Could adventure sports be your rite of passage?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, ash, overlandholidays, trekkingholidays     Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, culture, initiation, rite of passage

Ryan Texieira, (founder of U R FREE2B U.com) wrote an article recently that proposes adventure travel could be a modern day male rite of passage, helping young men cross-over to ‘responsible manhood’.

It’s a journey; an exploration of the self. Travel leads to positive change within and self evolution. These are all things we know, so why could young men still benefit from such initiations?

Image from urfree2bu.com

Ryan adopts an evolutionary perspective that reveals successful societies conducted rites of passage for young males to ‘kill their inner child’ to become men. He’s a real believer that adventure travel could be a means for men to get past their childish callings and ‘man up’ to become the ‘initiated male’. Sport doesn’t do it; what’s needed is a rite of passage and adventure travel could be the vehicle we need. read more

Trying extreme sports:at night!

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     extreme sports, night surfing, Surfing, surfing holidays

Some people just need to take things to a new level, but there’s only a few that are brave enough, or crazy enough (you decide) to go trying extreme sports at night.

If you’ve ever been on an expedition and had to walk through the night, you’ll know how hard it is: overhanging branches appear closer, and small shapes in the ground look like potholes as every sense gets fine-tuned to the new environment.

Now, as for surfing at night, it’s utterly mental! Take a look at the vid clip. Not only is this guy surfing at night, he’s taking on massive waves in Maui. And he’s jacked his board up to lights designed for a space craft!

Skydivers jump at night and endurance athletes have to face long night sections, but can you think of other extreme sports people that deliberately wait till nightfall to get it on?

Mark Visser:  ”Surf’s up and lights out, dude!”

Mark Visser Rides JAWS at Night! from Fortrus Sports on Vimeo.

Keeping your 5 top travel resolutions alive

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     new year resolutions, Travel

Half way into January and the pressures of work are once more upon us. And if you want to see more of the world this year, it’s time to bring in those resolutions to help make your travel dreams a reality.

If you’ve long held travel ambitions,

Photo from Flickr user: katerha

or just want to experience the world through the eyes of a traveller and not a tourist, take inspiration from our top 5 travel resolutions.

Read them everyday, pin them to your computer screen, email them to yourself; whatever it takes: this is the year you get out there and do it!

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Marrakech tops BA must-visit list

Ian K    New Sailing Holiday Ideas, Sailing Holidays Talk, sailingbreaks     2011 destinations, British Airways, California, Caribbean, japan, las vegas, maldives, marrakech, mauritius, morocco, new york, north america, puerto rico, Sailing, sailing holiday, san diego, st kitts & nevis, st lucia, united states, usa

A major airline has placed the Moroccan resort of Marrakech at the top of its must-visit list. The destination has been named as the place to see in 2011 by British Airways, which will start flights to the city on March 28, 2011.

In second place on BA’s best travel tips was San Diego in southern California, followed by New York. The list was full with American tourist spots and Caribbean locations where sailing enthusiasts go to enjoy well earned sailing holidays.

Photo from Flickr user: uriolat

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More boats on show at Miami event

Luke    sailingbreaks     Excel, miami, Sailing, watersports, yacht and brokerage show, yachts

People keen on sailing and watersports holidays may be interested to learn that more boats and exhibitors have been promised at this year’s Yacht and Brokerage Show in Miami. After the success of the London Boat Show at London’s Excel, organisers on the other side of the Atlantic are hoping for a similar jump in attendance.

Photo from Flickr user: miamism

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Stars come out for London Boat Show

Luke    sailingbreaks     jodie kidd, london boat show, Princess Anne, rebecca ferguson, Sailing

X Factor runner-up Rebecca Ferguson, supermodel Jodie Kidd and HRH Princess Anne were among the famous faces at this year’s London Boat Show.

Former Strictly Come Dancing star Kidd, who was a keen showjumper in her youth and also has an interest in motor racing and golf, officially opened the event, which returned to the Excel Arena in London from January 7-16. Meanwhile, 24-year-old Ferguson unveiled two new Sunseekers – part of the fleet of 23 that are making their debut in the UK. HRH Princess Anne visited the Sunsail stand where she was given a guided tour from Head of Marketing Simon Conder and learnt about their range of sailing holidays

Photo from Flickr user: Jason Cartwright

A new 70m x 24m indoor pool at the event’s opening showcased a watersports display including kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding and wakeboarding stunts. Andrew Williams, managing director of National Boat Shows, said: “The new-look 2011 Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show was an action-packed 10 days and Jodie, with her sporting credentials, along with our host of watersports professionals provided a fitting opening.”

The show returned this year with an array of brand new features, attractions and regular favourites, around 1,000 boats and more than 540 exhibitors, making it an unmissable day out.

Beating the new flight charges

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, New Adventure Travel Ideas     cheap flights, Flight problems, Travel, travel tips

Regular fliers will have spotted new charges appearing on the check-in experience. Although, with a little planning these can easily be avoided.

If, like us, you travel regularly, you’ll already be well aware of the ever stringent weight restrictions.

Photo from Flickr user: Alex E. Proimos

So, as clever travellers you probably seek out the empty check-in desk, then drop your hold bag on to see if you’ve made the weight.

The digital readout reveals you’ve either under-packed, which is good news, or your bag is too fat to fly and you’ll have to start shuffling items into other luggage.

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