that's what it's all about you know it's about how you deal with stuff
how you move forward you know i mean you can you know be kicked in the shins or you know
have horrible things happen but it's how you how you deal with that you know how you move forward
welcome to another episode of everyday badassery this is a traveling podcast meant to inspire you
to be just one percent more badass today than you were yesterday and i highlight
the stories of adventurous travelers who have overcome things that i meet in my own travels
around the world and i'm so excited for today's really adventurous spirit because she may have
considered herself a really bad athlete growing up but she just hadn't found her sport yet and
when she did she became an amazing ski instructor and she became an amazing outdoor wilderness guide
leading rafting trips down the rivers and i'm so ugh let's let's introduce her really quickly
hi i'm jen coleman and i am the co-ceo of coleman concierge along with my partner in life and crime
eduardo who is not here to to grace us with his presence if you don't know who i am i'm christine
lazada today i'm filming from the bahamas it's beautiful out here but if you're watching today's
episode the footage you'll see is from a trip i got to be on with jen in washington we were
in south side seattle and bellevue washington adventuring in all kinds of ways and links to
the content and videos of the trip that we went on will be in the show notes as well but let's
dive into her story cause you were telling me about the white water rafting story when we were
dinner last night a little bit bring me through that where were you and what happened um so i
would i used to be a commercial river guide um for several years and i was guiding the nook sac river
which is up by mount biker in bellingham area up in northern washington northwestern washington
and um the nucsoc river it's basically it starts off pretty fast and furious fast corners pool drop
and then the second half is mellower kind of faster corners flatter gradient but log jams
which you know they they might not understand or the the danger of the log jam yeah which is
very dangerous i mean statistically speaking more people die in class one
two water than they do on class three through five just because of that complacency of people that's
mind-blowing that's actually really interesting because you you are not as alert because you're
there's the assumption that the class is lower absolutely there's a safety absolutely absolutely
so you know the beginning it was a very high water day you know had to get everyone in the boat with
on the on the shore holding the boat for dear life calling paddle commands trying to train people how
to paddle before i could hop in the boat because i knew the second i got in the boat we were taking
off yeah yeah and so got everyone trained up sure enough got started and made it through the canyon
through the pool drops all good it was a beautiful run get down have lunch everyone gets very chill
yeah everyone gets very relaxed get back in the boat going through the bottom part we're coming
up to a corner there was a log jam and a rock and calling the paddle commands people are not
getting it going they probably missed two strokes and in white water two strokes can really make or
break you i mean one stoke can make it break you wow and so we started going up on this rock and
i called this command called high side and that's not as common of a command we did practice it but
people didn't quite connect that they need to scramble up to the high side yeah to keep
the raft from popping over yeah yeah and unfortunately the raft did flip
okay and when the raft flipped i was on the back side of the raft heading straight for a log jam
which was absolutely terrifying and i honestly have no clue how it happened my buddy jeff that
saw it said i basically rose like jesus and walked on water because the next thing he knew i was like
on the back of the raft i don't even know how i got there i really do not even remember okay hold
on two questions one in case someone doesn't know what is a log jam a log jam is a huge pile of logs
that are all piled on top of each other in a corner of a river or usually in the corner of a
river because it's kind of where all the sediment and everything gets deposited okay and in this
very scary moment what it do you remember what you were telling yourself to be able to get through it
honestly no i all i knew is that i had to get my booty up on that boat and i had to get all those
other people's booties up on that boat and keep paddling so we didn't end up in another log jam
so that's basically what happened you know got got on the boat managed to paddle away from the
log drum just enough to get some other people on with their paddles we actually paddled with
the boat upside down through the park until we could get to like mellower water get the boat
flipped back over and get everyone back in wow so it was and it was on my birthday and i just
remember thinking wow i almost did not live through my birthday nor did my crew but
thankfully we all did i had an important question how long between that not so great birthday raft
and the next time you got in the raft how much time passed like did you did it stop you from
getting back in the wrap oh no i had a trip to get the next day were you at all afraid or
uh the thing of it is with guiding white water is no matter how good of a guide you are it's not if
you're gonna flip it's one i mean it's just it just is what it is you know i mean it's gonna
happen no matter so you just prepare for it and do the best you can in the situation and you know
when you're in a group you know when you're all guiding to you've got you know all the other boats
around helping you you know getting people in that you're not able to get to and so forth yeah but i
really think it is a metaphor for life because at the end of the day you know what happens to you
and what you go through matter and it's something you need to make peace with but at the end of the
day the way you deal with it and the way you move forward is really what matters you know yeah that
that's what it's all about you know it's about how you deal with stuff how you move forward you know
i mean you can you know be kicked in the shins or you know have horrible things happen but it's how
you how you deal with that you know how you move forward i love that oh it's such a good message
can we just do a collective whoa whoa she had a near-death experience on the river while guiding
a seemingly simple trip but people just weren't taking it seriously and this all happened on her
birthday and she went right back to doing it again the next day way to pick herself back up and get
back out there i am so impressed with this story a reminder the badassery journal is available
to you take what you're listening to today and put it into action there's a free download link in the
description of this video or in the show notes of this podcast and if you're wondering by the way
