Day Trip to Kamloops for the First Jump of the Season

As the days are getting longer and warmer, different activities come with it; Skydiving is one of them… Skydiving isn’t one of my favorite sports, but it’s fun to go do a few jumps once in a while! It is also interesting to jump from different drop zones, yesterday I decided to ride my motorcycle to Kamloops and do a couple jumps at Kamloops Skydivers.

Kamloops is 3 and a half hours drive from Vancouver, and it passes through a beautiful mountainous area which makes it a fun ride all in itself. This time a year it is still chilli to ride there, I didn’t wear proper clothing and my legs got super icy during the morning ride, took me half a day to un-thaw them afterwards lol.

After arriving to the Kamloops drop zone, I had a quick introduction to the area and their regulation. Everyone was super friendly there and I did a couple jumps with a few fun jumpers. Was a fun day indeed!

View of Yak Peak on Coquihalla Hwy.

Our Second Jump, doing a drift dive which I screwed up and fell behind the group lol (I’m in black/red jumpsuit)

Bonding with my new Motorcycle: Riding Southbound!

Recently had an awesome trip on my motorcycle! Road 2100km over the long weekend, stopping at various locations for fun activities like surfing, and sand dunes ATVing. Here’s how my trip went:

Apr 02 3:15pm – 1 hour before my departure Decided to do a road trip on my motorcycle this weekend. Leaving today right from work, I will ride South as far as I can get the rest of the day. I don’t have any destination in mind, but I do have a few surfing locations in mind that I would like to surf at. I got my playlist ready with lots of music and a couple audio books. The weather forecast is a mix of rain and sun, so this trip could either be awesome or a nightmare. I’m still excited to see how far this trip will take me, and I will report my progression on this post along the trip.

Apr 02 9:55pm – First food break at BJ’S restaurant in Portland, Oregon 

After a long time riding, taking my first break at the restaurant. So far I was lucky to avoid the rain, but it is getting colder by the minute and all my layers don’t seem to help no more to keep me warm. I’m also super soar from this past few hours of riding. Not sure how much longer I can ride lol….

Energy drinks helping me with my ride 🙂

Apr 03 130am – 30 miles pass Eugene

It was getting very cold, so decided to get a room for the night. Will be up bright and early tomorrow morning to continue my journey. Night!

Apr 03 6pm – From Crescent City to Gold Beach

Woke up early morning, jumped on the bike and kept riding south until I got to Grants Pass. Took a  half hour coffee break to get some warmth back in my legs and hands (it’s hard to believe how cold it can get!). From there I took the highway 199 to Crescent City. Stopped at a seafood restaurant, where I was served the biggest breakfast portion, that’s what I love about USA, big tasty portions for cheap! I was going to surf there but the conditions weren’t that great. So decided to ride north up the Oregon Coast. Did a few stops to check the view and take pictures. I didn’t think I was going to get any surfing today because I was running out of time. And out of the blue, I found a rental place that rents good quality surfing paddle boards (my preference) at a hotel right on the sea – Inn of the Beach Comber. The staff was super nice and gave me one of the best rooms for the cheapest price, as well gave me a good deal for the board. It definitely made my day!

I went out surfing, it was a little ruff out there. Got caught in one of the bigger waves that crushed my face right into the sand down below. I lost some confidence and got a little scared afterwards lol. Now having a beer and relaxing. Will go to bed early to start the day early!

View from the hotel room to the beach

Highway 199 to Crescent City

Oregon coast

Oregon coast

Oregon coast

Apr 03 815pm – Mexican food 

One thing I might add, I love love love Mexican food! Just ate 3 delicious pork tacos, couldn’t help myself to order 3 more!

Apr 04 230pm – ATV at the sand dunes!

Just stopped at Frorance (the dune city) for a quick Mexico food break. And give my body a break from this morning ride up the coast and the atv that I rented on the way here for an hour. I gotta say, I had tons of fun exploring the sand dunes on an atv! The area that I was at is much more serious than the previous one I  rented the atv close to Pacific City. It has lots of unexpected drops, where if not careful could result in some serious injuries. But the area was unbelievably awesome! Will have to come back to explore more!

