Spring is a time for shredding with your buddies in warm weather. Did you make a Spring edit?...

A Donner Party where you don't have to eat HUMANS to survive the winter.

Congrats William C Nelson!  You’re the winner of the Dye Tactical Friday Giveaway.

Last week we asked our Facebook fans what they would grab on a www.DyeTactical.com shopping spree.

William Answered: An Olive Drab DAM, DyeCam Rotor, Throttle Air System, DyeCam i4′s, DyeCam Tactical Modtop 2.0, DyeCam Tactical Pants, DyeCam Tactical Vest GTG, Dye Elbow Pads, Camo Dyetree Head Wrap, Grey Rhino Tank Cover, and a Dye Navigator Gearbag to store it all.

Wish we could give you that whole list!  For now, you’ve got a brand new set of Olive i3 Pro’s, Dye T-Shirt, Dye Beanie, Coozie, and stickers comin’ your way!

Be sure to follow Facebook.com/DyeTactical and Facebook.com/DyePaintball for more giveaways every week!

 

There is no question that we outdoor enthusiasts can be a bit tough on our gear. Most of the items we use are designed to be rugged enough to withstand the punishment we put out, but some things are just not built to survive in the environments in which we thrive. Take most of our popular smartphones. Sure, they're wonderful for staying in touch while on the go and they offer up far more information than we ever thought possible in a device so small. But they aren't exactly the best companion on an adventure, where they risk getting submerged in water, dropped off a cliff or smashed against a rock.

The new Caterpillar B15 smartphone hopes to alleviate those problems. The device is designed to withstand the kind of abuse that you would expect on a construction job site, which also makes it ideal for heading into the backcountry. The phone has been built to be able to withstand a drop of 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) or stay submerged under 3.2 feet (1 meter) of water for up to 30 minutes. It is dustproof, scratch resistant, and the 4-inch capacitive screen can even be operated with wet fingers. Additionally, it is rated to operate in temperatures ranging from -4ºF/-20ºC to 131ºF/55ºC, making it an ideal companion for extreme environments.

The Cat designers didn't skip on the technology inside the B15 either. It is running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and features a dual core 1 GHz processor. It has a 5MP rear-facing camera and a second front-facing VGA cam for video conferencing. It even has a built-in FM radio for those who don't want to listen to their own tracks or stream from Pandora or Spotify. The battery is rated for an impressive 16.3 hours of talk time or up to 26 days of stand-by. I would have liked to have seen a bit more onboard memory however as it ships with just 4GB, which is pretty anemic in this day and age. You can add MicroSD cards to raise that total to 32GB however.

All of this comes in a relatively svelte package that weighs in at 6 ounces or 170 grams. Not bad for a phone designed to take punishment on this level. Price is just $349.99, which isn't bad either all things considered. If you're in the market for a rugged smartphone, this might be your best choice at the moment.

Poison Ivy is currently out in Bitburg, Germany representing Female paintballers all around the world in the Millennium Series.  Here are the teams thoughts after event #1 -

photo credit: RSH Media

“After what seemed to be an everlasting off-season we finally set aim for the French Riviera and the first millennium-event of 2013. And this time we actually had 6 Ivy girls with us; Silje, Linn, Pia, Linda, Cecilia and Benedicte.

After a pre-start of the season in Russia one month ago which was a good test for the team, we felt pumped and ready for the season to really kick off. We are confident beacuse we have put in a lot of hours of paintball practice during the off-season. Because we live where we do we hadn’t had any opportunity to actually play on the whole field before the event, so we were pretty excited for our training session on Thursday evening.

We arrived in Nice and managed pretty quickly to pack the girls and all our bags into the car. Then we asked a very nice young man at the car rental-service to help us with the GPS, “No problem” said the young fellow, but what he forgot to mention was that he so kindly decided to save us some money and sent us out on a route that avoided the toll roads. This probably doesn’t sound too bad, but the drive which should have taken us 40 minutes ended up taking over 2 hours and we actually had to stop and get something to eat.. Just sayin..

When we finally found the little town we were staying in, and found our awesome 4 star hotel, we got so excited that we each had our own bathrobes that we immediately put them on.. Haha.. We’re not really used to fancy stuff on paintball-trips….lol.. Then we set out to find the site which was easier said than done, but Britt helped us almost all the way there, and we made it just in time for our training session. Oh, by the way, we forgot to introduce you to Britt. Our friendly GPS.

