"Meet California's  14 Year Old Wave Wizard"

By:Tristan Cardinal            Author: Jason Self            PAD3O

Rating: ***

                  Jason Self's article, "Meet California's 14 Year Old Wave Wizard", is an easy read that motivates readers to try something new by engaging the audience in an event of Cory Soll's life.

            This Article is about Cory Soll, a 14 year old boy who dares to try something new, and ends up really enjoy it. Cory Lives in a small village of Trinidad, California. Due to the landscapes that have surrounded Cory his whole life; sand and oceans, he has become incredibly familiar with swimming techniques. In October 2015, Cory decided to pick up a kayak  and try something new. The first few months Cory continuously fell, but it didn't want to make him give upon learning something new. He persevered through it and eventually began to improve quickly. Many of his piers became to notice his improvements, and now he enters many competitions where he performs very well. Ultimately, Cory's decision to try something new changed his life and switched around his hobbies.

              Jason Self's article has affected the way i encounter new activities and ideas. It has taught me to be optimist and try new things because it can change the outcome of my life for the better.

               This article was very inspiring and i highly recommend it.

Self, Jason. "Child's Play: Meet California's 14 Year Old Wave Wizard." Rapid Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

Activities in the Outside Keep You Healthy on the Inside

Outdoor activities, time in nature offer health benefits - David DeMille

Rating: ****


There is a student in this semester's outdoor ed class whose favourite phrase consists of three words: "take a hike". While it is is not always practical to trek through the forest every time the suggestion is offered, many doctors are beginning to agree with this student's opinion that more people should "take a hike".

With the increase in sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets, many individuals are neglecting their physical health, and are going outdoors less often. However, these individuals are losing out on the benefit of outdoor activity. Not only do outdoor activities help exercise the body and reduce the risk of heart failure or diabetes, they also provide psychological support. Patients with depression or anxiety can use a nice, long hike as a coping mechanism. For this reason, the US National Park service has launched a perennial event known as "National Park Rx Day", an event which encourage people of all ages to visit the national park that is closest to them, and to enjoy time outdoors.

As a person who lives rurally, I have daily access to forests and parks, in which I hike and perform other outdoor activities on a regular basis. However, I can understand the difficulties people who live more urbanely can have accessing these parks, especially when they have their time limited by their jobs. Still though, it is great that Ottawa has many parks and green spaces located within the more urban parts of the city. These public spaces provide good opportunities to participate in outdoors activities for families who cannot leave the expansive city limits on a regular basis in order to go to a federal or provincial park. I also find it interesting how doctors are prescribing outdoor activities in parks. To think that a thing that was previously taken for granted has now become a physician-issued medicine for some people. I think that this article covered the news well, but didn't really talk about much beyond the primary focus of the article.

While many people's lifestyles might continue to become more and more chair-bound, it is important that everyone recognizes the great impact outdoor activities in parks and green-spaces have on our mental and physical well-being. Sometimes, the best suggestion is the simplest one. Everybody should "take a hike".

Sources:

thespectrum.com. "Outdoor activities, time in nature offer health benefits". 26 April 2016. Web. <http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2016/04/26/national-parks-week-get-outdoors-get-healthy/83542854/>. Accessed 26 April 2016.

Black Bear Guide

Black Bear Safety Rules ~ Friends of Algonquin Park

4/5 stars

Black Bear Safety Rules is a short, comprehensible guide good for a quick brush-up or for self-education. It is nessicary to understand what the article talks about if there is any chance of encountering a black bear on a future trip or excursion.

This article outlines how to act to avoid bears around the campsite. It also describes four diffrent ways a bear might act if confronted by a person, and what the proper reaction is. The article also breifly disscusses pets and bear repellants It focuses on black bears, because they are by far the most common dangerous animal near the Ottawa and algonquin area.

Black Bear Safety Rules is a short, easy to read article, with important information. This is good, especially for those looking for fast understanding, but I certainly would have found it more interesting if there had been further details about a bear's diet, ability, or maybe how your reaction should differ from that to a grizzly bear.

