My name is Kate Theisen and I’m a lot like most ten-year olds. I love to swim, ride my bike and read. I collect things, like stuffed animals and stamps. My favorite food is pizza and I can’t wait to get my braces off this summer. I was born in the mountains in Vail, Colorado and started sailing when I was just a baby. Most people don’t know that you can sail in the mountains. When my sister Kenna and I were three years old, my parents bought a 41-foot sailboat that we named Out of Bounds and we moved to Wisconsin to live on it.

Since then we’ve sailed through the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, down the Hudson River to New York City and out to the Atlantic Ocean. We spent a couple of years living and sailing in North Carolina and Florida. Next fall we will be sailing to the Bahamas.

I love sailing because it gives me the chance to travel and explore new things. I’ve got to snorkel over shipwrecks, and swim in fjords. Sometimes when we’re sailing, dolphins swim and leap in our bow wake. Once we sailed right through a pod of humpback whales. It was amazing to see and listen to these huge creatures. We’ve had huge loggerhead turtles swim past our boat and watched a school of manta rays belly flopping all around us. I’ve helped take our boat through over 100 locks and I’ve already sailed more than 8,000 miles.

My sister and I have our own dinghy named Adelia’s Song. A dinghy is a small boat that we tow behind our big boat. When we anchor, we use the dinghy to row or sail to shore. I love to take the dinghy out just for fun too. My cats usually come along in the dinghy. They love to explore with me. When I get together with other cruising friends, we have sail races with our dinghies.

When you live on a boat, rowing around in the dinghy is a great way to meet friends when you come to a new anchorage. Most of the anchorages we’ve been to are in little coves of islands where no one lives. We all go hiking, even the cats.

Sometimes we fish or crab or dive for lobsters and we almost always go swimming or snorkeling. One of the most awesome places we’ve ever anchored is under the Statue of Liberty. The glow of Miss Liberty’s torch was like a nightlight.

Of course it’s not all fun and games living on a boat. I have chores around the “house,” I help sail the boat and I attend homeschool. Having my mom and dad for teachers is fun. My mom teaches me reading and writing. I write a lot of letters and postcards to my cousins, friends and pen-pals. My dad teaches me math. It’s lots of fun because in math class I get to help navigate the boat. You need to use lots of math to figure out things like where you are and how to get where you want to go.

My favorite thing to study about is dolphins. I think they’re really intelligent animals. But best of all I love all the field trips we get to take.

People sometimes ask what I don’t like about living on a boat. That’s easy. Since the boat moves around a lot when we sail, I have to keep my room picked up so all my stuff doesn’t go flying around. I definitely don’t like cleaning my room. My mom says that proves that life on a boat isn’t so different from life ashore after all.

If you take the kids take your time. The child and you will have more fun if you pay attention to what they are doing and catching. Kids have a short attention span if they have to sit or stand quietly for hours. You are better off leaving your pole at home.

Rushing into the stream where others are trying to fish will only create bad feelings. If you see somebody fly-fishing go a ways down river so you give him or her the room they need to cast.

Most people who fly fish will start a ways from where they actually expect to catch a fish and work towards it. If you go barreling through that spot chances are you will spook the fish. The fellow trying to fish it properly might just be upset to.

Keep the noise levels down. Yelling out to others can spook fish in a hurry. Don’t walk up to someone who is fishing and start talking away. Wait until they come out of the water. If you go wading up to him you might scare his fish. There is also the possibility of wearing a fly or lure when they are casting. Watch your back and try to keep track of other people who are fishing around you. Don’t crowd other fishermen. Give them a bit of space. A bit of elbowroom while casting is nice especially if the other person is new.

Please do not throw your trash on the ground. Nothing spoils a fishing trip to a favourite stream like garbage floating in it. Really, it only takes a second to put that used fishing line, lure wrapper or pop can in your backpack or pocket. Please help protect our friends in the wild. Keep the lakes and steams free of garbage.

Yelling at the top of your lungs “FISH ON!” might cut it on a boating excursion but not on the riverbank. Just try saying it loud enough that the other guys can pull their lines out so they don’t get tangled up with you.

Obey the laws of your state or province. It’s not fare to those of us who follow the law to suffer because of the action of those who do not.

Some people might be tempted to use bait where they aren’t suppose to or keep a few more than the limit but the law was made for a reason. Do not ever transport baitfish from one lake to another it could contaminate a pure water supply. Just fish for the species that are in season and never ever for endangered fish. Catch and release is really the way to go. Teaching our children that will also guarantee the future has a good supply too.

