There’s been a lot of snow kicking around in the Northern Hemisphere lately. But we’re keeping our spirits warmed with thoughts of all the fun to be had on the snowy slopes of Europe, the USA and Canada. New Zealand, your time will come!

To share our winter cheer with readers, we thought we’d let you know about some great stuff to do on Ooh.com this winter. You can find even more Cool Stuff to do this winter in our Hall of Fame.

Here are a few of the most recently elected Winter highlights!

A fantastic opportunity to gain an insight into the Japanese language and enjoy some winter sports at the same time.

We’ve heard that winter 09/10 is going to be a massive year for backcountry (off-piste) skiing. And where would be a more exciting place to get knees deep in the fresh powder than Kashmir, India?

Backcountry skiing isn’t without risks, so take the opportunity to brush up on your avalanche awareness skills with this full day introduction to avalanches in Boulder, Colorado!

People often associate winter sports with skiing and snowboarding, but most haven’t thought of Ice climbing. If you’ve never thrown an ice axe and a crampon into a sheer face of ice, now’s a great time to head to Chamonix, France and experience the rush yourself!

That’s it for our top winter things to do roundup. These four are only a handful of the great listings you’ll find on Ooh.com, so head to the site, have a browse and see if anything takes your fancy. Of course, if you want to sell a wintery trip, course or event, you can do that too, for free! Bonus…

Ooh.com’s been busy lately, organizing the launch of the ooh.com site and a pretty cool comp to get you all thinking about what you’d most like to do in the world…

But the friendly blog team @emmadrew, @drbeanbagmd and @ejgthompson have not forgotten their raison d’être. That’s why we took time out to catch up with madman and paramotring guru, Alex Ledger.

Alex first got involved in this gravity defying sport towards the end of 2004 with his friend Giles Cardazo, the well-known owner of Parajet, one of the industry leading paramotoring equipment suppliers. Cardazo is less well known for his barmy, improbable but ingenious design of the Skycar. That’s a car, which a giant fan, and a giant parachute, which can fly for us lay folk.

“Since then I’ve been running SkySchool full time teaching people how to fly for the past 5 years. The thing I love most about the sport is the freedom it offers and it’s simplicity.”

We figured you’d probably want to know, realistically, how difficult it is to take to the skies a la James Bond: “The most challenging thing about learning to Paramotor is overcoming the weight of the motor while attempting to launch the wing in light winds. However, once one has developed the correct technique it becomes simple.”

Naturally we couldn’t help finding out if Alex had experienced any frightening moments during his time in the sky.

“My scariest moment when flying was when I misjudged the wind strength when I first started flying and ended up being dragged through a football pitch while they were playing a match, however this was also one of my most amusing moments as well!”

From the photos and the videos you can find of this relatively new sport, we think you’ll be tantalized into considering giving it a go. In a true triumph of administration, we anticipated your interest and asked Alex where you should go to give it a try. His top five locations were:

1. My top Paramotoring destination is Dorset, in particular around Milton Abbas, which is where I was brought up.

2. My second favourite location is North East Spain, from where I run the Spanish school – the landscape is so varied with the Pyrenees mountains and Costa Brava coastline.

3. My third is Southern France, near Toulouse, because of the rolling countryside and beautiful chateaus.

4. My forth is St Andre les Alps in the southern French Alps where the water is sapphire blue in the amazing gorges.

5. My fifth and final location is North Oxfordshire among the fantastic country houses and estates such a Blenheim Palace.

What to give this a try? Contact Alex here with questions or visit www.skyschooluk.com for more info on when and where to get started!

I don’t know about you, but I’m a proper water baby. I love swimming and I go surfing whenever I can. I’ve also tried kayaking, but not on the sea. So in the spirit of open-mindedness I decided to find out what it’s all about.

Seth Dent, of St Mary’s Georgia, started kayaking in the Fall of 2004 and has since become a qualified instructor and guide: ‘I began reading books about kayaking and took classes at the East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival.’

We asked Seth what it is he loves so much about the sport and he wasn’t short of reasons. ‘You can go anywhere in a kayak, places that powerboats and sailboats are not able to go: with the proper training, you can go wherever the sea will let you …you’re only limited by yourself.’

‘Kayaking creates interests in things that may not have been interesting to you before. Before I started, I had no desire to learn how to read nautical charts, tie a variety of knots, or put together meal plans for multi-day expeditions… Kayaking is good for you. It’s very good exercise that strengthens your core, but most importantly, it’s fun.’

