From March 1-5, Chris Burke, Kristin Boese, and seven other pro kiters will head to Necker Island for the contest, where they’ll compete in events including a race, an obstacles competition, and a freestyle jam.

Not surprisingly, the parties on schedule are much more upscale than at most comps. The jam kicks off on Monday with a party and fashion show at the Fat Virgin Cafe (branding gone horribly wrong?), and goes on with meals at the Bitter End Yacht Club and dinner and dancing.

This video promoting the jam isn’t horribly convincing. It seems less about kiting than about alcohol product placements (I counted four), pictures of Richard Branson’s unshaven mug (I counted 11), and the Caribbean “good life” in general.

From all of us at Matador, have an extreme weekend!

Photo by popejon2

-The USA’s Bode Miller won a gold medal in the Super-combined event, a jump from his 7th-place finish in the downhill portion. He’s also won a silver in Super-G and a bronze in men’s downhill.

-Two weeks after never having won a gold medal at home, Canada now has eight. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took gold in ice dancing on Monday night, becoming the youngest and first North American couple to do so. On Wednesday Callie Humphries and Heather Moyse won gold in women’s bobsled.

-Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin offended some Aboriginal leaders with their Aboriginal-themed original dance, in which the pair wore outrageous costumes and stuck out their tongues. After the dance, the pair dropped from first place to finish with bronze.

-The Canada vs. USA men’s hockey game on Sunday evening was the most viewed sports program in Canadian television history. 21.5 million people tuned in, most of them Canadian. The result was a whole lot of heartbreak when the US won 5-3.

-After losing to the Americans, the Canadian team picked up and beat Russia for the first time in 50 years, winning 7-3 on Tuesday. Goalkeeper Ilya Bryzgalov called Russia’s loss “the end of the world.”

-Norway’s King Harald accepted a pair of the Loudmouth patterned pants worn by the Norwegian curling team. When invited to wear the pants to Norway’s match on Tuesday, the king reportedly declined.

-Scotty Lago, the American silver medalist in the halfpipe, left the Olympics early after the appearance of some “scandalous” photos that appeared to show him using his silver medal to pick up women. According to TMZ, Lago can’t talk about the event until his “blackout period” ends on March 3.

Photo by Michael Francis McCarthy

-Norwegian skiers have been dominating this week. In men’s cross-country skiing, Norway’s Petter Northug claimed gold. Another Norweigan, Marit Bjoergen, won her third gold medal of this year’s Olympics in the 4×5km cross-country relay. She also won gold in the 15km pursuit and the 1.4km sprint.

In the ski jump, 20-year-old Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer won gold with a jump of 146.5 meters.

-Bill Demong won the USA’s first-ever gold in Nordic combined on Tuesday, while teammate Johnny Spillane took silver. Austria’s Bernhard Gruber won bronze.

-The Netherlands’ Sven Kramer was disqualified in the speed skating 10,000m competition after his coach, Gerard Kemkers, told him to switch lanes. The move was illegal, and Kramer lost what he called “the best 10,000m I have ever skated.” Despite the fiasco, the skater says he’ll stay with his coach.

-Finally, an incident during the giant slalom on Thursday has created tension between American skiers Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso. After having to restart her first run because Vonn had crashed and was still on the course, Mancuso finished the giant slalom in 8th place. Disappointed by the outcome, Mancuso expressed frustration with the fact that Vonn had gotten so much attention during the Olympics. Vonn later said she was “hurt” by the comments.

Community Connection

What do you feel was the highlight of the Olympics so far?

Photo By:Tatters:)

To find out what it takes to be a hut master, I contacted Dave Herring, executive director of Maine Huts and Trails. He said that being part of a hut crew is much like other jobs at lodges, with the difference that there’s little job specialization at the smaller huts.

“The crew does a bit of everything,” said Herring. They “clean, cook, provide info to guests, stack wood, patrol trails, et cetera.” Hut crew are full-time, year-round staff, and generally work ten-day shifts followed by three to four days off.

Having the right expectations before applying is key. According to Herring, the most common misconception held by applicants is that they’ll be outside all of the time.

“They do get plenty of time to get out and recreate,” he said, “but the jobs are primarily indoors.” Aside from some trail work in the summer and running groomers to keep the trails ski-able in winter, the essential duties are hut-related.

Employees handle jobs ranging from keeping the boilers and fireplaces going to cooking for up to 50 guests. They also spend time refilling the solar electricity system’s lead-acid batteries with water, adding wood chips to the composting toilets and cleaning up after guests.

