The Bretton Woods Canopy Tour is a unique 3 1/2 hour tour consisting of 10 cable zip lines and two adventure sky bridges suspended 50 feet above the forest floor. Each zip line varies in length, with a maximum span of 830 feet and 150 feet above the ground. The final thrill consists of Williwaw Racing Zip, a dual zip line cable so you can race your friends or family members to the finish line!

http://www.mountwashingtonresort.com/activities/canopy_tour/ove

Alpine Adventures created New England’s first Zipline Tours in Woodstock, NH. The ‘Tree Top’ and ‘Sky Rider’ zip-lines are equally thrilling taking riders from treetop to tree house, up to 2000′ or 1/2 mile, including suspension bridges spanning rivers and gorges. This is a spectacular way to view the White Mountains from a 300-acre hilltop. Also included is an off-road ride in a 6-wheel drive Pinzgauer, a modified Swiss army vehicles. This will appeal to sightseers and thrill-seekers alike. “Like parachuting without the uncertainty,”

http://www.alpinesnowmobiling.com/Zip_Home_Page2.html

We have all become somewhat accustomed to going through security metal detectors or submitting items to go through an x-ray machine at airports and many public buildings.  Typically, before you walk through the metal detector, you are asked to empty your pockets into a  tray or bowl that is then put through an x-ray machine.  Well, this guy in Abilene, Texas went to the Taylor County Courthouse to visit a friend who had been arrested.  Before going through the metal detector, he emptied his pockets.  Shortly thereafter, he was put in jail.  You see…the man put a bag of marijuana into the bowl and handed it over to the sheriff’s deputies.   Lesson here is that, if you are a dope smoker, make sure to empty your pockets before you go visit the courthouse.

Pretty Scene and Pretty Nuts

On This Date in History:  Bungee jumping has become rather popular.  You even see set ups at county and state fairs. Some people have gotten rather daring.  This video of guy who grabbed a bunged cord with his hands, lept several hundred feet and let go just as his feet hit the ground is a good example of how people try to enhance the experience.   It can be dangerous and hoaxers have taken advantage of this fact.   This Spike TV phoney video shows a bungee jumper getting his head bitten off by a crocodile.  However, there have been a number of harrowing true experiences, like this video from Thailand of a man who lept 165 feet only to have the bungee cord break.   None of this should be a surprise because we have a lesson from the past.

The Great Peters Really Did Lose His Mind and his Head

Aloys Peters used to do a performance in the circus in which he dove from a platform 75 feet high with a noose around his neck.  Like the guy who let go of the bungee cord at just the right moment, Peters would grab the rope seconds before it tightened.  His powerful arms and the ropes elasticity would absorb the shock.  He did the act for about 12 years, but that was it.  He was forced into permanent retirement.  On this date in 1943, The Great Peters lept from his 75 foot perch at the Fireman’s Wild West Rodeo and Thrill Circus in St. Louis.  Peters made some sort of mistake because before he could grasph the rope, it tightened violently and his neck snapped before 5600 spectators.  His wife Catherine had not missed a show during their 3 years of marriage but opted out of this performance as she rested due to her pregnancy.  Lesson here?  Keep your  feet on the ground.

NAM Rainfall through Friday 8AM

Weather Bottom Line:  Weather story remains the same.  There is a little bit of a dispute between computer  models as the NAM wants to bring us a little more than 1.75 inches of rain starting on Thursday night and carrying through Saturday morning with over 1.5 inches falling by midday Friday.  The GFS advertises less than an inch of rain through Saturday morning with the bulk of that Thursday night and early Friday morning.  So, if we say 1-2 inches of rain from say, midnight Thursday to noon on Saturday we will be in the ballpark.  Most of the weekend will be dry but cooler with highs in the 50’s.  First part of next week looks lovely with highs in the low to mid 60’s.

“The Raft” an edited excerpt from Thrill Seekers, my forthcoming novella, will be published by the wonderful Griffith REVIEW in their summer fiction special! Plenty! Life is good. Doesn’t take much to feel like a real writer – getting paid certainly helps. Thanks to Griffith REVIEW for their continuing support of my writing.

This category is for all of you thrill seekers out there. I am going to show you extreme places in and around Gainesville where any adrenaline junkie can go for a good time.

I’ve just started a new page “Stories” where I’ll post pieces of my writing. Hopefully an excerpt from Thrill Seekers in the near future.

The first is “Harry“. I wrote it in 2001, my first attempt at writing a full length piece of something. I didn’t know quite what. Like most of my writing it’s a mix of memoir and fiction, mostly memoir in this case. It was part of the original collection of stories that Thrill Seekers was born from.

I still haven’t found “Harry”. His real name was David Maher. If anyone has seen or heard from him please let me know.