We asked Seth for suggestions about the best places to go Kayaking and he suggested these amazing destinations:

‘The Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail, the longest sea kayaking trail in the US, is one of the best paddling destinations on the East Coast. Since Florida’s coastline is distributed between the Atlantic Ocean & the Gulf of Mexico, the paddling opportunities are quite varied.’

‘Cumberland Island National Seashore is truly a gem of the Georgia coast. Cumberland Island is consistently rated as one of the best wilderness beaches in the US. The combination of salt marsh and ocean paddling makes it a fun place to camp and explore.’

‘The St. Johns River in Florida offers dozens of water-accessible campsites on public land that’s free to use. Most often when people think of sea kayaking, they think of paddling on the open ocean, but there are many inland waterways that can challenge even the most experienced sea kayakers. In December of 2008 I paddled the St. Johns from its headwaters to the Atlantic Ocean with my paddling partner, Keith Legette. Our expedition marked the first time that such a trip had ever been done!’

‘Washington’s San Juan Islands display the true beauty of the Pacific Northwest’s coast. State ferries provide transportation to several of them, but a sea kayak is the best way to experience these beautiful islands. With limitless opportunities for camping, the San Juan Islands should be on every paddler’s to-do list.’

‘There is no better place to sea kayak than its birthplace: Greenland. There are more reasons than I could possibly list, but suffice it to say that every paddler that makes the trip to Greenland returns home with a new appreciation for those that depend upon the kayak to live.’

‘The beauty of kayaking is that it only takes 5-10 minutes to learn the basics. When guiding trips I frequently encounter people that have never been in a kayak. After a short instructional orientation, beginning paddlers are ready to tackle calm, protected waters.’

‘I’m based in St. Marys and provide guided kayak trips and lessons to Cumberland Island National Seashore, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the St. Marys River and many more destinations. There are different trips for a range of skill levels that will satisfy even the most adventurous souls. I offer a Beginners Course, an Advanced Course and a Safety & Rescue course, each costing $60’.

You can contact Seth by emailing him here, or visit his website which is here.

There are loads of motivational speakers out there, but very few are as inspirational a character as Ben Saunders. It’s not often The Times describe someone as “the next Ranulph Fiennes”. He’s a record breaking polar explorer and long-distance skier, with four North Pole expeditions under his belt, and holds the record for youngest to ski solo to the North Pole and the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton.

Difficult to improve upon, you might think. Seemingly not, according to Ben – “I have a massive Antarctic project on the horizon – the first return journey to the South Pole on foot. At 1,800 miles and nearly four months, it will be the longest unsupported (i.e. human-powered) polar expedition in history.”

“My solo expedition to the geographic North Pole in 2004 was 31 marathons back to back over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean. I was dragging 180kg (twice my body weight) at the start, and the lowest temperature was -48 degrees c. I spent 72 days alone, camping in the polar bear’s natural habitat (I slept next to a pump-action shotgun). Without wishing to sound too gung-ho, this is a big part of the appeal. It puts fun runs, triathlons and even things like the Tough Guy into perspective…”

Any Close Shaves? “Too many to mention. The closest shaves were being attacked by a polar bear in 2001 and falling through the ice alone in 2004. But there are always huge periods of self-doubt, fear and loneliness, particularly on big solo expeditions – in a sense these are harder to deal with than the occasional panic.”

Whilst there can be no doubt of the extreme physical and mental strain involved these expeditions, there doesn’t appear to be any strategic or special philosophy that motivates Ben when things get really tough.
“There’s no one thing in particular, but it’s essentially a combination of stubbornness, pride and bloody-mindedness, the knowledge that what I’m doing is benefiting others (whether it’s through associations with charities and schools, or merely the fact that they’re enjoying following my story as it unfolds) and a large dose of positive mental attitude. Music is one of my secret weapons – both on expeditions and when I’m grinding through tough training sessions back in the UK.”

When he’s not testing the limits of human endurance, Ben is a leading motivational speaker and author, as well as an ambassador for numerous charities and organizations. So to what extent do his expeditionary experiences inform his advice when speaking to people?
“Massively so. I’m remarkably normal in every respect – I’m not peculiarly talented, I’m not genetically suited to the cold, I don’t have a freakish lung capacity or a vast IQ, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I’m certainly not descended from a family tree of explorers. I’ve had to work hard for what I’ve achieved and there have been some soaring highs and crushing lows along the way – it’s these experiences that people seem most keen to hear about. No one has any idea what sleeping in a tent at -48 is like, or how it feels to be the only human being in hundreds of thousands of square miles, and it’s very difficult to explain these things. But we’ve all had dreams, and we’ve all experienced setbacks and challenge along the way – that’s what my story’s all about, really.”

