The Outward Bound Annual Dinner, the "Woodstock…Hippy Festival", was successfully held on 13 May 2011 (Friday) at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. We were lucky enough to have over 300 prestigious guests dressed up in hippies in the evening with the same goal in mind – to support a good charitable cause!
The evening was full of smiles, fun, socializing, wining, dining and dancing the night away – whilst at the same time raising vital funds for a worthy cause. Through the table sales, donation, auction and games, over HK$1.26 million was made. This is absolutely a wonderful figure and we would like to thank our table buyers, donors, prize sponsors and many individuals for their contributions.
We especially want to say a BIG THANK YOU to the Chairman and all committee members who had applied their energy, total support and great ideas for the Dinner over the last few months. Indeed, without their input, the Dinner would not have been possible.
We hope everyone had fun and we look forward to seeing you again next year!!!
Proceeds will be used to support the works of Outward Bound and allow us to provide free training courses for our Special Community Based courses for the less privileged, including the Samaritans, Mother's Choice, Second Chance projects, and the Operation Breakthrough, etc.
For enquiries, please call the Fundraising Office at 2554 6080 or 2554 606
Entering into it 10th anniversary, the Adventure Race has become one of the most established and high reputed multi-discipline races in Hong Kong. This year we received tremendous response in participation: 109 teams comprising approximately 442 people in the race.
The race started at Pak Tam Chung and finished at the Sai Kung town and the large crowd that gathered witnessed Team "Team F.S." won in a time of 3 hours 35 minutes. The last team to finish completed the course in over 7 hours, which shows the diversity and experience of the participants. However, in our eyes, all were champions in that they completed the course and in the process generated nearly HK$700,000 for subsidizing underprivileged people to attend unique Outward Bound training courses.
Thanks all racers for their immense support to be our partners in improving the lives of others. The date of this event next year is 11 March 2012 (Sunday). Please mark the date in your diary and we hope that we will see you working with us again to the benefit of Hong Kong youth.
For photographs, news and information about the race please join our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/outward.bound.adventure.race
"If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon." - Emil Zatopek
"2500 years!" When two instructors Anton and Ken know how old the legend of an Athenian soldier ran from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon was, like many runners around the world, they also want to take part in the 2010 Athens Classic Marathon. They want to run the original route at the 2500th anniversary of marathon and be part of history.
Yet, running a marathon is totally a different thing from their normal instructing lives, especially for Ken, who is not a regular runner and actually hates running at some point. Despite the fact that the Athens Classic Marathon is going to be Ken’s first ever full marathon, he strongly believes that he can do it if he is willing to try. Therefore, half a year before the actual marathon, Ken started his training. He gradually built up his endurance from 10km, 20km and so on, even the busy schedule and the hot and humid weather in summer did not stop him.
Many thanks to the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society as it gave an opportunity for Anton and Ken to make their marathon dreams come true. Now, besides running for themselves, they were also running to raise awareness for cancer and raise fund to support the work of the Society.
Running a marathon is never easy. Apart from being famous for being the “marathon on the original course”, the Athens Classic Marathon is also one of the hardest among the modern marathons due to its long uphill session. Ken also suffered from cramping after keep on running up the slopes. However, it was the Outward Bound motto "To Serve, To strive and Not to Yield" in Ken’s mind which kept pushing him not to give up and challenge himself to continue running during the hard time and finally led him to the finish line.
“The finishing moment is memorable,” as Ken recalled. “Entering the same main stadium of the first modern Olympic Games with loud cheers from the crowd makes me feel like we are also announcing victory after battle just like 2500 years ago, this time not over the Persians, but victory over difficulties. I have stepped out from my comfort zone, fighting for things I really want to achieve and also serving the society. I would encourage others should try at least one marathon in their lives, to really experience a different life.”
At our October staff meeting, the wife of Outward Bound Hong Kong’s first Executive Director Jack Tucker, stopped by during her tour of China and Hong Kong and enlightened us all with how it was living and working for OBHK in the first years. It was a most interesting insight and we are all most grateful for the time Bee and Christopher spent here.
