u need to be able to work/live in switzerland, thinking of doing the whistler thing for a few years then head to europe somewhere.

 

[Steve M]

what do u need to be able to work/live in switzerland, thinking of doing the whistler thing for a few years then head to europe somewhere.

As far as I can tell, you basically need to be:
a) Swiss, or
b) Swiss

Failing that, from my research it seems that you need an offer of employment from an employer, while you're NOT in the country, who can prove that they've been unable to find a suitable person to fill the position from either Switzerland or the EU. So basically, if you're me, you have no chance. Makes sense from their point of view, cos if it was even remotely easy to work there then 90% of the world's population would be jammed in there.

 

[LOOnatic]

My thoughts are that the DH dream is to be a Gentleman of Leisure and therefore travel the world in spurts.
Live/work(hamster wheel thing) in one place and then be transient for the rest of the year.
Swiss, Norway, France, parts of Canada and the USA should keep you busy.
If you haven't sampled places like Plattekill, Bromont, etc then you have alot of work to do b/c as awesome as Buckow's lifestyle is there's still alot left around you .
You mentioned you haven't exhausted BC or riding much past whistler so just keep what your doing man and get back back to us in a few years.