A video showing a group of Halifax winter sport-lovers snowboarding and skiing through the city’s streets during this week’s blizzard is getting lots of people talking.
Fourth-year business student Avery Birch started a Facebook group called Halifax Ski and Snowboard Club and invited its members to come out and play in the snow Monday night.
“Oh, everyone was excited,” said Avery. “We actually had about 70 people turn up on the hill that night and there was about five of us playing around on the streets."
The video shows the skiers and snowboarders attached to vehicles filming themselves riding down Halifax’s empty snow-filled roads. Much of the video was shot around the Halifax Common and Citadel Hill.
But even though traffic was light, safety experts say things could have ended very badly.
“These guys were snowboarding behind a vehicle that was travelling up the road and there's about 1,000 different things that could have gone wrong with that scenario,” said Michel Tops of Safety Services Nova Scotia.
Avery insists the streets were largely deserted at the time and the snow provided enough protection. He's already looking forward to the next blizzard.
“I think what we need to do next time is to bring some music,” said Avery.
Avery hopes to take the group national and believes there’s enough interest in organized winter activities to make it work.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.
