Costa Rica photos part 4

canopy ziplining

This is the last of the photos. All the ziplining photos were were taken by the company photographer. He did a good job considering the low light and foggy weather. There is a random go pro shot in there, and then some off a point and shoot we bought for Brenna for the trip. The point and shoot turned out to be an utter pile of junk. Anyway, thanks for checking in. Plenty of bmx photos and video coming in the next week.

Costa Rica photos part 3

we took a pretty serious kayak ride around an island and found our own private beach

These are a bunch of go pro photos. Go Pro2 is pretty useless in the water. That and I actually chipped the casing area over the lens, so that didn't help photo quality. That being said, it did a pretty good job and got us lots of cool angles.

Costa Rica photos part 2

this felt awesome

More photos with some more tidbits. Our main reason for doing Costa Rica mid Canada summer, was for the opportunity to see the Green Sea Turtles lay their eggs in the middle of the night in Tortuguero. It's a very sanctioned tour in this area as it is protected and only during the night hours (paid and guided of course). You can only wear dark clothing, no camera gear, no lights. Just the guide with a red head lamp. They wait until the turtle is physically laying her eggs (50-100 eggs) before we can view, otherwsie we could spook her back into the ocean. Then we get to watch her cover the nest and go back into the water. It's a tremendous thing to watch and take about 2 hours for the whole process. It's hard to explain, but it's avery special. Pretty much most of the world's sea turtle come the 24 mile stretch of beach in Tortuguero to lay their eggs. It is possible to watch turtles lay eggs elsewhere, but it is also possible to get killed by the poachers who make a living killing turtles and taking their eggs for drugs, etc. So it's a true memory. I mean, you can only get there by boat, you have to pay to get on the island, the guides are certified and checked every time they arrive, and meanwhile on the other side of Costa Rica, people are killing people trying to guard the turtles in non sanctioned areas. Humans are truly the worst animal ever.

Costa Rica photos part 1

Only money shot I will ever get.

Too many photos and too many neat little stories. We shot about 1500 nice useable photos on this trip and I can only throw on a few handfuls. I will try to keep it mostly the standout ones. My internet is so slow it took way over an hour to put these up here. I can sum it up a bit and say this; Costa Rica has some really beautiful places full of wildlife and nice people who really care about their environment. The bugs were big, the jungle was thick, the water was insanely warm. We did really well on this trip and made sure to sleep in nice places and be as adventurous as possible throughout the trip and stayed off the beaten path for the most part. We had to emergency land in Florida on the way there because one of our engines was losing oil. That was pretty stressful. That plane ride was only more interesting because actor Terrence Howard was on the flight with his family. We then landed in city of San Jose, then off to Tortuguero on the west coast with ocean,, canals and rain forrest, then off to the mountainous area of La Fortuna with the volcano and hanging bridges, then off to Guanacaste the beach town on the east coast that was significantly dryer in terms of heat, then back to San Jose for the long haul home. What a wicked trip. We got to see a fair amount of Costa Rica given the time we were there. Thanks Gap Adventures! All the following shots are from the Canon T31 with Tamron 18-270 lens. They are either shot by Brenna, myself, or on a timer sitting on something random. Thanks for looking. More to come for sure.

iphone randoms

Honda fleet

I couldn't wait to get my phone clear of photos before the Costa Rica updates. Enjoy some randomness.

North Carolina roadtrip

4x4 jeep life

Long overdue update. I have been super busy and unmotivated to update this blog as I am still heartbroken from losing my hard drive of my life.

Anyway, enough about that. Earlier this summer myself, Jeff, Chitaroni, Jorden, and Nick Stupich decided it was time. Time to go see Roland, Shelley, and Rev in their new home in Kuri Beach, North Caronlina. It's not too far from South Carolina and it would be a decent drive. Jorden and myself got in my CRX and the other three guys got gay together in the Honda Fit. It was a dreadful drive to get there, but you know we laughed so much. I might fly their next time, but I wouldn't take back the way we did it. Turns out Roland lives in paradise. Pura Vida in Kura Beach. Place was awesome and the LaBrecque's were great hosts. We surfed, off roaded, camped, drank, swam, drank some more. We then made out way to Greenville in hopes of riding bmx history. We road the Animal House. I didn't enjoy the 22ft tall ramps personally, but everyone else shredded it up. Roland came out of retirement for the trip to throw down some final bangers! Guy is a fantastic human. We then got to the famous outdoor park Jaycee. Place is amazing and we had some fun. I can hardly remember what happened after that. We rode some crazy concrete park in Virginia somewhere, then we stayed in some hotel in Washington. We ate burgers, drank in our underwear, and stunk the place up. One more great memory for when I am old and decrepit. Or older and decrepiter (spelling?). Thanks to everyone for making the wonderful roadtrip happen, especially Roland and his family.

