congrats! hopefully will buy the book, great work.

Amazing read, congrats on your success. Crazy how things can be set in motion just from starting one 2+2 thread.

wow i slept on this thread hard the last few months, pay day tomorrow, will be ordering.

good job adsman and congrats!

Okay, so the sequel to the first book is going well. I hope to have it out by June. It's based on a single rafting season in Italy.

Working title at this point is, 'Italian Tan Lines'.

Thoughts? Likey? No likey?

Forgot to put in the second option: 'Prosecco Rafting'.

Just finished the book, fantastic read, what an accomplishment. I've been recommending it to everyone I know and posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Can't wait for the sequel!

As for the titles, I don't think either has the same appeal as "Pushing Rubber Downhill", not sure if you're interested in suggestions but in the spirit of the interactiveness of his thread I'm just going to throw out a few that popped in my head, don't think any are that good, but it could get the creative juices flowing from you and/or others.

Pushing Rubber through Italy
Pushing Rubber through the Boot
White Water Italian Style
White Water and Meatballs
White Water and Pasta

Yeash those are bad, but whatever, never hurts to throw ideas out, and I can't wait to read it regardless of the title.

50 shades of Italian rubber ldo.

Awesome, don't forget to write up an amazon review. They all count in a big way.

On the title, we came up with a good one last night: 'The Prosecco Paddlers.'

Amazon review added, awesome, that title sounds like a winner!

Got me thinking about wine... "We will row no raft, before we're quaffed."

Still waiting for the audiobook

Great quote; might use that.

Hoping to have the audio book out in a couple of weeks. It's been an interesting experience getting it done.

Adsman,
What's the connection between Orlando and fat Italian women?

I've got a buddy who lives there who made the comment to me. Looking back at the post, I probably should have alluded to that.

Finally got the audiobook out. It's available at Audible and Amazon, should be on itunes soon but they're a bit slow off the mark.

Link to my blog where you can sample the first chapter:

https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/20...been-released/

Stumbled upon this thread through posts in De Captain his sailing story.

Really enjoyed the thread, just ordered the book and I'm sure it'll be an entertaining read!

23 years old here, lived abroad for a bit over a year in China and New Zealand, currently in a stable situation, about to graduate and have many opportunities to join the working class, and all I can think of is how do I engineer this career to ensure that I'm going to see all that I want to see...

Thank you for all the information and some life lessons Adsman, not sure if you know Alan Watts but he's a great thinker and I appreciate many of his talks on all sorts of subjects on YouTube, one thing I just heard him say struck me:

"A completely predictable future is already the past, you've had it, and that's not what you wanted."

Trying to convince friends to do something cool in a few years (hike the Appalachian or at least part of it was one of my suggestions) are welcomed by a cool "I'd rather buy a nice car", I guess they're heading down the road of divorce at 30-40 like you said about your friends from the good ol' days.

Trying to convince friends to do something cool in a few years

Don't bother - you'll spend the whole trip trying to make sure they have a good time, which they probably won't. Just do it yourself and you'll more than likely meet people who will become friends along the way.

Don't know much about Alan Watts, I'll check it out, thanks. Hope you enjoy the book.

Yeah I figured that road wouldn't fly before I tried going down it, but there's some urgency to "save" them, I tried describing the feeling of seeing a sunrise while in the middle of the mountains, standing there with a fresh cup of coffee as the entire world around you warms up and brightens up with new energy, tried explaining them the nights I've spent stargazing where you could see more stars than I had ever seen in my life in total.

I did my trip in New Zealand with a very good friend of mine from home though, we were on our summer holiday when I announced I'd be leaving the country in two months and gone for a year it didn't take him more than a second to reply I'm coming to visit!

I thought that was just something he said until I'd been in NZ for about two months and he rang me up asking me when he had to fly in, we had two awesome months traveling and hiking through amazing mountain ranges, jungles and tropics.

He's pretty much wifed up now and will have at least one child by the time I'm ready to head out again, so he's not an option. As I said earlier I have this urgency to "save" some of my friends, get them to appreciate these things at least once in their life and realise there's more to it than the standard working weeks, 4 weeks holiday a year which you spend on some beach while trying to "really become relaxed" (that might be a weird translation from Dutch, but they use this sentence all the time when trying to find a holiday destination).

I've got one very good friend who's luckily up for it and I'll never worry about making sure he's having a good time, he takes care of that on his own and this trip would be right after he gets his undergrad. Which is sort of a last chance for most of us to get out, that was how I pitched it, right before we turn 28/29 and start thinking about babies and stuff, let's go on an adventure and see some things which will last a lifetime. No dice, though.

Are you still in Italy right now? Current summer plans are a road trip around Europe and a detour to the alps of Italy for a rafting run might be possible.

adsman is in melbourne. he talks about it on his blog.

Adsman, just wanted to thank you for this thread and your book. I first read this thread 2.5 years ago when I stared my job after college. I'm now down to the last week at that job and heading off to central / Eastern Europe to backpack for the summer. No idea where my life is headed after, but I'm hoping to avoid the predictable / ordinary.

On a side note, I might try to do some rafting while I'm over there. Any recommendations? Is Italy the best for that over there?


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On a side note, I might try to do some rafting while I'm over there. Any recommendations? Is Italy the best for that over there?


Lots of great rafting and party towns in Europe. Innsbruk is pretty good for this. If you want to raft where I worked for 10 years then head up to Val di Sole in Italy and go to the rafting center in Dimaro. Drop my name, they'll look after you, and they speak English pretty well.

This is their site: http://www.raftingcenter.it/

Hope you have a great time. And my next book is out at the end of June, (fingers crossed), so keep an eye out for that one.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely download it while I'm over there if it's available digitally. I'll PM you if I've got more questions.

Read the book, well written and an easy read!

Giving it to a friend who will travel to Uganda in a few months for volunteer work as a physiotherapist in Kampala.

Finally spent a couple days in the hammock reading this book. What a fantastic read.

Eagerly awaiting book #2

Don't forget to post a review. They all help in a big way.

Hey everyone, so we have the final cover for the next book which is about a rafting season in Italy. It's called 'The Prosecco Paddlers' and I should have it out in about a month. Let me know what you think of the cover.

linky.