Getting inside the great outdoors

EVER wondered what it is like to dive over 200 metres beneath the waves on a single breath?

What about stand at the altitude usually occupied by jet liners? Or how painful your bum would feel like after cycling the equivalent of 25 Tour de France? Or whether locusts taste better with or without salt?

Should your appetite be whetted by some of those conundrums, then let us direct you for answers to the Snickers Irish Outdoor Adventure Show, which begins tomorrow at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin.

Last year’s event attracted over 12,000 customers and given the growth in outdoor pursuits, organisers expect a sizeable increase on that figure over the next three days.

Damien Hackett, editor of Outsider magazine says Ireland is in a transitional phase with regard to adventure sports.

“It is creeping up. The outdoor industry is about to mature in the very near future and is preparing itself for that.”

Hackett has a theory why this is the case. “Increasing prosperity brings increasing protection from primitive and primal needs. As a result people want to try more adventurous, challenging and dangerous things.”

The speakers who have experienced such “adventurous, challenging and dangerous things” are astonishing.

Take for example Patrick Musimu. Six years ago, Musimu, a physiotherapist and martial art expert, discovered free diving at the age of 28. Since then he has revolutionised the sport and its preparations. (Musimu, assisted by his fiancée, spent the winter diving in the cold water of Belgian quarries, where the water was a chilling 4°C at the surface).

The work was not in vain. Last year, after breaking numerous world records, Musimu shattered the deepest human performance registered by almost 40 metres in warm waters off the coast of Egypt. His record stands at 692 feet - deeper than the length of a football field.

Then there’s Alastair Humphries.Alastair completed his amazing trip at the end of November last year. His mission statement was simple: “The Guinness Book of Records defines a journey around the world as one that covers 16,000 miles and four continents. Now I am doing the job properly: 50,000 miles, five continents, 50 countries. Alone and on a bicycle. No buses, no hitching, no support vehicles.”

The incredible power of the human spirit has few better advocates than Gearoid Towey, who will recount the near fatal end to the Atlantic Rowing Race earlier this year and the amazing battle to survive which he, and colleague Ciaran Lewis waged in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Towey isn’t the only home-grown talent in the forum of motivational speakers. Pat Falvey, the only person in the world to have climbed the seven highest summits in the world twice, will be the final man at the podium on Sunday at 5pm.

Not content with such adventures which include climbing Mount Everest from two sides, Falvey is now preparing for Beyond Endurance, an Irish Trans-Antarctic expedition that he will be launching at the show, following in the footsteps of the famous expedition led by Irish-born Ernest Shackleton from 1914 to 1917.

Mountainers Doug Scott and Grania Willis, Kayaker Rob Coffey are amongst the other speakers who will relive their exciting achievements over the three days.

And for those wanting to share the extreme adventure, - organisers have a Try Dive Pool, a climbing wall, an archery range, massive indoor canoe pool and a off-road driving feature.

The managing director of Irish Services, the event organisers, David Skinner said: “We feel it offers all the atmosphere of outdoor adventure activities, indoors. This year we believe the event will have many couch potatoes trading their sofas for snorkels.”

And whether locusts taste better with or without salt, don’t look at us for answers. Dale Treadwell of Naturally Wild will host a Bush Tucker Trial over the three days and promises to serve up some tasty treats.

His words, not ours.

For more details visit: www.outdooradventureshow.ie