In a society suffering from what Richard Louv has labeled a “nature deficit disorder,” author Roland Smith creates a dilemma. Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods” has created a movement since it came out in 2007 to get our electronically-anchored kids off the couch, out the door and into nature. Roland Smith’s adventure-based novels would do just that — if you could put them down. Smith’s novels have young explorers going on engaging adventures, be it climbing Mt. Everest (“Peak”), falling out of a jet at 18,000 feet and into the Congo (“Cryptid Hunters”) or trying to protect a parent who has become Big Foot obsessed (“Sasquatch”).
Category Archives: Climbing
Dropping weights, osteosoccer and a growing Last Supper
The latest fitness news from the research world …
Weight training-related injuries up If you use free weights don’t drop them, especially on yourself. A just-released study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital finds that injuries from weight training increased nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2007, largely the result of males dropping weights on themselves. The study, to be published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, found that of the 970,000 weight training-related injuries recorded during that 18-year span, 82 percent were suffered by males, 47 percent by lifters age 13 to 24. Ninety percent of the injuries involved free weights, 65 percent involved the lifter dropping said free weight on their person. Read more in this Science Daily post. (Similarly, injuries from rock climbing and the use of ladders and hot tubs were also up.
It’s Easter weekend — must we egg you on?
Things I might be doing this Easter weekend if my nose wasn’t running like a Delta Tau Chi keg from spring allergies.
1. Paddle at Merchant’s Millpond
Merchant’s Millpond may be man made, but after 190 years the millpond has shed most signs of its civilized past. Today, the 760-acre millpond is much more coastal swamp than center of commerce. The pond’s dark, acidic waters meander through a forest of bald cypress and tupelo gums dripping with Spanish moss. Cooters, snapping turtles. water snakes and a host of vocal frogs add to this aquatic adventure, which is as easy as plunking down $5 for a canoe (for the first hour, $3 each additional hour). Easy paddling, no previous experience in a boat required.
Banff comes to North Carolina
I’ve long wanted to go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival but I’ve never gotten my act together to make it happen. Now, the next best thing is happening: The Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming to me. More significantly to you, it’s coming to us. This month, the film fest featuring the best in outdoor adventure will show, in scaled-down form, in Boone, Brevard, High Point and Charlotte.
Seeking your passion? Grab some popcorn
You never know where you’ll find inspiration. You could, for instance, think you’re passing some idle time at work by surfing the web and — viola! — you stumble across a video that makes you think, “Wow! I’d like to do that!” Or, in the case of some of the following videos, “Wow! I’d like to do something like that but without risk of loss of limb or life!”