Pro mountain bike athlete Michal Kollbek recently took on the famous White Line of Sedona, Arizona. This video is so beautifully shot, catching some of the best footage ever seen from this notoriously rugged terrain.
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Extreme Mountain Biking In The Engadin
The Engadin is known for being home to some of the best extreme mountain biking in the world. This is a great video of Vertriders taking on some of the most epic terrain this iconic valley in the Swiss Alps has to offer.
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Makuakia Rothman: Thoughts From A Champion Surfer
“We take our sport seriously and we want to be at that elite level. We’re not beach bums. We train. We want to win.”
What a powerful quote from Makuakia Rothman, the 2015 WSL Big Wave Tour champion. This video provides a great look into the life and motivations of a pro surfer, and a champion one at that.
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Help Rebuild This New Paltz Climbing Coop
Source: New Paltz Times
Donate Here
When a fire in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 7 destroyed the building at 91 North Chestnut Street in New Paltz, it took away more than the climbing and training gear inside belonging to the members of the New Paltz Climbing Cooperative, who had made the location their home base since 2011. The good news is that nobody was injured in the fire that also destroyed the STS Tire and Auto Center in the building, but the loss of the community gathering space meant more to the co-op’s members than the dollar amount of the equipment they lost.
The New Paltz Climbing Cooperative was started by a group of friends who shared a passion for rock climbing. “The original idea was to create a space where the climbing community, which is quite large in New Paltz, could come together and climb and train and just have a general place that we could spend time together doing what we love,” says New Paltz High School science teacher Chad Foti. It all began pretty organically, with conversations between Foti and fellow climber Johann Kunz moving from “We should do this” to “I saw a space that might work” to “Hey, this will work.” Other co-founding members got on board — Angela Kunz, Mike and Julie Lillis and Don Spiro — and they secured the location at 91 North Chestnut Street in September of 2011, opening the doors that December.
“None of us ever aspired to run a business,” says Foti. “And even now, I don’t think of myself as having run a business. It was very much a community space; the fact that we were able to do it at all is amazing, let alone having had it last as long as it did.”
By the time of the fire, the cooperative had approximately 100 members, who paid $350 a year to join, gaining them 24/7 access to the site. Maintenance and operations were handled in a communal effort; nobody drew a salary. “It was never meant to be something corporate,” Foti says. “All we were ever interested in was covering rent and insurance. The goal was to create a self-sustaining community climbing and training facility, and we ended up creating this micro-community, this mini-reality within New Paltz.”
The space had 15-foot-high ceilings and 2,400 square feet of wall space for climbing and bouldering along with exercise equipment and weights. Painted in bright colors in bold street-art style, the cooperative also had a comfortable area with couches for members to hang out in. All of the tools, materials and sweat equity needed to construct the interior was donated by members, who also pooled their resources in equipment, donating items from their home gyms. Climbing holds — which are more expensive than one might think, says Foti, at $8-$10 each — were also donated by members, who’d acquired them over the years while pursuing their rock climbing passion. “Just to give you a sense of scale, the number of climbing holds you need for a space equivalent to ours in the style of the climbing that we did is about two holds per square foot… so 2,400 square feet of space, you can do the math and we’re talking quite a lot of money just in the holds. Just myself, I had thousands of dollars in holds in there. We were able to source these things through the climbing community, but it took years.”
Now the prospect of starting over from scratch is daunting, but not insurmountable, says Foti. “It’s just something that we have to deal with.” At first he considered throwing in the towel, saying that part of him felt like, “We did it well and we went out at a high point,” but then he thought about the value of the community they’d created among local climbers. “Perspective is an important thing,” he says, “and nobody is pretending that this is a world-class tragedy, but it’s a resource that the New Paltz community had that they took advantage of, and is now at the moment, gone. Any personal wealth that was lost by anybody in this pales in comparison to the community lost. That’s really where it’s at and that’s why I’m still here and pushing forward to rebuild.”It will need a groundswell of community support to do that, Foti says; a true grassroots effort. “We’re fortunate that because of the impact we’ve made, we’ve had a myriad of climbing companies offer us holds at cost, which is absolutely phenomenal. But we still need to raise money to take advantage of that. So we’re looking for a new space and any kind of donations that we can to start accruing the kinds of things we need to start again. And the more that people realize what we’re about and what we’re trying to do, the more people will end up utilizing the space once we get it going again.”
