Canada - Toronto Base Any Good?

[TheOne]

As some will know I'm about to give up Oz to move somewhere where there's more pool action so I can play it seriously again. I leave in 3 weeks to spend several months in Asia before going to the states for a few months to play in as many comps as possible. After that I am not 100% sure, I was considering going back to the UK as 9 ball seems to be really taking off there and in Europe. BUT I know that I really want to live in the states as 9 ball etc is still much much bigger there (despite all that is said). It is possible that I could get sponsored and find work in the US but its unlikely given the current state of the IT industry. However it would be very easy for me to get a 1 year Canadian visa and I was just wondering (having never been to Canada) whether Toronto would satisfy my POOL NEEDS! The joss tour sounds like a great tour and It seems that there are also lots of other events around Ohio, Chicago etc.. Would it be feasible for me to travel to these events if I was based in Toronto? Also, what is Toronto like for comps/action, I know the "Lion" was based there but he didn't seem to glowing about the pool scene when I spoke to him in Reno.

Any help appreciated?

 

[TheOne]

Cheers Gremlin, I know about the Joss tour and that's the problem - it sounds great! I lived in NYC for a year a few years ago but I was just partying and not playing pool, however I did go in Amsterdamn and Chelsea billiards a few times and I thought I'd Died and gone to heaven! I have several friends who decided to stay in NYC illegally but I don't fancy that, especially now they are finger printing us Brits on entry now too! So alas, it looks like Canada if all else fails?

Any reason why Canada is so bad, from what I can tell it looks like its not in a bad spot? If so any other places in Canada that would be better?

I blame it on the terrorists!

 

[Celtic]

In Canada Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto are the best bet for pool cities. Toronto is good because it has the opportunity to travel south to the states with ease. Not sure what Gremlin means by travel problems from there. Calgary is good simply because it has alot of strong players, check out how often Calgary comes into the winning circle of the VNEA and BCA in Vegas, plus Edwin Montal, Tyler Edey, Nick Kruger, and litterly 20 other players who are nearly pro level in skills are in the city, it is a sharks den. Vancouver is awesome, probably the best scene in Canada. The palyers there are often top notch, Mike Vidas, Brady Gollan is close, the Seattle players are close by with Dan Louie, Glen Attwel is not too far away, Stan Toranganeou, ect... the city has some awesome players. Not sure on the tournament scenes though, Calgary lost alot of it's weekly events, Toronto is so huge the scene is spread out, Vancouver I have no clue.

 

[TheOne]

Thanks celtic, that helps. I would prefer to be east coast if I was to end up in Canada but I take your point about Calgary and I have heard good things about Vancouver.

Gremlin, I have quoted Celtic so you can see that he didn't bash you in his post.

Cheers

In Canada Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto are the best bet for pool cities. Toronto is good because it has the opportunity to travel south to the states with ease. Not sure what Gremlin means by travel problems from there. Calgary is good simply because it has alot of strong players, check out how often Calgary comes into the winning circle of the VNEA and BCA in Vegas, plus Edwin Montal, Tyler Edey, Nick Kruger, and litterly 20 other players who are nearly pro level in skills are in the city, it is a sharks den. Vancouver is awesome, probably the best scene in Canada. The palyers there are often top notch, Mike Vidas, Brady Gollan is close, the Seattle players are close by with Dan Louie, Glen Attwel is not too far away, Stan Toranganeou, ect... the city has some awesome players. Not sure on the tournament scenes though, Calgary lost alot of it's weekly events, Toronto is so huge the scene is spread out, Vancouver I have no clue.

 

[TheOne]

Craig,

Thanks for your time posting Celtic's questionable post. If I had to pick Canadian Cities The most beautiful are Vancover and Victoria. The winters are long and hard and Canada has the second highest incedence of clinical depression in the world except England. Good Luck Mate!

Cheers,

"Gremlin"

Thanks Gremlin,
Well at least that's a step up from going back to blighty then! Mind you I spent a winter in NYC once, don't tell me its worse than that!! It does seem like Miami is the place if you don't like the cold lol

I'll prob just end up over staying my visa which would then mean I am screwed when I leave (due to the new finger printint), but then an IT job goes at the window lol (I'll prob be begging to go back to my desk job in Australia within a year lol)

Thanks anyway

 

[DaveK]

..Would it be feasible for me to travel to these events if I was based in Toronto? Also, what is Toronto like for comps/action, I know the "Lion" was based there but he didn't seem to glowing about the pool scene when I spoke to him in Reno.

