Banff

My friend Liz and I have gone for the last several years to the Banff film festival together. We decided tonight that the theme of Banff is “Watch more television.” For the last three years, the main features have been about:
A woman who got paralysed.
A couple who failed to cross the north pole and nearly died.
A man who kayaked across the Tasmanian sea and died.

So on the face of it, it doesn’t exactly seem to be about the joys of the outdoors. And yet we still left talking about our plans for adventure. Just not kayaking.

The kayaking story was fascinating. You start out not knowing the outcome, but it becomes gradually clear that this story is not going to end happily. The friends and family members of Andy, the kayaker, talk a lot about how some people need more stimulation to get that natural rush that some of us feel when we look at our credit card bill. It’s hard for me to understand taking such huge risks with your life, for something that seems (quite honestly) relatively unimportant, especially when you have a wife and child, as he did (not that I don't value the single and childless, but, you know). However, as one of his team said, the world has been led by explorers and adventurers. And we all take risks every day--how we calculate, perceive, and need those risks is very personal and varies hugely.

Another, lighter, film featured noboarding, which looked very cool. Like snowboarding without the bindings. As the idea of my feet being locked into position by the bindings is what’s always put me off snowboarding, this sounded like an excellent idea for about two minutes. Then I remembered the last time I tried skateboarding.

It was at an ad shoot, and my friend and colleague, Brian, had just got a longboard and brought it to the shoot. While the crew was setting up between shots, he let me play on it. I think I rolled about four feet, hanging on to him, and I still fell off. Mark came out and shook his head, “If you get her hurt, Brian...” (This was back when I was the client and they cared about my well-being). So no, noboarding probably not the sport for me.

Rockclimbing is much more appealing to me, because you can do it in nice weather, and (the way I like to do it) you have a rope attached to you, which gives me great psychological comfort as well as genuinely increased safety. One of my favourite films showed Paul, a man recovering from an accident that had left him unable to walk for a while, climbing “The Rainbow” in Tasmania (I think) with his friend. He had the use of one arm, and imperfect use of his legs, and as his friend pointed out, things that would be quite easy for many people were a bit epic for him. He made it to the top, and they sat there in the sun, looking out over the spectacular view. His friend asked him if he longed for his old body back, and he said no, this was who he was now.

“Some people say they’d rather be dead than in a wheelchair,” he said, matter-of-factly. “It’s...it’s not true.”