My Epic Travels: The Road to Achieving Dreams: October 2011

Well my dreams are somewhat different to most peoples. But in the true sense of a dream, its the same!
I dream about having a wife, family, good friends, money, happiness among other 'normal' things. The problem is that I like to jump off things, really high things; I like to ride dirt bikes; I like to body board; I like snowboarding, wake boarding and cliff jumping; In general I like things that get my heart going.

The biggest question that came with this fascination and to use a commercial term "addiction" is, do I like the concept and image of actually doing these things? Or do I truly love doing them? Iv often toyed with these ideas in my head because my sports are in no way cheap. The way I am going to answer this questions is by tell you about my dream and what made me realize that I am truly in love with what I do.

I have always been fascinated with base jumping to the point that it would often ruin a good nights sleep, I would wake up rushing and wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night. I started really looking into the sport and the requirements for getting into it! The easiest way is to get into base jumping is through skydiving and once you have completed from about 150-200 skydives you can get access into a first base course.

When I was at varsity, I didn't have the money to even get started so I kept pushing what I believed to be my dream aside. I then applied to teach in Korea. The benefit of teaching in Korea is that I get to make the money to start working my way to accomplishing my dream.

When I arrived in Korea I was sort of a small fish in a huge ocean. I didn't know if I was coming or going or where to get stared. As you saw in previous posts, I started bungee jumping and doing whatever I could to become more comfortable with heights and adrenaline. Still I felt held back and that I wasn't moving forward quick enough.

I decided to start paragliding. Paragliding is like nothing I have ever done before. Its so relaxing but at the same time trippy because you never know when something can go wrong. In essence its taken the controlled element out of the rush. You never know when and how you will get one. Its been a big step into reaching my dream.

Now to get back to the question. Is what I do for the image or for the pure love of the experience? Ill tell you a little story about when I came to the answer. It was a normal day at Yongin paragliding site but the winds were gusty and strong. My instructor (Mr Kim) on that day gave me the choice of whether to fly or not. Obviously I decided to give it a bash. During my training, the norm was running off the side of a mountain and floating away peacefully. In this particular situation, things did not go as planned. I inflated my wing while being anchored by my instructor as the wind was to strong to do it on my own. I started ascending right of the bat which is what I was expecting but what happened next was A little bit worrying for a beginner. I started making my way of the side of the mountain when the wind started gusting. The left hand side of my wing collapsed and my glider felt like it was inside a shaking machine. I managed to correct the wing when the right hand side decided to follow suite. By the time I had corrected the wing and I was feeling way to close to the trees for comfort as I had lost loads of altitude. I started planning which tree would be the best to land in and whether I could make a landing on a newly built road. All of a sudden I felt myself go into a thermal and start lifting. I have never felt relief like that ever before. When I landed safely I realized the answer to my question.

I found myself smiling from ear to ear and I found myself wanting to do it all over again! That's one of the biggest defining moments for me. I now know that i'm not living in a dream world, I can actually do this.

Above: Normal take off at Yongin flying site