Adventure is Out There

“I am an adventurer,” says Geza. “I like to do movies, I like photography, I like adventure, I travel a lot, but it’s hard to just explain all of this to someone on the street. It’s easier to tell someone that I am a dentist but if I say I am an adventurer, it tends to need further explanation, especially since so many follow-up questions arise.”  

 

Geza kind of fell into giving keynote speeches. After doing a few of his expeditions on his kiteboard, he thought it would be interesting to participate in competitions about people describing their adventures. Although he never won any of these competitions, he always believed it was nice to get invited to festivals since they receive so many applications. It’s also what inspired him to do various other expeditions with his brother since he got inspired by the stories and speeches from other keynote speakers.

 

“The main theme of my speeches is always about adventure, but I like to talk about why I do them. People always come up to me and ask, ‘Why would you do this?’ I guess it’s like if I was in a tent and for three days it’s just raining non-stop, a swamp would start to form outside. You think you don’t want to even go to the bathroom because then you will get soaked but even your tent starts to have raindrops in it. You’re cold and hungry and wondering why you’re here in the first place. But in the end, I believe I put myself in these types of situations for three reasons (and hopefully you will too)": 

 

 

For instance, the documentary I made in Greenland came from me just sitting on a bus and finding a random article inside a magazine that was left behind. I just had a one-second idea that popped into my head and it became reality. It’s super nice to see how this idea developed into a project and then you actually go on that trip and can even create a movie about it. We showed this movie to an open-air cinema in Zurich to an audience of about 2,000 people and it was an amazing feeling and maybe it even inspired someone into getting a similar idea. To go from a one-second idea to such a final project is just astounding and you learn a lot in the end. 

 

 

If I am being honest, I would say that 70% of the time on my kiteboard expeditions were lousy. You don’t know if you’re going to make it, sponsors are expecting you to perform, you’re cold, you’re hungry, you’re stressed and there is just a lot of expectations. Thank God our brains and bodies are constructed in such a way to forget about these moments and feelings. Let’s say for instance that you’re on a ski day riding a ski lift and just freezing on your way up. But once you get on the piste, you have a beautiful ride down. The only thing you will remember when you look back on it is the beautiful ride down and not how cold you were on the ski lift. So, it’s really nice to look back on all of the crazy and cool things that you have done and remember the good times. I also appreciate that I can share this experience with my brother, my family, my friends and even outsiders. Like with my documentaries, people can see what I experienced and hopefully, that motivates and inspires them to do something outside of their own comfort zone.  

 

 

I am convinced that every human is born as an adventurer. Just today, I saw a mom with two kids and as she was struggling to get one in its stroller, the other one was walking away, exploring its surroundings. Humans are very experimental, we like to look around and explore and to see where our limits can go. Society tries to stop and limit us but that’s usually because it is simply trying to protect us from going to places that are not so easily controllable; where you can’t control certain elements. However, I believe you should always test your limits. Like when you don’t know where you are, you learn how to deal with people and learn a lot about yourself and how far you can go. During my expeditions, I self-reflect a lot and discover new sides to myself. I don’t have to go on extreme trips, I could just as easily go on a surfing trip in Hawaii and relax. But I believe my expeditions create self-induced problems which I then have to solve. There have been times when I was super stressed and didn’t eat or sleep because of it. I would worry about all the people and money involved and not wanting to disappoint them, but then I realized, if it doesn’t happen as I hope for, it’s not like someone will cut off my arms or legs or take my family away. It just doesn’t happen, simple. I think it’s important to get out of your comfort zone, test your limits and see how you manage them. You end up learning a lot about yourself. That’s why I always tell people to go out on an adventure.  

 

During my time at Institut Montana, I believe I was always a creative person and involved in a lot of things. I ran the jazz bar, disco and cinema and it didn’t come easy. There were always people that would be against it, but I would always fight for having it. I would see possibilities and take them, and I don’t know if I found this spirit at the school but it’s definitely something that has continued into my adult life.  

 

All in all, if you want to kitesurf, explore or even just paint, then do it. Wake up in the morning, go out and buy paint and a canvas and just do it. If it doesn’t work out, at least you can cross it off your list and say it didn’t work out. But this is important: You have to wake up in the morning and just do what you want. There’s been more than one time where I stood up and fell, stood up and fell again. Even though my brother and I didn’t successfully complete crossing the Bering Strait, for instance, it was an amazing experience and I never learned so much about people, projects or myself like I did on this trip.

So, what’s your next adventure?”