Though I think that if he was still around he’d have turned up by now. Perhaps you can trust priests after all.

If all that seems a bit cryptic it will make more sense after reading the story. 

 I’ve tried to make it so you can click on the links above but if that doesn’t work just go to the menu on the left and click on STORIES.

Hope you like it.

As you know, if you are an avid reader of our blog (!!!), extreme sports, called by some -  ‘dangerous pastimes’ – are booming.

The latest one I’ve heard about is ‘coasteering’. Ever heard of it?

It’s an extreme sport that is a physical activity that encompasses movement along the intertidal zone of a rocky coastline on foot or by swimming. It requires no boats, no ropes – just skill, fine judgement and bravery. A defining factor of coasteering is the opportunity provided by the marine coastline for moving in the “impact zone” where water, waves, rocks, gullies, caves etc, come together to provide a very high energy environment.

Wearing wetsuits, gloves and helmets, participants of this sport swim along the base of cliffs on coastlines, climb the rock faces, dive into the sea or into caves. This is where the fine judgement comes in, not least the bravery, as with waves crashing in and the tide swelling and ebbing, this can be a highly risky enterprise.

Learning can be physically exhausting as shown here by paulnod.

But also fun – ankleshock100.

Each extreme sport has its own fraternity. And among them is an hierarchy: most coasteerers, like experienced mountaineers, regard zorbers or bungee jumpers as dilettantes out for a quick thrill. “We take risks,” says Tom Fox, an experienced coasteer, “but we take them from a place of safety. We’re fit, we train and it’s not all about getting a quick fix of adrenaline. When we master our fears, the reward is huge. Everything is heightened and I feel good for days.”

So what is the psychology behind the urge to do an extreme sport? Is it the adrenaline pumping thrill we are after or are we just reacting against mollycoddling?

In the past this search for thrill was not necessary. There were enough wars and strife in people’s lives to keep that thirst at bay. But nowadays, for most of us, life has become pretty mundane and it’s not surprising that people are on the search for something to inspire them with the thrill to live – and live dangerously, if only for a few hours a week. As 35-year old teacher, Martin Ollerenshaw, a surfer, says, “If I don’t do it for a while, I feel prickly. I need to take those risks to feel fully human, fully alive. It’s about joy and intensity – it’s an escape from the mundane and the routine.”

When you consider the steady erosion of children’s freedom such as handstands, skipping ropes and conkers being banned from the playground, you shouldn’t be surprised at the surge of interest in extreme sports.

Adrenaline holidays are moving from a niche market to a mainstream one:

A Mintel survey of the adventure travel industry last April found that activity holidays had increased by 17.2% over 4 years, far more than the overall market – 2.8%. Tour operator Thomson, for example, has 20 dedicated brands serving 400,000 customers a year. Danger is an international industry.

And age is no barrier, though Mintel did find that participants are most likely to be between the ages of 20 to 44. However, plenty of over-40’s have a taste for danger too.

When you compare the danger element in extreme sports to day-to-day living – it compares quite favourably. For example, in England 150 Britons die every year taking part in adventure sports (and remember, they know the risks undertaken when doing their chosen sport), whereas accidents on the roads and in the home kill 6,000.

Quite something that, isn’t it?!

Times are slowly beginning to change though and the world is slowly beginning to wake up to the fact that governance has over-mollycoddled the populace. There are signs that the tide is finally beginning to turn.  As Ken Way, a sports psychologist, says: “If we remove risk from our lives we never find out our strengths and weaknesses. We stagnate.” Simon Barnes, a sportswriter, agrees. He says “some people think it’s got something to do with a death wish (extreme sports). It’s not. LIFE wish, more like.”

We couldn’t say it better than that…

We’ll end with a video from  extremityTV highlighting the never-ending search for a challenge – and also highlighting what we love to write about.

Frenchman Jean-Yves Blondeau first conceived of his plastic Buggy Rollin’ suit in 1994, while he was a student at Olivier de Serres design school, in Paris. But the invention, which allows a wearer to top 60 miles per hour while maintaining any position found in the Kama Sutra, didn’t exactly catch fire with consumers. Not one to give up, Blondeau recently refined the suit to a stripped-down 31-wheel version and developed his own playbook of moves, like the Zaphial (rolling flat on your back with all four limbs pointed straight up) and the Smooth Buggy Dog (three limbs on the ground and one rolling along a wall).

He survives this…amazing.

Via Geekologie

I have personally been bungee jumping and that was pretty scary. But who would of thought that it was possible to put two of the most terrifying extreme sports together? This must be one of the ultimate thrills out there as these guys jump off a bungee station with parachutes only for one of them to release themselves to carry out a bungee jump! Not only doing the bungee jump but then releasing himself from the bungee and doing another base jump before sailing through the trees to the floor.