Oregon coast

ATVing

Sand dunes

Sand dunes – steep hill ahead 🙂

Sand dunes

Sand dunes

Oregon Coast

Apr 04 540pm – Quick stop at the Sea Lions Cave

After seeing an attraction sign, decided to do some touristy stuff and go check out a big natural cave filled with sea lions. Had to pay an admission fee, and take an elevator that takes you down into the cave. I found it to be very interesting to observe the sea lions, and my though was: ‘it’d be cool to take a paddle boat or a kayak inside that cave!’…. Perhaps an adventure for another day lol

Waves crashing outside the cave

Sea lions chilling in the cave

Sea Lions Cave

Apr 05 9:30pm

Got home around 5pm today after a long ride home. My body was very sore from the past few days. But I missed the gym and my training, so decided to finish the day good by going to the gym!

It was an awesome long weekend!

Weekend Adventure – Snowboarding Big White, Riding FlowRider and Motorcycle Ride

A spontenous decision led me on a short trip to Kelowna Friday night. There were a few places that I felt it was time I go and check out, ne of them was Big White.  It is a ski resort that I’ve heard nothing but good things about! The other place was FlowRider; it’s an indoor surf that I was really curious to try.

The drive is roughly three and a half hours from Vancouver. Driving in the middle of the night, I was able to make it much quicker. This time I drove by myself, so I decided to spend the night in the back of my SUV.  Putting the seats down gives me just enough room to make a bed. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep that well because it was very cold. I had to wake up a couple times to turn the engine on to warm up the car. On a positive note, I woke up super early and was only 10 minutes away to reach the mountain to go snowboarding!

Big White

It was my first time visiting this place and my overall impression was really good. It felt like spring conditions, yet still a little cold to ride in a shirt. The mountain wasn’t as big as I expected it to be, but the terrain is really fun and playful. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to give it my all since I’m still recovering from my knee injury, so I had to take it a couple of notches easier. I will definitely have to come back on a good snowy day when I’m fully healed!

FlowRider at H2O Adventure Fitness Centre

FlowRider is a company that makes artificial wave machines that one can surf on. With growing popularity it is becoming a sport on it’s own. It has been awhile since I have wondered what it’s like to ride it and if it’s anywhere close to riding actual waves. The closest flowrider we have to where I live in Vancouver is in Kelowna. And that location has only one of the simpliest designs that flowrider holds. Yet, I was still excited to try it out!

Here are my thoughts: flowrider, even though it’s fun, doesn’t feel anything like surfing real waves! But it was fun in it’s own way!  I could see this being even more fun once one got better at it! I also think that the skills learned from riding it could transer over to surfing, so it could be a good learning tool.  Now I am really curious to try out other flowrider designs such as the 10’ barrel wave; they have one in San Diego (Wavehouse).

Sunday Motorcycle Ride

After a good night sleep in my own bed, which felt amazing compared to the sleep I had the previous night in the cold car, I decided to go on a motorcycle ride with an excited passenger, Carrie. We rode to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway, stopping at various site seeing sites and exploring some dirt roads. After a day of riding we were both very sore and Carrie started to have muscle spasms, luckily by that time we were almost home. Despite the uncomfortableness of my motorcycle and the pain it caused from riding on it for too long, Carrie would still love to go for an even longer ride! 😛

Riding ‘Lava Flow’ Trails, Squamish

Lately I had an urge to explore some off road trails on my Enduro motorcycle. The motorcycle that I own is a Honda XR650, street legal dirt bike. It is very powerful, but at the same time very heavy, which makes it very cumbersome and hard to ride more difficult trails. I was looking to find something not too tough, yet challenging enough for my heavy bike.

Living in British Columbia, there’s never a shortage of trails to explore. The area we decided to go ride is in Squamish, called ‘Lava Flow.’ See attached picture for the area map…

The trail we decided to take is called “Blaine’s Connector” which eventually turns to an intermediate trail “Blindside.” In the beginning I had a little difficulty with handling my heavy motorcycle, but as we got to Blindside, the trail became harder and harder. I got stuck many times, and it required lots of strength and energy to continue on the trail. I was soaked from sweat, and at the end I had no more energy for anything else. I was glad when we were back! It’s been awhile since I have worked so much!