Any help appreciated?

Toronto is a fine city, one that I lived in for 7 years. I did not run across masses of depressed people. The winters are fine, quite similar to Chicago, Detriot, and Buffalo. There is not seven months of bad weather, that's just goofy talk.

Travel across the border has changed over the last few years, but is still quite reasonable to those who have traveled more than between a couple of states. I see that you have a bit of experience in crossing borders. Note that I speak as a Canadian citizen, crossing the US-Canada border for other nationalities may be somewhat different than my expriences.

If I had to pick a city in Canada to move to as a pool player, I'd say Toronto is the place.

Dave

 

[DaveK]

Craig,

Thanks for your time posting Celtic's questionable post. If I had to pick Canadian Cities The most beautiful are Vancover and Victoria. The winters are long and hard and Canada has the second highest incedence of clinical depression in the world except England. Good Luck Mate!

Cheers,

"Gremlin"

I found nothing questionable in Celtics post. The Gremlin posts are another matter, and I wonder what posessed him to respond as he did. There is bad weather everywhere at times. But I guess when you live in an igloo 7 months of the year you get a bit tougher

Dave

 

[sniper]

Hi Theone,

Assuming that you do choose Canada, I have family from Toronto and when they came to Calgary they were jealous (to say the least) of the poolscene here, There are good tournaments everyday of the week and BIG action if you like money games, the crop of players here is much better than Toronto.
Vancouver would be even better than Calgary simply because of the fact it's closer to the Pechauer tour stops, it's a world class city and hosts a crop of top notch players itself.

So basically, if you come to Canada I would recommend making Toronto your third maybe even fourth option. PM me if you want more info on the poolscene here in Calgary.

Good luck

 

[TATE]

I just came back from a vacation in Australia. What a fantastic country! It is truly an amazing place. I think it would be difficult to find a better place to live, although I was kind of shocked to see how expensive everything was. I think Canada has much better prices for goods, housing and so forth.

But I'm totally pumped on Australia. We went to Sydney which is the prettiest city I've ever seen, then to Port Douglas (Cairns) to scuba dive the Barrier Reef and explore the rain forests.

All that was great, but the highlight of the trip was flying to Ayers Rock and renting a four-wheel drive - we drove through King's Canyon then on the Mereenie trail 700 km but about 300 km was off-road you need to a permit to travel on Aboriginal lands, to Alice Springs. The vast wilderness of the outback is truly amazing.

Would I give up pool to live in a place like this?

No, I probably wouldn't, but it would be a difficult choice.

Chris

 

[Cardinal_Syn]

Nothing wrong with Toronto.....you can get actions from alot of places. There's a weekly tournaments that runs every weeks, where you can play with the likes of Raymond Cruz, Marrio Morra, Jeff White and even Cliff Thorburn at shooters every monday. Pagulayan used to play there i'm not sure where he is. Also the border battle US vs Canada will be held and hopefully i get to watch it live. It's a nice locations too cause it's just a few hours away from the US border. So yeah there's plenty of action here.

oops i needed to edit this i forgot to add Paul Thornley


also the weather isn't even harsh....people are acting as if it's the arctic or something where you gotta ride a snowmobile or sledges pulled by dogs. The transportation is actually one of the best if you don't have a car. the buses pretty much runs every where.

 

[Kerry Impson]

One more thing about Vancouver - it gets you in close proximity to Harry Platis!!! I don't know if he gambles much anymore, but many players have come to Seattle over the years just to play him (and some have stayed!!). Another top player from Vancouver who hasn't been mentioned yet is John Horsfall. AND last but not least: the weather in Vancouver is milder than Toronto or Calgary.

