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!
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?
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…
A while back, we told you about a promising young figure on the London street art scene, RJ, from Vandalog. Well, we’ve recently had an update from RJ about an exhibition he’s hosting, called The Thousands.
Now you can not only take a tour with RJ around London’s best and freshest urban art hotspots, but you can view some of the biggest international names in contemporary urban art at his forthcoming exhibition.
RJ tells us that much of the artwork at The Thousands is on loan from collectors, allowing him to include artists like Banksy, Os Gemeos, Jose Parla, Swoon, Aiko, Nick Walker, Kaws and many others that wouldn’t normally appear together.
In a passionate statement about the collection, RJ tells Ooh.com: “The Thousands includes some of the most amazing paintings that have been made in the last decade, from some of the most interesting artists in the world. I want Charles Saatchi, Jonathan Jones and Jose Mugrabi to show up and fall in love with everything there, because the people I know under 30 care more about Shepard Fairey’s posters than Damien Hirst’s spot paintings. I want to start a war. Tracey Emin was relevant. Now it’s Os Gêmeos’ turn.”
If you’d like to find out more about The Thousands exhibition, click here. If you fancy taking a tour around London’s East End, featuring some of the most recent work by the cities most enthralling street artists, check out RJ’s his listing on Ooh.com!
A short time ago, the Ooh team recruited London RIB Voyages to the ranks listed on Ooh.com. We were childishly excited when they offered us the chance to experience a RIB Thames tour first hand.
A time was duly set and skipper Joe collected us from Cadogan pier, by Albert Bridge, before jetting us East to Southbank’s Millennium Wheel to collect 5 more intrepid RIB adventurers. Warm jackets and buoyancy aids fitted, we pulled off the millennium peer and motored West against the ebbing tide towards M16.
After a brief allusion to the famous James Bond scene where the boat launches from an M16 window into the river, Ben, our cheerful guide, turned to Joe and invited him to let us have it…
Joe pointed our RIB across the river at the landmark Aztec style building, only acknowledged by the government in 2004 as the home of its Secret Intelligence Service. Surreally, and totally unexpected, the classic Bond theme twanged into life over the RIB’s loudspeakers and we felt a surge of power through the giant twin Johnson 225 engines.
The bow rose out of the water and the hull crashed and skidded across the Thames as we charged towards the building. Next, Joe swung the RIB to the right, carving across the river in front of Vauxhall bridge and swooping back towards MI6 within 15 feet of the colossal bridge columns. With each turn, the sidewall of the RIB dug deep into the water, lifting the outside edge into the air like a twisting rollercoaster.
Laughs, screams and whoops faded with the Bond music and we straightened up to head East with the tide. The onward journey was an electric mix of unbelievable speed and illuminating details narrated by Ben, bringing the historic landscape to life as we passed.
After we’d nipped out of the busiest part of the Thames, beyond Tower Bridge, Joe took our speed up another notch, making use of the 400 horsepower to reach speeds of 35 knots.
As we cut from one side of the river to the other, past London’s financial centre in Canary Wharf, we experienced another highlight: the weightless sensation of the hull bursting clean out of the water as we popped off a wake.
The return upriver gave us the chance to gawk at all the sites again, with a few more snippets of London history thrown in. We were also given a great photo opportunity when Joe lined the boat up with Tower Bridge looming in the background.
Basically, whether you live in London, or you’re just visiting, you should book one of these tours. It’s a no brainer, because there is simply no other way to see so many of London’s landmarks, from such a unique perspective and at such electrifying speed. Thank you London RIB Voyages. We salute you!
Recession seems the worst time to do anything apart from lie on the floor, bash your hands and wail. But there are a few intrepid adventurers breaking the mould. Becca Grossman is one of these hadry few. She’s throwing in her job as an admin assistant and starting a new career as a yoga instructor in New York.
We asked Becca when she first got involved with yoga. ‘I first started a yoga practice when my mother suggested it might help severe joint pain I had been suffering from.’
I was extremely skeptical, having adopted the very Western idea that pills cure all ailments. I reluctantly walked into a basic Vinyasa class at OM in New York City, and was almost instantaneously transformed. There was so much energy and possibility for me in that room…I was hooked.’