Lesson learned; I need a smaller motorcycle for this level of riding. Will definitely be back with a more suitable bike!

Trip to Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

After exploring many locations on the motorcycle, we decided to go explore the Island of Ometepe.  Ometepe is a small island in the middle of Nicaragua Lake. What is fascinating about this island is that it has two volcanoes on it. I was really excited to explore the island!

Map of the Ometepe Island

To get to it, a ferry can be taken from San Jorge that takes you to one of a couple of different ports on the island. If you’re planning on taking a car over make sure to get a reservation, as the ferry gets very full! Not a problem with motorcycles though… Watching the ferry being loaded was quite an experience in itself. I was surprised how many tracks and cars they were able to squeeze onto such a small ferry. I was a little worried if all of the motorcyclist would be able to get on, as we were the last to board. Luckily we had enough space to squeeze our motorcycles in the tight spot between the trucks. The ferry ride was very slow compared to my Canadian standards lol…

Ferry loading

View of the two volcanoes from the ferry

After what felt like an eternity of soaking up the sun on the top deck of the ferry and watching the volcanoes coming closer, we made it to the island. Once off the ferry, we were off to go explore! One of the places we visited is called the “Ojo de agua,” it’s a beautiful natural swimming pool. We had lunch there, swam around a little, and it was time to get back to catch the last ferry ride back.

When we got back to board the last ferry, the area was empty with no one around. Not a place that you would expect to see that would have a ferry just about to leave. I asked some locals, and learned that the ferry left from a different location on the island. The ferry was leaving from the town called Mayogalpa that was a good 15-20 minutes ride from where we were. We ended up missing the last ferry, and went to a local pizza restaurant to discuss our options of where to stay for the night. After hearing our conversation, an American man came up to us and recommended different hostels for us to stay at and after some conversation he invited us to stay at a farm where he was staying at… that’s if we were okay with sleeping in hammocks. We decided to stay at the farm in the end.

After riding through some rough, dirt roads in pitch black, we have arrived at the farm. The farm is located just outside of town in a quiet and peaceful area. After walking through the gates, there were steps that took us down to the back of the farm right by the lake where a very nice bar has been built. This location is one of the hidden gems that we were lucky to stumble across, it felt really surreal being there! Then time came to sleep in the hammocks, I wasn’t expecting it to be such a long and sleepless night…

Bar at the back of the farm right by the water at night.

For anyone who is looking to share this experience staying at this farm… Here’s the name. Good luck finding it lol

Falling asleep was easy, but after a couple of hours howling winds and the cold that came with them awaked me. There was no way I was able to fall back to sleep and I came unprepared to stay the night outside on a hammock. I was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I checked with my friends, and no one else was sleeping either and they were just as frozen as I was. Luckily I was able to salvage a thin jacket and a towel to wrap my legs in and my friends found other thin blankets to keep them just warm enough to make it through the night. From that point on, no one was able to sleep; it was still cold and the winds kept us awake. At times when the winds would die down, the dog would wake me up by growling at something. And to top it up, in the early morning the rooster was loudly greeting us with a good morning! It was a very long night!

Playing with the “guard” dog after a long restless night

Farm, in the morning

Took a kayak for a ride…

After breakfast, we were off to the city to catch the ferry back. We paid our fares and I was directed to the boat by one of the security working there. After seeing the boat, at first I thought it was a mistake, it looked like an old fishing boat that is about to fall apart that didn’t even have a ramp for the motorcycles. I had to ask the guy twice in my bad Spanish if that was the boat, he nodded his head… I couldn’t stop laughing in disbelief. I was also very excited to take a ride on this boat!

Streets of Moyogalpa

Ferry Captain…

On the ferry ride back…

After seeing the workers load our motorcycles on a piece of wooden plank in a very sketchy way, it was our turn to embark! The boat on the inside looked just as rough as it did on the outside. There was a worker pumping out water from the lower passenger deck the whole time, and most of the seats were falling apart. It was an interesting ride back, and I managed to get some sleep that was missed from the previous night. After we disembarked, we headed back to our resort. It was a fun adventure!

