Thursday, October 17th 2024

Last week, Hurricane Milton ripped through Florida with a force rarely seen in recent years. Rising waters caused massive property damage and killed many people in the process. Lives have been shattered and all due to this incredible Force of Nature. Some would say that this was inevitable and that Climate Change will only continue to make things worse while others will say that this is a natural phenomenon and a storm like this was bound to happen at one point or another. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, this was a tragedy which we need to consider as in my opinion, it will only get worse in the future.

So how does one of the worst hurricane’s in history relate to sports? I think we can already see the correlation with travel. Well, I can tell you right now, that the more often than not, tropical storms and adverse weather conditions have disrupted my travel and in turn, has made me wary of many things when it comes to out-of-town tournaments. The earliest and most frequent recollections I’ve had is going through the many snow storms that we see during wrestling season, first as an athlete and then as a coach. I remember one time, heading to a tournament in the United States, away from a huge storm in Montreal, thinking that we were in the clear as we headed farther south. This however turned out to be a false hope.

Freezing rain is deceptive in its destruction

As we headed further south, the snow storm turned into freezing rain. My father, who was driving at the time, picked up a skid. The van proceeded to spin out, going into a full 360 turn. By some miracle, we ended up facing what would have been oncoming traffic, on the two lane highway, with no damage to the car, no oncoming traffic and free from going off into the ditches that were on the sides of the road. While we were all pretty shaken up, we continued on to the tournament, being held in Vermont and competed the following day. To my younger mind, I guess I didn’t fathom how close we came to a serious accident. It’s only now, as I’ve had some of my own experiences as the driver of the vehicle that I start to understand how truly lucky we were.

Unfortunately, these mishaps with the van are not that rare. As a coach, I remember driving through some pretty harrowing blizzard conditions on my way to, or from New Brunswick, debating if and where I could stop for the night and wait it out. I remember the snow being so thick, that I couldn’t even see the road. That same snow, was sometimes coming down so hard, that my headlights would be reflecting off the sheet of snow, nearly blinding me in the process.

Unsalted, snowy, icy roads will definitely increase the risk factor

I can also remember being on the wrong end of some tropical storms by either being in its direct path, or getting the residuals. I remember getting ready to leave for the Copa Sparta tournament in Puerto Rico one year where this had happened. Personal days had been placed, subs had been booked and athletes had been prepped. The only thing left was to get on the plane. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Storms brought on my recent hurricane activity, had grounded our flight before we even left Montreal. My athletes, all of whom were ready to go, were denied the opportunity to compete as we couldn’t find anyway to make it down.

Another incident where this happened occurred while coming back from the National Championships in Edmonton one year. Even away from hurricane season, and being so far north, we weren’t safe either. I remember the turbulence that hit the plane just prior to landing and seeing the flight attendants getting the beverage cart back into the galley as fast as they could. While this is nothing new, the speed at which they did this, coupled with how quickly they proceeded to strap themselves in was alarming. This was just a precursor of things to come.

As the plane was landing into Toronto, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a rougher landing in my life. I distinctly remember the plane going back and forth and thinking, this may not end well. It was at that point, a sudden gust of wind hit the plane so hard and I remember the plane tilting hard sidewise. I remember seeing from my window, how close we were to the runway as we were coming down. I remember thinking that crashing was a distinct possibility. At the last moment, the pilot regained control and the planed landed with a hard thud. I don’t mind saying that this ranks as one of my more terrifying moments in my life.

This however was not the end of it as due to the high winds from the storm, many flights going to Montreal with smaller planes had to be cancelled for safety reasons. I remember the mad scramble as people tried to board the last planes leaving for Montreal. The two athletes that were with me were younger girls and I had to make the decision. While not children, I couldn’t let them be stuck at Pearson on their own. Through some arrangements, two seats opened up and without, hesitation, I put them on the plane to Montreal. I however was stuck at the airport, waiting for the next available flight out. As time passed, it became clear that there were none and I would be forced to stay the night. The story does have a happy ending, as Westjet, the company that had to cancel some of those flights, gave me two taxi vouchers, a hotel voucher (and a very nice one at that) along with two meal vouchers as my next flight would leave in the early afternoon the following day. To spend a night in a bed and get a meal should not be a privilege, and a shoutout goes out Westjet for coming through with those vouchers. The same can’t be said for Delta Airlines.

The skies were clear in Old San Juan this year while Milton raged on

The final incident I wanted to talk about was the delay I experienced when I was returning from the Cadet Pan Am Championships that were held in Santo Domingo earlier this year. Our return flight was scheduled to land at JFK, with a short layover in New York, before we boarded a short flight back to Montreal. It was at that time, the Atlantic Hurricane season was beginning and tropical storms were quite frequent. As we touched down, we rushed to where our gate was supposed to be, only to see that the flight was cancelled. We made our way to the Delta Help Desk, only to find out that the flight would not be able to leave due to the adverse conditions for another two days. They also informed me that they owed me no compensation due to it being an act of nature. To say that I was upset was an understatement as being stuck in one of the most expensive cities isn’t my idea of fun when it wasn’t planned out. It’s in instances like this, you make the best out of a bad situation.

 

Being stranded in New York and with nothing left to do, we went to the zoo

Many coaches and athletes have these same experiences and I would be remiss in saying that every time we take athletes out to a competition, the travel may not go so well. However, life always has a certain amount of uncertainty and to constantly worry about it doesn’t serve a practical purpose unless it’s to make the necessary precautions in order to mitigate the risks. With that being said, I’ll continue to take out athletes for travel to competition in as many places that I can, regardless of the prospect of the travelling not going well.