Category: Lifestyle and Health

Couldn’t stay away from the Dominican Republic, went back with Kevin Seaman author of “The Winning Mindset”

On By Karl GessleinIn Lifestyle and Health, TravelLeave a comment

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My last day out on the water has ended and I am remarkably sad to leave. I miss my son and his mother’s family and my family as well so I know that its time to return home. A big part of me wishes I was a beach bum that could just live somewhere for as long as I wanted to just kiting every day. I realize that I have a lot of responsibilities to my son, my customers and my family. The place we stayed while we were here is an ultra nice ultra new condo that Laurel Eastman purchased with a friend of hers Karen. It’s very cush and everything is very expensive, but there is still the constant reminders that you are in the DR. The power goes out at regular intervals and the water goes off as well. The first 3 days we had no hot water. Anytime Kevin and I got home and there was water, hot water and electricity all at the same time we were thankful and amazed. The people here steal electricity by wiring up their businesses and homes when the power is out. The only problem is that if they are messing with the cables when the power goes back on they get fried. The people here in the DR are just as friendly as I remember them. There are a few bad apples but for the most part people here are very easy-going and pretty friendly. I like the place we’re staying halfway between Kite Beach and Cabarete. Its a little beach called Bozo beach and the people here are super friendly. It’s also far less crowded than kite beach and there is little or no attitude. It’s only a 5-minute walk into the heart of Cabarete or to Kite Beach, which is nice.

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Did The Homeless Theme-Park Circuit With Small Child In Tow, slept in Rental Van.

On By Karl GessleinIn Lifestyle and Health, Travel1 Comment
My favorite part of the trip
My favorite part of the trip

It amazes me how I can go out and kiteboard for 10 hours on the lake and feel totally energized, yet every day after theme parking with Orion in 2006 I was always totally exhausted. It must take a lot of energy to ride that many roller coasters. How can a 6 year old out-endurance me is a complete mystery.

The first night we got in and drove to LA to hit Disney and stayed in a nice hotel, which cost a bizillion dollars. I decided to go to Target and buy a couple of pillows and an air-mattress and Orion and I spent the rest of the vacation sleeping in the back of the minivan. He loved it and it was way cheaper than spending $100-200 a night for just a bed to sleep in. Disney was great, so we spent 2 days there instead of one. There were actually two separate theme parks. You could easily do both in one day and see pretty much everything. Orion was very brave and went some pretty crazy rides, included the Twilight Zone tower of terror which flew pretty fast up 200 feet then opened up the elevator doors and dropped you really quick. Orion really liked the moderate roller coasters that didn’t have loops in them. He was a real sport and we rode many ride again and again and again until I felt like I had been run through a blender. The high point of the trip was getting stuck in it’s a small world after all for about an hour. Most of the parks we hit on the weekdays, which meant no lines, the zoos, and water parks we hit on the weekends.

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Fought In Thunderdome, Rode The Roaster Coaster & Found My REAL Home – My First Burn

On By Karl GessleinIn Lifestyle and Health, Travel1 Comment

The following is a recounting of my first experience at Burning Man in 2004.  I have been back many times since then, but that first trip was the most magical.

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As I sat quietly tears streamed down my face. All around me thousands of people sat quietly humming in different low harmonious tones. The heat from the flames of the temple was so hot it was quite uncomfortable. Although we were seated over 300 feet away the 80′ Temple of Honor burned with an intensity I have never seen in any structure fire in my 4.5 years as a firefighter. I big part of me was glad to see it burn. I have been to visit the temple 8 times in the last 3 days and each time it brought tears to my eyes. I have traveled across a great deal of the planet and the temple was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. The love and tremendous amount of energy that was put into the temple was staggering. It made me realize that once you see what’s possible you’re no longer interested in what’s probable. For the temple the gift was in the giving. I thought about the huge amount of resistance I had put up in switching over to the Burning Man gifting economy and I realized that a great deal of that was the difficulty I was having in seeing that the gift was in for the giver, not the receiver. There was a big part of me that was glad to see the temple go and another part that was just beginning to appreciate the transient nature of life. All the work that had been put into that temple that was only around for a week made me realize that no matter how hard I worked or how much I accomplished that it wouldn’t change the fact that even if I lived for 100 years that it was still a brief glimpse of time when compared with the timeline of the universe, the earth or even mankind. It was sobering in a deep and meaningful way. The night before we had burned the 40′ neon blue man at the center of the city and the atmosphere had been a world of difference, there was hooting and hollering and dancing. The burning of the temple was a far more solemn occasion. There was so much emotion in that place, frequently visitors made no attempts to hide their tears. The energy of the place was so intense it was hard not to feel sadness.

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The Sickness

On By Karl GessleinIn Kayaking, Lifestyle and HealthLeave a comment
cas1I went to bed listening to the rain beat against the windows. The violent storm gave me a strange sense of peace, like it always does. I dreamt of paddling all night long. I awoke ready to skip work to hit the river, but there were several inches of snow and it was still snowing. I dejectedly went to work.

Walking to work I neared Cascadilla Creek, a little 500 fpm gem in the middle of Cornell. It sounded like a freight train as I approached. The sound was glorious to my ears. Entranced I found my way down the trail and before me was the most powerful display I had ever seen. Hundreds of cfs cascading off 30,40 and 50 foot waterfalls landing flat on hard rock. Even
at these levels the pools at the bottom did not fill in. I had a sinking feeling that running these falls without a landing zone would guarantee a great deal of pain. I ran back and forth like a squirrel trying to find the line. Then I realized it, I have the sickness. I threw my head back and laughed out loud. What separated me from all the mindless drones walking around above was that I wanted to live, to really live and experience everything. People without the sickness would almost certainly think that I was just trying to die, not live. I realized that it is not a sickness, but an obsession to suck the marrow out of life. I may never run Cascadilla gorge … but I do not want to get well either.

Later that day I saw my son clap his hands in a sonogram. It was one of the most moving moments of my life. It was so real. I rejoiced that my little son was happy and alive and growing in Marlo’s belly. I begged Marlo to run shuttle so I could run a little class II run up at Taughannock falls. There is a little 1/2 mile run with lots of surfing waves and holes
at higher levels. The park police came and gave me a real hard time. I think he wanted to punch me in the head. In his reality I was a crazy idiot who was out paddling in a blizzard risking his life and the lives of the people that were going to have to come and rescue me. In my reality I was just doing what I loved and being as cautious as possible. The lack of
understanding of the sport by the officer and his uncertainty and insecurity with what I was doing made him very angry. He could see that I had the sickness, to him I needed therapy.

What’s a paddler to do?