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Canyoning Extreme Adventures

stillaliveBksfld_CA

By stillaliveBksfld_CA,
in Dominica

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bowbiter

bowbiter

Posted
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I think I'm going to book this for my upcoming cruise in November. It looks like an awesome tour. I've been to Dominica once before and loved it (and all I did was a cruise ship walking hike to one of the waterfalls). I'm sure this is even better :)

 

Has anyone rented the helmet cam thing? Is it worth it? I get motion sickness watching shaky video so I don't know if it would work for me.

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gunnerstahl24

gunnerstahl24

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I think I'm going to book this for my upcoming cruise in November. It looks like an awesome tour. I've been to Dominica once before and loved it (and all I did was a cruise ship walking hike to one of the waterfalls). I'm sure this is even better :)

 

Has anyone rented the helmet cam thing? Is it worth it? I get motion sickness watching shaky video so I don't know if it would work for me.

 

Sorry my response is so late on this...

 

If you go to youtube and search "extreme dominica" or something of that nature, I believe I found a couple videos that appear to be filmed using the helmet camera. I googled the camera that they metioned (helmetpro) and it seems pretty good quality.

 

I plan on renting the camera, but I won't be able to report back until after Nov. 12th.

 

Maybe someone else has used one.

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mspmcpie

mspmcpie

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Sorry my response is so late on this...

 

If you go to youtube and search "extreme dominica" or something of that nature, I believe I found a couple videos that appear to be filmed using the helmet camera. I googled the camera that they metioned (helmetpro) and it seems pretty good quality.

 

I plan on renting the camera, but I won't be able to report back until after Nov. 12th.

 

Maybe someone else has used one.

 

Gunnerstahl24- noticed in your post that you mentioned returning Nov 12- Do you happen to be sailing Summit Nov 5-12? My BF and I will be on this sailing and have booked Extreme Dominica but no one else on our roll call has joined in- wondered if we will be spending the day together?

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bowbiter

bowbiter

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Gunnerstahl24- noticed in your post that you mentioned returning Nov 12- Do you happen to be sailing Summit Nov 5-12? My BF and I will be on this sailing and have booked Extreme Dominica but no one else on our roll call has joined in- wondered if we will be spending the day together?

 

So I'm not on the Summit but the NCL Dawn is in Dominica on the 8th. I already made a reservation but we have to cancel :( I want to go but my friend injured his knee last month and I'm not convinced his knee is up for this excursion. I wasn't sure I wanted to go on my own either... but if there are others on cc going...

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gunnerstahl24

gunnerstahl24

Posted
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Gunnerstahl24- noticed in your post that you mentioned returning Nov 12- Do you happen to be sailing Summit Nov 5-12? My BF and I will be on this sailing and have booked Extreme Dominica but no one else on our roll call has joined in- wondered if we will be spending the day together?

 

So I'm not on the Summit but the NCL Dawn is in Dominica on the 8th. I already made a reservation but we have to cancel :( I want to go but my friend injured his knee last month and I'm not convinced his knee is up for this excursion. I wasn't sure I wanted to go on my own either... but if there are others on cc going...

 

Hi Annie - we will be on the Nov. 5th sailing of the Summit. Good to know someone else from our ship will be on this excursion! GF and I have friends that did extreme dominica last year and they said it was a great experience, and judging by MarkStudy's descriptions, it seems to be worth the price of admission.

 

GF & I are both 25 and from New England... looking forward to meeting you.

 

-Matt

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bowbiter

bowbiter

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So I didn't take any pictures but the excursion was awesome! Well worth the cost. The staff were friendly, helpful and encouraging. I never felt unsafe...well except for one jump but that was just me being a wuss.

 

I'd definitely recommend a trip to a local rock climbing wall to practice repelling down. You technically don't need it - repelling isn't super hard - but repelling down a wall with a steep angle IN requires a bit more patience and "body down"ing than walls that protrude out.

 

And for those of you who are worried about whether or not they can do it...I am out of shape and apparently don't do so well on rocks but I survived. (I had ankle surgery in May and my ankle did wonderfully. But more importantly it was a 3 year injury so I've been pretty inactive for the last 3 years.)

 

Jeffrey helped me on the hike up to the road at the end. He was super nice and tried to tell me I wasn't as out of shape as I could have been lol. I would have made it eventually but I felt "unsteady" on the rocks and thus went slower and exerted more energy because I kept trying to lean and use the rocks/trees for support (which meant more squatting, standing, etc.) Once he started helping me the climb was much easier. I just followed his foot steps so I also didn't have to "think" about if that was a good place to put my foot.

 

We had a few people in the group do the helmet cams but most had their own waterproof cameras. I'm hoping I can get pictures from someone - so if you were on the Nov 8th outing and have pictures please post a link :)

 

And for the record most people are probably fine buying a waterproof/resistant camera and hooking it onto your life vest. It would work best if multiple people in your group had one though. That way you can take turns taking pictures of each other repelling down the canyons.

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gunnerstahl24

gunnerstahl24

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Just thought I'd putdown a few comments on my experience with this excursion as it was fantastic.

 

Richard, Liz, Jeffrey & Nahjie were amazing guides. You can tell that they are all very experienced professionals and we always felt like we were in good hands and safe. Top of the line equipment (wetsuites, life jackets, helmets, harnesses) and top of the line experience.