After his first multi-day ultramarathon in Vietnam last year, Anton Tsang decided to take on a more demanding challenge – to race in the 4 Deserts series. Named by TIME magazine in 2010 as the leading footrace in the world, as well as one of the world’s top 10 endurance events, it is a 7-day, 250-km self-supported footraces across the world's largest and most forbidding deserts. It includes the Gobi March (China); the Atacama Crossing (Chile); the Sahara Race (Egypt) and the Last Desert (Antarctica). The Gobi March 2010 took place in the Turpan Basin, Xinjiang, China, which is the hottest place in China and the most distant point from an ocean in the world. Moreover, the variety of terrain adds difficulties to his challenge as he has to go through a mixture of dry, rocky river-beds, dusty tracks and of course, sand dunes.
The first 4 days consisted of trails of more than 30km daily through the Tian Shan Mountains; plains; hills and ridges; canyons and gullies and also the Flaming Mountains. After that came the 100-km long march, in which competitors crossed through crop fields, pasture, salt flats and sandy tracks and descended into the Turpan Basin, the second lowest point on Earth at over 100m below sea-level. This has been the toughest part for Anton as apart from being the longest day, he suffered from stomach upset on the way. He had to stop for a longer break despite still having more than 20km to be conquered, including a sting in the tail of sand dunes. It might be an easier decision for him to rest for the whole night before continuing yet he chose not to yield. The final battle was not only a test on physical limit, but mental as well. “The sight of never-ending fluorescent markers over the silhouette of dunes was really demoralizing!” recalled Anton. Nevertheless, Anton’s determination and effort paid off as his finish against sunrise meant that he did not need to trespass the desert under temperatures of 50+oC the next day! After the long march, all that remained was a short run as the symbolic finale. It was an emotional moment for every competitor as they crossed the final finish line and awarded with the finisher medals around their necks, and of course, it was no exception for Anton.
“I would like to thank Outward Bound Hong Kong for the great support as well as Vasque and Outdoor Research for providing excellent racing shoes and apparel. Without all these, this amazing journey would not be possible!” Anton concluded. “Before, when I see photos of such events in magazines, I always admire competitors crossing the finish line. Now, it’s me doing so! It’s like a dream comes true. One can’t put a limit on anything. The more he dreams, the farther he can get!”
Morris Wong had been working for Outward Bound for 7 months when he had this crazy idea. He is an adventure cyclist who has taken quite a few cycling expeditions in Asia such as Japan, Taiwan, and the longest one so far, from Bangkok all the way back through Cambodia, Vietnam, China and to Hong Kong all on his own. When starting he only had a few hours of mountain biking experience in Hong Kong. So this time, he was really stepping out of his comfort zone, to put himself into unfamiliar mountainous area in Nepal. He was going to ride round the famous trekking route - Annapurna Circuit. He took 7 days from 800 meters altitude at “Besisahar” and carried his own bike with his heavy backpack up through the 5600 meter “Thorong La Pass”. Unsupported and suffering from high altitude sickness made it a big challenge for him. After reaching the top it finally paid off, he could enjoy his 3 days non-stop downhill back down to Pokhra. He has not only achieved one of the most challenging mountain biking routes in the world, but also learned from local people from different cultures, religions and from the nature of Nepal.
Outward Bound Hong Kong instructors Alex and Ping attended the first Adventure Learning Conference in Taiwan in May 2009. Professional and experienced adventure and experiential learning facilitators were invited to join this conference. Michael Gass, Simon Priest, Greg Farrell, John Hasell and Pam McPhee were some of the speakers of the Conference. The objective was to discuss the future of Adventure learning as well as information and experience sharing. The various workshops of the Conference included: High Risk Groups, Youths Education, Special Needs, Family Education etc.
Alex and Ping were selected to represent Outward Bound Hong Kong to share the Experiential Learning situation in Hong Kong as well as to bring some good ideas back to Outward Bound Hong Kong. After the conference, they have shared what they have learned and achieved in Taiwan with the other OBHK staff. This sharing also encourage our staff to discuss in order to make Outward Bound Hong Kong to be a better place to live and learn.
