Shot solely on the GoPro Hero2

We got back to mainland and headed straight for the hospital with Lorena my Croatian friend. This is where it gets interesting… we walk into the ‘emergency department’ with a waiting room full of blank depressed looking faces. After being pointed in the right direction we ended up in front of a re-enforced locked door with a couple of dirty a4 pieces of paper warning signs. One apparently ‘severely warned against repeated knocking on the emergency door’. We tapped on the door, a nurse who would be better suited in a morgue opened, Lorena talked to her in Croatian, she took my passport and the door closed again. I lay down on a metal slab covered with a sheet that they class as a bed.

A couple of hours passed as ambulance crews came with car crash victims, they’d rush up to the emergency door with the patient who clearly needed immediate attention, stop, knock and wait for it to be unlock… crazy stuff !

We finally got called in, a few docs had a look at the leg which had worryingly hardened around the epicenter of the infection and spread around it in a bright raw red colour. Lorena who was acting as translator for me explained that we didn’t know what had happened but it seams infected and keeps getting worse. One of the Docs asked when was the last time I ate…I had only polished off a Snickers 30 seconds ago. He turned to his colleagues and then back around to us and asked me to come back in the morning as the irritation with my leg was the work of a SCORPION sting and it had dangerously spread all over my upper leg. I would have to come back in the morning for SURGERY… I had a feeling they might have to cut the leg a bit to get the infection out but surgery seamed pretty extreme. Maybe a bit of local anesthetic and in and out in 40 minutes ?

The next day we returned to the grey building, doing my best not to question the legitimacy of the hospital as we knocked on the locked emergency door. We were greeted by the usual grunt, demand for passport and not able to get a word or a smile in before the door slammed in our faces. A couple of hours passed so we asked a Doc what was going on, he explained to Lorena that surgery had to be delayed as the theater got contaminated over night, I was delighted they were taking their time.

“McDonald” in a strong Croatian accent echoed emergency corridor where I was found on my trusty metal slab again. In I went to be told I was going under full anesthetic in 15 minutes. They put me in a room with just about enough floor space to get between the crowded beds with about 10 people on them. I didn’t have Lorena with me anymore as she was translating for Robbie who had also come along to get his gammy leg looked at.

A nurse approached me, took my possessions which I was a bit nervous about and asked me to put on a garment for surgery, thank god I didn’t mind getting my bits and pieces out cos I had no choice but to strip in front of the room full of people… they saw everything.
I asked to go to the toilets before going into surgery to which I got a grunt you would only expect to get when spitting at someone. She pointed me back out towards the waiting room, I had to paraded myself in front of everyone pretty much naked with only a thin layer of blue material covering my satchel to go to the toilets. Luckily I was only interested in a number one because there was no toilet paper and to be honest I shouldn’t have been surprised when I went to wash my hands that there was no soap – I must have been the fool for thinking I should wash my hands before surgery.
I was then placed on a bed and wheeled into theater. As I was being pushed in I spotted a nurse on a computer looking at Wikipedia, not able to make out what she was looking up I reassured myself it was nothing medical and that she knew the articles on Wikipedia were put together by randomers and not professionals.
I then found myself in a room full of surgical tools, bright lights and people with surgery masks on, again surprised I wasn’t sedated in another room which is the norm I took the opportunity to have a good look around and asked could I put the GoPro somewhere to record the operation. Short and sweet… ‘No’ was the answer to that.
They hooked me up to every apparatus the medical world has at its disposal, which was reassuring because I wasn’t to far from completely pulling out of surgery and without further addo I was gonzo…

…I woke up with my Croatian phone in hand talking absolute shite to Victorien and Co. who were back on the Crew boat, no idea how the phone got in my hand or how the call was made. The exact same thing happened when I broke my leg in Whistler last year so it’s becoming kind of a tradition. Starting to come to and realising I was still on the phone I hung up and remember pointing out to some guy that they had put the floor on the ceiling – the morphine still working its charm obviously. Starting to grow familiar with my surroundings I then realised I was back in the same room they asked me to strip in pre-surgery, less people but as I moved my head around I had something laying on my head. When I turned around I saw it was the feet of some auld thing on the bed in front of mine, I pushed them away slightly and looked up at her, I don’t even think she noticed.
Lying on this not to comfortable bed I asked could I get a pillow, the nurse got a Doctor who had a face that looked liked he’d been sucking on a lemon all morning to make an attempt in English and told me that they had none, after the standard grunt of course. I looked around the rest of the room and no one else had one either. Croatian cut backs or they just don’t believe in pillows in hospitals… I can picture him thinking if you need a pillow your not man enough to be in his hospital.