if you're just listening what the heck are all these airplane sounds we're actually located at
the aviation museum in south side seattle and it's it's on an airport so there's a lot of planes
going by but let's hear the next part of her story where did your adventurous spirit come from
boy i've always had it to be honest um my mom always teases me that my very first sentence
in this world was do by self mommy oh that's so cool i've always been fiercely independent
i've been a chronic non-repeater yeah i've always just the minute i turned 18 i was out exploring
the world and that's just how i've always been what was your first adventure that comes to mind
i'm sure millions of veterans but like growing up like what was your first like big adventure
there's two things that i remember most solidly
the first one is growing up i've always been a terrible athlete last pick for every single team
and for some reason and i still remember this four years old getting on a pair of skis yeah
and all of a sudden having these giant feet was like wow i have a balance and stability and i can
do stuff that i never could before and i remember going down the little trail in my little wedge
going up on the side hill and getting a little air and coming back down and i was like
yeah you know what i love about that story aside from the excitement obviously is that there were
lots of sports out there that were obviously not working for you oh yeah but it was just
finding the one that did and actually you you don't just recreationally ski tell me about
your background and scheme so i started when i was four and since that was the only thing that
i could do athletically yeah i kind of stuck to that my mom being paranoid put me in ski school
okay ever since i was little and by the time i was like seven or eight yeah i was better than all
the other kids so i'd usually just end up going out with the instructors yeah and so that was a
lot of fun my mom jokes that you know of course i became a ski instructor because yeah that was all
my earliest memories where did you learn to ski and then where did you instruct them so i learned
at winter park mary jane and i kind of skied all around the denver summit county area i actually
skied for their freestyle team in high school so competing bumps and then once i graduated high
school i went to i've been everywhere so i was at keystone colorado yeah copper mountain colorado
crested butte colorado north star at tahoe then i believe i went back to crested butte and copper
and then i went out to let's see after that i went to washington state where i was at crystal
mountain for one year yeah stevens pass for six that was the longest i was anywhere for someone
who's like new to skiing or scared of skiing what do you tell them first and foremost take a lesson
because skiing is literally the most counter instinctual sport you will ever encounter because
when you're on your feet when you're walking down a hill what do you do you lean back the steeper
the hill the more you lean back and you lean back on your heels yeah but skis and ski boots are
designed to actually have your center of gravity out i want to just pause on one thing which is
it's not intuitive and but especially as adults we expect ourselves to have figured it out even
before we even tried and so when we see ourselves fail and in this instance fall
it's very very discouraging and we don't want to do it again and you're suggesting starting with
lessons and i love that absolutely absolutely it's not it's not intuitive no and your ski is designed
to have your center of balance you know your solar plexus or your pelvis
to be over the balls of your feet at all times and when you're facing down a snow-covered mountain
looking at the bottom you sure as heck do not want your pelvis over the balls of your feet and that's
why you need lessons because it will teach you how to you know be centered how to make the equipment
work for you and how to make those metal edges work for you i love that okay well actually when
it comes to you adventuring would you say your most adventurous spirit is with skiing or or
would it be the white water rafting or what might it be i would say definitely i'm i'm like i said
not a natural athlete at all so skiing is the one thing that i took to um i i've been on camping and
hiking trips with people that i've heard with you you bike you whitewater raft you ski but you're
calling yourself not a natural athlete no like what what is it that gets you to keep trying or
doing it anyway because most people who say i i'm not an athlete and a lot of people say that to me
it is their awesome excuse to to no longer try and to not try and so like what why do you keep
doing it anyway for me i would say two things one is addiction okay very got very addicted to
skiing just that feeling of the analogy i use is it's when you're in the flow
you know it's only when you lose your mind you can come to your senses and when you're skiing
when you're diving when you're doing those sort of activities you're not thinking about what you
need to clean in your house later you're not thinking about what you're cooking for dinner
moment and you're in that flow state and i freaking love that like i love
being in that flow in that moment so that's huge yeah and then the other thing too is
that i'm just really bloody stubborn and i don't like not being able to do things
and and i just so yeah that's a great mindset that's a great mindset to have i love that
are you a badass i would say yes not to be confused with having a badass
why are you a badass tenacious as a mofo yes that is my superpower legit tenacity i do not give up i
am like dog with bone i am so happy right now you asked me yesterday what my answer would be right
someone i was do you know marissa sutera yes she asked me she asked me what the most badass thing
i did was and i answered i actually didn't have an answer because there were like a lot of things
that came to mind and it's interesting because and i get it not everyone identifies with the
word badass but most of the time people won't give them the credit of having done a badass thing and
they'll just say like oh yeah i did it you know they'll downplay it but it was a badass thing
but instead i answered her as the most badass thing i do all the time is that there is
nothing i can't do if i want it i will get it i'm tenacious i'm relentless
and i will get it until i either don't want it anymore because something has changed or i get it
where can people find you they can find me all sorts of places they can find me on our website
which is coleman concierge they can find us on instagram coleman underscore concierge we also
have a lifestyle instagram which is concierge corner and then you can find us also on twitter
and pinterest as coleman concierge without the e and facebook lets us keep the east over coleman
concierge hell yeah and make sure you check the show notes to find her all of that info will be
in there go forth be badass we'll see you in the next one thanks for doing this thank you