Omar Samad

So this is a pretty interesting time in my life right now, I think thats what people call the cross roads. In my case its being in a position of having to redefine a lot of things that I have taken up for granted. My lifestyle has been so comfortable high paying pushy corporate job, living at home with my family which also includes no expenses at all, without even asking for things my parents do everything still, cook and clean I have a car whenever I need one. Close to work and my squash/tennis club, been fortunate enough to have travelled many places. Even more fortunate to have experienced love.

The start of it all was when she left, I never experienced anything like this before in my life. Ive had girls leave me before but I never really cared as much for anyone or anything. Its been just over a year now since it was over and I still remember her from time to time. To make things worse a couple of months after that my baby cousin had developed a serious case of pancreatic/liver cancer and left us within 3 weeks of being diagnosed she was gone. I felt myself being in a different world of thought. I spent many days in the forest at night especially by myself, maybe there was something about the natural beauty of nature, the way the moon shone over the water and the sound of the wind that blew through the trees that calmed me down.

Ive never felt any kind of pain before.

So it was an early start to the journey into Algoquin park this time, I can’t believe they actually got away with making me wakeup at 06:00 for leaving at 07:00 .. but in reality I don’t think we actually left till closer to 08:00 after all the dilly dallying. Anyways it was fun just getting together and goofing around. Another thing that made me happy was that I actually had to work last Saturday 9hours, and I used that time to take the Friday off so I didnt even have to use a vacation day!

By this time we get there, and I was horrified to find that my kyak is a piece of shit one. No rudder and no skirt., I did however manage to find matching pants to go with my ArcTeryx shell, so boy was I glad to have had them, kept me absolutely dry in there and I didnt mind having no skirt by the end of it I was still a little grumpy about the rudder and the kyak itself was heavier and shittier. After the first portage I decided to have some fun and play this game I invented called lets try to find them.
So I had no map or compass, but I knew where the lake was that we were gonna camp on., I kinda drifted to the back of the pack and just sat there alone for a good 20min just enjoying the scene its actually what motivated me to play this game and I slowly started gathering clues and trying to find the right lake we were planning on camping on.
So one thing I didnt take into account is that the lake was HUGE.. like a good 400-500m if not more to the other side, and it was WINDY as hell making it hard to paddle, I stuck mainly to the shore line at this point which was great for gathering clues, asking nearby campers if they had happen to hvae seen 4 canoes go by with a noisy bunch of boys. I eventually came into a new opening of the lake and my friends had actually put out a big bright jacket at the campsite which i recognized right away. What a fun game that was I must say, I even had to get serious at a point wondering what I would do if I dont find them, but that perhaps will be another adventure

So it actually all worked out according to my plan by the time I got there everything was already setup, the tents the benches, chairs, and tarps, all I had to do was get my gear ready and build a bucket system. So while the sun was still out I decided to get in the water right after I had setup the bucket , but there was just one problem in the midst I failed to notice that my bag of inrgediants for the vegetable stew wasn’t in anyones canoe! I thought I saw Gem put it in their canoe, but it was wrong =/ oddly enough Nick actually forgot a bag of food aswell. This year I brought some luxuary items with me snorkel and fins !! My god it was just incredible, I had no idea what to expect while snorkeling there however it was a whole new world to me. There was under ground trees, logs plantlife, blobs of a jelly fish like material algae, plankton, these white plants that could move and there was air bubbles coming out of them.
It was just fantastic, I actually even swam to the other side of the lake, the combination of my flippers and my sharkskin top made me float well, and I felt i could swim for ever! which I almost did on the far side it was ever more mysterious than before, the rocks over there were rugged and raw and there was so many interesting plants here too, I saw the odd fish or two but the plants are what really interested me. I had the feeling of being close to a ghost ship or something like that, It even looked like there was an underwater cave, I did dive down a bit from time to time and took a closer look at things also practicing mask clearing techniques I was so happy to have had my mask for this kinda stuff and my own equipment. I actually had to rent gear down in Florida keys a couple weeks back that it pissed me off abit about the dive, I think the mask is the most important part of it, cuz if you can’t see properly and comfortably down there whats the point, and no water gets in So did actually see a massive snapping turtle just by the shore of our camp site, which was awesome! but kinda scary at the same time, I wasnt in the water when I saw it but I wouldn’t wanna get bit by it anyways saw some youtube videos and they actually dont let go , in every case they have to use a special tool or pliers to pry their mouth open.

I was in and out of the water all the time, drying off by the fire going to club OK, and all the time the fire was burning really good, we had massive logs cooking all weekend and made a huge difference through the night. I was only in the water for about 30min at night cuz the moon was not out at all, it was tucked away behind lots of clouds so wasn’t that fun, it was still pretty nice though, but would have loved to have seen the stars and the moon as I did last year I remember just floating on my back looking up at them last year thinking.. man would it have been nice to have my flippers with me! I had my sharkskin so that made swimming all that more enjoyable.

I stayed up saturday night till the sun rose, most of my friends had passed out by now and it was just me and the fire in the woods, it was just nostalgic for some time just nice to forget the world forget everything and just be.

Wow, what an amazing trip., I didnt know what to expect really this time my last experience in Vancouver wasnt the greatest due to alot of stuff going on in my mind at the time but this was just great. I felt a bit like Paris Hilton actually being as it was my birthday when I hopped on the plane, and we stopped in Calgary for about an hour, and then onto Vancouver.. soooo that means I was partying in 3 time zones!!

But the tournament and partying was great, but even more fun for me was reconnecting with my good friend Sigrid, whom I met in Buenos Aeries , and whom so kindly invited me to her lovely house in North Vancouver. For me I was actually going through a lot of weird thoughts about this girl thats been in my life, and just talking to her about everything was so therapeutic for me it explains why im feeling so good right now looking back on it. But besides that, had WAY too much fun.

Theres a funny story too about my dress shoes, that I absolutely must share.. after the banquet i crashed over at some buddies place, and in the morning i got up and went back to my friends place eventually, and we actually planned to go out for dinner to a nice place so i thought what the heck might as well put on my dress shoes..and so we get there and sat at our table, and i crossed my legs for a minute, and looked at my shoes .. and i turned up to my friend and said .. these arent my shoes.

and that was just it, she actually lost it laughing so hard, and that was more than enough for me too I couldn’t control it either anymore everyone started turning their heads to see what was so funny, and we got a lot of interesting looks but as we all know that only makes it funnier !!! muah!!

SO btw, one thing I do have to talk about is the squash, I actually did the best I could at the time so im happy with it, unfortunatly I had an injury coming into the tournament but, I played great considering and rattled some cages and won a match too! BUT! my good good friend and ex training partner had a much better result, winning the WOMENS OPEN!!!! I couldnt even explain how happy it made me feel to see that, I was actually crying a bit when she did it! and it was an honour to be there.