For more details about the next planned expedition and forthcoming lectures, check Ben’s website at www.bensaunders.com or follow him on twitter @polarben.

Images used with the kind permission of Andy Ward and Ben Saunders.

Tristan Gooley has a very full passport. I caught up with him just as he was unpacking from a trip to  Libya.

Tristan has led expeditions in five continents, climbed mountains in Europe, Africa and Asia, sailed small boats across oceans and piloted small aircraft to Africa and the Arctic. He has recently been awarded the Royal Institute of Navigation’s Certificate of Achievement by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh for becoming the first European and only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic. And when, briefly, he puts his passport down, he’s also non-executive Vice Chairman of Trailfinders.

What really interests us is that Tristan is the only person in the world working full time in natural navigation. He has set up The Natural Navigator School and runs courses all over the world.

Tristan explains, ‘Natural navigation is about finding your way without using map, compass, gps or any other navigational tool at all. It’s not just about getting from A to B, it also makes you feel better connected to the world. It can be very powerful on an emotional as well as physical and practical level.’

Tristan runs one day, classroom-based courses and then likes to follow these with outdoor courses. ‘Even at the end of a one-day course people will be able to orientate themselves at a basic level on land, sea or in the air, both by day and by night,’ he says.

So apart from stars, wind and sun, how else can we navigate our way around? ‘All the senses are incredibly important. For example, smell – so the smell of the sea from land, or land from sea. I remember coming in to the Caribbean after a month at sea and it smelt to me like cut grass mixed with a teaspoon of honey and one ground clove! We can also use sight, sound and taste. With taste, you can, for example, taste the difference between estuary and river by the salt levels in the water. With sound, two sides of a path will often sound different as you walk over them. This is due to moisture levels in the earth and the wetter side will usually be on the southern side.’

We’re fully on board for getting back to basics and having a go at one of these courses. And there’s one thing you can be sure of, you’ll never feel lost again.

Emma Farrell is at the forefront of an extraordinary sport: freediving.  Involving underwater descent without breathing assistance, freediving can be both challenging and relaxing, and, perhaps surprisingly, it need not only be for the super-fit – “It’s more about relaxation than fitness. Some very fit people just can’t do it, whilst some very out of condition people take to it very easily. Saying that, it obviously does help if you are reasonably fit, as you can recover from deep dives quicker.”

Emma left a stressful career in the film industry to freedive upon learning of its availability in the UK.  However, whilst there was a facility at which she could dive, there was no formal training organisation to maintain quality of training and safety. 

“There wasn’t an organised and recognised education system and so a group of us in the UK got together to make a series of courses that could be taught. I was keen that people learn how to enjoy freediving safely to teach a generation how to do it properly and avoid dangerous diving. I was then one of the founding members of the AIDA Education Commission who took the course materials and expanded them worldwide.”

Having competed nationally and internationally between 2003 and 2006, coming 3rd in the 2003 UK Championships, 3rd in the 2006 Swiss Championships and 2nd in the 2004 Kalymnos International Championships despite being the only female in the competition, Emma’s passion lies in tuition – “Teaching is way more important to me than competing! I really struggled when I started freediving and I love being able to help people learn and avoid all the mistakes I made!”

As well as being a freediving author, and having chaired the British Freediving Association, Emma frequently appears in magazines and on television.  Whilst she may be whisked to glamorous locations, the realities of these trips are sometimes a little different – “It may appear to be glamorous but beautiful images and locations can be deceiving! I did a photo shoot for my book in Monaco and got very badly stung by a jellyfish that scarred my hand for a few years. I also did a TV commercial where I was so cold that I became violently ill for a week! Teaching in the United Arab Emirates last year was about teaching in a sea of jellyfish and then an oil slick which took 3 hours in a shower with a bottle of detergent to get rid of. Saying that, I have done some beautiful dives in Greece and the UK when teaching courses so that helps to make up for it!”

Emma runs a variety of courses in the UK and offers freediving holidays at a summer school in Greece.  For more information, visit www.emma-freediver.co.uk or www.deeperblue.com.

Photos used with the kind permission of Simon Reid.

If I asked you about things you associated with Holland you might say ‘clogs’, ‘tulips’ and maybe ‘floodplains’. Even if you were a surfer you’d still be pretty unlikely to put two and two together.