Trip to Nicaragua Video Mash-up

Hello everyone,

I haven’t updated my blog it has been almost a month. I have injured my knee last time I went snowboarding, and was giving myself time to heal. The previous week I was on vacation at San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Surfing was the priority of this trip, but unfortunately the wave conditions weren’t good. One thing I learned is that surfing during the winter season isn’t great. But nevertheless I had a blast! It was very interesting to explore this beautiful country.

I will be very busy with work, school and training for the next few days, but I will eventually share some of my stories from this trip! For now I have made a mash-up video of this trip, enjoy…

Winter Motorcycle Trail Exploration

Decided to ride my bike to Squamish to go explore some trails. The weather today was really cold, with a mixture of snow and rain. The trip to Squamish is an hour each way. By the end of it, I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore lol. As for the trail exploring, I found a trail that goes all the way up a mountain, which unfortunately I wasn’t able to ride all the way up. At one point it was way too icy to make it up, and I decided to turn around. The way down was much more sketchier than the way up, I took it very slow and easy since it was very slippery!

This ride felt more of a challenge than fun, since it was really cold, and some areas were really slippery. I was also a little scared for the possibility to encounter ice on the highway on the way there and back! But the trail was a really  fun ride up, I will have to come back during the summer to be able to go all the way up!

Motorcycle Ride up the 10,000 feet high Crater in Maui

 

On my trip to Maui back in Apr 2014, out of many other activities I’ve done. I have decided to rent a Harley for the day, the first Harley I have rented was a Harley Sportster. I have really enjoyed the “feel” of that bike and the way it rides. That evening I have decided to ride it on top of the Crater that is 10,000 feet high. Everyone told me that it would be very cold ride, so I have brought a thin jacket with me. On my way up, I have realized that I needed much more cloths then just a jacket, it was super cold! And the wind was very strong that a couple times  the gusts almost blown me off the road. Despite me feeling like an icicle, I have managed to ride all the way to the top, and I gotta say, it was worth it! The view from the ride down was unbelievable! Worth freezing my balls off for that shot, watch the video and enjoy!

My experience as a Motorcyclist – Part 2

One month before my motorcycle accident (written in Part 1), I have bought an older street legal dirt bike: Honda XR650. The reason for that  is because I wanted to practice things like drifting and wheelies without wrecking my other brand new bike. This old bike became my “cougar” while the brand new bike was my “baby.” After my “baby” died, “cougar” was all I was left with.

After the accident, I spent the winter without riding. It gave me time to recover. At the beginning of spring of 2012, I was back on my “cougar” again. I made it a habit of riding it every day, rain or shine. There were times when I was riding thru rain/hail storms, I got completely socked from head to toe (even while I was wearing rain gear). It might seem like an unpleasant experience (and sometimes it was), but at those times it didn’t matter, in a peculiar way it was a pleasant feeling. It felt very connecting to nature riding on my motorcycle, being in the mist of lightening and heavy down pouring rain!

I have also made it a habit of practicing wheelies everywhere, and drifting in different locations where I found dirt (constructions sites for example). I took my cougar thru endless places where many times I got stuck in (example: in the ditch, once in what looked like wet concrete that I had to wash off quickly once I got out lol, etc.). Eventually my luck with the wheelies ran out. I was riding home from the dropzone after doing a couple skydives, doing a wheelie down the street, not realizing that an undercover cop was following me. At the red light I decided to jump the curb and ride thru dirt and grass to pass the traffic, and then drove home. Twenty minutes later I got a knock on my door, it was the undercover policemen. I got my cougar taken away for a week and had to pay the fine, but a lesson had to be learned: to be more discrete when doing stupid stuff. But that was just one of my phases, I’m over it now lol.