Can’t say it was a great practice for us and it didn’t boost our confidence, but we got to play on the field and figured out what didn’t work, and what might work.

Moving on to the event..

During Thursday we got our schedule and found out that we were meeting another girls team, our socalled “rivals” Fat Ladies Charms.

It was pretty awesome when we started the preliminaries against them and lost 4-0…. (Congrats boys and girls. Well played!).To sum it up: they played good, and we didn’t.

After that game we sat down and talked about the game, changed some stuff and decided to start over. We focused on the next task at hand, our next game against Marseille Icon 2. Everyone who has played the Millennium-series for a few years knows of that name, and we knew we were up against a good team. But apparently the talk we had after our first game worked and we ended up winning 3-1.

Last game in the prelims was against Kingsize Berlin and we won that game 3-0.

BUT even though we had two wins we couldn’t celebrate just yet, because 3 teams in our group had 2 wins! And we placed as number 3 in our group!

After a couple of agenizing hours our awesome coach Magued brought the good news that we were the last team to make it through to the Sunday club!!! LUCKYLOOSERS FTW!

SUNDAYCLUB,

We were really excited, not just because we made it to Sunday, but because all the Norwegian teams made it to Sunday!

Our game in the last 16 was against the Russian team Tyumen Spectrand, they gave us a good fight, but we finally won 3-2.

Just the fact that we won this game shows the change in our team, as we have had a huge problem with being able to handle the “pressure” of the Sunday earlier.

Next we met the French team Elite Ile d Oleronand lost 3-0… Guess this is where the pressure got to us! What made the loss a bit better was that Elite went on to take 1st. Congrats guys!

As for us, we ended up placing 6th out of 27 teams, and we were and still are very proud of our performance and we are happy with that result! For now. Let’s just say it’s a good start..

Looking back at the event we see a definite change in the team from previous years.. the way we think, how united we are as a team and as friends, and of how we act as a team. We’re still the same old Poison Ivy, just a new and improved version.

We set some goals together this year that we are certain we will reach if we stay on the same path that we are on now. Next up is even more practice, and not only with reballs, but also with paintball. The outdoor training is about to kick off here in Norway.

Our amazing sponsors:

DYE paintball for our awesome gear, including Dye Reflex Markers, i4 Goggle Systems, Dye ROTOR Loaders and the Dye CG paint.

RSHmedia for the best media coverage in the world of paintball, claim the world.

Our home field, Sniperpaintball in Drammen, for letting us use their awesome indoor reball center (almost) whenever we want. Last but not least Rockstar energydrink!

Without you we wouldn’t be where we are today!

A huge shout out to our coach Magued, thank you for putting up with our drama and pointing us in the right direction. Thanks to Knut for being our coach in the pit during the weekend.

Stio and Fredrik from Drammen Solid, thanks for helping us with our practices during the off-season, you guys are the best. And thanks to everyone else who helped us out during the off-season, or in the pit in France, you know who you are and we love you <3 Last but not least, thanks to all of you that belive in us and supports us. We love you to <3

Until next time…”

-xoxo P.I

Bruce Lee Work Out for More Power!

The Bruce Lee Workout I am describing comes from studies of about Bruce Lee, but is combined with research from other sources. There is data from bodybuilding exercises, weightlifting workouts, and so on.

Mind you, I call it the Bruce Lee Workout, but it comes from a variety of sources. many of which cropped up after his death, or were studies of his workout routines.

There are three component parts to a Bruce Lee Workout.

The first deals with Bruce Lee Strength training. This is that weightlifting is the third best way of increasing strength. This is because when you weight lift you isolate the muscles. Yes, the muscles get bigger, but since the whole body is not being used, one will not get the tremendous speed of Bruce Lee.

The second principle associated with a Bruce Lee Workout deals with dynamic strength training, sometimes referred to as dynamic tension. This is when muscle works against muscle. This is a type of workout Bruce Lee liked, but didn’t always talk about. There are, however, Wing Chun exercises in which dynamic tension is present, or can easily be put in. The glory in these exercise routines is that the muscles, though they work against each other, do not isolate. They stay in a ‘group mode,’ and so one is able to use these exercises to achieve Bruce’s speed.

