Dream jobs : Scuba diving instructor

How many of us have dreamed of doing what we love most and making that occupation ?
How cool would it be to live at diving resort locations and spend your work days scuba diving and spending the rest of the time living the resort life ? It would be like being on vacation full time!

I came across a post on Vagabonding blog about how you can make that happen.

Many diving schools offer a 6-month-to-one-year internship where you can get training as a diving instructor, access to fancy equipment and a private boat, (usually) a place to live and some meals, and a ready-made community of divers.

The post also provides a few links that might help you decide where to go, professional diving forums and message boards to check out, and how to apply.

Scuba instructors and dive leaders are in high demand at resorts all over the world. Diving has become a huge draw over the past decade, with vacationers seeking out new and more exotic dive sites.

Though, I am not quite sure if you can get into those internships with no experience at all. So, I would recommend to get at least PADI open water certificate.

Also, in my other post "The Most Adventurous Jobs", check out a site where you can find other cool jobs ( including scuba diving instructor positions).

Good, ol' American cuisine

American foods have a reputation as being “junk foods " ( you may disagree ). And nothing says " junk food " like " Quadruple Bypass Burger " and "Flatliner Fries" (cooked in pure lard ! ). If this is still healthy enough for you, how about unfiltered cigarettes, beer, liquor, and soft drinks such as Jolt cola and Mexican Coke made with real sugar ?


There are several US cities and restaurants that lay claim to being the home of the hamburger. But if there is one place I could eat my " last meal ", it would be " The Heart Attack Grill " in Chandler, Arizona. After watching this video, I've decided this is the way I want to " go ".

P.S : Did I mention waitresses are dressed like " naughty nurses " ?

Gear review : Zippo Emergency Fire Starter Kit

I have to admit, I am not a "survivalist ", next Les Stroud or Bear Grylls, and my longest backpack trip has been for 3 days. But I still consider myself " the Last Boy Scout" : I am always ready. Even on day hikes I have my ....essentials. And my most important essential is a " fire starter kit" that includes waterproof/windproof matches, plumber's candles, cotton balls covered with melted paraffin, and a light plastic BIC lighter.

But, honestly, my most favorite " fire starter " is a bottle of camping fuel. Gather some dry wood, pour a few drops of fuel, and Voilà ! - you have a huge camp fire.

Huge disadvantage- even the lightest aluminium bottle filled with fuel adds some significant weight to my average 40 + lbs backpack.

So, recently I was introduced to a pretty cool emergency fire starter kit released by Zippo : a lighter that looks almost like a regular Zippo lighter with standard Zippo flint/wheel ignition, but when you open it up there are four waxed ‘tinder sticks’. An o-ring seal for the hinged cover keeps water out of the fire starter kit and the tinder sticks are water resistant.

With my kit, I also got Campfire Starter cedar puck, which is basically compressed cedar sawdust and wax. The puck is very light, the back of it is scored so it can be used to start four fires, it’s made from 100% all-natural recycled materials, and it gives off a Western Red Cedar aroma.

In this video you can see the new outdoor line of products by Zippo. One of my favorite here is hand warmer ( just curious how different it is from popular Grabber handwarmer packs ?):



Zippo lighters were for decades known as the most reliable cigarette lighters. But remember Quentin Tarantino's movie " Four Rooms ", when Bruce Willis' character makes a bet that he can get a Zippo lighter to light ten times in a row, with his finger at stake if he loses ?

I really hope that Zippo Emergency Fire Starter will prove to be ...a bit more reliable.

My type of woman ?

God has made women to be loved and has endowed her with many qualities that men seek.

4 qualities that men usually seek in women:

The Movements - men are attracted by the way a woman walks.
The Hair - while this may seem to be an exaggeration the long, soft and silky hair of women plays a long part in attracting men.
The Eyes & Lips- women can convey many things without speaking a word just by their smile and the look of their eyes.
The Body- women, dressed in clothes that enhance her figure are more likely to attract men than those who do not( and without clothes- even more likely:).

Am I missing something ? Did you say being intelligent, logical, punctual,direct ? Perhaps...

But how about having a sense of adventure, being driven, may be even dangerous, daring ? I know I'd love to meet a woman like that. A woman like Steph Davis- a climber, BASE jumper, wingsuit pilot and ...she has those 4 core qualities ( she's hot !):

Steph Davis: So In Control from Prana Living on Vimeo.

Tough ( or suicidal ) ? Try one of these races !

Marathon ? Triathlon ? This is so not cool nowadays ( especially, when you see a 90 year - old grandma, running next to you ). Looks like "complete marathon/triathlon" is on everybody's to-do list... And I am not an exception... Except that, I want something more than just to say " I've done a marathon" ( who hasn't ?! ).


