Albertans moving west factor in hot Kootenay housing market

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Original article here: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calgary/albertans-moving-west-kootenay-housing-market-1.3489152

The housing market in the B.C. Kootenay region is heating up.

In some communities there is now a lack of houses on the market, analysts say.

Cameron Muir is the chief economist for the British Columbia Real Estate Association.

He says that’s partly because of high consumer confidence and low interest rates, but reverse migration from Alberta is also playing a factor.

“For many years it was draining population from British Columbia on a net basis so people in B.C. would move to Alberta in search of jobs,” Muir tells CBC News.

“Now that’s kind of shifted the other way around where young people are staying in the province and then we are seeing some people moving here from Alberta as well.”

Muir says the change in provincial movement is affecting the Kootenay region the most.

Realtor Geoff Purdy was selling a cute little starter home in Nelson but it sat on the market for a year.

Last month, suddenly there was interest. Then a bidding war.

“It was on the market for just about a year and we had multiple offers on it and I sold it for over asking price,” Purdy said.

Muir says B.C.’s housing market is forecast to stay healthy this year, but not as red hot as it is right now.

Limbo Your Irons for better contact and more distance.

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Are you a golfer who loves their woods but has always struggled with your irons and wedges. Your woods love to be swept off the turf. Swinging with a shallow angle of attack, where the club-head catches up to your hands, can work really well at launching high straight drives and fairway woods. The problem is while this works well with your longer clubs it can cause struggles with your irons and wedges. When the club-head catches up with our hands it forces us to pick the ball off the turf leaving very little room for error. Additionally it tends to add loft to the club-face at impact reducing the energy transfer and increasing the trajectory both of which can drastically reduce distance. Ideally we want to have the hands leading the club-head at impact with our shorter clubs. Hybrids, irons and wedges are all designed to be struck in such a manner. This is one of those things all better players have figured out that separates them from the rest of the golfers out there. When the hands lead the club-head it encourages a downward or steeper angle of attack into the ball allowing for better impact location of the club-face and a big increase in backspin. This allows for more efficient energy transfer (more ball speed=more distance) and increased backspin equaling additional carry and increased stopping power. As an added bonus it also dynamically strengthens the loft of the club-face at impact effectively turns say a 9 Iron into a 8 Iron or maybe even a 7 Iron making many golfers 10 to 30 yards longer with every club in their bag. So how do we make this happen? Well as a visual guide try to think of doing the limbo with your irons, make them fly lower than you normally do. To do this you’ll have to practice keeping your hands ahead of the ball through impact. To get a feel for this stand at address and place the ball in a position where when you look down your hand appear to be closer to your target then the ball or club-head, for many of us we’ll find this ball position is further back than we’re used to. When we get it right you’ll see the ball leaving the club-face faster than ever before and you’ll be taking little divots right after impact. As a bonus you’ll also be taking longer walks straight down the middle between shots.
For help with this or any other part of your game don’t hesitate to come see Edwin for a lesson to get the most out of your swing.

Are you hitting it your potential maximum distance?

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As golfers you’ve probably noticed all the technology being marketed in golf. Whether space age materials in club-heads, CNC milling for wedges, nano-technology in shafts or ballistic launch monitors to analyze our club and ball performance there’s no missing the science in golf. With that said most of us have no idea what all these terms and numbers being used in the equipment manufactureres marketing platforms mean. Let me try to make some sense of it and at the same time explain how it can impact your game. Let me start of with some of the terminology and its meaning.

CLUB-HEAD SPEED: The speed at impact off the club-head. Most over-rated number in golf as it tells nothing of the quality or consistency of the swing or impact conditions.

BALL SPEED: The speed at which the golf ball leaves the club-face during impact. far more important number than club-head speed as it dictates the actual distatnce potential any shot has.

SMASH FACTOR: The ratio between club-head and ball speed. Ideally ball speed will be 1.5X club-head speed. Therefore If your club-head speed is 100MPH your optimal ball speed would be 150MPH.

LAUNCH ANGLE: The angle of trajectory that the ball takes when leaving the club-face. For every club, at every speed there is an optimal trajectory that will allow for the maximum potential carry distance. If we compare launch angle to types of hits in baseball it starts to make sense. A pop fly loses its enegy going up, a line drive doesn’t go high enough to stay in the air long enough to become a home run but somewhere in between is the ideal trajestory, or home run swing, that launches the ball at the ideal angle to maximize distance.

