As I can remember, the twin passions of my life have been the martial arts and the outdoors. This last summer I stepped off the mat, flew for 2 hours in a 72-year-old bush plane, and stepped into a canoe to do a 19 day solo trip through polar bear and caribou country in the Canadian Arctic. I'm finally getting around to releasing the videos from that trip. Here's episode 1... The … [Read more...]
Canoeing
Three Big BJJ Lessons Learned on a Solo Trip in the Arctic
Earlier this summer I completed a beautiful and difficult 19-day solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic. There's a lot of time to think on a trip like this, and here are the 3 big lessons I learned... You can order my new book "Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic" on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo/Chapters, or your local bookstore! Three Big BJJ Lessons Learned on a Solo … [Read more...]
BJJ vs Bears – Lessons Learned on a Solo Expedition in the Arctic
I just recently got home from a difficult solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic where I didn’t see anyone for weeks. Bears, storms, icebergs and exhaustion, this adventure had it all. Since I was alone, I had a lot of time to think. A big takeaway was how relevant some aspects of this wilderness stuff were to jiu-jitsu. Here are the three big lessons I learned from that trip, and how they … [Read more...]
Adam Shoalt’s Amazing 3,400 km Solo Journey to the Arctic
Explorer Adam Shoalts is fresh off a 3 month, 3,400 km solo trip to the Arctic. It’s an amazing story, and he shares a TON of tips for travelling in the wilderness... Adam Shoalts 3,400 km Adventure (Video Version) Here is the video of my conversation with Adam (click here to watch it on Youtube)... 00:21 Adam’s 3 month, 3,400 km solo journey to the Arctic 31:51 On Staying Safe in the … [Read more...]
Extreme Whitewater Canoeing, with Paul Mason
Paul Mason is one of Canada's foremost whitewater instructors and the son of Paul Mason, the man who introduced canoeing to the world with the "Path of the Paddle" films and book. I was thrilled to talk to him about extreme bigwater canoeing, steep creeking, quantifiable repeated practice, the most common whitewater hazards, and how to get better at difficult sports as fast as … [Read more...]
How to Get Started in Outdoor Adventures (Podcast)
In episode 354 I chat with Mikaela Ferguson who has been introducing people to the outdoors for years with her guiding and with her writing. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, so we geeked out about how to get started in the outdoors, paddling safety, dealing with bears, gear choice, surviving thunderstorms and more! How to Get Started in Outdoor Adventures, with Mikaela Ferguson … [Read more...]
Unaddressed Little Problems with Your Training Quickly Become Big Problems
800 pounds is a LOT of weight. Put that weight onto the shoulders of an average man and it’ll crush him straight down into the ground. Now imagine loading 800 pounds onto your shoulders and squatting down until your thighs are parallel with the ground, and then fighting your way out of the hole back to standing. Squatting this much weight is an almost impossible achievement. At most … [Read more...]
The 2021 Seal River Expedition
The two things I have enjoyed doing more than anything else in my life are training martial arts and spending time in the wilderness. A few years ago I undertook a 1,000 mile solo trip in the Canadian Subarctic and Arctic. Although I was way, Way, WAY out of cell phone range for that trip I did manage to upload pictures and stories from the field using a finicky satellite dish. People really … [Read more...]
My Solo 1000 Mile Journey from Missinipe Saskatchewan to Arviat Nunavut, Updates from the Field
I'm started this post before setting out on a 1000 mile journey by canoe, alone across the northern boreal forest and Canadian tundra. 12 days before I started the trip I shot a video answering most the questions I got before the trip (what about bears, what kind of boat, will I be fishing, etc.) and going into detail about my plans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAU1acJCEM The … [Read more...]
Belugas, Bears and an Offshore Tide on Hudson Bay
Fair warning: what I’m talking about today has absolutely nothing to do with martial arts training. But – in keeping with a previous theme – it has everything to do with deliberately facing self-imposed challenges, whatever they may be. This article is really a continuation of a previous one discussing why martial arts training provides some of the few ‘real’ rites of passage in today’s society … [Read more...]