Interview with Dean Dunbar; blind adventure sports hero!

By
Barnes
 – 29 December 2010Posted in: Adventure Sports, Featured
extreme-dreams

Extreme Dreams website

Dean Dunbar is founder of The Extreme Dreams website (www.extremedreams.co.uk), launched in 2002. The website content is based around the adventures of registered blind extreme sports enthusiast and adventurer Dean (Deano) Dunbar. An inspiration (though he doesn’t like to be called this) to anyone who wants to take control of their life, Dean was the first registered blind person in the world to bungee jump from a helicopter, be thrown by the Dangerous Sports Club’s Human Catapult and to participate in the gruelling 5 day Hebridean Challenge adventure race.

I telephoned Dean on a cold winter day just before Christmas:

First of all, for those who haven’t been on your website, when did you first realise you were blind and how blind are you now?

Well, I was born with full sight and had it until I was nine years old, but at this age my sight went bad pretty much over night and I was classed as being partially sighted; I remember one day being sat at the back of the school classroom and couldn’t see the blackboard. From the age of nine to the age of 25 / 26 that’s how it stayed until it started taking a dive and I was registered blind and told by the end of that year i’d need a guide dog and should start learning braille. So far it hasn’t quite gone to the guide dog or braille, but a guide dog would probably be a useful tool. I tend to be a bit vain for this though!

What was the first adventure sport you did and what drove you to do it?

The first thing I did was a tandem skydive. To be honest, extreme sports and adventure sports had never really appealed to me. Although I was a sporty person – I played in a football team and ran in blind and visually impaired athletic teams – adventure sports were never really my thing. It was started by a charity event. We wanted to do a charity skydive and the only way I could have done it was by doing a tandem skydive because of my sight. So I did that and by the time my feet touched the ground, the adrenaline hit and I was so buzzed up I instantly went looking for the next fix! That’s what has driven me ever since then…looking for the next fix!

Have you always had an extreme side to your personality, and if so, where did this develop?

It’s purely down to the tandem skydive. I think if I didn’t do that then I probably wouldn’t have gone over to what i’m doing now… I wouldn’t have gone over to the dark-side so to speak! Until then I hadn’t really got an interest, but as soon as the parachute opened I was off my head and by the time I hit the ground I was thinking ‘I need to do this again!’ It’s how this started and now i’m constantly thinking where I can get my next fix. It’ll never be the same as the first one. I think it’s the same with drugs and alcohol, you can try ten times but it’ll never be the same. I’m still looking for the next high!

What has been your most enjoyable experience in adventure sports?

There have been things since the tandem skydive that i’ve really enjoyed and thought ‘that was much better’ but the buzz has never been quite the same as that first time. It’s very hard now to get that same feeling. I’ve had a lot of great buzzes though and a lot of scary experiences…

Well this leads me into my next question, what has been your most scary moment and have you had any moments when you thought ‘this is it’?

Ha ha, yeah definitely! On several occasions i’ve thought maybe i’ve gone too far. The first time I was out in New Zealand in 2001 doing some Hydro-Speeding (River-Boarding if you’re American or Whitewater Sledging if you’re from New Zealand) which is basically body-boarding down a river. It was in the middle of winter, there was snow all around and because it was so cold, only myself, two instructors and a trainee instructor took part. We got to a point at the river when they said to me ‘next thing we’re about to do is a small waterfall. You’re ok doing it but there’s a tree in the middle: if you go to the right of the tree you’ll survive, if you go to the left of the tree we can’t rescue you. Can you see the tree?’ I said ‘no, I can’t see the tree.’ So they decided it was up to me whether I decided to carry on. They told me ‘to the right of the tree was a simple one metre waterfall which is not a problem. To the left is a three sided waterfall which will just trap you and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get you out so you’ve got to make the decision’. So I went off for a few seconds and had to think about it. It’s the first time I thought, maybe i’ve done enough, but decided ‘what the heck, let’s just give it a go, it’s a good way to go!’

And you’re still here…

I decided to do it and kind of leapt off from the bank and started kicking my feet like mad before I had hit the water which you’re not supposed to do until you’re in, so I had a lot of toil when I hit the water but fortunately I got on the right side of the tree… although I didn’t know that until i’d got out! That was pretty hairy.
I’ve never done Hydro-Speeding, sounds like great fun…

Yeah you should give it a go, it is good fun.
And there’s some in Scotland?

It’s difficult to find companies doing it because of insurance reasons but a lot of people do it individually. My wife and I were in fact the first people to hydro-speed the whole length of the River Tay . It took us three days to do. People have done chunks of it but we did the whole thing. It was very hard going but great fun.
One of the things I got asked when planning to interview you was how can you enjoy trekking to a high mountain – such as your recent trip to Nepal – without being able to see it?

I understand what you’re saying because a lot of people will go for the view or scenery. I don’t get that. Sometimes it’s just a case of the challenge itself, of making it from A to B. But other times you pick up on lots of other things that maybe other people don’t pick up on. You pick up on the sounds and smells and that sort of thing, so it can be a totally different experience. In the recent trek to Nepal the leader got a lot of enjoyment out of watching how we responded. It’s funny because a lot of the guides were saying stuff like ‘oh check out that view’ and we had to say ‘no we can’t’ and they would say ‘oh yeah forgot about that!’ On the tough days it was just a case of getting to A to B without injuring ourselves.

I found it interesting reading about your mountain biking experiences…

[Laughter] It can be fun! (for those who haven’t read about his experiences, go to this link )

Do you feel like you have inspired other blind people to try adventure activities when they might have felt unable to?

I don’t know. I don’t like to think of myself in that way. What I’m hoping is that people will come and see the website and maybe think ‘if that bugger can do it, what’s holding me back’. I like to think that, while people might not be inspired, they can see that this sort of thing can be done. The point of the website is to make it easier for blind people to do these sports. For example, when I first started out I would contact a paragliding centre and ask if I could go on a certain day. They would say that it’s fine until I would mention that I’m registered blind. Then they would say things like ‘oh no you can’t come, we’re not insured’ or ‘no, health and safety’. 9 times out of 10, i’d try things and get told ‘no’. Eventually I got a few ‘yes’s’ which is why I created the website to say to people, ‘if you’re going to try something out, go to this company because these people are that little bit more special’. Here is a link to Dean’s list of great adventure operators.

When you’re not doing these adventure sports what do you do with yourself and what’s your next plan?

I’ve got an Ebay shop which sells outdoor and travel kit but my main objective is planning the next adventure! My next challenge is to swim the channel in 2012.

Good luck to you Dean!

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