 

If you are afraid of heights, yes this would be a challenge for you (mentally). The largest descent was approximately 40-45 feet if I remember correctly and a couple of waterfall jumps that were maybe 20 feet. Also, there is a good hike at the end (which we enjoyed).

 

Having said that, you should feel safe in the fact that you are also attached to a safety line at all times. People of all shapes, sizes and ages were in our group of 20+ and everyone seemed to do well.

 

Overall the experience was once in a lifetime and I would reccomend it to anyone that is adventurous. My only wish was that we had a smaller group (maybe 8-10) instead of the 20+ as it seemed to slow it down a bit. Can't blame them for making good business decisions however.

 

I did rent the helmet cam and the video footage is fantastic (w/ sound which is suprising). I'm pretty sure its High Definition. I just wish I had some experience with it prior so we could have done some more filming. I will post the videos to youtube as soon as I figure out how to do that.

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Snail_Pace

Snail_Pace

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If you are afraid of heights, yes this would be a challenge for you (mentally). The largest descent was approximately 40-45 feet if I remember correctly and a couple of waterfall jumps that were maybe 20 feet. Also, there is a good hike at the end (which we enjoyed).

 

Jump about 10 feet. Rappel about 20 feet. Those distances horizontally aren't much. But vertically they're enough to have a little bit of fun.

 

Anything more than that would require participants to be in decent shape and have done similar activity before. Thus not suitable for a cruise ship activity. I've been there and done it.

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gunnerstahl24

gunnerstahl24

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Jump about 10 feet. Rappel about 20 feet. Those distances horizontally aren't much. But vertically they're enough to have a little bit of fun.

 

Anything more than that would require participants to be in decent shape and have done similar activity before. Thus not suitable for a cruise ship activity. I've been there and done it.

 

 

Sorry, I'm confused. Are you saying that I had the distances wrong? I may be wrong on the larger jump, probably closer to 15 feet, but the largest rappel was definitely higher than 20 feet, I remember asking Richard what the actual clearance was.

 

And I can verify that there were plenty of participants who were not in "decent shape" but were able to complete the excursion without an issue. I would guess 75% of my group had never rapelled before.

 

Again, a credit to the guides and their efforts to accomodate anyone and everyone.

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Snail_Pace

Snail_Pace

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Sorry, I'm confused. Are you saying that I had the distances wrong? I may be wrong on the larger jump, probably closer to 15 feet, but the largest rappel was definitely higher than 20 feet, I remember asking Richard what the actual clearance was.

 

Yes, 45 feet is the equivalent of a 4 story office building. Way beyond what you can do with people in varying physical condition.

 

Of course the important question is...

 

Did you look down before you went over the edge?

 

I did enjoy the trip and the guides. Hope to get back soon and repeat it.

 

And yes, I did look down. But I've done some rappelling before.

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thetexasaggiecruiser

thetexasaggiecruiser

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We have been trying to decide what to do in Dominica, we're sailing on the Noordam on Jan 2nd out of FLL and are in Dominica on Jan 9th. This looks really great. I get a little vertigo with heights, but I do fine with canopy ziplining - it's when I'm not tethered to anything that I get vertigo. So this looks like I'd be fine, and it does look like an amazing experience. I'll go check out more of the pictures later, thanks to everyone for the great information!

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Floppy McTurnriver

Floppy McTurnriver

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We have been trying to decide what to do in Dominica, we're sailing on the Noordam on Jan 2nd out of FLL and are in Dominica on Jan 9th. This looks really great. I get a little vertigo with heights, but I do fine with canopy ziplining - it's when I'm not tethered to anything that I get vertigo. So this looks like I'd be fine, and it does look like an amazing experience. I'll go check out more of the pictures later, thanks to everyone for the great information!

 

we just came back in early Dec from Dominica stop. Island was experiencing much rain all week and our excursion was cancelled. Was met by Richard at meeting spot that morning. Big disappointment but can't control weather, so have a backup plan. Can't wait to return and try again.

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curiousjayu

curiousjayu

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just got back from a trip on serenade of the seas. this was a highlight of our tour. there were 4 guides and 20 people in our group. there was some waiting for folks to rappell down the canyon but some of the spots had two sets of ropes to go down, so it was quicker. we are both in good shape and into mild outdoors stuff and this was a great way to try something a bit more adventurous! even with a fear of heights or water you will feel very safe on this tour. try it out!!

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kongpup

kongpup

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We did the canyoning excursion with Extreme Dominica in Dec. 2011. It was one of the best adventures that we've had in our years of cruising - so much better than many of the "tourist turnstile" excursions that the ships tend to offer. While it would help to be reasonably fit to enjoy canyoning, the professionalism displayed by Richard, Liz, and Jeffrey shows that they can help just about anyone overcome a certain amount of anxiety. Their equipment was in fine shape - we've had to put on some absolutely filthy gear in previous ship sponsored excursions. The scenery is stunning, the water is beautiful, and the rappeling/water activities loads of fun. They picked us up and delivered us back to our ship with no stress - there was enough time for Jeffrey to drop us off at a local restaurant that he recommended as a non-touristy place to eat. Didn't know what half of the items on my plate were, but every bit of it was great. All part of an adventurous day in Dominica!

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