Here are some tips for the amateur outdoors men/women who are experimenting with new activities. (ie: kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, etc.) I Know that winter is over and the skiing information is no longer applicable but read it anyways. It may be helpful next season.
How to Beach a Kayak
Set up first, back-paddling while you observe how the breakers are crashing on the beach. Then, start paddling early and ride the front of the wave. Keep your body weight forward, just ahead of the break, because if you slip back into the trough, the next wave will break on top of you. Once you hit the beach, exit the boat quickly.
How to Bike Up Steep Trails
To stop your front wheel from wandering when you’re pedaling up steep trails, slide your butt forward, lower your chest, and push hard on the handlebars.
How to Hike Lighter
Chuck your boots. Instead, wear low-top hikers, sneakers, or sandals. The old saw that a pound [half a kilogram] off your feet is like five [about two kilograms] off your back is true. What gives you support is the heel cup. To drillers of holes in toothbrush handles, big deal. Weigh your big items. A lighter rain jacket alone can save a pound.
How to Keep Warm on Frigid Hikes
How do you stay warm when it’s 30 degrees below [-34°C] with a windchill of minus 75 [-59°C]? Stoke the “inner” while managing the “outer,” says Ann Bancroft, who endured just such conditions on her 1,717-mile [2,763-kilometer] trek across Antarctica with Liv Arnesen in 2000-2001. The advice applies in milder winter weather, too.
Most people have the outer part of the equation down—insulate with layers of wool, fleece, Gore-Tex, and so on—but the inner is often neglected. Keeping the metabolic furnace roaring takes huge amounts of fuel, Bancroft says, and that includes “all the high-fat stuff you can’t eat at home.” Every day, the two women consumed granola bars, potato chips, high-fat freeze-dried dinners—and a foot-and-a-half-long [half-meter-long] chocolate bar. They drank cocoa fortified with instant coffee, cream, and sugar.
“At the end of the day, if we’d paid attention to our internal thermostat, we could simply get out of wet boots and into dry socks and sip some hot soup,” Bancroft says. “The world changes at that point.”
How to Leave Absolutely No Trace
In fragile alpine terrain, sandy ground, and rocky soil, human waste can be an environmental problem even when it’s buried. Jennifer Tucker of Leave No Trace recommends that you use a carrier (such as the Restop; www.whennaturecalls.com) to pack out your waste or that you make your own disposable toilet. Sounds fun, eh?
First, fit a paper bag inside a Ziploc bag, then cover the outside with duct tape. Carry a small supply of flushable cat litter to add to it at the appropriate moments. Flush the contents when you get back.
How to Make Tastier Backcountry Grub
“Real food!” is Alan Kesselheim’s mantra. Or at least real flavor, says the author of Trail Food (McGraw-Hill).
“Bring some garlic cloves—how much can they weigh?—and half an onion.” Kesselheim also recommends fresh thyme and basil, which can be stashed in prescription-medicine containers.
Other key ingredients: spiced oil, hot mustard, and dried salsa. Use them to jazz up your staple of choice: rice, pasta, couscous, or even basic, prepackaged dishes from the grocery store.
How to Paddle With Power
“Most people concentrate on pulling off the paddle,” says Sam Drevo, extreme-kayaking champion in the 2001 Gorge Games. But that’s a mistake. Instead, “plant the blade and use your torso, abs, and legs to move the boat toward the paddle. The body, more than the arms, powers the stroke.”
How to Put on Your Skis
Skis often skid away—or plunge deeper into the snow—when you try to step into the bindings on a precipitous slope.
Ski mountaineer and instructor Doug Coombs suggests a simple remedy: Begin by spearing the tail of your left ski into the snow. The rear binding should be just above the surface, with the ski sticking out at about 45 degrees to the right of the fall line. Next, with your plank securely anchored, stomp into the binding and roll your leg to the right as you transfer weight onto the ski.
“When you step down,” Coombs says, “the ski should end up sideways on the slope.” Slide the left ski downhill a tad. That will give you a solid platform—the snow packed down by the left ski—to stand on as you repeat the process with your right ski. Now you’re good to go.