Unable to touch our toes without spending at least half a day in a sauna, we were curious to know how long it takes to become a fully fledged flexibility ninja: ‘In many ways it’s taken me all 24 years of my life to become a yoga instructor. More specifically, though, I practiced for two years before enrolling in a ten-month teacher training at Yoga Synthesis in Ramsey, NJ.’
We asked Becca what benefits yoga can bring to recession-drained workers: ‘Yoga benefits practitioners in innumerable ways. There’s a physical benefit, though that is secondary or even tertiary to the mental and spiritual benefits of a consistent practice.’
‘The mind learns to focus, open, and explore the world with more curiosity & compassion. The spirit learns inexplicable, beautiful, terrifying things…’
We asked Becca what kind of yoga she would be teaching and how you can get involved: ‘The style of yoga I teach is called Ashtanga-Vinyasa; it’s an eclectic style that draws on alignment principles from the Iyengar method and incorporates breathing techniques, postures, sequencing and meditation practices from all over the yoga-verse.’
‘It can be rigorous or gentle, but maintains a sense of curiosity & mindfulness no matter what. Private sessions with me are 90 minutes, at a rate of $120 per session. Discounts are available for first-time clients, session packages, and semi-privates. I’ll also be teaching at studios in and around NYC.’
If you want to find out more about Becca’s Yoga practice, you can visit her website, www.beccafaithyoga.com or email her here.
I’d like to introduce you to the little known curator of a rather unusual museum. Arm outstretched, hand gloved in white cotton, RJ stands pointing at a huge, pink, goofy-eyed graffiti monster scrawled on a concrete wall in the East End of London.
RJ runs guided tours around the East End, showing crowds the ever-shifting sprawl of urban art, illuminating torn posters and faded spray-can sketches with the names and stories of those responsible.
RJ’s museum is the city itself and his tours have lately gained noteriety: “I’ve only been involved with urban art for about a year and a half, but it’s become a passion that I spend way too much time on. Almost every Thursday I’m at one or more gallery openings, and on Saturdays I wander around looking for new work.”
‘It’s an extremely welcoming community. I recently spent a few days in New York City, and people who I only knew from their photography on flickr were touring me around and introducing me to artists and photographers.’
I ask RJ what he believes separates urban art from other forms of art. ‘In a purely academic sense, there really isn’t a difference. Most street artists resist that label and say that any work is just “art” once it is in a gallery.’
He continues: ‘On a more personal level, I think that any artist willing to give away their work for free and expose more people to art has a certain “x-factor” – that comes across in their artwork. Urban artists are painting for the love of it, and they are painting to give the public a chance to experience art without having to pay to wander confused around a museum.’
‘Swoon is a great example of this. She has exhibited at MoMA in New York, but she just can’t resist wheatpasting her work [pasting poster work on street furniture]. Right now, she’s in Slovenia building barely-float-able boats with about two dozen other artists, and they are going to sail them to Venice.”
On the flipside, I want to know how RJ distinguishes between vandalistic graffiti and genuine street art: ‘Some of it’s destructive. Almost all of it’s vandalism. That doesn’t mean it can’t also be art. I think a lot of graffiti writers are so good that they become accidental artists, and there are also plenty of street artists who are so bad that they become accidental graffiti writers. In the end it’s a personal call by the viewer.’
I ask RJ to tell us a bit more about the tour itself: ‘The tour changes a bit every time I do it. Even if I did the same route two days in a row, it would be different – work just changes so quickly. A few really impressive pieces that will definitely be included though are 2 works by Banksy, some wheatpastes by Shepard Fairey (the artist who made the Obama “HOPE” poster), a lot by the Burning Candy guys, and a large piece by Conor Harrington, pictured above. It usually lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours.’
I ask RJ what he believes to be the single most significant piece of street art in London: ‘Not including commissioned works like what was painted on the side of the Tate Modern last summer, I’d have to say a tiny piece by Barry McGee. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s surprisingly important. Back in the early 1990’s, McGee pretty much founded San Francisco’s street art scene.’
