Things got ugly in a hurry this week at a ski resort in southern Russia when two men took an unplanned detour from the “gentle snowy piste” they were supposed to follow while orbing and went way off course. And unfortunately, right off a cliff.

The Russian media reports that 27 year old Denis Burakov and his friend, 33 year old Vladmir Shcherbov were in the ski resort town of Dombai, in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, when they took the spur of the moment ride – caught on video – that was just supposed to last a few moments down a predefined path.

Unfortunately, the path wasn’t posted, and there was little anyone could do when the orb veered to the right, then left, and as you’ll see, down the mountain, where it eventually goes over a cliff and lands over a kilometer away, on a frozen lake the locals call Peacock’s Eye. When rescuers found the two, Burakov was unconscious, with a broken neck. He died on the way to hospital.

Amazingly, his friend survived. Some one upstairs watchin that dude. Doubt he’ll go orbing again.

Orbing, or zorbing, is the sport of riding in a transparent ball, like a hamster ball, only it’s really big and you roll around inside of it, rather than staying vertical. Invented in New Zealand, it’s fair to say the sport will have a black eye for a while. Burakov was a married father of two daughters.

Sorry dude.

Hang Gliding - the scenery, the adrenaline, risk of death and the undeniable urge to eat a memory stick...

When it rains it pours. And in the past week, two hang gliding accidents in BC have me scratching my head and wondering, is hang-gliding safe?

In the first incident, a women hang gliding in the Agassiz area wasn’t strapped in properly by her instructor, allegedly, and she fell to her death. Even stranger, the instructor was taken to the hospital where doctors, and the cops, are waiting for him to, er, *pass* the memory stick with key information.

Those crazy hang-gliding instructors, I tell ya…

In the second incident, less than three days later, a glider became stranded on a hill and had to be rescued. A little better than the whole death thing, but it kinda makes you wonder if hang-gliding is safe…

Think I’ll stick to shark diving

Rumor has it that test dummies emerged from the Cannonball loop waterslide with missing limbs...

One of my favorite lines ever was in an underwhelming rip-off of a movie, Hannibal, in which a seriously messed up billionaire passed off his extreme vulgarity with a simple “It seemed like a good idea at the time”. Not so different really than this list of 5 amusement park rides at scary amusement parks that were scary, cause they, well, they kinda like, killed people. The Human Trebuchet? Wouldn’t wanna be on the receiving end of THAT lawsuit!

The picture is of a decidely physics-defying loopy thing called the Cannonball Loop at the family unfriendly Action Park, the source of several urban legends, including test dummies that performed the slide and emerged with missing limbs. At least six people died at the park during its run from 1978 to 1996, and if there ever were an idea for a horror movie featuring a demented killer clown with a hook for a hand, Action Park would be it! But alas, Action Park, AKA Accident Park and Class Action Park has since departed us for that list of abandoned amusement parks that dot the nation.

Watch the video below that other grand idea that killed riders, the Human Trebuchet. PS – thanks Popular Mechanics! Er, why didn’t you folks chime up and help these folks develop some rides that didn’t kill people?

He’s Russian and he’s in a mid-air dogfight resulting in an unplanned eject. We’ve seen that one before. But in the history of aerial dogfights, this one’s a first. And the video has gone viral.

The gist of it: Russian paraglider cruises over the Himalayas. All’s groovy, the video’s awesome. Then it happens – the guy gets unsanctimoniously rammed mid-air by a vulture who’s not too keen on sharing air space. Russian paraglider ejects, but the pissed off raptor gets stuck in the parachute. Fortunately, they’re both OK. But their egos? That’s another story. If only the vulture knew his territorial spat is making the rounds online…man…he’d blush.

Enjoy the video!

Pacific Rim National Park isn’t the most forgiving of places along the coast of Vancouver Island, and this week a Canadian family learned that the hard way, in the form of a cougar attack on their 18 month old boy.

The good news is that the little guy is OK. Authorities have been tracking the cougar in the days since the incident and have closed off that section of the park, at Kennedy Lake, near Ucluelet.

Hopefully this won’t dissuade hikers from what’s arguably one of the top five trekking destinations on Earth. As harrowing as this incident was, remember that cougar attacks are extremely rare, and as harrowing as it was, any time you enter nature, you enter the natural habitat of the extraordinary creatures that call it home.

Man, some guys just look death in the face and tell it to F&#k Off.  Fortunately for Ramiana van Bastolaer, the world-renowned big wave surfer did just that, with an Oh Shit moment for the record books and a video that will make your jaw hit the floor.

Watch this video, of Reef McIntosh’s jet ski flying over head and literally, I mean literally, miss Bastolaer by inches. McIntosh had towed Bastolaer out for some big wave surfing action and bailed right when the wave turned nasty and, well, the full story is here.

The jet ski didn’t make it, but McIntosh and Bastolaer and both ok, and Bastolaer stayed on the wave and has one of the sickest, narrow miss videos in history to prove it. Sick Sick Sick. Bastolaer, as someone comments on YouTube, is a F%$*ing Ninja.

Penny Palfrey raised awareness of the need to protect sharks in her own way.

Third post about the Penny Palfrey marathon swim, and the final one.

After repeated comments from her supporters, today I received this news release about the official stance whether or not sharks were killed on her record-breaking swim:

The Department of Tourism of the Cayman Islands and TheFlowersGroup have conducted an investigation into the matter and have not been able to find any eyewitnesses to a shark killing during Penny Palfrey’s swim. They state that images have been reviewed from various individuals who were on the boats. “From these findings, there is no evidence to suggest that any sharks were killed.”
Since this finding was released, the photo journalist Norma Connolly norma@cfp.ky
who initially reported the killings is unavailable. I think we all deserve the facts.

