Keep The Good Ones

Greetings from Buenos Aires!

I love this place. LOVE IT. The people, the food, the diverse and epic geography, the food...

As I sit typing this from a small cafe in Villa Crespo, post jet-lag and mandatory first weekend hangovers, I am reflecting on the many, many things that have happened in my life since my departure flight from my last visit here - 9 years ago.

In that time I have lived in Mexico, graduated with a couple degrees, moved back home to the US and then back to Australia, had a couple of amazing long term relationships, and have created a career that on paper looks like a circus, to name but a few milestones.

Thinking about this as I start sipping my second "cafecito" for the morning it becomes very clear, 9 years is a long time. But sometimes, with certain people - it actually seems like nothing at all.. 

My personal example goes something like this:

• Boy (played by me in this story) travels to Argentina.
• Boy meets two amazing girls that are cousins. (Hey easy peanut gallery - we're all just friends here..)
• Girls and Boy become great friends over the course of just two days - the kind of friendship usually forged slowly over years, birthdays, travelling together, and trying new things like deep-fried Mars bars, etc.. but not with these girls, the two days was enough to establish a lifelong connection.
• Boy leaves Argentina and returns to Australia and over the course of the next 9 years stays in touch with Girls off and on, so we're all up on each others big life events.
• Finally, FINALLY Boy returns to Argentina - connects with both girls on first night back in the country and its like only 9 days have passed instead of 9 years and just like an extended family member, they are well aware of all of the life milestones I mentioned above, and most in between them, as I am of theirs.
• Boy dances in and ON bars with Girls until 5:30am realising that friendships made along his journey in life and the experiences of connecting with great people are the real reason he has, and will continue to travel.

My point to this story? I've learned it doesn't take long to make genuine friendships. There are people out there that you will cross paths with that will actually become a long term character in the story of your life.

My challenge to you is to keep your eye out for them and once you find them, keep them, for they are the good ones.

Maybe one day in the future you will be dancing on a bar on the other side of the world at sunrise, with someone you met briefly almost a decade ago.

Just maybe.

These things happen.

More Argentinean updates to come.

On the training for Vasaloppet side - I have travelled all the way here with my roller skis and will be hitting the streets and taking some video with the good ol' GoPro soon. For those of you that have been to Buenos Aires, you know the sidewalks and streets are about as straight as a 90's Enron accountant, but rumour has it there's a huge park nearby with long flat sidewalks perfect for skiing on... so will hit that soon. In a few days I'm putting myself on a plane down to the southern tip of the country to hunt for snow in the mountains of southern Patagonia... I may actually be skiing with snow under my feet for the first time, which will be hilarious for all those standing nearby.

Thanks for reading.

This picture was taken in Tigre - a suburb of Buenos Aires the following Saturday.

The journey of a thousand miles...

Begins with one step, right?

Well, the funny thing about that 'one step' is that we sometimes have no idea when we're taking it - and it can set us on new life changing journeys in an instant. For my first (what eventually became) Outspire adventure - my 'one step' took place in a pizza restaurant in Manly Beach, Australia. A casual conversation with a dear friend of mine from Sweden discussing a race that he is about to accomplish for the third time called Vasaloppet. I don't quite know what took over but I could not learn enough or talk enough about this race. 

A fire was lit - my first step had been taken.

Given Vasaloppet is an annual race with 16,000 competitors a year - tickets are very hard to get ahold of and it took me a few years to secure a spot. Now, in 2015, I have landed my place in the Swedish classic cross country ski race... the only thing left is to learn how to ski, and have as much fun as a I can along the way.

A couple months into the program (self created) - I have had a number of amazing people come out of the woodwork to support, and I suppose that's the way with epic commitments. You put yourself to something, and follow through each step of the way - and as they say "the universe will conspire to help you". I have had people on the other side of Australia reach out to supply gear to train on land with (thank you Roller Ski Australia!) my trainers at Million Dollar Fitness in Manly get incredibly involved and design workouts specific to skiing, and now I am even training with an Olympic cross country skier from Slovenia - the amazing Barbara Jezersek - simply because I have put myself out there and backed myself on this journey.

I have 90K to race in 13 hours in a sport I've never attempted before. At the time of writing this I have still yet to hit the snow... but I know that with my determination and the amazing people that I have connected with - that truly anything is possible. This is also what has driven me to found Outspire - being a platform for inspiring others to get outside and bring adventure and "play" into their lives. We can all do anything we want - its just commitment and communication, and thats what is driving me to help others via this webpage.

With that, Vasaloppet training - and Outspire is born.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I will.

Josh