Snowboarders and surfers hit downtown Calgary as temperature soars

Calgarians enjoyed some summer weather in May with snowboarders hitting downtownand surfers riding the Bow River waves.

A high of 26 C was in the forecast for the cityThursday.

Down on Stephen Avenue, sunshine shone down on three tonnes of snow dumped on the pedestrian mallas a promotion for spring skiing at Sunshine Village. Professional skiers and snowboardersperformed tricks in the heat.

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"We've been doing this every year," said Kendra Scurfield, a spokeswoman at for the ski resort west of Calgary."Even though it's getting hot in the city people are wearing shorts, people are sitting on patios spring skiing is actually some of the best in the world right now here in our backyard."

While the snow in Sunshinemight last into early July, she said the imported snow in downtown Calgary was expected to melt by the end of the day.

City surfing

Not far away, David Whitemanenjoyed river surfing on the Bownear the 10th Street Bridge

"It's gorgeous. We are overdue for this. We had that long kind of winterstreak and last week was gross," he said.

Whiteman said the conditions were good for a lunchtime ride, but will be getting even better.

"The river water is slowly rising for us. As it gets better we are going to see more and more surfers out this summer. There's going to be record numbers of them out here."

Environment Canada is predicting the warm weather to continuethrough Friday, although it is expected to be cooler with rain possible over the weekend.

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