If you ever find yourself in the wooded back country, you should bear this article in mind. Fur real.

"Black Bear Safety Rules".Friends of Algonquin. veiwed april 29th.
http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/visit/recreational_activites/black-bear-safety-rules.php

SurvivorDude: Solo Survival  

Video by: Lukas.P

Rating:***/***** (Average)

This video follows a teen, Lukas P. while he pursues his hobby of sole survivor in the wilderness for a weekend.  Lukas takes us on his journey as he makes camp, starts a fire and locates food and water.  A couple of useful tips he provides are how to find a location to set up a camp, and the reasons why you should do so as soon as possible and how to start a fire using Cat Tail Ends, which catch on fire very easily.  Some tips he provided that weren't very useful were drinking directly from a stream or river without sterilizing it.  This was a bad tip because you can catch a lot of diseases if not sterilized before consumption.  Anouther tip he provided that wasn't useful in a survival situation was building a door for his shelter because in a survival situation you should focus more on staying alive and finding help before unnecessary comforts.

In this video I learned you can start a fire using Cat Tail Ends, how to build a shelter using natural resources such as branches and leaves, and helpful tips on how to find a location for a sturdy shelter.  This video helped me realize how much time you really have in a survival situation.  It also made me realize that you can’t lose focus.  In order to survive, you must stick to your game plan so you don’t forget the important tasks needed to survive, for example collecting wood for the fire or looking for a water source.

By the end of the SurvivorDude’s trip he felt satisfied with his trip and felt confident that if he was in real survival situation he would survive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMg_BOwRjXA

Website Title: YouTube Article Title: SurvivorDude: Solo Survival

Publisher: YouTube

Electronically Published: October 10, 2012

Date Accessed: April 22, 2016

Author: bmw911bmw911

At Least My Friends Don't Kidnap Me

Dude You're Screwed Season 1 Episode 1
Originally aired on Discovery
Rating: *****

Mr. Laughton mentioned this show once in class, and I wanted to check it out for myself. Not only was the first episode fun to watch, but I also learnt some cool stuff.

This show is about a group of survival experts who kidnap a member of their group and dump him in a remote location. The kidnapped guy then has 100 hours to reach civilization or he loses "the Game". In the first episode, Jake Zweig, a Navy Seal, is dumped on Mount Loomundur in Iceland, 20 miles away from a remote village. Jake ultimately reaches the village and wins the Game, but not before making some really stupid decisions that almost cause him to lose.

While the men in the show are put in extreme survival situations, I still learnt some cool applicable tricks. For example, Jake uses the leather strap on the wooden shield in his survival kit to create goggles to protect his eyes from snow blindness. Later, Jake cuts up his shield and fashions a shovel in an attempt to build a snow cave. I was really impressed by his resourcefulness and ability to turn everything in his survival kit into one or more tools. When I next go camping I'll definitely be looking at all my gear and thinking "how else could I use that?". I also learnt what not to do by watching some of Jake's mistakes. One night, he's camped near a geothermal spring, and foolishly decides to make a bed on top of the hot ground. While he is initially warmed by the hot steam, after an hour he's soaked from head to toe. And just a foot away from his bed, the temperature's below freezing. As tempting as it is, warm steam must be avoided in a cold environment to prevent hypothermia and death.

I really enjoyed the first episode, and plan to watch more on the weekend. I recommend it to anyone else who's interested in survival shows, especially if you're bored with "traditional" survival shows. Dude You're Screwed takes survival to a whole new level. Many episodes can be found on Youtube. Here's a link to the episode I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahc280Ug1aU

 Dude Youre Screwed. "Dude Youre Screwed Season 1 Episode 1 Full HD Full Episodes." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.  

Noah Veenstra-Trail Sherpa Resource Review

Noah Veenstra
4/26/2016
Mr. Laughton
PAD3O

Trail Sherpa Review

(Author Unavailable)

Rating *****

     There are a lot of resources all over the web that give a lot of insight into outdoor activities, hiking, canoeing, extreme sports, the list, of course, goes on. This time I decided to look into camping, seeing as the trip is coming up, I figured there would be a lot of fun little things that can be done to have an amazing time. In my efforts I stumbled upon a website called Trail Sherpa, specifically a post about 89 camping tips to elevate any campsite.

