New York City is a great place to raise a cultured, worldly kid. At just three years old, my Manhattan-born daughter has eaten delicacies my husband and I had never even heard of until we were in our twenties, and she has an appreciation for art exceeding that of most adults.

But when it comes to teaching kids to appreciate nature, the Big Apple falls short in a big way. Though it鈥檚 geographically close to a number of quick, fantastic getaways鈥攌ayaking in the Hudson and East rivers, climbing at the Shawangunks, hiking at Bear Mountain鈥攊t doesn鈥檛 exactly make it easy to give kids the kind of consistent exposure to the wild that will encourage them to keep going outside later in life. There鈥檚 no place to store the equipment, for one. And how often can we realistically get away from the city with one or more kids in tow?

We talked with some parents and grandparents of adventurous kids and asked them to make the case for their hometown (or the city or town they're scheming to move to). In making our picks, we looked for towns that had affordable housing, were close enough to the city to give kids exposure to museums and other cultural institutions, and, most importantly, had easy access to a variety of outdoor recreation. While this list is by no means comprehensive, these five cities are a solid bet for parents looking to give their kids an early entree to adventure.

Amherst, Massachusetts

Amherst is the definition of college town, with just under 40,000 residents and five institutions of higher learning. But it's the natural backdrop beyond the carefully manicured quads that makes Amherst such a perfect place to raise adventurous kids, says Heather Carreiro, a teacher, writer, and mother of a toddler.

For hikers and climbers, the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire are just a short drive away, and easy access to a number of lakes and rivers make watersports a breeze. In the winter, Mount Tom offers cross-country skiing on its trails. For folks on two wheels (or tykes on three), the 11-mile paved , connects Amherst to its sister towns, Hadley and Northampton. 聽聽聽聽 聽聽

聽While you're not likely to score any deals on a house, (the average cost of a home is about $272,000), rental prices have gone down slightly this year. Keep in mind that because of the large population of students, apartment inventory turns over fast.

Brevard, North Carolina

Poised on the periphery of the a stone's throw from the , literally half of tiny Brevard is made up of state or national forest. In those woods, you can find all sorts of unspoiled places鈥攊ncluding more than 200 waterfalls鈥攕ays Carolyn Sugg, a retired Spanish teacher who makes her home base in Brevard.

If you're looking for something a little more intense than a walk in the woods, nearby Looking Glass Rock is a destination for climbers of all levels. Families who want to get on the water can kayak, canoe, or raft on the French Broad River.

Though tiny, Brevard's isn't lacking on the cultural front. The draws thousands of classical music aficionados from around the country to its annual summer festival, and has hosted a local stop of the Banff Mountain Film Festival to sold-out crowds for almost 20 years.

Housing prices hover under $200,000 (keep in mind that homes in this part of the country typically come with acreage), and the average rental price is about $600 a month.

Missoula, Montana

Montana's second largest city, sits at the confluence of three rivers鈥攖he Bitterroot, Clark Fork, and Blackfoot鈥攁nd enjoys views of five distinct mountain ranges. Combined, these spaces make for some incomparable opportunities to immerse your kids “in a sea of wilderness even if you don't have a car,” says writer Teresa Ponikvar, who went to college in the town. The downtown area is bike-friendly, and the Clark Fork Riverfront Trail is an ideal spot to introduce your young one to a bike; most of the trail is flat and wide. Rattlesnake National Recreation Area in the is so close to downtown that the city bus will drop you and your little one off at the park's entrance.

Many sports and activities in Missoula are pegged to the seasons, with river rafting and fishing on one of more than 200 rivers and streams in the summer and cross-country skiing and other snow sports in the winter. For smaller kids or busier days, there are also plenty of park and rec spaces in the city proper, including , which offers free bike rentals in the summer and ice skating in the winter, as well as a skate park and ropes course.