And the perks? “Living in incredible places. Interacting with really interesting people, guests and other staff.”

Getting the Job

Photo By:mckaysavage

There are two main full-service hut systems in the US. The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains eight huts, while the smaller Maine Huts and Trails runs two, with a third scheduled to open later this year. Both make it easy to apply for hut crew positions with instructions listed on their websites.

With only four crew members working each hut, competition can be higher than for many other jobs. A resume outlining relevant experience will help your application move to the top of the pile.

Because of the customer service involved, the biggest qualification for getting a job with a hut system is previous experience working with the public. Herring said he is always looking for “outgoing personalities and a strong desire to work with a team of others to serve the visiting public,” and that “food service and outdoor skills are a plus.”

Hut employment opportunities exist in other parts of the world as well, with several full-service hut systems in Europe and New Zealand. In addition, hut systems that aren’t full service, like the 10th Mountain Division Huts in Colorado and the Mount Tahoma Trails Association in Washington, need volunteers to stock pantries, stack firewood, and maintain trails.

Community Connection

Matador Trips shares The Most Spectacular Treks Worldwide.

Photo By:jonethescone

When I was in high school, there was a school-wide debate about whether cheerleaders and members of the dance team should be allowed to earn letterman jackets. The hardcore jocks were quick to denounce the squads as non-athletic, while the cheerleaders and dancers produced their bruises and bandaged ankles as proof of how tough their activities were.

Photo By:AbbyNormy

My Random House Webster’s Dictionary says that a sport is “an often competitive athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess.” Wikipedia adds that a sport is “an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.”

Based on these definitions, I think it’s safe to say that competition, skill and physical exertion are all required components of a sport. Still, I’m not sure I can get behind things like the Krystal Square Off Hamburger Eating Championship as being legitimate sporting activities, even if they do meet the definition’s requirements.

Sports vs. Leisure

For what it’s worth, I think there is a difference between a “sport” and a “leisure activity.” Running a marathon, playing soccer, or participating in a dog sledding race? I think those all qualify as sports. But playing poker or going ice fishing? I’m tempted to say those are leisure activities.

Photo By:Brain Child VN

In addition to considering the dictionary definition, I also believe that an activity that can be judged objectively has more validity as a sport than those that require subjective judging.

There is no question about which speed skater crosses the finish line first, but when style plays a part in a judge’s consideration, as it does in snowboarding or ice dancing, it makes me question whether it isn’t simply a pretty display of athleticism rather than a sport.

I suppose I could let the ice dancers hang out in the name of Olympic competition. But what about after the games, when Apollo Anton Ohno is taking a lazy lap around the rink for the fun of it or Bode Miller is testing out a new pair of skis? If they’re not in competition at that moment, have they crossed the line into leisure activity territory?

All through the Olympics, we’ve been arguing at home about what defines a sport. I think the answer I’ve come to is that it all depends. Maybe it’s the atmosphere. Perhaps it’s a named competition that awards medals.

For the cheerleading and dance squads in my high school, it was the long hours of practice and the shin splints.

Feature Image by: Vvramak

Community Connection:

What defines a sport for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo: Conrad Pfeifer

Sport divers never anticipate having trouble underwater. But when people dive too deep or go places they’re not trained to go, accidents happen. Unfortunately, divers sometimes die.

When fatalities occur under ice, in caves, or in areas requiring decompression diving, there are only a few people who are qualified to retrieve the bodies.

As a regional coordinator for International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery, Conrad Pfeifer is one of those people. A full-time police officer in Middlesex, Pa., Pfeifer has more than 25 years of experience as a cave diver and instructor, and has participated in hundreds of safety and recovery dives. Though diving is his passion, he says that responding to recoveries is something he’d rather not have to do.

I was fortunate enough to catch Pfeifer on the phone while he was between shifts at the station. Here’s a snippet of our conversation:

Q. You’re a regional coordinator for International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery. What does that mean?

As the northeast regional coordinator, I’m responsible for Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and states north of Virgina. If there’s an event that happens in my area, I coordinate the recovery.

Q. Do you go on dives anymore or do you just coordinate them?

I’ve been involved in many dives, but if there are local people who are trained and familiar with an area, I will call on them to go on the dive.

I was involved with the Quecreek mining incident. At the time, they didn’t know whether the miners were immersed in the cave, alive, dead. So they had called us to the scene in case they needed a recovery.

So yes, I’m still very active.