Colorado is one of these states. So is Massachusetts, the state in which I lived before moving here. No wonder I still find it amazing to see so many overweight, inactive individuals when I go to Kansas – more than 15 percent of the population there has been obese since at least 2005, according to statistics from the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). Not that this is unusual. CDCP statistics also indicate that 58% of all adult Americans are overweight, and of those, 20% are obese.

In fact, a number of scary statistics are available simply by logging on and visiting the CDCP Web site. Did you know that 300,000 people die each year from nutrition and inactivity-related causes? Or that the economic costs of obesity add up to nearly $100 billion annually? What about the rapid increase of obesity among young people, which has leapt more than seven percent in the past 30 years?

Now you’re probably wondering what, if anything, this whole obesity problem has to do with outdoor adventure sports. But I’d venture to say that one potential key solution to this problem, at least for some individuals, lies within this realm.

In a culture that seems to be moving more and more rapidly away from community and into isolation – what with computers and home offices – people often lack the support networks needed to embark on exercise programs. Our society also seems enamored with living vicariously, not only through movies, video games and online romances, but also in the very forms of exercise to be found at gyms, from stair climbers to treadmills. We’ve taken the reality out of life’s activities and instead, we turn to machines and turn our minds off. This is becoming even more apparent with the influx of exercise machines that provide convenient distractions – from television to Internet connections – distractions that serve to separate people from the other gym-bound individuals who are exercising around us as well as from their own bodies.

Adventure sports can work to counter these negative and isolating influences of modern culture while fostering a passion and an appreciation for the value of preserving our natural environment. These types of activities serve to reconnect people – both adults and children – to the enjoyment of physical activity with others in the outdoor environment.

From rock climbing to kayaking, mountain biking to trail running, such activities depend on partnership and trust, as all of these endeavors are not wisely undertaken alone. They require an interaction with the external environment, a responsiveness to one’s surroundings and an awareness of one’s own body in space. Just try to check your e-mail or think about your next big presentation at work while you’re ascending a climbing wall or paddling a class IV rapid – fat chance, right? An added bonus to involvement in adventure sports is a greater appreciation of the value of preserving our natural environment – a critical value to instill in today’s information-glutted youth.

I think many obese and/or inactive people view all forms of physical activity with dread, not realizing how fulfilling and pleasurable they can be, how they can draw people out into a community, how they can foster a sense of mind-body unity and erase everyday cares, if only for a while. So much of what’s proffered out there as exercise options comes off as boring and unmotivating. But I believe the real answer to finding an activity program and sticking to it lies in discovering a passion for an activity and a group of friends who make that activity even more enjoyable. Finding an adventure sport that takes you out of your realm and introduces you to the joys of mind/body integration can be a life-changing discovery.

Of course, there are plenty of barriers to getting more Americans involved in such sports, from prohibitive costs, lack of facilities, lack of incentive and disbelief in personal abilities, to name a few. Generally speaking, it’s also far easier to change the habits of children and to get them involved than it is to change adults – kids, on the whole, are less self-conscious and more willing to try new activities. This is why programs for kids – such as City Cliffs, Climbing for Life, and Girlz in the Wood – are so important. Such programs encourage kids – many of whom would otherwise not have the resources to participate in such sports – to take part in outdoor activities with a community orientation.

What else can be done? Getting friends, co-workers and family members to try out your favorite outdoor adventure sport and imbuing them with some of your passion is one way to spread the joy, enhanced health, and community that can be discovered through such pursuits. Donating money to organizations that support the pursuit of such activities is another. I know that here in Boulder, nearly everyone seems to be involved in some sort of outdoor athletic pursuit, but if you live in a place where that’s not the case (or you visit such a place regularly), you can work to make people aware of the natural resources in their surrounding environment.

In Kansas, for example, I realize that the opportunities for outdoor rock climbing are few and far between. However, some indoor facilities do exist. Nearer to my parents’ place (in Lawrence) however, several fun and challenging mountain biking trails exist – making for a great opportunity to both enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise. Making people aware of such opportunities and helping them make being active a part of their daily routines is one of the greatest challenges currently faced by our nation.

We can tackle the problem of obesity, but it will take a monumental effort and the actions of many individuals. Despite all of the information out there and the constant attention to new nutrition guidelines and exercise recommendations given by the government, Americans are just getting fatter and fatter. But with some grassroots activities, some inspiration from people who truly love and embrace outdoor adventure sports, perhaps a change can be made from the bottom up as individuals share their passions with other individuals. Imagine what a difference it would make if each of us could help just one other individual become a committed outdoor enthusiast this year!