 

[TheOne]

Hi Tate, your not wrong about Australia being a fine country to live, I think it just placed 6th in the best country in the world to live list. Sydney is one of the prettiest cities in the world and the east coast is superb. But for me there are three main draw backs, (a) it is a bloody long way from home(uk) and everywhere else almost, (b) it gets most things years after everywhere else and last but NOT least, (c) there's not much pool. However having said that, I wouldn't rule out coming back to live to buy a place and raise a family - but thats a few years away for me.

Funny thing is, I stop in Ayers rock for two nights after I leave Sydney, really looking forward to it, from what you said it sounds great!

I just came back from a vacation in Australia. What a fantastic country! It is truly an amazing place. I think it would be difficult to find a better place to live, although I was kind of shocked to see how expensive everything was. I think Canada has much better prices for goods, housing and so forth.

But I'm totally pumped on Australia. We went to Sydney which is the prettiest city I've ever seen, then to Port Douglas (Cairns) to scuba dive the Barrier Reef and explore the rain forests.

All that was great, but the highlight of the trip was flying to Ayers Rock and renting a four-wheel drive - we drove through King's Canyon then on the Mereenie trail 700 km but about 300 km was off-road you need to a permit to travel on Aboriginal lands, to Alice Springs. The vast wilderness of the outback is truly amazing.

Would I give up pool to live in a place like this?

No, I probably wouldn't, but it would be a difficult choice.

Chris

 

[TheOne]

Thanks a lot guys (and ladies), some great info there. So to sum it up, Calgary is the best spot if want to play mostly in Canada and not travel much. Toronto and Vancouver are good bases generally and both offer good access to the US for the Joss and P.cher(spell?) tours.

Oh, almost forgot, and its not that cold!

I think I might stop off in one or two of these on the way to the states, Vancouver is an easy stop. Also I notice that there are a couple of Joss events early May time in Niagra Falls.

Cheers

 

[KingCarom]

Craig,

Why not move to the states and find work?
The IT industry isn't as bad as it seems. I work in IT from what I read nationally the industry is doing fine for the most part. Moving to the states may be more difficult to begin with, but will certainly pay off in the end by being located closer to the action without all the hassle.

I have been to Toronto and Calgary, Nice places but I would never live there.
The "Ontario express" is cold enough to drive anyone batty! No offense to thsoe who live there, it's just that -20 wind chill's for 4-5 months a year aren't my cup of tea. Maybe it isnt that bad but I bet my assessment is close.

If you have to choose Canada, choose Vancouver. Great City, good pool scene, 2 hours to Seattle, Moderate weather, Great Skiing,Great fishing, Beautiful Women...etc etc.



Livin the life of...
-Ryley

 

[TheOne]

Hi Gremlin, I have no desire NOT to follow your laws. Unfortunately Britain being the USA closest ally isn't really reflected in the immigration laws. The Brits are not welcome to apply for a green card and the H1-B visa quota of 65,000 was filed on day one of the 2005fy (due to a six month back log). The only other option is to find a couple of hundred grand lying around and buy a business. So it doesn't seem like there's much choice for us Brits at present. As far as the weather goes, I doubt there is much difference between a UK, NYC or Toronto winter, lets face it, I'm not leaving Australia for the weather LOL! Florida on the other hand, would be nice! Maybe 6 months in NY and 6 months in Florida (now where did I put that winning lottery ticket!?

Craig,

To bad you don't choose to conform to our laws! Seven months of the year in Canada the weather is terrible. Do you think travel is easy? No! That was my point. There is a large number of retired English in Florida, Canadian's too.
Toronto or Montreal maybe. Sorry I can't be of more help as there is nothing
really for people who don't want to follow our laws especially now. Maybe a commonwealth country will be good for you or maybe you like winter? LOL

Cheers,

"Gremlin"

 

[TATE]

Funny thing is, I stop in Ayers rock for two nights after I leave Sydney, really looking forward to it, from what you said it sounds great!

The outback is a wonderful, mystical place. It compares to our high desert area of Sedona, Arizona without cacti. Being from Southern California I don't see too much wilderness so it was a real treat for us.

Unfortunately, Ayers Rock is very restricted and touristy - the most commercialized tourist spot we hit. The government and one of the aboriginal tribes run it and the list of rules/fines is remarkable. So, you pretty much have to stay on the published trails. The Aboriginese are fascinating and primitive. The walks with Aboriginal guides are very informative.

