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Despite my yoga-and-yogurt appearance, I've mountaineered, dog sledded, hot air ballooned, snow shoed, snow boarded, fly-fished, kayaked, rafted, barged, canoed, surfed, swum with dolphins and ridden horses, mules and camels. I have an advanced open-water diver certification and double-jointed elbows that unnerve my rock climbing partners. I also worked a hiking guide, before being sidetracked into journalism by the University of Washington Daily, which I edited in 1996.
My first scuba article won a Lowell Thomas bronze in 2007 for adventure writing.
Currently, I'm stringing adventure and "indie athletics" articles for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Please send story ideas – especially about alternative sports in the metro area – to sports@amandacastleman.com.
A Look Under the Hood
Cold-water divers explore Puget Sound's jade underbelly
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: I grew up on the coast of Puget Sound, galloping along drift logs and squelching across mud flats. Yet the inland ocean remained a cipher: a reflecting pond for the snow-shadowed mountains. Now I've plunged through the looking glass.
Bigtime American Wrestling
Oxford Mail: American-style wrestling is inflaming British audiences. Amanda Castleman witnesses the sequins, snarls and obscenities as the big men "have a go."
Skimming the Surface
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The [four-person racing kayak] arrows across the lake. The glide is like that of a rope swing, except it goes on and on, and we never splash land. Caught in the midsummer night's dream of it all, I find the sport irresistible.
Discworld: Ultimate champions prepare to defend national titles
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Toddlers lurch on the grass. A 41-year-old mother and punky teen sling a Frisbee disc back and forth. The scene could be any park, anywhere in America. Except these are national champions: Cat Pittack and Shannon O'Malley, members of Seattle Riot.
Calm as a Hurricane's Eye
Winner of the Lowell Thomas bronze, 2007, adventure writing
Road and Travel: Everything in Honduras is slow, slow as I've never experienced. Heat leaches muscle fiber, skeletal strength and all ambition. Coral sand grits under my bare feet, after the espadrilles unlace. Even the lightning pulses long and lazy on the ocean's horizon.Tropical diving downshifts yet another gear, if such a thing is possible.
A
hoss, a hat and haute cuisine: C Lazy U Ranch, Colorado
MSNBC: Riding a roan mare among the sweeping mesas and aspen glades of
the Continental Divide
Greece
2004: beyond the Olympics
Thisistravel.co.uk: Many families are hesitant to plunge into the crowded,
smoggy capital at peak season. They want a taste of Greek glamour –
without eating the whole souvlaki. The solution couldn’t be more
pleasant: head to the islands. After all, the nation boasts 227 options
(and that’s just the inhabited ones).
Lair
of the Bear: A hiker's experience in the Pasayten
Northwest Travel cover story: We gave no voice to the frustration. Yes,
the man had lied about his health, hiding those telltale white pills.
And we’d made a grave navigational error. But shouting accusations
would not get us out of the wilderness.
Messing
Around in Boats
Road and Travel: A British narrowboat excursion certainly ranks among
a few of the world's favorite things, along with raindrops on roses and
whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.
Mushing
in the Rocking Mountains
Road and Travel: Tongue flapping, the spotted mongrel churned the chest-deep
snow. He lunged, twisting on the tugline: just one bell on the tangled
wind chime of baying hounds. Then – hike! – the team shot forward
over the crusted powder.
Olympic Challenges
The Daily Mail: Athens has embraced the Olympic motto – "swifter, higher, stronger" – as the city prepares for the 2004 Summer Games. It may also have added "dearer"...
Surfing the Wild Pacific Rim
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Tofino – halfway up Vancouver Island's west coast – is one of the world's premier cold-water surf sites. Squeezed into wetsuits, hoods and booties, the locals ride year-round. Even during a winter storm surge.
Wild
and wicket: extreme croquet
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Players
take a genteel picnic pastime into all-terrain overdrive, hacking across
rotten logs and mole holes.
Zen and the art of moped mayhem
MSN: All roads do lead to Rome, specifically to Piazza Venezia. Buses blast around the rotary, as tiny Fiats dart across the undefined lanes. It's a swirling, sucking whirlpool of metal. And I'm riding the wave bareback on a beat-up moped. This is Italian traffic, al fresco.
City strokes
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The lake has become a private playground. Each day, at dawn and dusk, needle-nosed shells navigate this secret world, smack in Seattle's center.
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