The time frame for rebuilding depends on fundraising and the generosity of the community, he adds, and they hope to stay in New Paltz. “We’re very much open to any possibility, but New Paltz is ideal,” says Foti. “It’s a wonderful place to be a rock climber. We have a unique situation here in that we have excellent, world-class climbing and we’re also really close to other cultural things. Most climbing areas are way out in the middle of nowhere. Yosemite in California is world class, obviously, but the closest true civilization is not close at all. Colorado has some great hamlets where you can kind of live close to the cliffs, but if you live in Denver, or even in Boulder, any of the good stuff is at least 45 minutes to an hour away. In New Paltz, I can literally live, work and play within ten minutes.”
Foti’s passion for rock climbing is what brought him to the area 12 years ago in the first place, he says. “And the Climbing Cooperative made it an even better place. The co-op was this niche that made New Paltz even more viable as a climbing destination. There are not a lot of places like it, that’s for sure. It’s what you’d like to see in any climbing area. It gave everybody the opportunity, no matter who you were, the space to come and climb and make friends.” The best part about the gym, Foti says, was finding out that as much as he thought he knew who the other climbers in the community were, he found out through opening the space that there were actually many more than he’d been aware of. “It was dumbfounding how few people I knew before and how many connections we made through this gym.”
Donation amount as of 3/6/15. Donations for rebuilding can be made at www.gofundme.com/rebuildnpcc, where two weeks after the fire, more than $7,000 has already been raised toward the $110,000 goal. And unlike some other crowdfunding sites that require an organization to meet its goal or lose all the funds, GoFundMe allows an organization to keep whatever they raise. There are still fees involved, however, so making a donation through the co-op’s website at www.newpaltzclimbingcoop.com is perhaps preferable, with fewer fees involved. “Either place would be great, though,” says Foti. The group has also begun holding fundraising events that will continue in the months to come, with a 5K run possibly in the works. More information can be found on the website or look for New Paltz Climbing Cooperative on Facebook.
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Behind The Scenes: Backcountry Snowboarding With Some Of The Best
Backed by Mountain Dew, Scotty Lago, Danny Davis, and Jack Mitrani set off in search of some great Utah backcountry powder, intending to document their experiences in Virtual Reality. This video features some really cool behind the scenes footage shot during the project.
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Sebastien Toutant: Real Snow
Sebastien Toutant, two-time gold medal winner at the X Games, submitted this incredible video to the 2015 Real Snow snowboarding video contest. It’s going to be difficult for anyone else to compete with this.
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17 Incredible Scuba Diving Locations
One of the best things about scuba diving is that there are countless incredible dive locations all over the world. We’ve done the research and found our favorite 17 scuba diving spots, all of which will make for the perfect diving getaway, regardless of your experience level.
1) Blue Heron Bridge – Riviera Beach, Florida
In the waters around Blue Heron Bridge, located in southern Florida, you will find a myriad of marine life, from striated frogfish to bandtail sea robins to flying gurnards. And you will find it all in in just 12 feet of water. The best time to dive around Blue Heron Bridge is during high tide, when the water is at its deepest and is offering up the most creatures for you to see.
2) Nakwakto Rapids – British Columbia, Canada
In the wild backcountry of beautiful British Columbia, you will find one of Canada’s most beloved dive locations — Nakwakto Rapids. This location is known for its swift currents, which are some of the strongest anywhere in the world. The window for dives is often quite slim as well, so plan your outings carefully. As for the marine life you will see here, huge gooseneck barnacles are plentiful at Nakwakto Rapids, as are crab, sculpins, anemones of many colors, painted greenlings, and more.
3) Point Lobos – Carmel, California
Point Lobos National Park, just a little over two hours drive from San Francisco, offers up some of California’s most exclusive and enchanting scuba diving locations. If you’re looking for a quiet dive location, this is it, as only 15 buddy groups of scuba divers are allowed into the park each day. Massive forests of kelp are accessible very close to the park dock and parking area. Crabs and snails, lingcod, colorful nudibranchs, and harbors seals are always seen at Point Lobos.
4) Red Sea – Egypt
The Red Sea Coast of Egypt is one of the most iconic destinations on the planet for many reasons, one of them being the coast’s incredible opportunities for scuba diving. Excellent underwater visibility, warm waters, and year-round diving make the Red Sea a fun place for divers of all experience levels. Should you need the help of a dive instructor, there are plenty to choose from in the area. Cities such as Dahab, Marsa Alam, Safaga, and Hurghada are popular places to base your dives out of and locate an instructor.