‘One evening after sunset, I was headed back home from an afternoon of looking at street art. Then I spotted quite an old piece I’d never seen before by Anthony Lister. Next to the Lister piece was one by McGee. It’s the only piece I’ve seen by McGee on the street, and perhaps even the only one left in the UK.’
Surprising me, RJ reveals the amazingly transitory nature of the work he has come to curate: ‘I’m told the McGee piece dates back to 2005. Unfortunately, I stopped by the other day, and the paint has really started to peel just in the last month.’
If the thought of missing out on these snapshots of city life chills you to the bone, drop RJ an email here and grab yourself a guided tour.
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.
We recently featured a company dealing in Battlefield Tours; scenes of untold carnage, thankfully concluded long in the past. But what if you could tour a scene of still unfolding disaster? The Wall Street Experience does just that: a tour of the most profound financial disaster in decades, right in the epicentre of Wall Street and Lower Manhattan.
Your tour guide will be Andrew Luan, a former Vice President of Deutsche Bank, who traded billions of structured credit bonds, specifically Credit Default Swaps and CDOs, the toxic asset securities blamed for destroying financial institutions. No one better, then, to give an inside perspective on the current financial crisis.
Incorporating, history, architecture and trivia (some gossip too, we imagine), this is definitely a preferable way to understand this complicated situation, and ask those burning questions that nobody seems to want to answer. This Andrew chap does seem like a nice guy though, so go easy on him…
Tours are $40 dollars per person (children go free), but Andrew is appreciative (no more so than now) that for some people that may be a little expensive, and that everyone deserves to be enlightened on this seemingly mystifying subject, and thus offers selected free tours. Sign us up!
Twitter has triumphed at Ooh of late. Not only have we deeply enjoyed the #blameoprah thing, but we chanced upon a a twitter feed from some people hard at work on the J&E Riggin, a schooner sailing yacht located in Rockland, Maine, USA.
Captain John Finger and his wife Captain Annie Mahle never thought they’d own a schooner, though Jon had entertained the fantasy. Annie ‘wasn’t even a little bit interested’. But, she informs ooh, ‘telling your spouse it’s not okay to live your dream is a terrible thing.’ Damn straight.
Around 12 years ago, Jon was strolling idly along the docks in Maine when he came across Captain Dave Allen at the end of a long season’s sailing, changing the oil in the yawl boat. ‘He looked cross, with motor oil dripping down his elbow. He grouched to Jon, “Wanna buy a schooner?”’ From the sounds of things, Jon didn’t need much persuasion.
With a crew of six including two captains, the 90ft schooner, built in 1927, has 24 berths including 9 double cabins. Annie tells us that J&E Riggin started life as an oyster dredger down in Delaware Bay: ‘For a time she was fitted with an engine and eventually did some ground fishing. In 1977, after an abbreviated rebuild, she began life in her current form as a Maine windjammer taking guests out for 3, 4 and 6 day sailing adventures.’
Trips on J&E Riggin can include activities like photography or cookery courses. Guests are encouraged to help sail her. ‘For most people, the more they’re involved, the more fun they have. It can be as participatory or as unengaged an experience as a person chooses,’ Annie tells us.
Jon is primarily in charge of the sailing, putting years of accumulated nautical know-how to good use and Annie, a published cook, with 25 years experience, is in charge of cooking. ‘All of the meals on board become part of our daily “events.” They’re prepared by me using only the most local and freshest ingredients, mostly from our own garden.’
With the oily troubles of Captain Allen in mind, we wanted to know if owning an 80 year old boat was as troublesome as we imagined. ‘Well the politic answer is that it’s a labor of love,’ Annie explains, ‘and we do love her. We consider ourselves stewards of her and even though our names are on the mortgage, she’s really a part of our collective American history as a National Historic Landmark…’
Annie doesn’t mince words, going on: ‘…working in the snow, painting around driving spring rains, and dealing with continual repairs related to weather and wear sometimes makes a person wonder what they were thinking when they decided on an antique wooden vessel.’
To be honest though, the ooh team is pretty sold on this idea already. Just to be sure we asked Annie to tell us what makes an experience on the J&E Riggin so special.
