Most of the time our character traits are made up of a culmination of different circumstances, different people who’ve helped mold you or small little lessons you’ve learnt along the way. Most of the time they’re so small and so insignificant that you don’t even realise you’ve learnt something, you just have. Being adrenaline seeking weirdoes is not one of those things.
Then there are the rare moments where something truly character defining happens. Where you can pin point the exact moment when your perspective changed and you knew you’d never look at something (or someone) the same way again.
Dave and I have started to refer to this as The Death Slide Theory and I’ll tell you for why. Anyone who knows Dave will know that he’s Mr Adventure, there’s nothing he won’t jump off, jump out of or drive at a ridiculously high speed, the true definition of an adrenaline junky. It wasn’t always that way though.
When he was around 10 years old he went to a theme park type thing which had a death slide (or drop slide if you’re from America) much like the one above. He went to the top with his dad and sister but over thought it and psyched himself out actually going down. So he went down via the stairs with another girl who didn’t want to do it either.
It’s not the end of the world right? I mean who cares that he didn’t go down the slide? That doesn’t prove anything and no one should be made to do something they don’t want to do. Problem was, he always regretted not going down that slide, and that regret was a worse feeling than any fear he may have felt. So since then he’s spent his life hoying himself off stuff.
Funny story about me, I was the worse kid to say ‘well if Angela jumped off a bridge would you?’ to because i’d be the kid who would turn round and say ‘Angela jumped off a bridge? I’m there!’. I didn’t want to be the boring girlfriend who sat with the coats and bags while he went on all the cool rides at Alton Towers so I found my cajones and joined in the fun. Afterall it’s always better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t, sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and go for it.
The Newman Adrenaline diaries:
Disney & Islands of Adventure (Florida) 2006
Helen’s zipline off the Tyne Bridge (Newcastle) 2008
Dave’s bungee off the Transporter Bridge (Middlesbrough) 2009
Rollercoaster at New York New York (las Vegas) 2009
Helen’s zipline in Queenstown (New Zealand) 2013
Our joint skydive over the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) 2013
Busch Gardens, Disney & Islands of Adventure (Florida) 2014
Bounce Below and Zipworld (Wales) 2014
Snowmobiling in Iceland – 2015
