Sometimes it is time to stop. And I stopped on two occasions. I quit a semi-professional skateboarding career in favour of a full dedication to earning a master of science degree. And I stopped snowboarding, in favour of simply many other things. The ‘things’ are never just one. With skateboarding, it wasn’t just the university that got in the way, it was the countless injuries as well. When you are taken to the hospital and the surgeon tells you ‘good to see you again Robin’, it is generally a good indication to throw in the towel. And yes, also with snowboarding I had my share of hospital visits, but with my group of snowboard friends graduating and moving elsewhere in the world, I wasn’t finding the same vibe with other groups. And this was a stronger motivation.
I do miss it, but hopefully somewhere in the future I can do trips to the alps again with my children, learn skiing all together, and be able to share that beautiful feeling of being in the mountains with the younger generation. In the last years, climbing has taken over, but the type of climbing aimed at Himalaya ascents, doesn’t appeal to many either. Instead however, hiking on glaciers or small volcanoes does seem to somehow give me a similar vibe as snowboarding did in the past: it is easy to find people to join you, and it is something that you can practise as ‘day trips’ from a hotel, so after a nice day of exercise you can hang out with friends or family in a warm hotel. So I changed snowboarding for hiking and exploring Arctic/Antarctic regions.
I rediscovered Iceland this way. I had visited it before, doing a quick one-day tour of the Golden Triangle, but went back again recently in search of the Northern light. While searching for this, we did many visits to glaciers, volcanoes, thermal baths and waterfalls and tectonic plate separations. Due to work reasons, the trip was postponed by a week but when finally arriving, it was happiness right away. While I always ‘quite liked’ Iceland, it wasn’t until now that I realised what an easy entrance to the amazing arctic regions this place is. I can’t wait to go back again. And the Northern light? We didn’t see it. A local told me ‘Oooh but what a pity you weren’t here last week…the Northern light was stunning!’. More reason to return.
Ciao!
Robin
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