Fear and Glaciers in Tahiti and Alaska

I find myself to be a pretty safe person. And by safe I mean not very daring. Alright, to be perfectly honest, I am downright afraid of just about any activity that has obvious physical risk to it. Call me crazy, but the idea of breaking a bone or otherwise physically injuring myself doing something that screams "I will make you regret doing this. Maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but you will pay for your arrogance in thinking you can take advantage of me without consequence." doesn't get my "motor" humming. I know, activities probably don't think like I just portrayed, but they might as well because that's how I think about them.

When I was younger, I was a fairly adventurous individual. I played "full contact" sports like Football and Soccer and I also surfed waves up to 10 ft., skied and snowboarded big mountains and skateboarded every day. On the surface, I may have looked like a fearless person. But there was always an underlying fear that held me back in just about any sport I took part in. Nobody really knew it, but I was pretty damn scared about getting hurt doing all those things. Nowadays, that fear has made friends with my adult logic and they're partying like it's 1999. I simply am not willing to risk life and limb for a quick rush. Period. My brain is trained to consider the worst case scenario in any given situation, so when I so much as step on a skateboard these days I'm thinking about breaking my neck. And to be candid, I'm not really bothered by my growing reluctance to put myself in potentially dangerous situations. I'm quite happy living out my life on the physically conservative side.

Still, there are a few activities today that, if I had proper experience, would be pretty enticing, for no other reason than to say I did them. I think we all have an inner voice that tells us that we don't want to be breathing our last breath only to be filled with regret towards what we didn't do in life, and some activities that are being done today would certainly do a thorough job of eliminating that feeling. For me, one of those things is tow in surfing and the other is a new one, only ever done once, called "Glacier Surfing", which entails hanging on to a jet ski in freezing cold water while waiting for a glacier to crumble enough to create a massive tsunami which you are towed into on your surfboard. Surfing a 25 ft. - 50 ft. wave is crazy enough when you're in the ocean, but when you surf a massive wave that is generated by an eroding glacier, in 30 degree water no less, you really need to have one foot in the loony bin. I'd have to imagine that if I died doing something like that I'd be pretty satisfied with how I went out. At the very least, my adrenaline would certainly be spent. Then again, my last thought could be "You freakin' idiot..." or something along those lines.

Anyway, I'm going to sign off, but before I do that I'll leave you with two pieces of video. The first is Teahupoo (pronounced Cho-Poo), Tahiti. It's one of the gnarliest waves in the world and breaks in about 2-5 feet of water. This particular wave is Laird Hamilton on what is considered one of the craziest rides ever. The second link is of two big wave surfers from Hawaii, Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala, attempting and succeeding to ride a tsunami wave ("only" about 15 ft.- 10 ft. high) created by a glacier breaking apart. Enjoy this craziness:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NcaZarxilJQ&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mKRR9RMmcIQ


TWF