About an hour after waking another nurse with an even more aggressive puss on her face asked me in her best hand gesture to put my clothes on and move! A few young kids had just entered the room so I saved them the pleasure of seeing an Irish guy naked and put my clothes on over my blue surgery shorts. Sitting up I felt pretty dazed and questioned myself if I should be getting up but the thought of leaving this hospital was overwhelming. I made the international gesture for crutches only for the Doc to tell me they had none. Pillows and crutches must be for the weak… When leaving, the Doc gave me a prescription for a pain killer but nothing else, I asked him should I not be on antibiotics and he took the sheet back and wrote out a course of antibiotics… again left amazed as the whole upper half of my leg was bright red with an infection that only antibiotics could kill off and I had to ask.

I couldn’t have been happier to see Lorena in the waiting room. We jumped in the car and got back to the apartment. Later that evening I got a rush of heat throughout my body, my skin went bright red, eyes puffed up and blood shot and the upper half of my body was swollen. My heart beat was very irregular and I was spinning. Having never felt something like this especially post-surgery I felt a little nervous not knowing what was going on to my body and not being able to stop it. The guys soaked me in water, feed me and I stayed in bed for the rest of the day and night. The only relief from this was finding out what I had said and who I had rung when off my face on steroids – Everyone on my work phone got a call including The Yacht Week CEO ! F*ck My Life…

The next day we had to go back to the hospital to get the dressing on my leg changed. Knock on the ever so ‘friendly’ locked emergency door and wait for the grunt. A nurse answered and Lorena explained the situation. Without a hello, notice or medical thought, the nurse reaches down (still standing in this dodgy corridor) and starts pulling at the dressing… I was in absolute shock as well as in sheer pain that I hit her hand away and demanded to see a Doc.

An hour or two later we get in to get my leg checked. Lying on the bed he spares no gentleness in ripping the dressing off as violently as the nurse had attempted to do. Looking away and in a serious amount of pain, out of the corner of my eye I see him pulling more dressing from my leg. Not to sure where he is getting all this extra dressing from I look at my leg… expecting a somewhat straight incision with a couple of stitches in it but instead I find there to be 3inch long and 1inch deep gash in my leg, Fuck I was not expecting that! Without any notice he chugs what might as well be pure vodka into the gash as I scream out in pain clutching onto anything I can grip onto. Either he was a sadist (someone who enjoys giving pain) or he didn’t notice the screaming Irish man rolling around the hospital bed under his eyes but he goes at it a few more times. I was gasping for breathe between screams and nearly passed out but he finished the ordeal and with his clobber hands dressing my wound. It took me a while of lying on the bed after to get myself together.

I limped out of hospital, rang the insurance company straight away and told them I needed the next flight back to Dublin.

The next day Naomi and Cao picked me up from Dublin airport and brought me to hospital, the Doc was amazed at the antibiotics I was prescribed and told me I would have to check into A&E and probably be in hospital for the next few days hooked up to an IV drip pumping antibiotics into me.
I would like to thank my father for this next bit as our VHI family health care covers at home treatment so the following 5 days were spent between Naomi’s and Paddy’s homes with a constant flow of nurses and doctors visiting 4 times a day to inject antibiotics into me… all because of scorpion I never even met !

‘A life lived in fear is a life half lived’

Ian, Milly and I were backpacking around Central America. After getting through a hairy experience in Guatemala City which has the world’s highest murder rate of something like 8 killings a day. We were chilling in this awesome old school colonial town. Full of backpackers, vibrant markets and a great buzz on the streets ! You could even buy slices Dominoe’s pizza in plastics bags on the bus on the way there.

A group of English gap students recommended we go check out the local volcano which was very active and you could trek up it. We jumped on a mini van to the base of the volcano where we were greeted by a swarm of young kids selling off well carved hiking sticks. We bought one each for next to nothing and started trekking up the volcano. The land was very lush and green around us at the start but as we started getting closer to the volcano the scenery started changing to dark dried up shards of volcanic rock surrounded my seriously low clouds. The closer to the top we went the more impressive the scenery got as the layers of dried up magma created this sharp walkable sea of rock. You could see exactly where and how the magma had seeped out.

Getting even closer to the top we could feel the temperature rising and the realisation that we were on a volcano spewing magma hit us pretty fast.

Walking over a crevice Milly singed all the hairs on his legs from the hot air coming through the rock… I was in tears laughing, great shout letting him go first !
We got to the magma and couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Bright red liquid magma seeping through the jet black volcanic rock. It was incredible.

At one point i was getting a snap of Ian and could feel I was moving very slowly. I looked down to see if the rock was moving but it wasn’t. I lifted up my foot and realised the soles of my runners were burning and I was moving as the soles were melting !

The local guy that came with us from the hostel had a bag of marshmallows with him and gave us a handful each. The rest of our time on the volcano was spent poking the magma which resulted in your sticking being immediately engulfed by flames and roasting marshmallows over the volcano… the lava was 1,000 °C+ so didn’t take long to cook them bad boys up. Such an amazing experience, one of the best I have ever had !

