CHILE- USA - NZ - The YogaSlacker Recovery Method...

Team YogaSlackers/GearJunkie at the finish line!

It's crazy to think that just last week,  Jason and I were at the southern tip of Chile- teaching along with Sam and Ariel in Punta Arenas!  There is a growing community of yogis down there, who are more than eager to be a group of avid slackers and acroyogis!  We are super excited to go back next year for the Patagonian Expedition Race- and now to help grow the budding yoga community! We feel very fortunate to have a second family as well, Gorge, Gina, Ariel and Betty are the family we stay with when we go down, they are the nicest people ever. If you ever head down to Punta Arenas, let us know and we will point you in their direction. 

This years race was an amazing, brutal, suffer fest for everyone involved.  It was our first race, but not first adventure with the new addition to our YogaSlackers Team- Paul Cassedy. Paul has been with YogaSlackers since the very beginning and is often referred to as the "ultimate slacker".  His down to earth, relaxed southern california surfer vibe has a lot to do with that…. "He definitely impressed me!" says  Jason, "I knew from our wind kiting expedition across North Dakota that he was strong and stubborn- but he blew me out of the water this time. We are excited to have him race with us more and more!".  Daniel and I couldn't agree more.  Paul came into the race with an ankle injury, which quickly turned into a knee injury throughout the race.  Watching him go down hills was agony for all of us.  He's quite vocal- but he never gives up!  

Paul belaying Daniel up YogaSlackers Pass

Dan and I had our own injuries as well, Dan got bursitis in his knee at the start of the trek and I twisted my ankle the second to last day of the monster trek and got a nasty fungus infection on my foot.  Jason as usual, started out steady and kept it up the entire time. He did however fall into a icy cold river in the middle of a blizzard on the last day of the trek.  We were all pretty much hobbling our way across the finish line.  Other teams had their own sagas - our friends Dancing Pandas made the trekking cut off by just 13 minutes!!  They could barely walk due to their own fight with the foot fungus.  Their's proved to be FAR worse then mine, as they had to get morphine shots to walk off the boat on the last day! 

This race quickly goes from a race to a survival mode expedition. That's why it keeps pulling us back, it truly is "The Last Wild Race".  When it is just us out there taking our own routes, exploring and going as fast as we can- that is when it gets good, and we come together as a team more than ever.  This year we forged a river with our sleeping pads, went up and over two exposed passes (we named one GearJunkie Pass and one YogaSlackers Pass).  To read Jason's race report and our teams gear review-  please click here or visit gearjunkie.com. More videos are coming as well! 

Ariel rocking it in the wild lands of Patagonia at CP 17

Sam's team - 4 Continents had to pull out in the middle of the monster trek due to a teammate getting a sprained ankle.  Sam then came aboard the boat that we were all stuck on for a couple days, it was nice to see him,  we all shared the last of our food and stories.  Fellow Slacker- Ariel was out on the third to last checkpoint on the monster trek. It was amazing and a bit surreal seeing her shining face out in the middle of nowwhere- she was such an energetic boost! After seeing her- we went nonstop through the night to try and catch East Wind and finish the trek.  She had a slackline up and was teaching her crew headstands and slacklining.  

While Paul and Dan are back home nursing their injuries, and sleeping and eating lots, Jason and I are now on the other side of the world-  in Te Anau, New Zealand- sharing our love of Acro and Slacklining in the southern most city of New Zealands Southland!  We came here last year and loved it so much, we opted to come back again. While it was a smaller group this year, we had a lot of returning eager Kiwis, who rocked all three days of our YogaSlackers intensive.  We gave them a whole training regime- complete with a slackline workout, acro training drills and a whole acrobatic flow entitled "The Te Anau Tango".  We will have YogaSlacker Kiwis in no time!!  Kerri Anne who hosts us and runs the non profit-  Te Anau Yoga, is extremely welcoming. It feels like a second home to us, and we hope to come back every year to teach and go on missions.  

Lots of throne to standing on shins:)

Beth our extremely amazing hostess! 

Today marks the start of our honeymoon, we have two more weeks on the Southland- we plan on going on some pack rafting missions, some long runs, and treks along the south coast and on Stewart Island… we also hope to visit one of Ibex's wool stations!! I love sheep!!  

Cows – the next level of slacklining…

Perhaps it was Andy Lewis’s stellar slackline appearance during Madonna’s equally impressive Super Bowl half time show. Or maybe it was simply due to a lack of waves…regardless of the motivation, my dear friend Kadri DB Kurgun and I were inspired one sunny morning in Rincon, Puerto Rico to do a slackline photo shoot in a large field with massive palm trees, beautiful ocean background views and what we thought would be innocent bystanders - some of the local cows.

