I used to love the adrenaline rush I would get when I was a corrections officer at the county jail and also a security police officer at the mall.

The mall was in metro Detroit and we had to deal with street gangs all of the time.

At the jail, when you had someone who didn't comply with your orders or during a shakedown I would get a rush then too. This was when you got the opportunity to ransack the cellblock.

Did he die due to a fall?

While I love the sensation of free fall, I also love a controlled escape from this. When on an airplane passing through turbulence, I’m the one who will say, “Can we do that again?” In skiing the turn is performed to control speed, potentially regain balance and of course change direction. So skiing is a lot about challenge and control. Taking yourself to the edge and using a developed set of skills is where the thrill is. There is a huge element of self-reliance in the process.

I don’t know if I’d be okay with base jumping or parachuting. It seems such an all or nothing kind of pursuit. I’m sure it would be highly addictive, and obviously a HUGE adrenalin rush, but unlike skiing, free-fall doesn’t seem to require a whole lot of developed skills or muscle control. Not that I’ve done it, but based only on observation it seems about hanging on and living through it. Perhaps there is a large element of letting go involved in this process and a total reliance on pre-determined conditions to permit you to survive?

This is not to suggest a qualitative difference between one type of adrenalin rush and another. But it begs the question of what elements in a challenge or thrill are the most enjoyable or addicting?

BTW, if you want to blow off speed while XC skiing (open heel), how do you do it?

Mountain biking is good for lower levels of adrenaline and physical conditioning. However, it is the kayaking that really brings out the adrenaline.

Do some class 4 and 5 rapids to see how you feel about adrenaline. Personally, I love it. Relish it. Enjoy it.

Not so much it is an issue of competing with others, just conquering your own issues. The self and ONLY self empowerment is the force that drives one to work harder at the level of danger involved. Check out Chatooga section 4 or Tallulah gorge (when its running).

Treat your friends with the military "ranger code" of never leaving someone behind....watch over your paddling companions. Just do what you can in the rapid and compete against only yourself. Take care of each other and enjoy a comradeship among friends. The best method to betterment IMO.

Hate mail to...Botor

Earls Ford, Bulls Sluice, 7 ft. Falls, ect......Been down them all in rafts, kayaks, canoes and on my ass. Funn stuff!!

Mogadishiu Mile is the best rush I can think of or getting shot at in any way get the juices flowing pretty good.


Some people get a rush others tinkle in their pants.

Grin + Grimace
 

Running the bar down in Coos Bay OR, at the bow of a 17' jet skiff. 30' rollers spaced 45' apart will suck the ol testes right back from whence they emerged--pucker factor 10+. Became completely airborne multiple times during that total fawking thrill ride.

Dropping in on a big wave surfing and feeling its power...and for winters in Canada it's racing down a steep run on fast skis at full pace, at night, groomed and packed snow, -30 C, feeling your eyelashes freeze together as you hit top speed and your skis barely touch the passing snow...:D

Dano died when his rig failed.

To scrub off speed while XC skiing you snowplow like crazy. It's nigh impossible on icy downhills. If you can find a berm you can ride it around the corner. If you're in the tracks you take one foot out of the tracks and snowplow with one foot.

When all else fails you just sit down on your butt.

I saw an article on that in Coastal Living magazine a couple of years back and have always wanted to try it. Don't they have boat ramps up there? I've done similar in a Zodiac with an outboard, but not on waves that big.

On surfing, have ripped havoc in SW Costa Rica and many, many pre-hurricane breaks on the East Coast. Indescribable.

Yep, I've been to Cape Hatteras dozens of times on surfing trips. Some of that pre-hurricane surf is insane. The kinds of days when the skies are gray, the wind is howling and only a few top locals are out in the well beyond-overhead surf. The rest of us mortals just watch in awe...:eek:

Most of my pre-cane surfing has been done in Charleston (easier to GFO when it hits) but I grew up surfing Hatteras--steepest beach in the East.

The waves are much larger in South West CR, but the surfing is safer because of the long rollers as opposed to the violent breaks and steep beach at Hatteras. I have a friend that has a trailer in Buxton who is a true, old-school surf bum and he's one of those guys on the horizon.

Small world. His name isn't Scott is it? ;) Just bought a new longboard from Natural Art this year - a beauty.

You're not kidding about the breaks in Hatteras. It's been tough to learn on, the rides are always pretty short. I love the remoteness, even though it's really ramped up on tourism in the past 15 or so years I've been going there. Still, in May, before the summer crowds hit, you can have the dawn breaks all to yourself - and the dolphins. Ah....I miss it already. :D

Hoooweee...this always gits the ticker pumpin'...:D

We were trawling for Hake along the Washington/Oregon coast. One of the processor guys lopped off his thumb, so we needed to run him into the ER--stat. I don't think a flexible hull Zodiac would've survived the break at the crest of those waves. The deck boss had to feather the throttle on that Volvo turbodiesel, or we'd bust through at the crest and drop the full thirty feet, straight down. It was hairy.

Last great longboard I had was honestly a G&S. The only surfing I do anymore is if i go somewhere and it happens to be available (I don't/can't travel just to surf anymore), so I will buy or rent a 6'2 or so. Most of my old shortboards were Perfections, because one of my fraternity brothers worked for Kelly Richards and we got to demo:cool: At one time I had a dozen sweet prototype perfections. I got heavily into windsurfing in the mid-nineties though, and became pretty much landlocked since then. I am looking at a Kite-Board rig for possible maiden voyage in July. That is another kick in the ass, but the rigs are very high dollar, and I don't know if I can justify it for use 2X a year as fast as the technology changes.

I love to ski too, and go each year, but my wife hate's the whole of it, so I am weaning myself away.

PS: My pal's name is Adam.