With critters from mink to mule deer roaming the nearby woods, Missoula gives parents plenty of opportunities to teach kids respect for wildlife. “You know how in most places if you see the neighbors all gathered on the corner, it's usually because there's been a fire or a robbery or a heart attack?” she says. “In Missoula, it's usually because there's a wild animal doing something cool.”

The average home price in Missoula is about $200,000; rentals can be had for under $700.

Salt Lake City, Utah

If you want to get your kids started on adventure from the word go, you couldn't do much better than Salt Lake City.

“Even on the ski slopes they start them young,” says Erika Wiggins, a former commercial real estate broker and pilot who now blogs at . “The proof is in the number of families I see outdoors here.” There are a range of attractions within 45 minutes of the city, allowing parents and children to take advantage of even the shortest days. She also finds Salt Lake City ideal because of the range of outdoor experiences available to families within minutes of the city. Nearby attractions include Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to Snowbird and Alta ski resorts as well as hundreds of granite climbing routes, and Timpanogos Cave National Monument, where visitors can tour three stalactite-festooned grottoes.

While housing prices increased in the first quarter of 2013, they still remain below the national average. The average for Salt Lake City is just under $150,000; rentals on two-bedroom apartments average right around $700.

Eureka, California

Anyone who has driven the 101 up California's northern coast knows how dramatic the scenery around small, artsy Eureka, is. But between the towering redwoods on one side and plunging ocean cliffs on the other, there are dozens of kid-sized microhabitats ripe for little ones' exploration.

“There are abalone coves, tidal pools, waterfalls, and a unique pygmy forest,” says Tina Buell, a a family travel expert and writer for and single mom who regularly takes her three-year-old son Cash on adventures in the area. There are nearly a dozen state beaches, reserves, and parks that offer everything from skin diving to surfing. Jughandle State Reserve, a 769-acre park with a self-guided nature trail featuring the “Ecological Staircase,” a natural terrace formed by glacial, sea, is one of the most popular; likewise with, Devil's Punch Bowl, a collapsed sea cave in Russian Gulch State Park.

In addition to a robust community of visual artists, the town hosts two big music festivals鈥攖he Redwood Coast Jazz Festival and Blues by the Bay鈥攅ach year. Eureka is also home to so many Victorian-era homes and businesses that the town itself has historic landmark status.

The downside of all this is that homes don't come cheap; Eureka real estate tops out as the priciest on our list, with a two-bedroom home setting you back about $275,000. Expect to pay aroud $1,000 for a similar rental.

The post The 5 Best Places to Raise Outdoor Kids appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The first time Rafa Ortiz paddled over a waterfall, he almost quit the sport. “I broke my paddle and came out bleeding,” the 25-year-old Mexican kayaker says. “I was like, ‘Yeah, this waterfall thing is definitely not for me.'”

Multiple exposures capture Rafa’s entire descent.

Luckily for him鈥攁nd for fans of extreme paddling鈥擮rtiz decided to stick with it. While he isn’t a household name, Ortiz today is to kayaking what Greg Long is to surfing: young, hungry for calculated risk, determined, and committed to a relentless chase of the world’s biggest, toughest drops. Along with Ben Stookesberry, Ortiz did the first descent of the Alseseca River, and he was one of the young guns selected for National Geographic’s , a source-to-sea paddle of the Amazon.

At Barracuda Diner in Mexico City, Ortiz talked about how he landed sponsorship, why being part of kayaking’s evolution is better than breaking records, how he balances sport with the rest of life, and, oh yeah, why he thinks 国产吃瓜黑料 is a bunch of bastards.

How did you start kayaking?
I was born in Mexico City. When I was four or five my dad bought a ranch in Veracruz; he wanted us to have an outdoor experience: to know cows, and sheep, and cow shit. It was really close to the Filebobos River and it’s good for rafting. So we started rafting when I was 8 or 10.

