Fernie Cardboard box downhill derby 2010

The FCBDD is one of the more prestigious events on the winter calendar and also the most fun.

The rules require construction of a vehicle out of only:
Cardboard,
Tape,
Glue, and
Paint

and then ride it with upto 4 people down the hill. Unlike previous years where the prize went to the fastest down the hill, this year that was deemed unsafe and instead there was a large bulls-eye painted on the snow at the bottom of the course.

Claire was working, so I had joined a team "The Royal Crew" with 3 of our friends (Kate, Jemma and Georgia) and we spent the night before, drinking and making our masterpiece. Given the Royal Crew reside at the Royal Hotel (our old digs) we made a Royal Crown as our vehicle.

After four hours and twice as many drinks, the common room at the royal was covered in paint, and our masterpiece was finished. We were pretty confident that ours would by far be the best looking vehicle, but speed may be a problem.

The next morning was the day the Olympic torch came to Fernie (at 6am) so not only were we nursing hangovers, but little sleep as well.
That only added to the fun and encouraged us to get more creative with our racing outfits. So creative that the Manager of the Royal was pretty annoyed when he recognised that our capes were made out of the bedsheets from the Royal.

It turned out that our first problem was fitting it out the door - impossible. Instead we had to lower it out the second story window onto the back of a friend's ute.

 

Well the video tells the story... the crowd of a few hundred including lots of little kids scattered in panic when we veered off course toward them, only to correct at the last minute. We were clearly the crowd favorite, and the fastest! Unfortunately we were disqualified by the fun policy for flying past the target and smashing through both the safety fences. However they couldn't take the glory away from us.