The third Bruce Lee workout principle holds that body calisthenics are the best method for increasing personal strength and power. While the Little Dragon did weights and dynamic tension, he also did Yoga and other body calisthenic exercises.

Tying all of the above together, of course, are things like the Bruce Lee diet, and other fitness concepts.
Thus, to make your own Bruce Lee Workout, one should do a lot of stretching, especially Yoga style. Then do light weight training. Light as one doesn’t want mass so much as definition and efficiency. Finally, the heavy stuff, body weight calisthenics.

And, though many people may object, especially in light of certain Bruce Lee quotes regarding classical martial arts, this author prefers classical martial arts for his body weight calisthenics. It is just more fun to do than simply lifting heavy metal plates, or other similar types of weight training. And, finally, more yoga to cool down and make sure the muscles relax after the work out.

So consider these points when you analyze your own body, what you want to get out of your training, what you think is fun, and then create your own Bruce Lee Workout.

The Bruce Lee Workout was originally posted at MonsterMArtialArts.com.

Xpedition.TV is a new website whose mission is to showcase new adventure films while also helping aspiring filmmakers to find funding for their personal projects. The site looks to mentor those filmmakers while also organizing a series of challenge awards that will help them to gain exposure. Today at MountainFilm they have announced the first of those competitions in the form of their "Emerging Talent Filmmaker's Challenge."

The competition will run from May 23 - June 30 and features three potential categories in which someone can win. Those categories include "Most Inspiring," "Most Innovative" and "Most Surprising." The films should be no longer than five minutes in length and should focus outdoor adventure, outdoor sports or exploration. For complete rules and information on how to submit your film, click here.

The winners of this first challenge will have their short films showcased on Xpedition.TV, gaining some nice exposure for their work. On top of that, they'll each receive a Sherpa 50 solar charging kit from Goal Zero. That is a piece of gear that I reviewed very favorably awhile back and is something that will come in handy for any filmmaker working in the field.

If you're an aspiring outdoor or adventure filmmaker this is a great chance to get some exposure for your work as well as snag a great piece of gear in the process. If you have a project you've been working on for awhile, wrap it up in the next few weeks and get it entered into this competition. It could be the big break you've been waiting for.

While things wrap up on Everest, elsewhere in the Himalaya there are other expeditions that are winding down as well. The past few days have not been good for numerous teams as there has been little summit success off of the Big Hill. Now, poor weather is moving in and closing down the mountains for the summer, as most of the teams pack up and prepare to head home.

The biggest news of the day is that Spanish climber Juanjo Garra is currently stranded on Dhaulagiri. Apparently Garra was descending yesterday along with his Sherpa guide from somewhere high up on the mountain. It is unclear if they two men made the summit or not, but on their way down the Sherpa slipped and fell, knocking Garra over as well. When he fell, the Spaniard broke his ankle, making it incredibly hard for him to move at all.

Reportedly, the two men bivouacked above 8000 meters and have now called for assistance in helping to get off the mountain. That includes asking Simone Moro to bring his rescue helicopter to the mountain in an effort to help get Garra down. Of course, the helicopter won't be able to conduct a rescue at 8000 meters, so other climbers may be en route to lend a hand. It has been suggested that Ferran Latorre and Alex Txikon may be headed to Dhaulagiri with the hopes of assisting rescue efforts. The two men completed a climb of Lhotse earlier in the week and are reportedly still in Everest Base Camp.

I'll try to post updates on this developing story as we get them.

Also on Dhaulagiri, Polish climber Pawel Michalski confirms that he turned back just 67 meters (220 feet) below the summit yesterday. He is descending back to BC today and says that he'll post more details once he has a better Internet connection. From the sounds of things, high winds were once again the culprit here, forcing him to descend even though his goal was so close.

Kinga Baranowska and Rafal Fronia have turned back on their summit bid on Makalu. Once again, it was bad weather that did them in. Conditions looked promising yesterday so the duo pressed on in their attempt to top out on the 8481 meter (27,824 ft) mountain. They are descending now and hope to be back in BC later in the day.