Although Anton Tsang is new to Outward Bound Hong Kong, he has already been actively involved in various marathons, endurance sports and adventure races before becoming an instructor, including winning the Outward Bound adventure race. This time, he took his adventure in Vietnam.
Due to the impact of a typhoon, the race areas in the hill regions of central Vietnam were destroyed and it changed his first multi-stage ultramarathon from a trail running race to a road running race. Yet, doing 90km in 3 days with elements like long uphill and downhill sections and beach runs made the race retain as much as a real challenge. On the first day, the course started in Danang city before leading to an agonizing 10-km climb through Son Tra, which included terrain more suited to mountain goats than humans, before a long downhill session returning to the city. The run on the second day was of a similar format. After some flat concrete road, it was another 10-km climb up the Hai Van Pass. After reaching the summit, clouds rolled away to reveal curving roads of a little under 15 km going down to the town of Lang Co. After the big ups and downs, the last day was a relatively flat course leading to the edge of the picturesque town of Hoi An with some stair climbing at the Marble Mountain and a final 2.5-km stretch of beach run with roaring waves of the South China Sea to the side.
It was really an invaluable experience to run in this event as it was not only about running. Apart from the physical challenge, Anton became more determined and self-motivated when he had to run day after day. Also, recovery was an important part in multi-stage events and he learnt more about careful planning and strategies as he needed to know himself more to decide when to push harder and how to fully utilize his resources. Most importantly, Anton would like to thank Outward Bound Hong Kong for supporting and giving him this opportunity to realize that he has got real potential inside and he would definitely explore to push his limits further.
Outward Bound instructors Carl, Stephen and Morris went on an 11 day expedition to Peak 3 of mountain Four Sisters in Sichuan, China. “If you never try, you will never know if you can do it. We planned to put ourselves out of our comfort zone and we did. From the first day of climbing the headache and vomiting due to the high altitude sickness really put us down after a long hiking day with 12 km distance and 1200m ascending from 3200m to base camp around 4200m. Needless to say it’s really different from hiking in Hong Kong. Having dinner that night we did not eat much, and some would not stay down. We could not sleep well and the negative signals seemed to be a big red flag to us." "The picture of the summit and positive thinking become the only things that helped us during that long night. After we came back from the summit of 300m, we were glad that we did keep on our expedition without giving up even though we did think of this. Positive & smiling team mates can help to pull you through even the biggest and most difficult seeming tasks. What is next? we are still planning !”.
This year we had five of our staff attend the staff symposium in Finland. The idea of the event was to provide the participants with real learning experiences, real help and bring nature close the event. In Finland, the year 2009 is a Kalevala-celebration year, which is why they chose Kalevala as the theme of Staff Symposium.
The program showcased the depth and diversity of Outward Bound activities.Performers all had extensive experience.
Nature was present on many levels. The Hyvärilä youth center is located on a very beautiful place, on the shores of lake Pielinen (one of Finlands largest lakes, Pielinen stretches over a 100 kilometers). In this area there are large forests and mountainous views. The program consisted of many nature-based workshops: wilderness-skills, orienteering-skills and experiencing the nature. Autumn is one of the richest seasons in Finland , and participants were able to pick berries and mushrooms literally right around the corner while enjoying the colors of autumn at the same time.
There was an exhibition area where Outward Bound schools showcased their organization and activities. The idea was to make the world of Outward Bound visible for everyone. This also created a good opportunity for different schools to share information concerning their own activities and culture.
This ultimate Japan Winter Programme takes place at Outward Bound Japan located in the Nagano area. OBJ base camp and its surroundings are all covered with much snow. It sometimes piles up to 3 meters high. The temperature often goes below 0 degree. In that kind of tough and frozen situation, both as individual and as group, people challenge themselves, face themselves, and go as further as they can and beyond.
This year the Ultimate Japan Winter Programme will be held on
21-28 February,2011.
This once-in-a lifetime opportunity is your chance to be adventurous, to meet exotic people, and to explore your inner strength.