I’ll be honest, I find this a little suspicious, that the reporter who broke the story is mysteriously “unavailable”. I’m also curious why no one flat out denied that sharks were killed when the allegations surfaced.

I’ve said what I felt needed to be said.

But I’m  going to back off for three reasons:

1) I don’t believe that Penny Palfrey intended to harm sharks at any point on this swim

2) If sharks were killed, I believe the decision was made by one of her crew, without her knowledge

3) She’s taken a lot of grief for this, and her team demonstrates that open water swimming will modify its practices, to better plan for interactions with any marine life on future swims

Were sharks killed on this swim? I think so. But we’re beyond that now. And I don’t think Penny was aware of it.

I should also say this: Penny Palfrey’s achievement is nothing short of remarkable. To swim 67.5 miles in the ocean open is truly awesome. Penny Palfrey is a mother and a grandmother, and what she did deserves recognition.

Judging from the reaction that the allegations triggered in shark conservationists and environmentalists around the world, in her own way, Penny Palfrey has raised awareness of shark conservation and the need to protect them.

So Penny, if no sharks were killed I truly apologize to you. If sharks were killed, I’ve said my piece. You are a remarkable women. I believe that no matter what happened, you do give a damn about sharks.

Just maybe next time have a clear and well-defined non-lethal plan in case you encounter any sharks, K please?

Shark-finning is a HORRIBLE practice that must be stopped. Want to help? Don't eat at restaurants that serve shark-fin soup, and tell them why, until they stop serving it!

While we’re on the subject of what awesome travel is all about, here is an example of precisely the opposite. You can call this human stupidity at its finest. This August, a fight broke out in a disco at 3AM on a Carnival cruise ship. The fight got out of hand and spilled over into an adjoining art gallery and destroyed a $10,000 painting. Multiple TVs were trashed and several people needed medical attention. The fight, by the way, was caused by a group of drunken teenagers, over a song.

Carnival Cruise Lines wisely kicked the ten people responsible for the brawl off the ship, at a port in Mexico, to return home by their own devices. Mexican authorities also threw some of the offenders in jail.

This is exactly what travel is NOT about. I’m the first guy to admit that I’ve blogged about doing some pretty intense and strange (and often questionable) things. But a group of teenagers, on a cruise ship, and you know as well as I do, probably paid for by their mommy and daddy, starting a fight, damaging property and hurting people because they’re drunk and have nothing better to do is f^%&ing stupid and irresponsible.

I believe we’re on this planet for a reason. For those of us fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel, this is a gift that, frankly, most humans on planet Earth simply don’t have. And responsible travel, and adventure travel, is about learning about other lands and cultures, celebrating our similarities and differences, and learning as much about ourselves as about this amazing planet that we’re blessed with and have the obligation to protect.

Cherish the opportunity to travel. Don’t piss it down the toilet like the idiots in this video have obviously done.  You can quote me on that.

Sharks have their work cut out for them, thanks to Steven Spielberg’s Blockbuster JAWS. Every year, an estimated 100 Million sharks are slaughtered. Many of them are finned – their fins hacked off – and thrown back into the ocean to die a slow death. Now this week, several shark attacks in the Red Sea at an Egyptian diving resort have the world terrified, and the media captivated.

Unfortunately, this does not help the sharks, some species of which have been decimated by 90 per cent over the past 20 years. I feel that it is important to keep this in perspective when watching this news story. Yes, this is a tragic accident, and it sucks. And yes, you can bet your bottom dollar that the authorities will slaughter thousands of sharks in the Red Sea (although frankly, there aren’t thousands of sharks left anymore, that’s the problem), to find the one shark responsible for these attacks.

But the real tragedy here are the numbers that will become of this story. One shark killed one person. Now, millions of sharks, even more than before, which was already an astronomical and unsustainable number, will be slaughtered, to ease some rich tourists’ peace of mind. Here’s a news flash for these rich tourists, and the gawkers, and the authorities who are already slaughtering so many sharks because of this…sharks LIVE in the ocean…they, you know, like LIVE there. The ocean is their home. So when you go into their home – and how many billions of people go into the ocean each year, resulting in an estimated 10-15 human deaths a year, versus 100 million sharks butchered for no other reason than the fact that they exist, just deal with the fact that the ocean is home to many amazing, beautiful creatures. We live on a pretty amazing planet. Just out of curiousity, how many people die in car accidents each year? Bee stings? Hit by lightning? Multiple times more than are attacked by sharks

When watching this story, I beg you, please, PLEASE, think about this. Sharks are not our enemy. Our world would be empty without them. And that, unfortunately, is a very real threat that we face.

Ah, the joys of summer.  Beers, barbecues, maybe some fishing, and/or a wee bit’ o diving off the cliff at your local swimming hole.  Every year countless individuals (including yours truly) somehow find themselves standing at a rather uncomfortable altitude over a local body of water, which of course opens us to chiding, ribbing and cajoling until the said individual takes the plunge.  Of course, buddy’s often partaken in some liquid courage before making the jump (thank you Lucky Lager), and each year many “buddies” end up tombstoning, aka finding an early demise if done improperly.  You mean to say there’s a right way and a wrong way to jump off a cliff?  Yup.  Read on, this is Environmental Graffiti’s segment on how to jump off a cliff and live to reminisce about it years later, and a nice compilation of pretty pictures compiled at the top ten tombstoning destinations worldwide.  PS, thanks Evan.