5) The Blue Hole – Belize
Discovered by Jacques Cousteau in 1970, the Blue Hole is an incredible chute in the sea floor that drops several hundred feet through a thriving reef. Sounds great, right? You can understand why a trip to Belize to dive the Blue Hole is near the top of any diver’s bucket list. The hole is over 1,000 feet wide at the top, its massive size sticking out even more because of the shallow water surrounding it. Going down, you can enjoy over 400 vertical feet of exploration as you descend. Just keep an eye out for those pesky hammerhead sharks!
6) The Great Barrier Reef – Australia
This is a place that will be near the top of every list of amazing scuba locations. It’s a marine playground so big that it can be seen from outer space. Yes, it’s the famed Great Barrier Reef of the Australian coast. Diving in this area gives you the option of exploring over 1,500 shipwrecks, seeing 1,500 different fish species, gorgeous coral, and more. Let’s just say that there’s quite a bit to see in the network of over 4,000 reefs, islands, and cays. Some of the more popular locations to scuba dive within the Great Barrier Reef are Blow Hole, Osprey Reef, and lighthouse Bommies. Diving is typically best between June and August, due to pleasant weather and the fact that there are less jellyfish around.
7) The Yongala – Queensland, Australia
Off the Australian coast, near Queensland, a famous shipwreck sits waiting for you to explore it. This shipwreck is The Yongala, which sank in 1911 after getting stuck in a cyclone. The sinking of the 109 meter-long vessel was a deadly one, killing 122 people and a couple animals, which has only added to its lore as a must-see dive location. Around and within the shipwreck you will see bull sharks, octopuses, turtles, tiger sharks, countless fish, sea snakes, stunning coral, and more.
8) Barracuda Point – Sipadan Island, Malaysia
Enjoy huge walls of coral at Barracuda Point, where sharks will pass by regularly and groups of barracuda will congregate around you. This is a dive location where you can count on seeing large marine life every time you visit. Other species you may see here include grouper, jacks, turtles, white tips, parrotfish, and more.
9) Manta Ray Diving At Night – Kailua Kona, Hawaii
The massive manta rays that Kona, Hawaii are known for will come out at night for you to see, thanks to sets of underwater lights on the ocean floor that attract plankton and give you a line of sight to these beautiful creatures. While hooked into a weighted line, all you have to do is relax and wait for the marine life to come to you as feeding time progresses.
10) The Liberty Wreck – Bali, Indonesia
Dive photographers love this famous shipwreck off the coast of Bali, as it is the definition of a picturesque place to dive. What’s left of the Liberty is covered in corals, anemone, and gorgonians, and the black sand beneath it all makes for the perfect backdrop. You will also see large schools of trevally, goatfish, surgeonfish, and unicorn here.
11) The Galapagos Islands – Ecuador
Roughly 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador, in the Pacific Ocean, are the Galapagos Islands — a string of flourishing volcanic islands with a rich history and some seriously great diving. This is a cold water diving area, so be prepared to bring a 5-7 millimter wetsuit or a drysuit of some kind. Whale sharks can be seen around the Galapagos most frequently between May and November, while hammerhead sharks can be seen year-round. Some of the more popular dive locations within the Galapagos are Darwin Arch, Darwin Island, Gordon’s Rock, and Wolf Island.
12) The Cenotes – Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Cenotes are natural sinkholes, and there are tons of them to be explored along Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. What makes the cenotes so great? It’s the combination of salt water and fresh water, caused by the fact that the sinkholes connect with ocean-flooded underground cave systems. Because of this mixed salt and fresh water and their differing densities, a beautiful effect called halocline can often be seen by divers. Skull Cave and Tulum are two great places to start if you’re interested in diving the cenotes.
13) Hot Sophia – Dominica
Hot Sophia is a dive site that is right in the middle of a large area of volcanic activity, making it an incredible place to explore. Here you will find a slight depression in the sandy ocean bottom, which is actually hot to the touch thanks to the volcanic activity below. Around this warm area you will also find gorgeous corals, eels, basket sponges, and more.