But you’d be wrong. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there was recently a protest in Scheveningen, Holland, about some council legislation aimed at closing down the surf beach after concern about the dangers of the sport.

Hans and the local surf community put paid to that with a peaceful demo and we’ve since had the chance to catch up and find out more about this obscure but thriving surf scene.

Hans first discovered his passion for surfing on a holiday in Quiberon, France, where he loaned his skimboard to a German guy’s son in exchange for a go on the German guy’s surfboard for a couple of hours. He picked up the nack of standing up after only a few goes and, as if by magic, became a surfer, buying his first board that same summer.

I ask Hans what the surf scene is like in Holland and joyfully he describes it as “small and personal, maybe even like California in the fifties.” He explains that there are tight groups of surfers scattered up the coast, but that it’s growing fast, especially in Scheveningen where neat, punchy rights push up against a wave-breaker jutting out from the soft sandy beach that also throws up some standard beach-break action.

Hans describes Scheveningen as a “small fishing town attached to a metropole, so you have all the benefits of both; small and friendly community, but still everything is nearby.” It’s apparently the only town in Holland with a big surf community and range of abilities and, he adds happily, “the only place in Holland where you can walk around with just trunks on and not look weird.”

If you’re new to surfing, Hans suggests that it’s easiest to go wrong with foot positioning when you stand up -it’s all about keeping your feet parallel so that your shoulders are facing the side of your board, not the front.

Hans finds his new pupils through word of mouth and from a local guerilla sticker campaign on all the lamp-posts in Scheveningen and Den Haag. “We’ve had some media coverage, even on TV, so that’s been good as well” he says.

I ask Hans what he finds so rewarding about being a surf instructor and he says that, even after 12 years, “it’s still super-rewarding to see the smile on people’s faces after they rush down the face of a wave,” adding, “surfing changes people’s lives, and it’s super-cool to be a part of some of those lives.” He talks fondly about doing a job that just makes people happy – that and getting to travel all over the world in winter to work.

Fortunately here at Ooh.com we don’t envy him at all. Not even a little bit… If you want to get in touch with Hans to book a lesson, or ask a question, you can email him or take a ‘peak’ (yay – a pun!) at his website.

Parkour, or free-running, has been booming for a while now, so we thought we’d give you a taste of the action first hand. We’ve been digging around for one of these mysterious urban athletes and managed to get an interview with Cali, from Urban Free Flow in London.

Cali first became involved in Parkour after watching a movie called Yamakasi, in France 12 years ago. After an unsuccessful search for the people who featured in the film, Cali headed to London and started job hunting. “In between job searches I watched a youtube video from Urban Free Flow then I found another and another. They were giving classes so I signed up. A year and a half later I’m giving the lessons!”

Cali bashfully admits that his background as an instructor in Tae Kwon Do and his interest in urban dance and hip-hop gave him an edge when he started. “Maybe the martial arts gave me the efficiency and discipline, and the dance gave me the creativity and flow.” Judging by Cali’s videos, these two disciplines have melded into a pretty exquisite combination in parkour. “Since I started learning, I haven’t wanted to do anything else – it’s addictive” Cali comments, adding with a gleeful twinkle in his voice, “I can jump 6 feet in the air. I could run up to you and jump over your head…”

When asked about the strength needed to throw yourself confidently around the cityscape, Cali deferentially explains that you learn to start small and work your way up to bigger things. The basics include walking along a rail and learning to land safely, then learning how to jump. He keeps mentioning efficiency and control as two key building blocks of the sport, failing to mention the ounce of determination and the dash of crazy I suspect are also critical. If you don’t believe me, check out his video:

Apparently London is one of the best places in the world for free-running and Cali tells me the estates around Kilburn near where he lives are a favourite haunt when he’s alone. If he’s with his team, they head south to the Imax in Waterloo – “maybe the best place in the world for the sport”, he says. “When you are a normal human being you hear ‘Imax’ and you think ‘movies’. If you’re a free-runner (or ‘tracer’), you hear ‘Imax’ and you think of parkour. You’d leave the cinema!”

After my conversation with Cali, and a look at his videos on youtube, I can’t help but feel pretty curious to give this thing a go, so watch this space. In the mean time, if you’re curious yourself, you can email Cali and book a one-to-one lesson, or join one of his group sessions. He is a full time parkour instructor, genuinely talented and remarkably humble considering his mysterious power to weaken the forces of gravity to which you and I are daily subject.

Photograph features Cali grinding away at his day job.