The margin for error here is massive and they have less than 30 seconds before hitting the ground. Placing a large amount of pressure on these insane thrill seekers. All I can say is what will they think of next?

I have never understood the ghoul mentality, where a person must stop to watch the results of an accident. The worst I ever remember was as a kid when we had gone to Banff (or someplace close by) and seeing the detritus of a fatal accident strewn down the side of a hill. A semi had jackknifed into a family camper, killing the family. There was clothing and other items all over the side of the hill and the ghouls were down there rifling through, picking souvenirs. It would be nice to think they were cleaning up the hillside, but that was not so.

Every time I’m on the highway and there is an accident, all the traffic slows down. It makes sense if the accident is in the way and you have to cautiously go around so as not to hit emergency workers and other bystanders. But when the accident is on the other side, or in no way impinging on traffic flow, then why slow down to gawk? Is this an innate curiosity like the proverbial cat’s? If so, then it might just as likely kill you, if you end up affecting traffic flow by staring at an accident instead of watching where you’re driving.

This morbid curiosity extends into the fascination for some people with murderers and serial murderers. On the news this week was a piece about memorabilia of serial murderer Clifford Olson being put up for auction. How his items have gone from his prison cell to the online market is supposedly under investigation. But it’s obvious that someone is greedy enough to make a buck and doesn’t care if airing such items related to a perpetrator of horrific crimes further scars the victims’ families.

I’ve recently written several pieces of horror fiction. Something I have to ask myself from time to time is why have I written a particular piece. In it, is part of this curiosity that perhaps all humans exhibit: what would cause a person to become a murderer, to go mad? What reasoning would justify murdering to them? Perhaps part of our curiosity comes from not being able to fathom a murderous mind. I’ve written stories that disturb me. Sometimes they’re cautionary tales. At their worst, they’re just for thrill seekers, for those who enjoy being scared with slasher/horror films. True crime books are very popular, and often have redemption in them: the author has written about the murderer after he/she was put away.

I never did see Cronenberg’s movie Crash but it had a lot to do with this morbid curiosity taken to the next level and eroticsed. Some curiosity on the workings of a killer mind may be natural, but I really have to wonder at someone so wrapped up in the misfortunes of others and in taking serial murderers to star status. It disturbs me a great deal and I just wonder, in the right, or wrong situation, would such a person’s fascination go that one step farther. I always have to ask myself if I can justify what I wrote. Is there a message or is it just a thrill, whether wanted or unwanted? My answers are not always clear cut.

For todays post I decide to chose a topic I am not very knowledgeable about, and that is Metal. While I believe all genres have there place in music metal I have always had a hard time with. It was just until recently when a friend of mine suggested and album to me, after listening to it I was stunned by the quality of musicians and their producers. Since then I tired to go back through what Metal I own and try to retrace the steps of one of the most successful genres to date. I started my look back at the late 1980’s with Slayer. Though I had heard only one song of their (Raining Blood) I had foolishly placed them in the no talent rack. I then was given a copy of Reign in Blood there most successful and most highly praised album to date. Both my friend and others that I know who like Metal suggested that I start here.

Reign In Blood is Slayer’s 3rd album and is their most structured to date, only 30 minutes long the album breaks barriers with its striped down songs and faster then light tempo. Slayers opening song “Angel of Death” starts with a deathly scream that sets the mood for the rest of the album. Of what I could get from the lyrics the albums seems centered around the Nazi extermination camps of World War Two. The paces seems to never really slow or falter at any place. After “Angel of Death” comes another highlight of the album “Piece By Piece” sticking to there strip down style of the album the song only runs to about two minutes. After “Piece by Piece” the next great highlight is “Postmortem” which builds up to the finally song of the track which pretty much every kid knows now (including myself) “Raining Blood”, while out of context (say in Guitar Hero 3) its an odd song when you mash it in with the whole album its truly one of the best ending songs to an album ever.  Its power and sound smooth finish the album of with a great breakdown that then leads into a crack of thunder and rain. Overall I feel like I should go try to repent my sins to the music gods for ever labeling this as bad. This album really feels like an essential to anyone wanting to see where most modern metal bands got there inspiration .