Around my 14th birthday and my sister’s 16th birthday, she went to a sports store with my dad; they saw kayaks with a 60 percent discount because no one would buy kayaks in Mexico City. My dad ended up buying two.

The first time we went to the river was with pool-toy lifejackets, pool-toy paddles, a skateboarding helmet, and not really anything to close the deck of the kayak with, and we looked like dorks. We showed up to the river, and everyone was like… 鈥淯m….鈥�

鈥沦耻别谤迟别!鈥�
Really gently one of them told us, 鈥淵ou guys need proper lifejackets, proper helmets, and proper sprayskirts to close the kayaks; you can visit a website and get all set up.鈥� So we went home and we ordered all our stuff and I ordered kayaking videos. There was no YouTube then.

I started going to Canada in the summers and that’s where I learned my skills. But it was all playboating skills and freestyle tricks. It was hard because Mexico’s shallow. The rivers are like boulder gardens, they don’t form waves. Then I jumped into creekboating and it was like, 鈥淥K, Mexico is the new Mecca.” The Alseseca River was my backyard. I kept going to the river and taking pictures of the waterfall and I sent a mass email to kayakers: 鈥淵o! All you guys who are pros, check this out!鈥� They never answered, never came.

Then, I met Ben Stookesberry. I had no idea who he was. He was like: 鈥淵o, dude, you’re from Mexico, right? We’re going to do the first full descent of the Alseseca.鈥� Nick, my Canadian bro, was finally gonna come to Mexico, so I was like, 鈥淲e should all get together.鈥�

The next thing we knew, Nick and I were hanging off a tree, rappelling down with our kayaks attached to our bodies. Our first waterfall was a 40-footer. I had never run a big waterfall or anything, but we get to this place where the river gets canyoned in and a horizon line just falls clean, straight. They’re like, 鈥淵eah, um, we forgot to tell you guys about this one but, um, we can’t really scout it and we can’t really walk around it because we’re already rolled in, so um, just go straight down the middle.” That was our introduction to waterfall hucking.

I broke my paddle and came out bleeding. I was like, 鈥淵eah, this waterfall thing is definitely not for me.” But then we went to the Alseseca and we ended up running a 65-footer. So my first experience was horrible, but it started getting better. I love the feel. I love danger.

When and how did the sponsorship start?
Four years ago. When I was a kid, I met this photographer, Mauricio Ramos. He put me on the cover of [a Mexican travel magazine]. Mauricio was kind of like my godfather. 鈥淵ou have to talk with these guys [at Red Bull]. Here are their names, here are their numbers. Call them and tell them that you’re sick.”

So here’s me on the phone, a 16-year old kid, calling Red Bull Mexico’s rep: 鈥淵eah, hello? Is this Ernesto? How ya doin’, man? So, I’m Rafa, I’m 16, I’m a kayaker, and I’m sick!”

I waited months. Anyway, Ernesto happened to be really good friends with a guy I met on the river. He saw Ernesto and he was like: 鈥淒ude, do you know this kid Rafa? He’s super sick.鈥� So they started giving me cans [of Red Bull]. But from there to having a helmet, it’s hell. It’s like from being a little cockroach to being cool.

Other sponsors give you gear, but you can’t make a living off that. When you get into a company like [Red Bull], it’s the vehicle to turn your hobby into a career.

Is it an open-ended contract?
It’s a two-year contract but I renew my budgets yearly. I sat down to sign a contract with Red Bull and I was super scared, it was like a 30-page contract. I was still in college and I told them, 鈥淚 have to finish.鈥� They always supported me. Now this is what I do: I travel. I love it. I could be in an office doing engineering and boring shit, you know?

You can do that later.
Or never.

In the caption of a photo in 国产吃瓜黑料, it said you want to do Iguazu.
Bastards! I’ve been chasing that project for three years, but [the caption in 国产吃瓜黑料] was bad because [it could] jeopardize the project. I told them, 鈥淏ro, I can’t really [talk about it], it’s kinda under the table.” The next thing I know, I’m in [国产吃瓜黑料].

