dead man walking

10:56 p.m. - 2004-02-24

About a year and a half ago after Karen and I broke up, I sort of went through a little identity crisis. I had a hard time just trying to figure things out and I started questioning what I needed and wanted in life. We've all been there at some point. It got to a point where I had to either do something about it, or go crazy. So I decided to go to Vancouver BC! This was really my first ever real experience at traveling. I've never done the spring break thing or vacationed much with my parents so you could say I was pretty inexperienced. I did go on a bunch of band trips to Washington, Chicago, New York, and Quebec when I was in highschool, but other than that my traveling life has been uneventful.

The ironic thing about going to BC is that it was the first time I've ever been on a passenger jet - considering that I have my pilot's license and have been flying for years, it was quite an event! So, considering that I was going through some tough times and that I was traveling for the first time on my own I tried to experience as much as I could. I met tonnes of great people and had a ball - details on the trip will come later. Looking back on the events I sort of think I had a bit of a death wish, as you'll soon see! Below I've listed the "activities" I did when I was in BC.

1) Skydiving. All I can say is awesome. I rented a car one of the first days I was there and headed out to the airport. I had booked the skydive over the internet so as long as the day was nice, I was gonna jump out of a plane! The instructor I had was of course an aussie and was such a cool guy - we got along really well. Since I was going to do the tandem jump all I needed was a 30 min briefing - there were a couple cute girls that were doing it as well so I was teasing them about all of the dangers of jumping out of planes, u know...parachute might not open, instructor might pass out, birds could hit you, jumping into the wing, etc. etc.. I had to stop once I say how pale they were getting ;). Before you could say "what the hell am I doing", I was in the plane and jumping out!! What an experience - we were surrounded by mountains and blue sky. Just to prove to my parents that I did it I had them video tape me. I had a ball posing into the camera as I plunged at 9.81 m/s^2 to the earth (well..not really but if you're a physics major you'd know what I mean - I'm such a geek). Anyways, as you may have guessed I made it down no problem! Totally recommend it.

2) Paragliding. Well, since I was having such a lucky day with skydiving (i.e. I didn't die), I thought I'd try my luck paragliding. For those who don't know what paragliding is, just think of the stupidest thing you could do when you're on top of a 2000 ft mountain? I know...how about run and jump off?? Well, basically you have a parachute on your back and then you run and jump off - and pray that your parachute catches the wind! I did it with yet another Aussie...these guys are everywhere. It's the weirdest sensation when you're running and all of a sudden there's no ground to run on - pretty cool! The ride down was pretty much uneventful, kinda boring compared to skydiving actually :).

3) Cliff Diving. After spending some time in Vancouver I went with a little tour group (i.e. a van full of aussies and brits) to visit Vancouver island. One of the places we went was a place called Tofino. Imagine a Canadian version of California...that's what the people were like. A total surfing town. On the way to Tofino we stopped and camped a bit in the woods of the island...huge Redwoods. There was a huge cliff in the little camping area with a river fed pool below. Our tour guide mentioned that no one really jumps off the cliff anymore - said it would be crazy...sooooo....being the adventurous man I was I decided to jump off. Fun stuff - pretty easy too, although the water was cold!

4) Surfing. So what else is there to do in a surfing town called Tofino - that's right...surf! It was radical man...I was so stoked...hang ten. This was also my first time in the Pacific Ocean. After we were assured that no sharks would grab us and eat us if we dangled our feet in the water we jumped in and tried to surf. It was pretty hard at first but I got the hang of it - the salt water tasted soooo baddd though. I guess you're not supposed to drink it!

5) Sea Kayaking. Imagine a big canoe. Imagine a kayak. Combine 2 boats = sea kayak. This was pretty slow compared to my previous activities...but I did get about 2 feet away from a bald eagle. The theory is that the Eagles aren't afraid of things in the water, which is why they were so easily approached. Personally, I think it was wondering if I was good enough to eat :).

6) Bungee Jumping. Ok, this one was crazy. We went to a canyon on the way to Victoria so we could try our hands at jumping off a bridge attached to a big elastic band. When we arrived, EVERYONE chickened out...except for the crazy Canadian (a nickname I really couldn't argue on this trip). I think there's something about looking down at the ground as you fall...really freaks you out. It was definitely worth it though. My pants seemed a little shorter after my fall as well...hmmm...can't seem to figure that one out...

7) River Kayaking. Ok, this was even more nuts then Bungee jumping. You're probably saying.."yeah right", but it so was. Imagine being stuck in a little piece of fiberglass, in glacier cold water, with no control of your piece of fiberglass, and then send you down a river with a bunch of rapids. Craaazzy! I did this for 2 days, the first day was training in the lake - I totally thought I was an expert after this....it was tricky, but I thought..."no problem". The next day we head to the rapids and woah, different story! It was so much harder to control - I even flipped at the very end - I tried to do the barrel roll and get up but I couldn't, I had to pull the cord!! I won't be doing that for awhile!

8) Mountain Climbing. This was my favorite activity of the trip. The best part about it was that it was so peaceful. It seems like a weird word to describe it but it was. It was also pretty difficult but it was so worth it. It's great to be totally relaxed and then follow that feeling with total adrenaline! I rock climbed for a whole afternoon and was completely drained - and I didn't even fall :)

9) Mountain Biking down Whistler. This was also insane. I consider myself an alright biker, but this really humbled me. I rented a bike from the Village in whistler and then used the tram to get to the top. There were 3 runs, beginner, intermediate, and expert. I stayed on the beginner the whole time - some of the other experienced bikers were flying down and taking jumps - they were nuts (note: I also saw quite a few casts and crutches around town). I was like Mr.Grandpa going down some portions of the hill..lol...at least it seemed that way!

After all of my adventures I came back to Ontario feeling much better about things (glad to be alive, you could say) ;).

"If you don't like what I say fuck off, who cares, no one really likes you anyway"

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