A closed circuit rebreather. Photo: tiswango

Q. How did you get involved with technical diving and cave recovery?

I’ve been a certified open water diver since 1979. I took a phys. ed. class in college, became more involved in diving, and then went through the instructor level. Instructor level can be a terminus, but I kept asking “What’s my next step? What’s my next step?”

At the time, which was about the late 1980s, the Andrea Doria was the Mt. Everest of diving. I got into technical diving to better myself, with the goal of saying “I have done the Everest of diving.”

As for cave diving, I had a mentor [PADI Regional Manager Stush Doviat] who thought I would be interested in it, so in 1984 I went down to Florida, took my series of classes, and became a cave diver. Again, being the kind of person I am, I wasn’t satisfied there, so I went to the instructor level. To be an instructor, you have to be trained in recovery.

Q. Do you remember your first dive when you were working with public safety?

I am from Pittsburgh, and in the river they have a regatta every year. This was about 1984. My first dive was looking for this boat that was going 120 miles per hour and broke into a hundred pieces in 30 feet of water. We didn’t find anything.

Q. What gets people in trouble when they dive?

Eighty percent are not trained to be where they’re at.

Back in the 70s, there really wasn’t formal cave training. One of the pioneers of cave diving at the time, Sheck Exley, began doing some analysis about what was killing people. The top one was that they were not trained to be in the environment they were diving in.

The second one was that, even if they were trained, they didn’t use a guideline, meaning they didn’t leave the bread crumbs. They had no way to get back. The next thing he came up with was that they didn’t manage their air properly.

If they were trained, did use a guideline, and had air, they would go beyond their depth capabilities. And even if they did all that, sometimes their lights would go out.

Photo: Serge Melki

Q. Do you find that those are still the top five reasons that people get in trouble?

I was just talking to some of the people on the [IUCRR] board about that the other day. Training, guideline, air, depth, and lights was forever the mantra, but what we’re finding now is that there are almost two more to add.

The sixth one would be solo diving. That is an ongoing debate in the dive community, but the fact remains that the majority of incidents happening now are leaning toward solo divers.

The last one is really becoming prevalent and might move up the ladder: people are getting into rebreathers now. People get on rebreathers and there are electrical malfunctions, or they’re not trained on the equipment.

Q. How many dives have you completed?

I just completed number 3614. For recovery and safety dives, that gets into the hundreds for me.

I don’t keep track of how many people I recover. I remember certain ones, but I don’t know the exact number.

Q. Of those recovery dives, are there any that stand out in particular?

The one that’s most ironic and tragic, and is almost stupid that it happened, was when I was at a dive site where there was an entrance to a cave. This basin was about 12 feet deep.

I’m getting ready to go into the pond, and this diver walks out with four tanks on. At 12 feet, that’s five or six hours of breathing gas. He jumped in the water and didn’t have his air turned on. He fell down to the bottom and drowned with four scuba tanks. All he had to do was turn a valve on and start breathing.

I was the first one who saw him be pulled off the bottom. Here’s this guy with all this training, and he’s laying on four tanks in 12 feet of water.

Yeah, there are some that you never forget.

A cave diver maneuvers through a squeeze. Photo: tomhauburn

Q. I understand your position with IUCRR is voluntary.

Yes, I’m a full-time police officer. The IUCRR is voluntary, but in a way it is mandatory. Who else [but a trained recovery diver] has the background to get someone who has gone in a marble mine, 1,000 feet back in 150 feet of water?

There just aren’t that many people with such extensive training. We kind of owe it to our community.

Q. Do you think that if you didn’t feel like you had to give back to the community, you would do recovery diving anyway? Is it something you’re just drawn to?

No. No, it’s not. I’m 48, so I’ve been through the 20-year-old mindset of “I have to go do everything.” I’ve been a paramedic and I’ve seen all the things out there.

If I was not involved with the cave diving community or a cave instructor, I probably would not be as involved as I am, but now I’m on the board and in the law enforcement part of it.

Photo: Serge Melki

Q. What advice do you have for divers who want to go deeper or do more difficult or technical dives?

I’m going to pretend that you came to me as a student, because I teach all those things. Well, let me ask you: why do you want to go deeper?

My students might say they want to be—and I’m going to use this term loosely—a macho diver. They say something like “I just want to go to 300 feet.” Or they come to me and say, “I want you to train me in decompression diving.” And I think, why in the hell would you want to spend two hours in 38-degree water decompressing?

