My Backcountry Skiyak (Snow Kayak)

This 3 part series took me on quite the adventure skiyaking down the beautiful mountains of Colorado!

WATCH Part 1 - I Built a Backcountry Snow Kayak

WATCH Part 2 - First Descent Attempt - Backcountry Snow Kayaking

WATCH Part 3 - Gnarly Snow Kayaking in the Rockies

While I didn't accomplish taking it down a 14er (YET), I did have some awesome rides in my Skiyak! A short from this series was my first video to get 1,000,000 views! It was funny, someone at my PT clinic mentioned that her boyfriend showed her that video so it was also (sort of) my first time getting recognized in public. 

This first video I was super disappointed in and honestly thought it wasn't very good. I tried to take a serious approach to tell the story of tearing my second ACL and it actually resonated and got a lot of engagement! Maybe I should be more sincere in the future and have some more personal underlying stories but that's not as fun for me. What made this build challenging was trying to not RUIN this kayak because I'd love to actually use it in the future! Realistically it'll probably hang in the garage as a build trophy and something I'll bust back out from time to time. I haven't felt anything quite like kayaking down a snowfield. It was awesome. 

Another thing worth mentioning that was a critical piece to this whole adventure but I kind of glossed over it in the video was my social anxiety. I didn't want to get attention in person while dragging this kayak up. I was just afraid of those interactions with strangers if I'm being honest. I was that same way growing up. I could do some flips and cool parkour stuff but always tried to hide it from others. Some friends used it to show off, and I liked to show off in my videos BUT in person I just didn't want the attention for something that was kinda just for me but didn't have anything to do with my personality. It felt artificial I suppose. Anyways, when we pulled up to a full parking lot at the base of the hike I almost turned back. But thanks to my girlfriend Tess and the pressure of the moment, I just told myself to shut the fuck up and suck it up and do the damn thing. You don't drive two hours out to just to turn around because I can't get over a little fear as a 29 year old man you know? 

SO moral of the story is, sometimes you have to be mean to yourself to make yourself grow. Because of this experience, I will feel much more confident when I have to do things in the public for future videos.