Outward Bound course life-changing

AuthorMaddisyn Jeffares
Published date24 May 2023
Publication titleHastings Leader, The
In January of this year, Eru set out on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, travelling to Anakiwa in the South Island to join 13 others to take part in a 21-day Outward Bound Mind, Body and Soul course

“Not everyone gets a chance like I had with Outward Bound and I am so grateful. I think I came back as a whole different person,” said Eru.

Eur was joined by 13 strangers known as watchmates who quickly became friends, as they spent not only every waking hour together but also lived in the same room for the full 21 days.

Although starting off as strangers, with all the extreme activities Eru said, “Very quickly we learnt to trust each other and support everyone’s individual strengths as well as weaknesses.”

During the three-week experience, the group would go out and do activities known as schemes. Some of the schemes included climbing mountains, sailing around islands at sunset, kayaking rapids, rock climbing trusting a single rope and descending the flying fox.

The Outward Bound course was designed to test participants’ comfort zones and push the boundaries of what they were capable of. For Eru, he was pushed out of his comfort zone and further.

Over his three-week experience, Eru had many highlights as well as challenges. For Eru, one of the hardest schemes the group did was kayaking.

“I have a big fear of drowning and although I knew I would be fine there was always that what if.”

Eru had to push past this fear quickly on the kayaking training as self-evacuations and flipping each other became common practice.

The white water kayaks had skirts on them and the first time Eru tipped over he couldn’t access the bar to pull himself out so he had to kick his legs up to get out. As soon as he was free of the kayak the Year 12 student swam to the nearby rocks and broke down.

During the panic of being trapped underwater, Eru said, “In that moment all that was running through my head was that I was going to die.”

Getting back into the kayak, although his whole mind was telling him not to, Eru had to go with it and force himself into the boat.

“It was scary but did not scale to how bad I thought it would be.”

Cheering on from other watchmates and instructors helped him overcome this personal challenge.

When asked if he would happily get back into a kayak now, he quickly shook his head no, with a nervous laugh. He is proud and happy he gave it a go but it’s not something he wants to keep...

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