BALL SPIN: The amount the ball spins and the angle on which it rotates can dramatically affect performance. Basically put the higher spin rates have negative affects of distance and control. Slices, hooks, ballooning shots and reduced roll out are all symptoms of too much spin. While some of this is caused by faulty swings and poor contact in many cases improperly fit clubs can have a huge impact.

To illustrate how one number can have a huge impact on performance I’ve used two low handicap golfers and there performance numbers. Golfer A Golfer B
Ball Speed: 144MPH 154MPH
Smash Factor: 1.44 1.46
Launch Angle: 15.9 6.9
Spin Rate: 2600RPM 2350RPM
Total Distance: 260 255

If you look closely you’ll notice Golfer A has 10 MPH less Ball Speed but is 5 yards longer than Golfer B. The reason is the Launch Angle, Golfer B launches the ball too low and as such it hits the ground well before it has travelled it’s potential carry maiximum. Given that both golfers have similar spin rates and Smach Factors, Player A is close to their maximum while Player B is 25-30 yards short of their potential. If Player B had a more ascending strike or added loft to their driver they’d immediately see distance gains.

Hopefully this helps your understanding of some of the jargon being used around the game of golf these days and if your looking to get the most out of your game and equipment consider a lesson and club-fitting to help maximize your potential.

Bonnie’s Muffins

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Ahhh, look at that! Here’s our Bonnie pulling out her fresh baked cranberry orange muffins, proud as punch with the results. Oh the amazing smell of fresh baked muffins just coming out of the oven. First thing you do is smother it with butter while it’s still hot! Reminds me of home. Bonnie Langman, bakes them fresh every morning and, I can tell you this, they are delightful. She doesn’t just bake muffins. The Redstone crew has baked fresh baked apple strudel, cookies, brownies and lots of other goodies. It’s a great thing to grab with a coffee just before you head out on to the links. The clubhouse is open every morning at 8am for breakfast. We are getting some amazing reviews. They have all the classic’s but if you want to spice it up a little, Bonnie loves the Mexican flare. She does some an amazing Breakfast burrito with chorizo sausage, cheese, salsa, peppers and more! Doesn’t that sound good!?

If you are coming for an early tee time, get them to whip you up a breakfast wrap or a bacon and egger. And for goodness sake don’t forget a fresh baked muffin and coffee. Every weekend we have some amazing specials for breakfast and dinner! And hey, Bonnie would love to hear from you. Have you had one of her fresh baked muffins? Let her know what you think!

Where is the Purple Cow at Redstone?

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Imagine driving down a road and seeing a herd of cattle and one is purple. Do you think you would ever forget it? Not likely. I had read a book a few years ago by Seth Godin called “Purple Cow”. It’s a marketing book with the basic premise that in this day and age you need to have a REMARKABLE product or service. For years I have been grinding away trying to see a Purple cow at Redstone. I talk about our exceptional greens, incredible views, elevated tee boxes, variety of holes and super staff. On the real estate side I have written about great value, stunning views, fantastic weather and miles of walking trails. I was looking for one thing that really set us apart. One simple thing that makes us so good you and your friends just need to visit us or move to Redstone.

Then it hit me yesterday as I was standing on number 16 fairway. Redstone makes people feel good and they smile. Doesn’t that sound simple? People smile when they go for a walk down a trail weaving its way through the forest. The canopy birds singing and the fresh blossoms filling the air with natures perfume. They laugh and smile when they zoom by me on mountain bikes. They wave and smile as they walk the dog in the evening. When I see them on the course they sneak a wry grin as they improve their lie on the golf course.

I realize that like a single tree in a forest Redstone is not one remarkable thing it is a complicated forest of many amenities that all need to be experienced. If you want to see our remarkable purple cow then come to Redstone and by all means bring a smile because sooner than you expect, someone here will be smiling at you.

Thanks

Cary
PS I am smiling while I write this and I bet you are too.

Greens after 1 week

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These are after 1 week of growth. In one more week they will be perfect. Now thats how much we care about greens. Come golf Redstone this spring and see the Redstone difference

How much do we care about our greens?

