Tuesday, October 16, 2012

" Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah ... "


Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah 
Zip-A-Dee-A 
My oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine heading my way
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Zip-A-Dee-A

Mister bluebird on my shoulder
It's the truth
It's actual
Everything is satisfactual

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Zip-A-Dee-A
Wonderful feeling
Wonderful day
Yeah

~ Aly & AJ ~ Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah ~
***

Four words ... Zip line At The Park Yep, that is what we did on my birthday this year.  Russell said to me, “let’s make it memorable”.  Now to be honest, I didn’t really give it much thought.  At least not until the morning of ... which is when I realized what I was about to do and said to myself ... am I crazy?  Then I figured, well what’s the worst thing that could happen ...

So why not?  How else to experience turning 43 years old than zip lining from the top of Canada Olympic Park’s ski jump tower Consider North America’s fastest zip line, you can fly down the cable system reaching speeds between 120 and 140 km/h.  Now those that don’t know, this ski jump was popular in the 1988 Winter Olympics and is 500 metres long with a vertical drop of more than 100 metres.

Here is a play by play for you ....

As we approached the site, I remember looking way way up the hill and still thinking I had time to chicken out.  But I didn’t.  Inside the staff was great, super helpful and very young.  Most if not all had experienced the zip line and said it was a load of fun.  And they still had all their limbs to show for it!!  So we checked in, got our quick instructions, suited up and even got cameras on our helmet to capture our rides.  Speaking of rides, the first one is a trial, to show you all the positions ... to start, to fly and then to brace yourself at the end.  Looking around, there were all ages too, which was cool to see as upon meeting the restrictions, it can be a family event.

Once thru the trial line at the base of the hill, we all got into a school bus that drove us up the windy road.  And since we had to carry our harness et al, it wasn’t the most comfortable sitting down but the ride was short.  Next we made our way up the tower via an elevator to the zip line floor.  It was really cool realizing this was the very spot our Olympic athletes jumped from 24 years ago.  And ... this was also the most frightening moment for most of us.  Some had to excuse themselves to the loo ... others just froze ... and others were so keen, first in line, ready to go! ...

We made our way to the front, with Russell on one line and I on the other.  The staff chats you up, probably to ease your nerves, while asking how fast you wanna go.  This determines when your parachute is released, right away (me) or part way down the hill (of course, Russell).  Then your harness gets hooked in, three in all, and your trolley above is online.  That is pretty much it.  Yep, three hooks and a trolley.  

As you can see from the raw footage, after my initial scream, I was simply flying like a bird ... and it is simply awesome!! 


FOOTAGE 
~   http://youtu.be/eqRJ-x6yEMA (me)
~ http://youtu.be/3YMvky__rDI  (Russell)






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