These days, one of the most popular endurance events is adventure racing. Adventure Racing is a multi-sport team activity that usually involves running, mountain biking, paddling and orienteering ( sometimes climbing and other "Mystery Events" that are unveiled mid-race). Comparing with triathlon competitions, Adventure Racing is more of a team sport. When you do a team sport you can only go as fast as the slowest (team) member, but in a triathlon it's all on you. Adventure Racing is meant to test participants both physically and mentally in multiple activities over varied lengths of time – from a few hours to many days.

But you don't have to go for days to test yourself.






" The Tough Guy Race" is " only " eight miles long and takes 2-3 hours to finish , but it claims to be the "World’s Most Brutal Race". Why ?
The organizers claim that running the course involves risking barbed wire, cuts, scrapes, burns, dehydration, hypothermia, acrophobia, claustrophobia, electric shocks, sprains, twists, joint dislocation and broken bones.
Although the course is adjusted each year, its features have included a 40-foot crawl through flooded underground tunnels, balancing planks across a fire pit, and a half-mile wade through chest-deep muddy water. Marshals dressed as commandos fire machine-gun blanks and let off thunder flashes and smoke bombs over the heads of competitors as they crawl under a 70-meter section of barbed wire.

If "Tough Guy" doesn't sound very intimidating, why not try " The Death Race "?




Not being tough ( or suicidal ) , and not wanting to deal with barbwire or an eclectic fence, I set my eyes on the The Men's Health Urbanathlon last year.



The Men's Health Urbanathlon is a rigorous race and obstacle course that incorporates challenging urban obstacles at iconic city landmarks ( this part really got my excited ). The event takes place annually in three different cities - Chicago, New York or San Francisco. Comparing to AR or the races described above, the Urbanathlon is not that extreme ( challenging-yes, extreme ? not so much ). But the chance to experience one of these beautiful cities in a fun, challenging and memorable way, is more rewarding for me than testing my self-confidence.

Basic avalanche rescue techniques videos.

Have you ever learned anything from Youtube ? I don't know about you, but I think it's a great social and educational tool. And if you are not a big fan of reading, you can always find " visual " information on any topic that interests you.

Recently, I posted an article about a class I attended ( Proper beacon, probe and shovel usage class). While it's one thing to read about " proper use of a probe /shovel " , another thing is actually see how it's done.

Backcountry Access ( the “knowledge leaders” in backcountry safety, education and products ) posted three great videos on Youtube about Beacon Searching, Probing/Pinpointing, and Strategic Shoveling

The real-life Spider-Man.

Alain Robert is a French rock and urban climber, known as "the French Spider-Man" or "the Human Spider" and most famous for scaling skyscrapers. Robert has scaled 85giant structures around the globe including many of the world's tallest structures, most of which he has scaled using only his bare hands and climbing shoes.

Robert's urban climbing career has been characterized by an ever-expanding list of famous landmarks which includes the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House and the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, the Sears Tower ( now called Willis Tower ) in Chicago, Illinois, Golden Gate Bridge and many more.

Burj Khalifa, formerly known as Burj Dubai, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 2,717 ft ( 160 habitable floors, plus 46 maintenance levels in the spire, and 2 parking levels in the basement ). The total cost for the Burj Khalifa project was about US$1.5 billion.
It has the world's fastest elevators at speed of 40 mph. Burj Khalifa was built primarily by workers from South Asia. Press reports indicated in 2006 that skilled carpenters at the site earned £4.34 a day, and labourers earned £2.84.

The building has been used by several experienced BASE jumpers for both authorized and unauthorized BASE jumping. And now, rumour has it that it will be Robert's next attempt. He has already been charged and jailed for his previous climbs. So, hopefully, it won't happen to him in UAE.

Here is a video of him climbing a 46 story skyscraper in Brazil:

Too old for adventures ?

I am not getting any younger. At the age of 32 , it seems like my life is almost over. Over for ... adventures, "extreme" sports, new activities, seeing new places ( backpacking through Europe ? I don't think so ), getting out of my comfort zone. It's getting harder for my body to recover after intensive work outs, long backpacking trips, hours on the ski slopes...

How often have you wanted to try something "crazy, outrageous, exciting " like whitewater rafting/ kayaking, surfing, sky/scuba diving, bungee jumping ? And what was your excuse ? :
"It's too dangerous "
"You have to be a professional to do that "
"You need to be in great physical shape"
"You need hours/ months/ years of professional training "
"I am too old"

You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Or can you ?