Then came the winter time, I have decided that it would be a good idea to ride thru the whole winter. It was a hell of an experience! And I would never want to do it again lol… Not only that it was freezing cold, but there were times when there was black ice on the roads. Black ice is the worse! Because once I was on it, there was almost nothing I could do to save the fall. It took me by surprise a few times on the corners, and took me down on a few slides. I wasn’t hurt but it still wasn’t a good feeling. Once I have decided to ride to Tofino in the winter time to go surfing, the trip is 8 hours one way (2 hour ferry). I have done that trip in one day, there and back, with 4 hours of surfing. That trip was definitely not fun, it was more to see if I could do it. I was wearing many layers on my way there and back, but I was still frozen! I had to make many stops to warm up with hot coffee. I don’t think I will ever want to do that one again! Lol

There are many more stories that me and my cougar went thru, and even up to this day she is still with me. Still holding on strong!

My experience as a Motorcyclist – Part 1

As of everything else I wanted to learn, riding motorcycles has definitely been on my list! A few years ago, I decided to get my licence. It has added some extra ‘spice’ to my life.

The school I have went to learn to ride is called “Pacific Riding School.” I had an awesome experience there, and I would recommend that school to everyone! I have learned great tactics on how to stay safe riding on the streets, and the idea that it’s not smart to “push the limits” while riding on the streets. Instead, “push the limits” on the track where it’s relatively safe to crash. I remember that I have told myself that I will hold back my urges to speed on the streets, only at the track.

My first motorcycle I have bought was a GSXR 750. I was super excited about it, the very same evening I have left for a ride to Osoyoos. It was a 4 hour ride there, but it was enough to get my body aching and cramping, plus it was a cold ride at night (I wasn’t wearing enough layers). The next day on my way back home, my body was screaming with pain, I though “this is going to be a long and unpleasant ride.” As I was riding down the highway, a Harley pulled up beside me, when I turned my head to look, it was a woman in her mid-30s wearing full leather and a big shining smile on her face. She has signed me to “go ahead,” I have returned that sign to her and gave her way (since I didn’t have any experience riding). She took off on her Harley and of course I followed her! We were flying thru that windy highway all the way to Vancouver. Sparks where flying from her foot pegs on every corner. It was a wild ride! All of my pain went away and instead I felt this crazy rush… After that day, my riding style has changed dramatically. I became an overconfident unexperienced daredevil on a superfast motorcycle. I started riding a few hours each day, always trying to “push my limits.” I’ve met a few riders that I naturally clicked with since they had the same riding style as me. We did some crazy riding together, many unforgettable trips. I felt like I was living my last days, I felt invincible but at the same time careless knowing that any of these days could be my last. Every day I had one or two “close calls” where I almost crashed, and that was the norm.

Eventually every high comes to a low, one night I was on my way back home from a get together. I was taking it easy and wasn’t staying super focused on the road. Suddenly, an SUV turned right into my path, completely blocking my way. I had no time to slow down nor evade the vehicle, I crashed right into its side. The SUV was positioned at roughly 45 degree angle to my impact to it, which made me slide right into its front while it was still in motion. I ended up going underneath the SUV and luckily getting pinned and dragged while it was coming to a stop. I say luckily because the wheel was right behind me and if I wasn’t pinned underneath the engine, I would of have been squished by the heavy SUV. I remember feeling the wheel on my back, and all I was thinking “if it rolls on top of me, I hope it doesn’t hurt.” Eventually the SUV came to a stop, and a few moments later a crowd of people came rushing to me, including a police officer. It felt like I was under that SUV forever, and all I could think of: “I hope I’m not paralyzed, I hope I can still walk.” Eventually I got slowly pulled out, the officer was yelling at me “Stay down! don’t move!.” I thought “Fuck it! I’m getting up!” I got up with pain, saw that I was still all intact. Then I went to sat down waiting for the ambulance to get me.

The worst part was in the hospital, they only had one doctor operational in the ER. I had to wait all night in pain, without them giving me any pain killers until the doctor had a look at me. That night I found a good way that helps cope with pain: Laughter. I was trying to find anything I could find to make a joke out of, and it seemed to work wonders.

Luckily, other than my body being fully bruised up and in pain, I didn’t broke anything. I felt that I was given a second life! I was inspired to try harder and push to get more from life! Because one thing is never certain, is when your time will be up….

Photo on my GXSR750 summer of 2011