     Just this one article from the site has a ton of information about all kinds of things you can do to better your camping experience. Just like what we did in class the article has tips for the essential survival needs you will have (minus signalling because that should not be necessary). For shelter it has all kinds of strategies on ways you can stay warm, where to put your tent, what tent to choose, DIY nightlights and many other neat things. For fire they go over safety, and tools. Then for food they talk about recipes, ways to store your food, ways to cook it, and faster ways to clean it up. Then lastly, there was the water section which talked about sterilization, and management of your water supply. Altogether the website has links to sites with great over-the-fire recipes, online sites that sell all kinds of camping gear, and links to tons of other posts people on Trail Sherpa have written. 

     I would definitely say this resource has affected me. It has given me a lot of ideas for the canoe trip and just being outdoors in general. There are a lot of things that I would love to try, the recipes, and the d.i.y. tools are just some of them. More than just that though, reading this article has made me think about the creative side of camping apposed to the, get work done side of camping. Both have adventures of their own but there is a lot more fun to be had when you're making it you're own experience. We don't just have to make the recipes people suggest, we can make our own concoctions, they may be awful, but we're making the most of our time. Creativity is exactly how I'm going to change my behavior, I'm going to do my best to enjoy every angle of these kinds of situations even if I don't like every activity we do.

     To conclude I hope those of you who look at this take the time to go through the suggestions this site has, and hopefully you will like it as much as I did. Creativity should never be limited to one person! It may just be three days were camping for, but as far as experiences can go, that's more than a glass half full.  

Works Cited

"89 Camping Tips to Camp like a Champ." Trail Sherpa. Trail Sherpa, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

http://www.trailsherpa.com/how-to-camp-89-camping-tips/

Between a rock and a hard place (127 Hours)- Aron Ralston

   

     Rating ****

127 hours is an amazing movie and it based on a true story.  When I started watching it, i couldn't stop because it was really good and I want to know what is going to happen next. This movie is really interesting, amazing and it really inspired.

 

    “Between a rock and a hard place” is about a man name Aron Ralston. Aron Ralston love hiking, he want to be the first person to climb all 59 ranked mountain peaks. One day he decided to go on an adventure to Utah Canyon. He didn’t let anyone know where he is going. However while climbing over a boulder, Aron’s found out that the boulder was not as sturdy as he thought it was. The rock tumbled down fast. Aron falls down with a boulders between two ledges and leaving his wrist and his right hand trapped. He was panicking and tries anything to take his arm out but he couldn’t. Over the next 127 hours, he still trapped in the same place. It was raining, windy and sunny. He had struggle to survive and there were no food or water left for him to eat or drink. He have to decide whether to give up or cut his own arm off. And  he decided to cut his own arm off, he was losing lot and lot of blood and ran for help.

       I really enjoy the movie. I was really shocked and impressed with Aron decision because i didn’t expect him to cut off his own arm to survive. I really like the story of this movie. I liked it because it really inspired me how he still keep climbing and hiking even though he lost one of his arm. It means that he doesn’t giving up his dream of becoming the first man to climb all 59 mountains or his dream of becoming a mountain climber since he was a kid. He didn’t let the fact that he losing one of his arm stopping him from doing what he enjoys. From this movie, I’ve learn that never give up on anything and always try your best to do it. It is also okay to do something that are out of your comfort zone because life is too short to worry about anything, do what you like and enjoy no matter what people say or stopping you from doing it.

     I will put the linked of the trailer movie down below so you can check it out. I would recommended everyone to watch it. There is book as well and I definitely recommend it to people who doesn’t like watching movie. Give it a try and you guys will love it!

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ

Reference :Smith, Rodney, and Aron Ralston. 127 Hours. London: Scholastic, 2012. Print.