14) The Zenobia Wreck – Cyprus
The Zenobia was a ferry that sank on its maiden voyage off the coast of Cyprus in 1980. Luckily, no lives were lost in the incident. To this day, The Zenobia lies on its side in the waters off Lanarka Harbour. This dive will get you down over 40 meters if you choose, and it is said by most divers who visit the site that a person will need multiple dives to do the size and beauty of the wreck of the Zenobia any justice. This is what makes this wreck one of the most well-known in the world for scuba enthusiasts.
15) The Catalina Islands – Costa Rica
Only a 25 minute trip away from Tamarindo, the Catalina Islands are extremely accessible for scuba divers. This place is bursting with marine life, too. Divers will commonly spot manta rays, white tip sharks, and fish such as morays, grouper, buffoon, and more. The visibility is often quite good in the Catalinas, especially once you descend 18 meters or more.
16) Jardines de la Reina – Cuba
There are quite a few great dive locations along the Cuban coast, but the one that many believe to be the best is the Jardines de la Reina, which is a huge marine preserve holding incredible corals, sponges, fish, and sharks.
17) Mnemba Island – Zanzibar
Off the northern coast of Zanzibar there is a small island — a place which many scuba divers find to be a true paradise. This place is Mnemba Island, one of the world’s greatest and most exclusive dive locations. Since the island is owned privately, you will have to be a guest of the Mnemba Island Lodge to dive here if you want to be near the coastline, though you can dive freely any distance over 200 meters from the island if you want to. Here you will find crystal clear waters, long reefs, groupers, trumpet fish, lion fish, turtles, and more.
So there you have it. Visit any of these beautiful locations and you’re sure to have a scuba diving experience you won’t forget.
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Rick Koekoek’s Incredible Climb Up ‘The Stairway To Heaven’
Rick Koekoek is one of the best MTB athletes in the world, so it’s not exactly surprising when he pulls off something as incredible as what you’re about to see in this video, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. This is one of the most heart-pumping stunts we’ve come across in a while, which Koekeck completed at the famed ‘stairway to heaven’ in Montserrat Catalonia, Spain.
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Winter Wakeskating In Bosnia
Wakeskating legend Brian Grubb recently made the long trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina to wakeskate in the area’s harsh winter conditions. He headed for Studeni Potok, also known as Icy Creek — a wintry environment featuring a combination of narrow creek stretches and powdery snow. Pulled by a 1,300 foot winch line, Grubb showed off his skills at fast speeds over some incredible terrain and water.
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Tough Mudder Gears Up For An Epic 2015
Because 2014 was such a huge year for Tough Mudder, we could only assume that the company would have some seriously epic events and new features planned for 2015. Well, we were right. Tough Mudder recently released a ton of exciting information about what’s ahead for the rest of the year.
The good news starts out with details about some of the new obstacles Tough Mudder participants will be encountering during their chosen events.
Funky Monkey 2.0 is one of the many obstacles created just for 2015. The first half of this obstacle is regular monkey bars, while the second half requires you to use a trapeze bar to swing onto and hold a descending pipe, where you will then shimmy down to your finish.
Everest 2.0 is an improved version of the orignal Everest obstacle, which has a harder-to-reach, much higher summit than before, and it will continue to remain one of the most challenging team-oriented obstacles you’ll find.
Arctic Enema 2.0 is the newest edition of the ice bath obstacle Tough Mudder is so well known for. This brutal obstacle forces you down a slide, under a chain-link fence, and then right into some frigid ice water. From there, you’ll have to get yourself over a wooden partition to finish.
Hold Your Wood 2.0 is another classic challenge that has been revamped at bit for 2015. Mudders will work together to carry a gigantic log through a stretch of big walls.
In addition to all this, Electroshock Therapy 2.0, the obstacle at Tough Mudder that often scares Mudders more than any other, is back with more voltage and a new “hot zone” that is full of even higher voltage wires.
Mudder Village obstacles are another great thing that has been added to the Tough Mudder experience, which are obstacles that official Mudder participants as well as spectators can participate in. Some of these Mudder Village obstacles include Fire In Your Hole — a water slide through fire, Ring Of Fire — a drop into a pool of water through fire, and Human Hamster Wheel — a constantly revolving set of monkey bars.
Tough Mudder also just released a video trailer about the upcoming 2015 season, which you can watch below.
To find a Tough Mudder event happening near you, the best place to look is on the Tough Mudder website. Also, you can see a full list of Tough Mudder obstacles here.
There are also a lot of video trailers available for the new obstacles added for 2015, which you can see here.