Finally, the Adventure Consultants have posted some summit photos from Lhotse that complement their Everest summit shots from earlier. You can checkout the images here. Most of them include shots of Everest in the background. Looks like it was a good day to be at the top of the world.

More news from the Himalaya as it comes in. Things are now winding down across the board and by next week the entire region will be much more quiet.

The end of the spring climbing season is now in sight on Everest and just a few stragglers remain behind with the hopes of a late summit. There are already reports of the weather starting to change and as June grows closer, the annual Monsoon will arrive, shutting off the summit for good. In the meantime, the Sherpa teams that have been so instrumental in ensuring that the climbers get safely up and down the mountain are continuing to do their work. While most of the commercial teams are either already gone or will be by this weekend, the Sherpas remain to clean up the trash, collect the gear and tidy up Base Camp as best they can. It is a thankless job for the most part, but one that they do well and without much recognition.

One climber who still hopes to summit next week is Min Bahadur Sherchan. The 81-year old still has dreams of topping out, despite the fact that he has dealt with a stomach bug for much of the past few weeks. He is feeling better and says that he is strong now, so he hopes to wrest the title for being the oldest person to climb Everest away from Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura, who set the new mark just a few days ago at the ripe-young age of 80. (Ed Note: When I'm 80 I'll be happy to climb out of my rocking chair!) I'll try to keep an eye on Sherchan's progress to see if he can summit next week, although it is tough to say how much longer the Ice Doctors will keep the Icefall open this spring.

Dave Hahn, head guide of the RMI team, successfully nabbed his 15th career summit yesterday and he reports that the shift in weather has already started on the upper slopes. Dave said that while conditions were good, if a bit cold on the summit yesterday, he can tell that things are already starting to warm up. That is another signal of the impending Monsoon, which will close things down at least until fall. Dave said that some of the anchors on the ropes were starting to come free from the snow and ice in which they are fixed, which can lead to dangerous conditions. Fortunately, as far as I can tell from yesterdays reports, it didn't have any effect on the climbers. But Sherchan should be careful going up next week.

The Himex Team finally posted their latest update saying that Summit Day yesterday was pretty uneventful. The climbers had good weather all the way to the top and they all topped out, enjoyed the view then descended all the way back to Camp 2 for a rest. It was a long, tiring day of course, but it sounds like everyone came through it in good health and spirits. They'll descend the rest of the way today and get ready to depart for home.
The Adventure Consultants posted some nice shots of a few members of their team from the summit. If you want to catch a glimpse of the joy and relief that people feel when they top out, you can view the gallery here. Meanwhile, IMG says that their entire team of climbers have left, but they still have 37 Sherpas working at various points on the mountain. They won't begin to celebrate until everyone is safely down.

Still no word on Chad Kellogg and his Everest journey. You may recall that Chat was attempting a speed run on the mountain and he set out on Wednesday from Base Camp for a straight shot at the summit. Hopefully he got up and down safely and will update us all soon as to the results of his expedition.

That's about all there is to report at this time. Kathmandu is getting crowded again as all of the climbers return to the city and prepare to head home. The Khumbu region will still have some trekkers, but it will soon empty out as well. The Monsoon brings plenty of rain to the region, making it an uncomfortable place to be during the summer months. This all but closes the book on another climbing season in Nepal, although I imagine there will still be a few lingering stories to share over the next few days.

 Warrior Mind? Or Monkey Mind?

Everybody in the world is engaged in struggle.

Thus,
everybody in the world is a warrior…
whether they know it or not.

Even if they don’t learn martial arts,
study martial arts or do martial arts…
they are still stuck with being a warrior.
Unfortunately,
a sadly inefficient warrior.

Joe Citizen struggles in the workplace
to bring bread home for the family.

Charlene Fatcells struggles in the gym
to get her weight down.

Even little Jimmy Nogood,
he struggles with teachers who should know better!

Now,
here is the problem,
the ability to fight is being bred out of us.

Did you know that sperm counts are going down
in the American male?
He’s been losing the struggle with GMO,
and his actual DNA may be changing!

And how about all those obese people?
Tons of them laying on the couches of America!
They lost the struggle with potato chips and ipads!
No real life,
just eat and tweet…eat and tweet!