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I can tell you flat out that greens are the most important part of a golf course to our owners and our staff. I can live with bumpy cart paths (and we have those) and I can live with an unpaved parking lot but not poor greens. That’s why we have an extra green or a nursery green for situations where things don’t go our way. This winter was warm with plenty of freeze thaw cycles. We ended up with six greens having 5% to 15% ice damage. Sure we could punch them and over seed but that could take until Mid July to grow in. Our plan is to have the best greens every year so we re-sod. I have attached the before picture. Its scary and had some members really worried about the quality of greens. That was one week ago. Check out our greens now: http://redstoneresort.com/?p=3163

National Caesar Day at Redstone

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It’s National Caesar Day and we’re celebrating at Redstone Resort! I’m not positive about who created them or why,  but I do know it is a very popular
Canadian drink. I couldn’t let the day go by without showing you our Ultimate Redstone Caesar. Doesn’t it look good? I can’t give away all our secrets on how we make it but I can let you know that we use a very special rimmer and of course we have the usual clamato, worcestershire sauce, tabasco and spirits… but we add a little something extra to make it especially good. We create the best skewers ever with pepperoni, gherkin pickles, pickled onions, and pepperoncini’s. It’s almost a meal.

In honor of National Caesar Day we will be running a special on them for this weekend only. Just like MacDonalds they are only here for a limited time so come on down to the Clubhouse and give one a try. I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

No need to strangle your clubs.

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Are you one of those golfers that wears a thumb print into your grips. Do you hold on so tight that your getting white knuckles. Does it feel like the only way you can keep the club from flying out of your hands is by adding grip pressure. Are your grips more than two years old or been used for more than 50 rounds. If so it might be time to consider getting new grips and finding out what size actually fits your hands. Consider this, the only part of your anatomy that has any contact with your equipment is your hands. If there are issues with the size, texture or tack of your grips it will inevitably have negative affects on your game.

Lets start by matching glove sizes to grips sizes. A ladies standard grip matches with a ladies small glove, a men’s standard grip matches with a men’s small or ladies large glove. That said if your a guy and you wear a glove size larger than men’s small the grips that came standard on your clubs are too small. Using a grip that’s too small leads to increased grip pressure, slower club-head speed and less control, shorter and wilder! Having grips that fit your hands allows for the proper grip pressure encouraging a proper release and maximizing speed. Additionally, many of todays grips are manufactured from modern materials that greatly reduce the shock and vibration associated with impact.  This makes them a great choice for golfers with arthritis or joint issues. To help ensure our members and guests can get the most out of their games we’ve brought in an extensive variety of grips in every size, texture and feel available. We also have a great choice in putter grips including the Super Stroke and Winn models. Come check out our selection or grips and see how we can help you get the most out of your clubs in 2015.

Luckiest Man at Redstone

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Matt Wolohan, the luckiest man at Redstone. Matt is a regular prize winner at mens night and tournaments and lived up to his name again last Wednesday winning another draw prize. This was our official starting week for Ladies and Mens night. It is a time for our members and guests to renew their friendships and rivalries. Redstone was the Mens night sponsor with the winners walking away with some great pro shop merchandise to start the year off right!

Thank you to Grace from Unforgettables at 907 Spokane Street in Trail for sponsoring our sunny/snowy/rainy Ladies Night. We had a very hardy group of 31 Ladies who were not scared off by a “little” weather. A reminder to all you ladies who are not members we have an incredible Ladies night special every Tuesday for $35.00 this includes your 9 holes of golf, dinner voucher for up to $12.00 and ladies night games. Dont have anyone to play with? Call the pro shop at 250-362-9141 and we can book you a tee time with a great group of girls!
Next weeks Mens & Ladies Night sponsor is Sysco. Call the Pro Shop to book your tee times!!!

Are you staying in town for the May long weekend? Saturday May 16th we are hosting the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Tournament. This is a two person team scramble format for a great cause. The Jumpstart program is more than just getting kids active. It is about giving financial strapped families the same chance for their kids to participate as their peers. No kid should be left out. Register now and lets raise some money for a great cause. Register on our website or give the pro shop a call.