FOOTNOTES: *BAREFOOT AND *BOOTS

 

I've been a swimmer, a diver, a teacher, a counsellor, a university professor, a hypnotherapist, a buskologist, an author, and now a ski instructor. I started out barefoot and now I am a boot guy. Seriously. 

Soon after my undergrad days I was a swimming/scuba instructor. Swimming or diving in a pool or in a lake or in a river, barefoot is still the norm, but I must confess that boots are my modus operandi. I wear boots all four seasons long. When I walk or run or busk in the rain or shine, thirty degrees above or thirty degrees below, I wear hiking boots. Wintertime, as often as possible, I wear my ski boots.

Factoid: While I am typing this right now, I am wearing my hiking boots!

Today I am writing about how my footwear relates to my life. From my vocations to my avocations, and now from my avocations to my vocations, from the bottom of the lake to the top of the mountain, my footwear has always been symbolic of who I really am.  I shall explain.

This picture atop the words in this blog entry features my bare feet whilst clad with Muay Thai shin guards. Whenever kicking in Muay Thai classes, for safety purposes and according to gym policy, I am obligated to wear my shin guards. Soft-kicking my sparring mates or hard-kicking the heavy bags would certainly take its toll if I were not donning my shin guards. But I digress.

Robert Owens, a lifelong American MMA practitioner, equates martial arts to hiking mountains – I like this guy! Hiking, you can see the top of the mountain. But when you get to the top, you realize you were looking at a false summit, because there you can view an entirely new mountain range!

My current pair of hiking boots pictured above, are SALOMON QUEST ELEMENTS, size 111/2 inches, bought locally at ATMOSPHERE. Purchase price: $249.00 plus tax.

American naturalist, John Muir, insisted that of all the paths we take in life, we sure make sure that some of them are dirt. I cannot remember not hiking in my life. In my early adolescence, my friends and I hiked the coulees and canyons along the creek south of the village of Vanguard, SK. And I have taken my own kids hiking mountain hiking every summer since their early adolescence. Now my kids are in adulthood, and all of us make a point of mountain for a couple weeks every summer. Of all my avocations, hiking brings out the best in me. At every opportunity I am a man on the move! In Henry David Thoreau fashion, the moment my feet begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow! And as I age, existential dread has become a main theme in my conversations. American mountaineer, Finis Mitchell, was spot on when he stated that we don’t stop hiking because we grow old. We grow old because we stop hiking!

Believing this, My self-mand for years has been: DON’T STOP HIKING!

Since the early ‘80s I have always skied with rented gear. When my kids were pre-adolescent and learning how to ski and snowboard, they had their own equipment. Heading to Fernie each year at Christmastime and oft times to Sunshine in springtime, transporting their equipment left no room for mine, and so I rented my ski gear right at the resort. These boots (pictured) are my first ski gear purchase since the early ‘80s! And what a treat they are. I have been skiing just one time so far with my new boots and now I remember what next to flying feels like! My boots are the perfect fit. Vertically standing my big toes just feather the end of the boot, and when I bend my knees in a simulated ski position, my heels go back just allowing my toes to wiggle freely if I choose to do so. Factoid: These days I am at the ski hill twice a week and am still pumped from my night ski just twelve hours ago!

My brand-new ski boots are ATOMIC HAWX PRIME 110 FLEX, size 281/2 mm, bought locally at SUNSHINE & SKI. Purchase price: $639.00 plus tax.

And here is what I know about skiing. Where you are is where it’s at. I love skiing in the mountains, some of my favorite places being Sun Peaks, Silver Star, Big White, and Fernie. Factoids: Sun Peaks is a one-hour drive from Kamloops. Silver Star is a half-hour drive from Vernon. Big White is a one-hour drive from Kelowna. Mount Fernie is a five-minute drive from Fernie. In skiing there is a saying: Where you are is where it’s at. Mission Ridge is not a mountain. Rather, Mission Ridge is a Qu’Appelle Valley escarpment but happens to be only a forty-minute drive from Regina. Yes. 

Where you are is where it’s at!

Whenever I am on the snow my mind is back in time, travelling to my early adulthood days skiing with my cousin, Craig, at every one of the mountains mentioned above. Also, whenever I am on the snow my mind is with my sons, hoping to gather with them and hit those same slopes as many times as possible before springtime.

This I know: A bad day skiing beats a good day at work!

Yes. My feet are me. What I wear is who I am. When I fight on the mat, my feet follow my fists.  When I ski down the mountain, my feet follow the fall line.  When I hike, my feet follow my fancy – wherever the birds chirp the loudest or wherever the vistas are the greatest, is where I go.

Call me fusty, but I know there are no shortcuts, no Annie Oakley tickets, to any place worth going. Nowadays, I am yet again, standing at a fork in the road. With a shout-out to Robert Frost, I shall take the path less-traveled by!

I began at the bottom and I shall finish at the top. I began at the bottom of the lake as barefooted swimming instructor; I shall finish at the top of the mountain as boot-buckled ski instructor.

And as a ski instructor, my goal is to get my clients from the top of 

the mountain to the bottom of the mountain. 

But as a skier, my primary goal is to get in as many runs as

possible before my sun sets!