I try to change their minds to say “There’s something really cool I want to see at 250 feet,” in my case the Andrea Doria, “and the penalty for that is the decompression diving.” It’s a different mindset.

Q. I was wondering if you had anything additional that you’d like to add regarding your diving experience and your position with IUCRR.

We wish the IUCRR did not have to exist, but it has to. We don’t want to go on a call and recover somebody and bring them up out of a cave. It is physically hard work, and it’s usually at the worst time, in the worst hours, in the worst weather.

But there aren’t many people who can do that, and we kind of have to. It’s just the nature of the beast. We would be happy never to go on [recoveries], but unfortunately we probably do four or five a year.

I could talk about it for hours because I love the sport. I don’t like recovering bodies, but I like to do what I do.

Community Connection

Want to learn more about cave diving? The Nation Association For Cave Diving and the National Speleological Society both organize courses and offer information on the sport.

Find more articles about accidents and how to prevent them on Matador Sports.

Photo by Adrian 8_8

-The games started on a sad note with the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who died during a practice run after hitting his head on a steel support. NBC banned the graphic video of his crash after some people questioned whether it was ethical for the network to air it.

-Germany’s Tatjana Huefner won the gold for women’s singles in luge, with Australia’s Nina Reithmayer coming in second and Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger taking third.

-Maelle Ricker took gold in snowboard cross, becoming the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal in a home Olympics. Deborah Anthonioz of France won silver and Olivia Nobs of Switzerland took bronze. American Lindsey Jacobellis, who was a favorite to win gold, didn’t even make it to the final four.

Photo by Brooks Elliott

-A change in weather during the men’s biathalon caused nine-time Olympic medalist Ole Einer Bjoerndalen from Norway to fall to 17th place. France’s Vincent Jay took gold, Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen told silver, and Croatia’s Jakov Fak took bronze.

-Japan’s Aya Yasuda was disqualified from luge for being “overweight.” The additional weight of her equipment and a miscalculation caused her to be less than a pound over the limit for a luger.

-South Korean Sang-Hwa Lee won gold in women’s 500m speedskate, beating the German world record holder, Jenny Wolf. China’s Wang Beixing took bronze. Another South Korean, Tae-Bum Mo, took the gold in the men’s race, which took place on his 21st birthday.

-China dominated the pairs figure skating, with Shen Xue and Zhao Hongo taking gold, and Qing Pang and Jian Tong taking silver. Former world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won bronze.

-Evan Lysacek won gold in men’s figure skating, becoming the first American to do so since Brian Boitano in 1988. Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko and Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi took silver and bronze.

-Switzerland’s skiers are bringing in the gold. Ski jumper Simon Ammann took the first gold on Saturday, followed by first-time Olympian Dario Cologna, who won Monday’s freestyle cross-country race. Didier Defago won the men’s downhill race earlier the same day.

-The Canadian women’s hockey team has been shutting down opponents, with victories like 18-0 against Slovakia, 10-1 against Switzerland, and 13-1 against Sweden. Their triumph is facing criticism, with some countries saying that the Canadians should be more merciful with opponents so they don’t discourage other teams.

Photo by Brendan Lally

-The Canadian men’s hockey team also got off to a good start, beating Norway 8-0 on Tuesday.

-Latvia’s Haralds Silovs made history by competing in two different events in one day. Silovs skated in the men’s 5,000m on the long track in Richmond, then finished fourth in the short track B final at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum.

-The USA is leading in gold medals, with five. The most surprising victor was skier Lindsey Vonn, who became the first American to win gold in women’s downhill despite a shin injury that occurred just two weeks before the games. Moguls skier Hannah Kearney won in women’s freestyle , beating Canadian Jenn Heil, who won in 2006 and was expected to win again.

In the men’s events, Shani Davis took gold in the 1000m speedskate, while Seth Wescott won the men’s snowboard cross. Snowboarder Shaun White won in the halfpipe competition, but waited until his victory run to pull out his newest trick, the Double McTwist 1260.

Community Connection

Which events have caught your attention the most? What are you most looking forward to?

Photos: Tracing Tea 2009

Better known by its Afghan name, buzkashi, the central Asian game of kok boru is the most likely forerunner of modern polo. Played between teams of up to 200 riders, the traditional goal of the game was to capture a sheep or goat from an opposing village and race back home with it.

More formalized games are now played on weekends in parts of Kyrgyzstan, on pitches roughly twice the length of a football field. Players try to score by throwing the goat into the goal, a circle of rubber tires.