Most photos done with Canon T3i with the Tamron 18-270 lens and the Opteka Fisheye. POV shots were with the go pro.

Check back really soon for a few Costa Rica trip updates!

death of a hard drive

Pat's rat gives me a tickle

Over the Christmas Holidays I had a major flood that damaged my hard drive. At the moment, I have lost everything I have ever shot photo or video of in the last 12 years or so. Not cool. Luckily insurance is trying to have the data recovered through some complicated and expensive process. I am really hoping they can get it back for us. In the meantime I haven't been up to anything photo worthy. I haven't had time and not in the mood to lug the camera around. Here are a bunch of iphone pics from the last year.

Florida day five

great view above the ocean

The final full day. We made our way back through the keys stopping at places we saw on the way up. We had to get back to Miami that night as we had to be in the airport for 4am. So we did some parasailing, checked out a bird sanctuary, and caught our final sunset before heading into Miami for a nice dinner and a movie. We saw Django Unchained and it was great. Then made our delayed flight back to Ottawa to hit terrible conditions as expected. We were very tempted to just stay a lot longer. It was a great trip, but too quick. Hopefully this keeps us sane until Costa Rica. Thanks for checking in.

Florida day four

8ft Lemon shark takes a bite

Day four was great, but not as good as it should have been. We booked a shark tour on a boat. I am not yet dive certified, and even then there are no dedicated shark dives in the US. Well, you are not allowed to bait for sharks on dives. So unless you go to the bahamas, etc, then the shark tour was the next best thing. They bait the sharks off the side and you enjoy the show. Usually 12-20 sharks, with several big species coming through. Unfortunately we had a real cold snap over night, dropping the temperature so low, the sharks get very lethargic and their metabolism slows. They need warmer temperatures to be active. The shark tour wanted to cancel. I had other plans. I am Canadian I say, I can handle the cold. So tour guide eventually said yes. Problem is the sharks couldn't and I didn't know. Would have regretted not going, but we certainly did not get the show we were supposed to. The sharks were just not interested. Oh well. We saw an 8ft Lemon and 7ft Nurse feed a bit. One of the best parts was a giant loggerhead turtle that passed us while we watched the sharks feed. This thing was easily the size of a big 4-wheeler. Cruised on by and he was gone just like that. Then we enjoyed Key West afterwards as it warmed up for the evening. Key West is a really neat place. Party everywhere all the time, but we were the youngest people by far. Very weird dynamics there. Furthest Southern place in the US!

Florida day three

getting ready for the water 

Day three was awesome. Dark rainy weather when we woke up, so we hit the turtle hospital and got educated. Really great place and you get to see a lot of big turtles and stuff. We finished that and the weather was perfect. We hit a well known snorkelling spot. My go pro battery let me down, but you will simply have to take my word for it. I also have a 6 second video clip before she dies. What you ask? I snorkelled all alone, about 400ft from the boat and everyone else, with two Carribean Reef sharks. Don't be an idiot and ask if they are man eaters. Google that specific species and take a look. Not known to be too aggressive when left alone, but a very capable and well built killing machine. I swam with them 3 times, and the last session was about a minute and half at 10ft away. Go figure, I had exhausted my go pro battery in the previous 1.5hrs of the swim. I decided I had used enough of my luck (since nobody would even see or know if I went missing until way too late) and headed back to the boat to share my ultimate experience. I can't stop thinking about how perfect that encounter was, well, minus the go pro dying. One of the best days of my life so far. We also saw lots of barracudas and neat fish as expected.