Or,
if you want a real good example,
how about them politicians?
They lost the struggle with…their Monkey Minds!

That’s right,
you see,
the real struggle is not against DNA,
or some boss who has his own struggles,
or the politician or even against Lays Chips.
The real struggle is against your Monkey Mind.

The Monkey Mind is that chatter in your brain.
It is static…
meant to distract you from actually living!

Now,
there is one way to end the Monkey Mind,
to cease the endless static that says things like…
should I go to Mickey Ds today?
With things like…
I AM A LEAN, MEAN WARRIOR!
A PERSON WHO GETS THINGS DONE!
IF YOU’RE LAZY…
GET OUT OF MY F WAY!

The way to end the Monkey Mind,
and this is written in one of the oldest texts in the history of man,
is to learn how to concentrate your awareness.
To focus,
and eliminate the monkey chatter,
and replace it with accomplishments.

The easiest,
most fun way
to learn how to focus your awareness
is to do the martial arts.

That said,
the fastest way to do the martial arts
is to matrix them.

Well,
of course!
Everybody knows that!

How long can you think of one thing?
Go on,
try it.
Look at a table, or a pen, or something that is not a TV.
How long can you stay focused and have your attention
on only that one thing?

Chances are,
not long.
Within 30 seconds your mind is thinking of other things.
Bye bye awareness,
hello Monkey Mind.

Now,
some people can read this,
and just do it,
focus their attention,
bye bye monkey mind.

But 99.99 per cent of the people,
and this certainly included me when I first started out,
can’t do this.
Can’t focus their awareness
for more than 30 seconds.
If that.

So,
you need to do something
that is more fun,
has more point to it
than just sitting and meditating your way
through the Monkey Mind.

Most people need an activity that focuses their attention
if they wish to increase their awareness.
A fun activity with a point.

So,
you do your forms,
focusing your attention on each move.
You mock up villains,
and you mock up yourself as a warrior.

And,
as you focus on your opponent,
your awareness grows.

Do you understand?
Do you understand why
people who do martial arts are smarter?
More aware?
More responsible?

Because they have put the Monkey Mind on hold,
and grown as Aware beings.

Look,
people with the Monkey Mind in full gear,
they are on endless welfare,
can’t get a good job,
are constantly crying in their beer.

People without the Monkey Mind
are relaxed,
have good friends,
and enjoy life.

And,
here is the question of the day…
would you like to live half your life with a Monkey Mind?
Taking 3 decades to get rid of it
through traditional training?
Or do you want to get rid of it now!
Inside of a few months!
Then you matrix.

You matrix,
and that means you organize your mind,
by organizing your martial arts,
and getting rid of mental chatter,
becoming able to focus your awareness on anything you want!
For as long as you want!

Okay,
I’ve said what I’ve said.
I’ve either convinced you to kick out your Monkey Mind
by having a ball
working out more,
doing the martial arts,
and enjoying life more,
or…
you are paying attention to that clutching beast on your back…
the Monkey Mind.

So what’s it going to be?
Thirty years of work outs,
if you manage to stay in good health,
not get waylaid by bad marriages (the result of a Monkey Mind)
Changing one bad job for another (the result of a Monkey Mind)

Or get there quick.
The Matrixed Way.

For me,
it was never a choice.
I saw the martial arts and I ran towards them,
laughing and having the time of my life.
And,
getting rid of my Monkey Mind
I am a warrior.
Good health,
good times,
making the world happen,
and I slew my Monkey Mind.

And that’s what I want for everybody…
especially you!

I want you to be a warrior
and slay your Monkey Mind.

All righty tighty…
I’ve done my work out,
my awareness is on
and yours will be too
of you look at this page…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts-articles/internal-karate-can-be-made-out-of-any-style-of-karate/

Simply, you will learn about transforming your karate,
or any art you’ve got,
and making yourself more aware.

And when you see how simple it is,
head for this page.

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

This has all the data
so you can focus your awareness
the right way.
Not some mythical Bushwah way
that happens when your martial arts teacher
makes up stuff
for when he doesn’t know the real reasons.
(Bad case of Monkey Mind, you know?)

And,
that said,
you guys have an AWESOME week!
LOTS of work outs!

Later.

Al