These days, the goat is dead before play commences. The head and legs are removed and the resulting holes sewn up to minimize the spread of entrails across the field.

Besides horsemanship, kok boru takes strength: carrying a 60-pound goat in one hand is no mean feat, particularly when someone is trying to wrestle it from your grasp.

I caught my first game of kok boru by the riverside in Ashu, Kyrgyzstan. The two teams, each comprised of a dozen wiry men, passed acrid-smelling cigarettes while the referee reminded them of the rules: no knives, no guns, no swearing.

The game began when the referee dropped the goat to the ground. An instant later, three dozen hooves stamped around the goat carcass while the riders leaned down and grabbed for a handful of fleece.

Finally, a player got a hold on the goat and broke out of the ring of horses, bolting down the field like a rugby player emerging from a scrum.

Actual weapons may have been banned, but there was little damage the players couldn’t do to each other with their horses or their bare hands. Horses reared and crashed flanks, and riders lashed out with their whips at both animals and opponents, shouting and screaming throughout it all.

At first, I watched from the sidelines with the other spectators, mostly 10 to 12 year-old boys who, already skilled horsemen, were keen to pick up tips for when they were strong enough to play.

Thinking I was in a position of relative safety, I moved behind the goal. Seeing the horses hurtling toward me was exhilarating. Each time one approached the goal, I would shrink down and start praying.

The game ends when the referee becomes bored or, as in our case, the goat has disintegrated. The tenderized goat makes an ample supper for players, along with enough Kyrgyz vodka to ensure that the inevitable pain of cuts and bruises gets put off for another day.

Community Connection

Go nomad in Kyrgyzstan with Matador Trips.

The competition was called on Thursday afternoon. By the end of the day, four friends and I had confirmed a spot on one of four boats scheduled to leave from San Francisco harbor. By Saturday morning, three of the four captains had backed out, as conditions were too dangerous.

After taking five headcounts of the 30 people on board, the captain of Whacky Jacky set off for the two hour journey south to Half-Moon Bay. 12 of the 30 got sick within the first 20 minutes, but seeing the surfers was well worth the journey on the NorCal Pacific.

All photos by Nick Polansky and Luke Groesbeck. All rights reserved.

1. Leaving the harbor at 6:30 AM

2. Dense fog and poor visibility left San Francisco Bay eerily barren, with Alcatraz lurking in the distance.

3. The clouds began to break as we crossed the gate into the 25-foot swell.

4. We arrived just after the first heat, when the surfers were preparing for the next round.

5. Five other large boats, including ones belonging to the the sheriff and Coast Guard, sat in the channel.

6. Search and rescue crews were constantly dragging surfers out of the white water.

7. The waves at Mavericks were pushing 40 feet.

8. Takeoff points were inconsistent, and positioning was critical.

9. Riding down the face of a mountain.

10. Some couldn’t make it down.

11. Others pitched it perfectly.

12. Surfer Ion Banner finishes a ride as the wave breaks in a wall of water behind him.

Photo by Author

There is no room in a fastpacker’s pack for comforts like Lexan wine glasses, solar showers, or gourmet trail food, so it’s certainly not for every backpacker. But by using a combination of trail running and hiking, fastpackers can travel upwards of 30 miles a day.

Hardcores take it even further and travel without tents or stoves, fueling themselves with energy bars, cold instant coffee, and jerky, while making shelters out of tarps or sleeping on the ground.

Photo by Author

As grueling as fastpacking may sound, you won’t need to rest as much, and may actually enjoy carrying a pack more if you lighten your load. Without distractions like GPS and multi-tools, you’ll likely find it easier to connect with your environment too.

Essential Gear

Basically, fastpackers strive to cover as much distance as they can in as little time as possible by carrying only the essentials.

You’ll need to get a lightweight backpack and limit your gear to a sleeping bag, shelter, food, and water. Any lightweight daypack will do, but shoot for a model that weighs less than 3 pounds and holds 20-30 liters, such as Black Diamond’s Octane Pack.

Choose a lightweight sleeping bag and sleep in your clothes to cut the amount of insulation you’ll need. To drop even more weight, leave the sleeping pad at home or try out an ultralight inflatable mattress.

You can create a decent shelter out of a tarp or a poncho, but if you absolutely cannot go without a tent, find a lightweight single wall tent that weighs no more than 3 pounds.

Where to Go It will take a few trips to truly master the art of ultralight backpacking. Start out with an easy 8-10 mile overnight hike or a favorite trail close to home.