This year has gone by unbelievably quickly. In my mind, it’s a blur of new experiences, from Israel to Australia—and nearly everywhere in between. And I’ve been honored to have Athleta Chi readers follow along with me, through snowboard bruises and swimming with saltwater crocodiles. No matter what our career, sport, or home situation, it’s…
The perspex cylinder cage was suspended above the pool by three thick metal chains. Goggles in hand, I climbed down the shiny silver ladder and planted my feet at the bottom of the cage, where it skimmed the top of the water. Only five feet away was a monster of a saltwater crocodile, eyeing me….
Considering my time with ocean-related sports, I’m surprised that I haven’t carried my interest over to rivers. The only time I’ve ever river rafted was the summer before my last year as an undergraduate, with a handful of girlfriends on the American River. There was little rafting. It was mainly floating with a cooler or…
If there’s a theme to my athletic pursuits this year, it’s that I’ve had to let go of any proud visions of myself as a master of any one sport. That doesn’t mean that I’m not satisfied when I’ve had a particularly great day outdoors. I’ve just had to let my expectations take a back…
Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, is described in the Popul Vuh as a place of fear where the dead had to traverse an obstacle course of bats, jaguars, rivers of blood and rooms of sharp knives. Cenotes, the deep limestone sinkholes scattered throughout the Mexican Maya world, were the gateways to this hellish underworld. But the…
Years ago, when I learned to kayak, an instructor reminded me of the importance of constantly adjusting my actions based on the numerous factors which had an impact on my being safely on the water. Did the wind or current change? Did another boater come across my path? Was I getting tired? Adjust. It’s something…
When you enjoy many different sports, it can be a difficult task to stay competent at all of them over the years—especially when those sports depend on seasons or destinations away from home. I learned to snowboard 14 years ago. It was one of those sports I learned fairly quickly, and the excitement that came…
Lying on my chunky blue surfboard, I craned my neck back to the right to see a wave growing higher and closer to where I was floating in the shallow water. “See that one?” asked my surf instructor, Nicole Pratt. “You’re going to catch it.” On my first day surfing in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit at…