Definitely bring your climbing shoes and hiking gear. the best experiences are the climbs and walks. It is very hot and dry and I recommend those fly screen hats - if you know what I mean. We drove out to the Olgas which are also (overly) protected but they do have very good hiking and they are beautiful as well, very similar to Ayers but more and smaller. You have to stay on the trails there too.

Overall, between Australia, Asia and Canada/US you are in for a true adventure. Of the places I've traveled, I love visiting Asia the most. Thailand is my favorite. It is almost like a different planet - such extremes of wealth and poverty, business and pleasure.

After writing this I looked at your web-site for the first tme - we have a lot in common too!

Good luck to you.

If you hit Los Angeles let's rack'em up!

Chris

 

[SplicedPoints]

If you ever come to Vancouver, you should swing by a place called Guys&Dolls. Its located around the corner of Main St and Broadway. You can usually find somebody to play with there. The tables there are alright. They use the american height Brunswick tables, apparently they use Simonis cloth. The last time I was there the table played extremely slow due to the humidity. Tight ass pockets.

The Vancouver scene is not bad. The afore mentioned players from Vancouver are all good and mostly pretty accessible if you go to the right places.

 

[TheOne]

Thanks for that Tate, I booked my accomodation in Ayers rock last night, very expensive compared to other places but due to the remoteness of it I'm told! Looking forward to it though, and especially the flies - not! For future reference I'm told that when in the outback you should jump up and down on the spot for about 5 minutes until you work up a sweat down your back - then all the flies will land there and leave your afce alone! (Nice

As for Asia, yes Thailand is great, I've been there many times and to many countries in Sth East Asia. What I'm really looking forward to this time is going to some countries such as China and possibly Taiwan or the Phillipines that I have never been to before. Also for the first time when I go travelling I'm going to take my cue

The outback is a wonderful, mystical place. It compares to our high desert area of Sedona, Arizona without cacti. Being from Southern California I don't see too much wilderness so it was a real treat for us.

Unfortunately, Ayers Rock is very restricted and touristy - the most commercialized tourist spot we hit. The government and one of the aboriginal tribes run it and the list of rules/fines is remarkable. So, you pretty much have to stay on the published trails. The Aboriginese are fascinating and primitive. The walks with Aboriginal guides are very informative.

Definitely bring your climbing shoes and hiking gear. the best experiences are the climbs and walks. It is very hot and dry and I recommend those fly screen hats - if you know what I mean. We drove out to the Olgas which are also (overly) protected but they do have very good hiking and they are beautiful as well, very similar to Ayers but more and smaller. You have to stay on the trails there too.

Overall, between Australia, Asia and Canada/US you are in for a true adventure. Of the places I've traveled, I love visiting Asia the most. Thailand is my favorite. It is almost like a different planet - such extremes of wealth and poverty, business and pleasure.

After writing this I looked at your web-site for the first tme - we have a lot in common too!

Good luck to you.

If you hit Los Angeles let's rack'em up!

Chris

 

[TheOne]

Hi Fellow Living the Lifer!

Well that's what i want to do, really want to live in NYC again but from what I have found out its really hard to find an IT sponsor at the moment. BUT that doesn't mean I'm not going to try when I go to the states in May. I will have 3 months to find a sponsor, otherwise its Canada or back to blighty! (UK).

Will check out Vancouver on the way to states probably, sounds nice though

Craig,

Why not move to the states and find work?
The IT industry isn't as bad as it seems. I work in IT from what I read nationally the industry is doing fine for the most part. Moving to the states may be more difficult to begin with, but will certainly pay off in the end by being located closer to the action without all the hassle.

I have been to Toronto and Calgary, Nice places but I would never live there.
The "Ontario express" is cold enough to drive anyone batty! No offense to thsoe who live there, it's just that -20 wind chill's for 4-5 months a year aren't my cup of tea. Maybe it isnt that bad but I bet my assessment is close.

If you have to choose Canada, choose Vancouver. Great City, good pool scene, 2 hours to Seattle, Moderate weather, Great Skiing,Great fishing, Beautiful Women...etc etc.



Livin the life of...
-Ryley