I recently had an epiphany moment when traveling across Americas East coast while working with Jack Wills which resulted in me moving from Boston to London. I was with two people at the time who I have become very good friends with, that are young and successful but more importantly have such a huge passion and love for life. Namely Keenan Foley and Red Rainey. Chatting with Keenan and especially Red during the long 12 hour non-stop drives gave me such a fresh, vibrant and amazing outlook on life… before, I thought ‘we are here for a good time not a long time. Now. I. Know. ‘We are here for a good time not a long time’. I was inspired to make this list after having the epiphany moment and reading some of Robin Sharma’s work from which I borrowed a few tips. This list will help you and I achieve great things…

1. Use haters as your motivators.
2. Do the things you say you will.
3. Be more inclusive.
4. Under promise and over deliver.
5. Make an effort with new people.
6. Be the person they come to for advice.
7. Set yourself goals.
8. Ask more questions.
9. Look for new experiences.
10. Live in the here and now.
11. Find more heroes.
12. Be a hero to someone.
13. Go to music festivals.
14. Embrace change.
15. Sort out conflict before time makes it worse.
16. Network like a pro.
17. Strive to live outside your comfort zone.
18. Be democratic not autocratic.
19. Always stay positive.
20. Don’t take those around you for granted.
21. Learn foreign languages.
22. Never be shy to show affection.
23. Get up at 6 am on week days.
24. Play sport.
25. Document life with pictures and HD videos.
26. Be Humble.
27. Make friends not contacts.
28. Exercise daily.
29. Keep a journal.
30. Know the 5 highest priorities in your life.
31. Say no to distractions.
32. Drink a lot of water.
33. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence.
34. Write thank you letters to those who’ve helped you.
35. Forgive those who’ve wronged you.
36. Have 5 great friends.
37. Become stunningly polite.
38. Unplug your TV.
39. Say sorry when you know you should.
40. Never miss a moment to celebrate another.
41. Clean up your messes.
42. Get serious about time keeping.
43. Honor your parents.
44. Tip as you would expect to be tipped.
45. Give no energy to haters.
46. Be the best person you know.
47. Smile at strangers.
48. Ski religiously.
49. Focus your mind on the good versus the lack.
50. Make your life matter.
51. Speak less. Listen more.
52. Shift from being busy to achieving results.
53. Always have savings.
54. Create unforgettable moments with the ones you love.
55. Travel. A. Lot.

I want to show my appreciation to one Alex ‘GoPro’ Quinn for the support and taking on the 55 tips with me…

We are here for a good time, not a long time so live your life !

What was my first ever experience at a Tennis Open turned out to probably be the best one myself or anyone else could ever have.

A healthy mix of court side action, bleacher and photographers pit viewing as well as a stint in Donal J. Trumps personal box. Made even better by a rampant Djkavic dominating Rafael Nadal in front of a packed house, incredible stadium and going home with a match ball and an oversize novelty tennis ball to add to the collection… Tennis, I love you !

I shot this entirely on a GoPro Hero and cut on Final Cut Pro X

With around 400 ‘gamey‘ Trinity Uni heads in one building, a few thousand meters up a powder covered mountain, Tshirt skiing weather and boasting the best dump of snow the French Alps has seen since French president Sarkozy started going out with his Rossi of a girlfriend.
Many thanks to Katie and the girls…

I shot this entirely on a GoPro Hero2 and cut on Final Cut Pro X

A cheeky weekend cycling camping combo with the little dude, Clembo and the boys

Brettzer and I shot this entirely on two GoPro Hero’s and cut on Final Cut Pro X

The last Wednesday of August every year in Bunal, Spain places host to the Worlds biggest food fight… Tomatoes, and shit loads of them !
An early morning rise is needed for the starting ritual when a greased up wooden pole with enough layers of a vaseline like substance to do German for the year is placed in the centre of town. A full Spanish ham is placed on the very top and only when layer after layer of human pyramid is formed to be able to reach the ham, can the food fight start.
A horn goes off billowing down the narrow streets announcing the arrival of the ‘Tomato trucks’. The trucks bail down the streets that were obviously not made for man and vehicle with about a metre on either side for the crowds to fit in. The trucks squeeze down the streets while the locals that are neck deep in the truck full of tomatoes flake the hard red missiles at the tomato thirsty crowds… things get wild after this !

I have not eaten Tomatoes since…

I shot this entirely on a Casio Exilim EX-G1 and cut on iMovie

SantaCon, an absolutely wild phenomenon that happens in New York City every year before Christmas, if you haven’t been… get involved ! The pure essence of SantaCon is to celebrate everything non-commercal about Christmas. Along with a couple of Irish Santas we joined the most outRAGEious Santa Convention that has ever graced the festive period.

I shot this entirely on a GoPro Hero and cut on Final Cut Pro X