I think it even said 鈥渢his fall.鈥�
Yeah, 鈥渢his fall.鈥� I kind of hate them because of that. And in the Brazilian [edition], there’s a whole article and a whole page about Iguazu. It actually jeopardizes the project because they haven’t given us permission.

It’s a national park on the border of three countries so it’s a nightmare. We went there last year with a crew of five cameramen, three photographers. We had the crew of your dreams for production; we had the crew of kayakers. Three days before flying, Brazil was like, 鈥淲e just got selected as one of the seven natural wonders.鈥� We sold the project a year or two before by saying, 鈥淲e can get exposure for you guys鈥� [for Brazil’s bid to get Iguazu listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world]. They loved it because we were going to be the last little kick.

Red Bull Brazil was managing it, but they didn’t get the timing right. They were like, 鈥淵ou guys can’t聽 do this anymore, it’s dangerous, if anything happens to Rafa it’s gonna be negative exposure.”

We switched sides and went to Argentina. Red Bull was really quick at establishing a good contact and they got us a meeting with the Iguazu Park director. We needed him to sign a paper to give us permission and rights for the footage and photos. We had permission from above, but the actual guy we needed to sign the paper was too afraid he’d lose his job, so he never signed. And we didn’t have the right water level. It was a shitshow. It just wasn’t the right time.

There was this moment when I was there. I was like, Dude, I could fucking do it. There were no photographers. We only had one cameraman on this side. I didn’t know, though, if it was going to jeopardize the rest of the project. I was thinking about my dad, my mom. My mom was crying; she had, my mom has, like a woman, like a mother, but something beyond that….

Vidente.
Big vidente. She had such a bad feeling about that trip. I decided I had to do it later. We have to convince the park authorities it’s safe, even though it’s not. But yeah, that’s a big dream.

Any other big ones?
I want to light myself up and run a 60-footer. On fire. Wouldn’t that be sick? That was the intro for a kayaking movie back in the day, but it was a little waterfall.

What is kayaking like in Mexico right now? Is it evolving and do you think that’s because of you?
Wait鈥攂efore I forget, I have to make a note. I have to look for a fire specialist.

Uh, yeah, you should.
I don’t know where you find a fire specialist, but….

There’s a specialist for everything.
It’s harder in Mexico. In the U.S., you’d just go to Google.

Yeah, kayaking in Mexico is complicated. The big challenge is the culture. The culture I grew up in wasn’t about going out to the country. It was about going to watch the soccer game on Sunday. But the outdoors culture has been evolving. I see more young people wanting to get outside.

How does your girlfriend deal?
It’s definitely the biggest problem in any of my relationships. The girl I’m with right now, I actually fell in love with her because she was so independent. Her biggest thing is just me not being here. With Skype and Facebook and What’s App, we can talk easily. I hate being on a trip and talking to my girlfriend all the time. But I cherish her so much.

There’s that constant tension between trying to devote yourself completely to your passion and trying to have a toe in the rest of the world and have normal relationships.
I’ve been going through that in my mind. I’m always dedicated, 200 percent. But sometimes I’m like, life isn’t all about fucking being the best. It’s also about friendships, your relationships. What about my girlfriend calling me, and saying, 鈥淗ey, Raf, I really want to have lunch with you鈥�? I want to learn more about letting go a little bit. Appreciating non-productive things.

But that’s part of your evolution, right? You learn to renegotiate it every day.
It’s definitely hard. It’s also with my parents. Last time I was in Mexico I was here three days. I had lunch with [my parents], but I was on the phone the whole time. And my dad was super-pissed. I felt bad. Even though this kayak career is awesome, I can’t just quit the rest of my life.