Meet Doris Matyasovich. She is a competitive MTB ( mountain biking ) racer, 2003 DH Masters World Champ, 17-time Masters National XC Champ. And she is only...67 ! She started racing at 45 and has stuck with it for the past 22 years. She raced BMX, XC, downhill, trails, dual slalom, adventure races ( 12 and 24 hours long ! ). Sometimes, she raced women younger than her children, or raced with men her age. She is also, the author of " Don't Tell Me I Can't " - a book about her life in the world of amateur mountain bike racing, and her answer to those who have ever told her she couldn't or shouldn't do something because she was a girl, or because she was too old.

People like Doris, really inspire me. I've read stories about people skiing way into their 80', doing their first skydiving jump at 100 (!), summiting Everest ( Min Bahadur Sherchan from Nepal reached the top of the highest mountain in the world at age 76) , sailing around the world after being retired...

After reading stories like that, you realize that age is just a number. Afterwords, as they say : " You are only as old as you feel ". So, feel/think young! Schedule that rafting trip, learn how to scuba dive, ride a mountain bike, go trekking/backpacking in Nepal ( Europe, South America...), climb a mountain ( doesn't have to be Everest), sail your boat around the world...

You can read the full interview with Doris Matyasovich here.

Adventure goals, dreams, plans for 2010

With the new year in full gear, it’s not only a time of reflection but a time to look forward and plan for the coming year. I always plan more and bigger trips than I can pull off. But the act of researching and setting the goal is almost as fun as acting on it. So, without further ado, here are just a few ( the full list is too long ) of my 2010 adventure "goals" :

Activities that I want to try :

- Whitewater kayaking
- Bungee jumping
- Parasailing
- Hot air ballooning
- Dog sledding
- Kitesurfing
- Paintballing

Washington places I want to visit:

- Westport ( surfing)
- San Juan Islands ( kayaking )
- The Olympic coast ( backpacking )
- Mt Baker, Adams, Shuksan ( mountaineering)
-Southeast Washington ( camping at Palouse State Park, rafting Hells Canyon)

U.S Travel :
- next new year celebration at the Times Square in NY
- Mardi Gras in New Orleans ( I guess I still have a couple years to "get wild ")
- Grand Canyon ( hike rim-to-rim)
- Hawaii ( do absolutely nothing ! just relax ! who am I kidding ? Hiking a volcano, surfing/SUPing on Oahu's North Shore )
- Alaska ( wow ! where do I start ? Do...everything ! Ultimately , climb Mount McKinley )

So, what do you think ? Very cliche' ? Nothing original ?

What about you? What are your goals? Whatever they are, don’t forget to make them big. You’ll never reach a goal if you don’t set it. Even if it doesn’t come to fruition in 2010, you’ll have the planning done and be ready to pounce when the time is right.

Chase a tornado in Tornado Alley.

Have you ever been fascinated by a natural disaster - storm, tsunami, hurricane...tornado ? Want to get up close and personal ? Than join Storm Chasing Adventure Tours, the world's premiere and top rated storm chasing tour company in Tornado Alley.

Although Tornado Alley is generally considered to be in the areas of the Central United States, no official definition of the term has actually been produced by the National Weather Service. The most common definition of Tornado Alley is the location where the strongest tornadoes occur most frequently. In the United States, that location is from northern Texas, northward through western Oklahoma and Kansas, through eastern Colorado, up through Nebraska, and into southeastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota and western Iowa.

Lucky for us (or not) we (Washingtonians) don't have this "fascinating Nature's Miracle". So if you want to catch a glimpse of a major tornado, from its formative stages through maturity and dissipation, book this 6 days/7 nights "thrilling storm chasing vacation".

So, basically, for 6 days you'll be travelling across a number of states throughout the Great Plains in "the most highly equipped chase SUV" trying to find tornadoes and severe storms, get as close as possible and... take a picture.

The company guarantees " the maximum tornado experience and the pictures you'll take will be out of this world".

What they don't guarantee is that....

you will see a tornado because they happen on 25 to 30% of tours, but we can say that you will have a great experience seeing great storm structure and the beautiful scenery of the Plains.

But either way, get ready to pay $ 2600 for this " truly an amazing experience".

Call me a wuss, but I think some of Mother Nature's beauties should be admired from the comfort of your home.

On the second thought...what the hell... I want to go!

Depressed? See an Eco-Therapist.

Recently, I came across an article on the "Adventure Life" web site titled "Cure For Depression? Get Outside...", where an author speaks his mind about a new kind of therapy called "eco-therapy" or "eco-psychology." I was curious, what Mother Nature had to do with depression.

What was not clear to me was, whether "eco-psychologists " focus their treatments on "regular depressed people" or "eco-disturbed patients" ?

