Better Skate Than Never

After 11 years, the Hopcott family has the art of corn-maze making down to a science. The process is so precise, in fact, that it now only takes eight hours to groom their 17-acre plot in Pitt Meadows into a modern-day labyrinth of stalks and leaves, attracting adventure-seekers from all over the Lower Mainland.

Just don't expect maze manager Brad Hopcott to know how many stalks that equals.

"Too many to count," says Hopcott on a sweltering day this week.

To get things just perfect, the Hopcotts enlist the services of an American who specializes in carving out these giant puzzles based on client sketches, using GPS, a roto tiller and a tractor.

The result is two different mazes every year, with average solution times ranging from an hour to two hours per maze.

Note the word "average."

Hopcott's brother, Travis, remembers a woman who must have set the unofficial slowest time ever to complete the challenge.

"It took her over four hours."

In addition to the mazes, wee ones can cozy up to the petting zoo while for those young at heart wanting to throw an office gig at the maze, there are "cornporate" rooms that come with barbecue pits.

Personally, I want to take on the maze at night, armed with glowsticks and flashlights, which is totally an option, too. The glowsticks aside, that's not corny at all.

Check out meadowsmaze.com for more.

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Skating with night vision - CRAZY!!

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About This Maze, By Yonatan Frimer:
Surfing is a well known individual sport. Each wave is different and only experience teaches you how to tackle the wave. Each rider has his own style that can not be duplicated.

The idea of a few monkeys on a surf board appeals comically to me as it implies the monkeys are highly trained and yet where taught to ride a surfboard, which is a recreational activity. Jokes not as funny if you have to explain it.

-By Yonatan Frimer

Click here to view the maze in larger format



For more mazes like this one, visit http://www.inkblotmazes.com or TeamOfMonkeys.com

Labels: artist maze, maze, maze art, mazes, sports, surf, surfing monkeys, yonatan frimer