Here’s a quote. It sounds like it’s from a rap song, but it’s actually from a good writer. [Ed. note: It’s from Joseph Campbell, and Rafa recited it from memory]: 鈥淓ternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.鈥�

For me, eternity is being at that waterfall, looking down. Leading to that moment. That second.

When you’re looking down, though, is there also fear?
Oh yeah. You’re fucking terrified. You’re thinking you’d rather be watching TV.

What do you do to deal with the fear?
Fear is good because it concentrates you. Fear is what ends up releasing the adrenaline that gives you superpowers that let you do incredible things. What you want is to turn that fear into semi-relaxed concentration. I’ve been working a bit with a psychologist to do Tibetan monk exercises, finding that zone.

It takes four seconds from when you get to the lip to when you get to the bottom. Those four seconds feel like 20 seconds. When your brain subconsciously realizes that this could be the end of your life, there is something different. When you run a 190-footer, you’re scared because you realize you could die. I’m only 25. I know I can do it, but I also know that if I fuck it up, I can die. I can end up like a mosquito against the windshield. It takes your mind to a different level.

Yeah, I don’t think there are words for that.
[Gets ready to read something] This is from a friend of mine who was paddling in the Congo. It’s a pretty brutal story. One of my friends sees a baby crocodile and starts paddling to catch up with the rest of the group. Mother crocodile comes out of the water and devours my friend.

Coetzee?
Have you read his blog?

Yeah.
Ah, dude, that’s what I was going to read.

But read it again.
OK. 鈥淔eelings, do they make you soft? … I had the feeling I might be doing something I should not. I pushed through the doubt…. Two nights later another doubt surfaced as I lay safely in my sleeping bag…. The next morning … I hardly gave the matter anymore thought and was just about to put in when Ben called me over to look at the line again. Either it had changed, or we had all misread it the day before…. It is doubtful I would have made it and the consequences would have been fatal. It is hard to know the difference between irrational fear and instinct, but fortunate is he who can. Often there is no clear right or wrong option, only the safest one. And if safe was all I wanted, I would have stayed home…. Too often when trying something no one has ever done, there are only three likely outcomes: Success, quitting, or serious injury and beyond. The difference in the three are often forces outside of your control. But this is the nature of the beast: Risk.鈥� [Rafa pauses reading]. He just grabs that and puts it in words so well, so exact.

Anyway, he goes on talking about the last river they ran, that it was magical, but they were chased by the army because they had to put in illegally: “We stood precariously on an unknown slope deep in the heart of Africa, for once my mind and heart agreed, I would never live a better day.鈥�

Those are his last words. It’s crazy. He almost knew what was going to happen.

Yeah, but he just had the best day, right?
He died young. He didn’t get to share experiences with his kids, but to me the big thing is: OK, which one is life? Is this life the short one that you live in the moment and you get eaten by a fucking crocodile deep in the heart of Africa? Or one where you take gasps of pollution every day, work in an office, wanting to buy a frigging Audi that you can’t afford?

I had one moment myself where I ran a waterfall in San Luis Potosi, el Mico. We ran it super-low, kinda fucked up the line, ran it upside down. I almost killed myself. I had a full-face helmet and I broke it. If I was not wearing that helmet, I would have died. I was actually upside down at the bottom of the drop. It was the only time in life when I’ve actually accepted death.

I got out of the river and walked to an outlook and sat there looking at the water for two hours. I was crying so hard. 鈥淥k, you’re slowly driving your life into this sport that can maybe kill you. But you’re a rational, smart person. Are you doing this because there’s no other option? Because you’re making commitments you can’t quit? Like the Red Bull sponsorship? Or are you really doing this because this is what you want to do?鈥� And I made a pact with myself: 鈥淥K, I’m willing to live a shorter life and I will accept that rationally. I will make that decision in exchange for living the best life that I can possibly live.鈥�

Have you run Mico again?
No. But I want to. I definitely will.

The post Interview: Rafa Ortiz on Hucking Waterfalls and Facing Death appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.