On Saturday, two US Navy Seals flew into Montreal to go for a paddle. Donnie came up last year to run the Rouge with me and I was impressed – not only a super cool guy, but also a whole lot of fun, and very interesting. In fact he broke a rib on the Rouge and was not interested in stopping. We finished the run, and the next day he was out with me again at Habitat. While he was here he told me about his friend Dan who had just been injured in Afghanistan. This time the friend came with; Dan!

Dan is an amazing guy, full of life, and apparently unfazed by anything. Always laughing and messing about, he’s really fun to hang out with. And he’s missing both legs and it doesn’t for a minute stop him. Gung ho – Dan was all about going paddling, after a long hard night in town during Jazz festival, and we ran the St Laurance from the town of Lachine down to the class 3 Lachine rapids, which he ran no problem at all.

Both of them are moving to San Diego in a few weeks so I’ll get to hang out with them there.