‘A week on board is a gift to yourself, letting go of all of the multitasking and 100’s of tasks one manages every day. It’s nourishing to the body and spirit, exhilarating without being an extreme adventure, and unusual for people looking for something different.’
So if, like me, you’re now wondering how you sign up for one of these trips, it’s right here. Alternatively you can email Annie with any questions you may have.
If you’re reading this and you own a similar business offering something really special, we’re always keen to write about it, so drop us an email here.
Tim Smith has been called “America’s greatest naturalist” and is one of North America’s most experienced survival, bushcraft and outdoor living instructors. Starting Jack Mountain in 1999, he still personally guides each trip and teaches each course himself.
Growing up in a small rural town, Tim, for lack of an alternative, spent most of his childhood in woods passionately reading and learning about the way that the Native Americans lived. “I don’t think I heard the term bushcraft until I was in my early teens, although that’s what we had been doing.”
Having moved back to university for a masters degree in education with the intent of moving back to teaching, Tim finished his degree with the intention of running courses on bushcraft and offering guided trips figuring he’d get his teaching job the following year. It’s now been ten years of bushcraft and guiding.
Tim’s passion for passing on his experience is clear – “I like teaching. Not so much the lecturing or talking about it, but rather watching people learn. Watching someone’s skill and confidence grow is an amazing thing to witness. At its best, teaching should be invisible; a person who learns from a mediocre instructor will realize how talented their instructor is. The person who learns from an excellent teacher will realize how talented they are.”
Whilst there can be no doubt that Smith is a survival and bushcraft expert, he displays perhaps a surprising ambivalence about big-time adventure. “Vilhjalmur Steffanson said that “Adventure is a sign of incompetence”. Adventure implies you weren’t prepared. If you’ve spent a lot of nights in improvised shelters in bitter cold weather, what would be a perilous situation to someone inexperienced becomes just another night in a shelter in front of a fire. I’ve been on extended remote trips, I’ve been cold, I’ve been wet, I’ve been hungry, but I wouldn’t label any of these perilous.”
“A skill we’re lacking in the modern world is the ability to distinguish between a want and a need. Learning the basics of survival teaches you what your needs are.”
Whilst quite obviously the outdoor type, Tim is under no illusions as to the importance the internet holds for Jack Mountain. “It allows people all around the world to stay current on what we’re up to by letting us be a publishing house, film making studio and more. It allows us to communicate ideas instantly – something that wasn’t possible in the days of print brochures and magazine ads.”
Find out more about Tim and Jack Mountain at www.jackmtn.com or contact him here.
It’s easy to be a Gringo in Rio de Janeiro. Scores of European tourists flock there for the wonderful beaches, spectacular landscape, and the crazy nightlife. Thanks to Marcio and Luiz, it’s also easy to “Be a Local”. The two started a tour company offering a real look at Rio life through the eyes of a local, with big experiences, and little gloss.
Motivated by complaints that tourists were seeing the Favelas (townships) from the back for a Jeep, Be a Local chose a more immersive approach, taking tours through the Favelas, meeting people, and shattering any preconceptions that outsiders may have about what goes on. Marcio explains “the idea was, taking people to walk through the Favela, visiting and watching the real life inside, talking with people and checking the lifestyle.”
“We show the city in a different way, opening people´s mind and showing that even with lack of money, you can be happy, nice and have a great family and life.”
Be a Local offer tours to local football matches, extensive Favela tours on foot, and huge Favela parties. From personal experience, I can say with certainty that during the many visits I made, I never felt remotely threatened. However, when the paramilitary police enter the warrenous (and drug gang controlled) Favelas, the result can be potentially dangerous for inhabitants and tourists alike. Marcio recounts – “A few years ago, I was inside the Favela with the group and the police came inside. It´s not the best place to be in Rio, but with the knowledge that we have inside, I could manage to get my way out of the Favela without any trouble.”
Beneficial for both tourists and locals, Be a Local is socially responsible in a very real way, without ever feeling patronising. “For the tourists, it’s one way of seeing something different from things that people just hear from the news or on the movies. For the locals, it’s an opportunity to benefit and get to meet with people from all over the world.”
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!