"Eco-disturbed patients"? you ask

...those who can't handle the thought that they — or anyone — are in some way contributing to global warming, species extinction and dwindling natural resources..

They even came up with a word for this "disease"- "Eco-Anxiety"

What is not clear , whether eco-therapy is more of the latest in a line of money-making gimmicks targeted at the environmentally conscious or a practical psychological treatment.The American Psychological Association has no official position on the merits of what it calls an emerging field.

Another question is:
If the prescribed treatment for "eco-anxiety " may be as simple as taking a hike or spending more time outdoors in general, do you really need to come up with a new kind of therapy ?

If it's already known, that spending time outdoors has a tremendous effect on human body ( physiologically and physiologically), did the University of Essex in England really have to make a research "that a daily dose of walking outside could be as effective as taking antidepressant drugs for treating mild to moderate depression'?

I know one thing for sure- I don't need an English scientist or self-proclaimed "eco-therapist" to tell me to spend more time outdoors. And , No , I am not going to hug any trees , keep a journal or "reconnect with nature". Spending time outside doesn't have to be about "reconnecting us with our animal roots". It's about enjoying yourself, your favorite activity, having fun and admiring Nature's Beauty.

Dude, wanna go on mancation?

A recen article in the Seattle Magazine talks about the latest buzzwords in the travel industry, a spin-off on the girlfriends’ getaway marketing phenomenon-"Mancations". Although the term is new, the concept isn’t--as evidenced by the dozens of guy-getaway themed movies that have been around for ages ( "City Slackers",
" Without a Paddle", "Wild Hogs" are just a few).

So, what exactly is a "mancation "?



The Urban Dictionary, an online compilation of slang, offers seven definitions with the first:

"When men "engage in 'guy' activities that involve sports, camping, gambling, chasing women and most of all drinking amongst their ... male friends. No wives, mistresses or girlfriends allowed. Done in order to get in touch with their male-primal roots.Mancations provide the opportunity for men to get together and bond with guys from work or old friends from college"

Acceptable. But the way ?...

Although golf outings, sports events and fishing trips are the mainstays of male bonding, some of the fellas are branching out with high-velocity adventures like skydiving and bungee jumping, while others opt to kick back with spa treatments and back waxes.



Is there more to the guys' getaways than sex and drinking ?

When you were younger, what was you ultimate " mancation "? For lots of guys it has always been - Vegas, Atlantic City, Miami, Tijuana or the nearest strip club ( two days without leaving the club ? It happens).



But when we get older and our lives become busier and finding time to hang out is getting more difficult to find, do we still have to do " the old routine " (drinking, partying ), or is it the time to "confront our existential crises" and share our feeling ?

One thing is for sure, there is no " mancation" without booze. That's why many distilleries now days are capitalizing on this new travel trend. The famous Jim Beam and Knob Creek distilleries offer a guys-only tour of Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail during National Bourbon Heritage Month ( did you know that in 2007, the U.S. Senate declared, by unanimous vote, September as “National Bourbon Heritage Month !).

You don't need to go "mancationing" in Kentucky, as our own Spokane’s Dry Fly Distilling—a boutique distillery that is one of Washington’s first—has become a popular destination for discerning vodka-, gin- and whiskey-loving men from around the Pacific Northwest. You will get hands on training opportunities in everything from Grain Handling and mash preparation to ...dealing with hang over ( not sure about that).

Following the footsteps of " City Slackers ", another " mancation " idea - Dude Ranches. Once you are boozed enough, make your way to the "K Diamond K Guest Ranch" , in Republic- an old gold mining town, 125 miles northwest of Spokane, where you can enjoy camping, fishing, hunting and white water rafting surrounded by fresh air and natural beauty ( make sure you watch "Brokeback Mountain" before going).



Too much bonding ?

One interesting fact :
Women's trips lean toward sharing life experiences ... related to their husbands, families, careers.
Men:
Men don't worry about other members' feelings.

And why should they? when there is booze to "taste" and women to chase- that's THE MANCATION !



Dude, you wanna bond?

Positive Impact Of Outdoor Adventures On Returning War Veterans.

I don't think there is any other holiday that makes us feel more patriotic than 4th of July. No matter how trite it might sound, but it's when the fireworks start going off, you feel extremely proud to be an American, and at the same time ,it makes you think at what price it all came to us. You realize that those who serve our country deserve our profound appreciation. It is because of our war veterans that we remain strong as a nation, and we enjoy many of the freedoms we all-too-often take for granted.It makes you think what you can do to express your gratitude for their service.

In this post I want to write about two outdoor adventure projects in our state, that offer mental and physical healing for veterans, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, with post-traumatic stress disorder or injuries.