My Blog

In the late ’90s, I was 35 — a paragliding instructor living and working in the French Alps. I’d just returned to the UK to complete my osteopathy degree, which I had started in France. Back in England, I was living in Maidstone, Kent. Maidstone. Land of oversized...

Charlie was my number 1 mate in New Zealand. I had been living in the surf town of Raglan and we met at a musicians’ club and although we did not become immediate friends our common love of playing rock music pulled us together. I was not very talented and I played...

White. It’s all white. Everywhere I looked was white. Sounds of muffled voices. Then I focused on a detail that sprang out of the sea of white — the word Toilet in big red letters indicating the way to the restroom. I tried to rub my face, but I couldn’t make my arms...

When you can’t talk about what bothers you, it can lead you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. But doing the unusual can open your mind. I was 13 years old, questioning authority. I didn’t like where I was or know how to change it – or even what I would change it...

The First Thing That I Don’t Remember… “Hey, Smithy, how are you feeling today?” said Charlie with intent. I immediately recognized Charlie – he is a close friend and a wicked lead guitarist in our garage rock band. “Charlie!” I answered like he was coming around to...

My first love was being under the sea. As a kid, I was an avid snorkeler. I lived by the sea on the south coast of England and would dive as deep as I could until I went too deep and burst an eardrum. I didn’t know about clearing your ears as you descended under the...

Another life ago, I was the champion of my situation. I had just opened a school teaching paragliding. At the time, paragliding was a very new sport – a parachute that could fly like a hang glider and do more or less the same things. It was a tiny revolution in free...

It was in the eighties. I was traveling around Australia with my long-suffering girlfriend, Sue Barrett. We had spent a few months hitchhiking, and I think I had exhausted her. I didn’t mind sleeping rough, getting soaked to the skin while waiting for a ride, or...

It’s kind of funny how some stories never leave your mind. I have a story that I would like to share, and the reason I want to share it is a little like Schrödinger’s cat  –  if it is not told, it may as well never have happened. It is a story of love turned into an...

Do you know the story of Icarus? It comes from Greek mythology. Icarus fashioned himself wings from feathers and stuck them to his arms with beeswax. This strategy worked – and worked very well – but Icarus flew too high, too near the sun. The sun melted the wax, the...

Life in the World of Heroin Most of you have probably seen the film Trainspotting – a black comedy about heroin addicts in Edinburgh. It’s a shocking film, but it offers a raw and honest look into heroin addiction: the massive internal highs and the devastating lows....

My love of hang gliding took me on a quest for endless summers – chasing summer in Europe, then heading Down Under to catch it again. The pinnacle of flying hang gliders is going cross-country: flying from thermal to thermal, using these columns of rising warm air to...

“Gap year – Go West, my boy!” And I did. Me and my best mate Gary had just finished our A-levels – university entrance exams – in the UK in the 1980s. I had failed everything. I’d discovered sex, drugs, motorbikes and rock and roll. I needed a reset. Traveling seemed...

University had some quite animated moments. I had an interesting time with a guy called Paul C. We had two things in common – well, three if you count practical joking. We both loved hang gliding and getting stoned. Not at the same time, I hasten to add. We lived...