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| Sunday, 4 May 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Adventure sport team "extremely" happy with Sri Lanka A crew of nine from National Geographic, new Rider Productions and Men's Journal recently ended a tour of Sri Lanka's diverse adventure sport locations, filming some hair raising feats by a group of professional athletes. "Extreme adventure" will soon be on Sri Lanka's list of tourist attractions. by Neomi Kodikara
Some people like their holiday in tamed, calm and orderly landscapes. Some prefer wild, remote and adventurous places. Sri Lanka, renowned as a tourist attraction for its sun, sand and sea, will now begin catering to those daring adventure seekers passionate for extreme adventure. Exciting extreme adventure sports like kayaking, canyoning, abseiling, mountain biking, surf kayaking, extreme ocean dives, rafting and river activities, mixed with ballooning, which is another hot activity in the country, will be offered to tourists in Sri Lanka shortly. A crew of nine young men from National Geographic, New Rider Productions and the US Magazine "Men's Journal" have been here to film those hair-raising adventure sports undertaken by a skilful group of professional athletes, in some of Sri Lanka's diverse adventure sport locations. The sun drops in the sea, making the whole vicinity see to burn in scarlet and gold. Here in front of me are those robust, dauntless young men who dared even to risk life and limb for the sake of their passion for adventure.
Just hearing their experiences of descending on seemingly impossible waterfalls on steep, high drop offs in deep turbulent rivers together with canyoning over the century worn rocks and flooded waterways amongst steep gorges set deep in the lush forests, gave me goose bumps. Seth Warren, Ben Selznick, Dan Armstrong and Brad Ludden, the founder of 'First Descents' Motivational Kayak camp for Young cancer patients are the recognised and accomplished professional athletes. Arden Oksanen, Trask McFarland and Loren Moulton, the professional Producers, Directors and Cinematographers who represent New Rider Productions teamed up with Daniel Holtorf Sheire, Producer for National Geographic Channel (NGC) and Bradford Leigh Wieners, freelance writer for the "Men's Journal" in filming. Seth (25), Arden (28), Ben (25) and Brad (21), who are professional kayakers firmly believe that Sri Lanka has perfect geology for extreme adventure. According to them this is a thrilling, adventurous, fun-filled tour free from hustle and bustle, which makes them eager to come back. "I am enticed to come back," says Daniel (28) while relishing the 'amazing beauty of Sri Lanka' with his eyes closed. "Organisation and accommodation are excellent," commends Seth. Twenty-one year old Brad who claims to have the credit of travelling around 40 countries as a Kayaker, does not hesitate to rank Sri Lanka as one of the top landscapes for the adventure travel activities.
Did they know before coming that Sri Lanka is rich with resources for extreme adventure activities ? "No, but through our association with Adventure Centre Asia (ACA) in the past in filming other adventure destinations we were optimistic about what we will find coming to Sri Lanka," say the Kayakers."Coming to Sri Lanka opened my eyes," says Daniel, "Many Americans including me had some reservations about coming to Sri Lanka which had been known for a bloody civil war over a decade, but there is absolutely nothing to fear." The thickly forested slopes, covered with blue tree tops soaked in crimson and gold of the setting sun gives the right kind of adventure spirit, they boast. "It is not just sporting but while in adventure you breathe the beauty, colour and wild fragrance into you, and you step out as a changed man." "Whether mountain biking on trails in untouched jungles or dangling from a tall tree it is spectacular, thrilling and adventurous," says Brad who has fallen head over heels in love with the country's landscape. "It is fantastic, I really want to come back. There is so much to do here," he says again. Will not the adventure spoil the environment ? "No, we should not let that happen," says Elmo Francis, 26-year-old undergraduate of the Open University, Sri Lanka, who works as a local consultant to the ACA. "We adventure-athletes are naturalists too. We do not want to spoil the nature. We strictly follow the 'leave no trace' concept that is utilising the jungle sans spoiling it. It is professionalism and expertise that come in handy to follow this concept and to make the activities less dangerous," he adds. However, Daniel feels that the introduction of adventure sports will have an impact on the environment. Therefore "Conservation should come first," he says, suggesting a method being followed in America, where only a limited number of passes are issued to the tourists who come to national parks, which is again after having them educated about the regulations. According to Elmo, adventure sports need high quality training, experience, dedication and concentration. However, at present there are not very many Sri Lankans in the field of extreme adventure and the ACA wishes to provide an internationally recognised training for those who are interested in pursuing adventure sports in the future. "Local people are quite friendly, hospitable, helpful and they were very curious and inquisitive about the sport and equipment." All nod in assent at Ben's comment. Daniel is amazed by the devotion and hidden determination of spirit of Sri Lankans. "It was very impressive, I saw some pilgrims climbing the Adam's Peak even without shoes, burdened with heavy backpacks, leaving me to think a lot," muses Daniel. According to ACA Director, Peter Stewart, this is a perfect opportunity for everyone in the travel trade to see, experience visually and understand more about new adventure products coming to Sri Lanka. "This will be invaluable to the industry to promote new generation of sport tourism and travel activities in Sri Lanka." A festival of high-end adventure films was held at Galle Face Hotel on April 24 and at Deli market, World Trade Centre on April 27 at the conclusion of the 12-day filming tour of many of Sri Lanka's prime adventure tourism activities. Organised by the Adventure Centre Asia and hosted by the Travel Industry of Sri Lanka, this event is believed to boost the travel industry through its introduction of adventure travel activities, soon to be launched in the country. The film makers of New Rider Productions will include Sri Lanka in the fourth consecutive 16 mm adventure film which will be released in the spring of 2004. National Geographic Channel (NGC), which reaches approximately 250 million households worldwide will be conducting five mini features on Sri Lanka and in doing so build special interest stories around the people and culture at the key destinations and sites with adventure travel woven into stories. Men's Journal, an exclusive, glossy, one of the USA's best sold magazines which reaches the middle and upper classes of the American society will publish feature stories. |
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