How to Run Off-Road
If you want to become a better off-road runner, shorten your stride and strengthen your abs, says Brian Metzler, the editor of Trail Runner magazine.
A short stride is more efficient on gnarly terrain because it minimizes energy-wasting slips. As for the abs, Metzler says your body works them overtime to maintain balance and to brace against shocks on uneven trails, “so do your sit-ups, crunches, V-sits, whatever. Strengthening your stomach is the best way to make the transition from road running to trail. If you haven’t been doing your ab work, you’ll wind up hurting.”
How to See More Fish When Diving
Free-diving photographer Tim Calver [see his recent shots for Adventure] can hold his breath long enough to get cool shots a hundred feet [30 meters] underwater. But his tankless technique is just as handy for snorkelers who want more face time with fish a dozen feet [3.5 meters] down.
Relaxation—both mental and physical—is the key, Calver says. Prepare by taking long, meditative breaths, exhaling everything, and then filling your lungs completely. Next, bend at the waist, kick one leg up in the air, and commence a slow, easy flutter kick in a straight line toward the bottom.
“The less effort you use, the more time underwater you’ll have without bubbles and noise disturbing the sea life,” he says.
How to Stick to the Rock
Standing on your tiptoes when the climbing gets tough is a natural tendency, but that stance leaves only a smidgen of rubber on the rock.
The alternative is the basic technique of “smearing,” says Bob Gaines, the director of southern California’s Vertical Adventures Rock Climbing School. “You need to maximize the surface contact between your sole and the rock, so relax the ankle and let your heel come down.” More sticky rubber on the rock equals less time dangling on the rope.
How to Ski Faster
Keep your hands out and extend them farther forward the faster you go,” says Olympic medalist Billy Kidd, the director of skiing at Colorado’s Steamboat Ski Resort. It’s about control and balance: “You don’t see tightrope walkers with their hands in their pockets.”
How to Swim Rapids
If you dump in the middle of a churning river, the first thing to remember is to hang on to your paddle, says veteran river kayaker Arlene Burns. It extends your reach by five feet [1.5 meters], making it that much easier for someone to haul you back into the raft—always the preferred option.
But if there’s no one nearby to help, Burns advocates “the Mark Spitz school of self-rescue: Swim like hell. I know, everyone says to lie on your back with your feet up, so you can flex your knees and bounce off rocks. But I say, be flexible.”
Sometimes, when you’re above a rapid, a few vigorous strokes can help you avoid a nasty hole or massive rock downriver. (Assume the traditional defensive posture before you enter the white water, though.) If you’re below a rapid, swim for shore—the next big one may be just around the corner.
How to Take Better Photos
Getting people in the picture is often the difference between an inspired travel photo and an insipid one. But capturing natural looking shots of locals or trip mates can be tougher than shooting a leaping gazelle.
The secret is to “shoot first, ask questions later,” says Rob Howard, a contributing photographer for Adventure. “You have to step over the threshold of civility to get great pictures—get in people’s faces.” But do it with a smile.
Howard considers himself “the biggest goof with a camera in the world. I smile, laugh, make fart sounds with my armpits—anything to force the moment.”
How to Telemark for Real
Find your back foot. “Most telemarkers do what I call a fake-a-mark—telemark stance, Alpine turn,” says Dick Hall, the director of the North American Telemark Organization. “They ski with their weight on the downhill edge and don’t weight the back foot.”
To help skiers learn the correct weight distribution, Hall teaches what he calls the Goofy Foot Trick: Drop into your strong-side telemark stance and turn. When you’re ready to go the other direction, stay in the exact same position; don’t switch to the other knee down. You’ll be forced to put pressure on the back foot as well as the front in order to make the turn.
Once you’ve mastered the goofy turn, you’ll find yourself weighting your back foot more effectively when you return to the conventional stance.
How to Wipe Out on a Bike
If you’re going to flip over the handlebars, tuck your head down, your arms in, bring your legs up, and roll,” says mountain bike downhiller Leigh Donovan. The eight-time national champion rehearses for “endos” by doing somersaults. Most crashes, though, are less showy. When you’re losing balance to one side, don’t let go of the handlebar. “If you stick an arm out, you’ll break it.”
