This is the official Daily Gumboot, triple-tested, double-proof, training guide for the City Chase, the worlds largest urban adventure series. We’re really excited here at the Gumboot because we love adventure, and we love to play, and wouldn’t you know it City Chase brings together adventure in our western outpost of Vancouver, and supports Right to Play. Read on for how to best prepare for this crazy competition.

Eating and drinking well is one of my primary concerns when attacking a wilderness adventure. Actually, it’s one of my primary concerns in life.

Whether I’m camping with a big group of friends in a nicely groomed federal or provincial park or trekking in the backcountry, good food and drink is right near the top of the list of priorities.

It rained, and rained, and rained.

Early spring on the west coast can be like that.

Somehow we’d managed to be on the ball enough to all be in Squamish on the same weekend. That in itself was a major triumph for a group comprised of a dad, a gypsy pirate with no fixed address, a serious diver who lives on the island, and a Northerner with two massive (and massively high-maintenance) dogs that need a dedicated sitter if he’s away for more than 5 minutes.

You’ve just joined a new Community!

Thanks facebook, I wanted someone to aggregate my posts in a very sly manner without notifying me at all.

Friend and fellow petrol head Tarasch Rawjee recently took a weekend to fly to France to shoot a video with Nick Bracegirdle of Chicane, and probably the hottest Audi RS4 you’ll see for quite a while. Flying from Vancouver to France and back for a couple of days of shooting is madness (and some heftily strategic air-miles planning) but if you at all enjoy electronic music, cars, or wonder what makes a wizard musician and producer tick, you’ll find that the results were well worth it.

There have been a few posts here about how getting out of your car and traveling through communities by bike or foot or skate is an amazing way to discover your communities.

While that’s true, in the pouring rain it can also be one of the least pleasant, especially if you’re traveling through your and other communities early in the morning on your way to work, and are totally unprepared for the realities of self-propelled commuting.

Maintaining focus during the wrap-up period is one of the most difficult, and most important, parts of successfully leaving a job.

As much as it’s tempting to start taking it easy and wind down to the last day, actually cranking it up is by far the better option.

Over the next few weeks I’m transitioning from one workplace, where I’ve been for the last five years, to a new job. This move means I will have left, on good terms, ten jobs. Not that it’s a major accomplishment that I’ve had that many “serious” jobs since high school, that’s increasingly common among my [...]

Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community. Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society. It is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries [...]

Diversity is underappreciated. What’s that you say, but we love diversity. Heck, we’re lowermainlanders, (those of us not off plundering the rich bounty of the sea anyway) we’re all about that stuff. On the surface that may be true, we celebrate lunar New Year alongside Robbie Burns day. We appreciate the different smells, flavours, and [...]