5 out of 5

Next up on my metal Journey we turn to one of the current leaders of American metal Lamb of God, I always thought the whole screaming thing was there to compensate for lack of talent. I then was forced to listen to Lamb of Gods “Ashes of the Wake” and I will say I was impressed. Though I am not totally sold on the vocal styles and the ideas behind them I still feel like they convey an emotion of some sort which I feel is rather important. The album begins with the well known song “Laid to Rest” (another Guitar Hero song) though powerful I thought it truly lacked the extra one two to be considered greatest thing ever as some put it to be. Don’t get me wrong its is a great son but not as good as some of the other tracks on the album, like the next song on my highlight reel “Omerta” which begins with a great speech about laws of life. With a driving beat and great heavy drum part I would put this up as one of if not my favorite song of the album.  With a great breakdown toward the center that crescendos towards a great ending. My finally song I really like on this album is “Ashes of the Wake” which has a very odd speech that has an odd Iraq overtone to it, the song starts and is constantly elaborating on it self, mostly instrumental the feeling of the overall song is one of anger. Overall it comes in second for favorite song of the album. Though overall I think at points some put Lamb of God to high up there as greatest Metal band of all time, they have their share of both hits and misses like every band.

4 of 5

For my final review I chose to look to the future of metal and a small outfit out of my home state of Pennsylvania, August Burns Red. Originally I was planning to talk about their second album Messengers but started to listen to their first album Thrill Seekers during my trip out of state and grew more and more fond of the structure of the album. Opening with the powerful “Your Little Suburbia in Ruins” which then mold into a set of three really powerful and well molded songs, the speed dips up and down as the album elapses in and out of its own mold. The next highlight of  the album is “Barbarian” that opens with a great drum beat that molds into a great speed beat that just seems never to want to back down. The singer grow more and more intense overtime giving off almost a violent tone to himself leading many including myself to be intimated by him. The final highlight of the album is to date one of my favorite songs I have ever heard, “The Seventh Trumpet”, I first heard this performed by a kid at my school and thought it was just a original. I  later asked him what song it was and if he had copyrighted it because it was so good, he then told that it was just a cover. I then and went and listen to the original and I was stunned, the song gave such a raw feel and attitude and also had the greatest breakdown ever. At one point it quiets just for the lead singer to quietly whisper “and the stars begin to fall” that line put chills down my spine. I really could not explain to this date why it did that other then it just brought up an image of nuclear weapons and missiles. It a song that I will never forget and that in some way would get a place in my mind. If you have never heard of them or never thought of listening to them give them a try. To this date they are still I feel the future of Metal as both a genera and driving force in music.

5 out of 5

So after this great journey I feel that I should try to better understand Metal as both a genera and an art form, I now need to go beg the music gods for forgiveness and hope they don’t smite me.

-TheInsider9

Wooing my wife began with promising an adventurous first date – scaling the walls of Thrill Seekers, a local climbing gym.  The date never happened.   

The promised first date changed when Flogging Molly came to the Ogden.  Rock climbing was postponed for Irish rock.  Things still worked out.  After all, I did marry my wife. 

For our first Christmas as a married couple, I surprised my wife with Thrill Seekers gift certificates.  She gleefully insisted we go climbing the first weekend after the New Year. As a successfully married man, I offer this advice to the single men out there. Rock climbing is the perfect first date.   

The first step in climbing is fitting the harness and learning some basic knots.  Checking the harness and knot for safety requires close inspection.  Then, one person climbs the wall while the other belays.   

Rock climbing is physical.  Physical dates are great…enough said.  Plus, the adrenaline and constant physical exertion gives you something to talk about for coffee, ice cream, drinks or the resulting second date. 

With the limited vertical space of indoor climbing, you do not necessarily trust the other with your life.  It’s more like trusting that your date won’t let you fall and splinter your femur.   

While not life and death, it does foster immediate trust.  If trust is there, a bond is instantly formed.  If not, there’s no need for a second date. 

Since our official first date, four months after the wedding, my wife and I have been to the climbing gym several times.  We’re getting closer every day.  Belaying each other definitely pushed the trust factor to a whole new level.   

Guys; take my advice.  Try rock climbing for the perfect first date.

While in Belize we stayed at an incredible Jungle retreat.  While there we took a 2 hour hike into the jungle, were tied to a root, and repelled 300 feet into a giant jungle sink hole.

Spelunking Spelunking in the Jenolan Caves, just outside of Sydney Australia, was one of our favorite adventures of all time.  We had to repel into a sink hole, and traverse down over 300 feet in total darkness through small narrow channels.  We continually came upon beautiful caverns and interesting rock features.  The entire family participated and we all have very fond memories of this family adventure.    One of the interesting stories we were told from our guide was about people getting lost and never finding their way out.  This was in the early 1800’s and people would enter with just candles.  They would get lost in the maze of deep paths, and when the candles went out they were helplessly lost.  In fact, when you turn off any type of artificial lighting, it is so dark, you can not even stand with any balance.  The picture attached shows writings on the walls from those days.  Some of the writings were from people that were lost and actually writing their obituaries as their candles were dwindling and they knew they would never find their way out.