Now for those of you who have been following the progress of the YogaSlackers, or even slacklining in general, you know that there has been some crazy stuff going on. From long lines to high lines, water lines, rodeo lines, static lines and dynamic lines we seem to be diversifying in all shapes, sizes and directions, especially over the last year. As Andy Lewis so eloquently put it “Slacklining isn’t a trend, it’s a lifestyle”. And it’s true – we’re all pushing the limits of this amazing practice of balance, love and lifestyle.

Which is why it only seems fitting to get some animals involved…

Little did we know when we set up the line that the seemingly uninterested cows would even take notice. Choosing a set of palm trees based on the lighting, we anchored the line expecting the cows to stay in their herd in the background. But as soon as the line went up things rapidly progressed. Turns out cows are totally into slacklining, or very curious about it at least.

As we began shooting all I could see was Kadri’s face laughing as I took a couple poses wondering why the seemingly short, 35 ft line was shaking like a 300 ft long line. Turns out the cows had walked up to it and were actually nudging it with their heads and even tongues.

More cows came over to check it out and we even had to stop shooting for a moment to chase after one that picked up my bag of clothes in it’s mouth and started to walk off with it

Needless to say these amazingly cute creatures are also very inquisitive and quite observant. After their initial check in with the line and sad conclusion that it could not be eaten, the cows sat back and watched, with one even licking my hand at times with a huge black tongues, about the length of my head. And after their initial check in and failed attempt to score a bag of free yoga clothes the cows went back to their business of eating, sleeping and even playing with each other (so cute again).

So not to say there is an implied trend here but there is a lifestyle consideration underneath it all as I do believe we could all stand to spend some more time interacting with animals that often times get neglected until they can serve purpose for our needs. And maybe, just maybe over time all of this balance, concentration and fun that slacklining instills inside us could extend to our other relationships with our friends, family, strangers and perhaps even the animals we pass by time and time again.

Special thanks to Kadri Kurgun for sharing the experience and always making me laugh (even when cows aren’t involved). Check out more of his work at www.kadrikurgun.com

With love for slackers, and cows everywhere…

-adi

And a couple more shots from the day after the cows got bored with us...

Redefining Rest

It is interesting to look back, especially as the new year approaches.  
The past three days, the weather up here in Bend, Oregon has been nasty.  And after a solid week of training it seemed like a good time for a rest day.  But instead, for some reason each day we resisted the temptation, and ventured into the outdoors to train.  We almost made it through Wednesday, but ended up at the gym for an 90 minute lifting session as a "warm-up" for an evening yoga class.  Thursday was bitter cold, with unseasonal downpours, and high winds.  Certainly we would have been justified in hunkering down next to the fire with a good book, but someone got the idea that the conditions were just about as close to what we'd experience in the upcoming Patagonian Expedition Race, and the idea stuck.  A cold, wet (but somehow still fun) 3 hour training ride on our Ellsworth mountain bikes ensued - complete with fartlek pushup sprints at the end.


Friday, however we were all determined NOT to train.  Our bodies had certainly been sending "rest" messages for days, and finally we listened.  But by mid afternoon we were going pretty stir crazy, with random guttural screams and spontaneous wrestling matches erupting around the house.  The rest day seemed to stretch on forever.  


Is I tried in vain to go to sleep, I wondered if why I(we) were like this.  If it had always been this way.  I certainly feel lazy much of the time, and enjoy sitting around with my morning coffee till it is late in the day. But something seems to always push me out of that place of physical contentment before too long.


An hour later, still unable to sleep, I was sorting through old computer files, and stories I'd written.  I came across a movie I'd made over two years ago...and it seemed all to familiar...
(the text below the movie is what I wrote that day....)





The day after we finished our monster AcroYoga teaching weekend, we were in desperate need of a rest. And we tried, but YogaSlacker Dan had flown all the way from Minnesota to Arizona for the Acro workshop, and we couldn't let him go back to the cold north bitterness without showing him exactly what sort of things he'd be missing....so we kept the climbing to 5.10 and 5.11, and since Chelsey was teaching yoga classes all day - there were just three of us so we all got a bit of rest while the others climbed. The routes were all long (35m) and really really disgustingly sustained. As someone in the video says - "we are gonna need another rest day after this rest day..."




May you all have at least some relaxing moments on this last day of the year....


Jason