This May, a soon-to-be-demolished pool in East London, England was turned into a world-class BMX bike park in a matter of just six days of construction. The entire project was spearheaded by Nike, who chose to launch the park, aptly named ‘The Pool‘, by inviting 40 world-class riders for a BMX competition event. What’s more, ‘The Pool’ has since been open to the public. The first open session is over–but from May 28th through June 5th, as well as June 11th and 12th, visitors can experience the park for free.

[Via: Nike 6.0 on Vimeo]

Outen will begin on April Fool’s Day from Tower Bridge, London, on the Thames in her kayak, and plans to reach France by the 7th of April. Once on dry land, she’ll cycle through France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and then into Russia. She’ll paddle and cycle her way to Japan and then row 5,000 miles across the North Pacific in her tiny boat. Once she reaches Vancouver, B.C., she’ll cycle across North America to New York, then row across the North Atlantic back to London.

Outen, who is known world-wide as one of the most bad-ass female adventurers, is both excited and nervous for her trip, which starts in less then a month. “It’s stomach churning stuff and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared: I am full of adrenaline right now – 90% excitement, 10% nerves,” She says. ”The roads are the scary bits – there’s a real possibility of being knocked from the bike at any time, or squashed by a truck, so I need to stay focused.  The Ocean’s are something else entirely.  I’m still scared of jumping in the Ocean!  On my Indian Ocean row there were times when I felt physically awful, I was hallucinating and more tired than I’ve ever been in my life. Capsizing within sight of Mauritius, with the boat rolling and rolling and me wondering if I’d die was a low point last time, but I can’t wait to get out on the sea again!”

Sarah Outen is an iWend ambassador and the author of Wend’s first-ever Trailhead story, featured in last year’s Spring/Summer issue. If you’re a subscriber to the free digital edition of Wend, click here to sign in and read it. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up for the digital edition here to enjoy the instant, green, guiltless pleasure of on-screen Wend and to read Outen’s inspirational feature.

When seven year old Charlie Simpson saw the grim  images of post-earthquake Haiti on television he reacted as most children his age would: he broke down and cried. But instead of begging his mother to change the station, the young bicycling aficionado asked how he could help. To date the West London youth’s philanthropic push–a five-mile sponsored bicycle ride around a local park–has raised $204,459.186 for UNICEF and inspired people throughout the world to lend a hand with disaster relief in Haiti.

Charlie set out to raise £500 (around $800) for the Unicef Haiti Appeal by riding his bicycle 7 laps–about 5 miles–around a local park, asking for sponsors along the way. But some savvy adult (presumably his mother or father) set the young philanthropist up with an account at a website where donations can be collected online and once word about Charlie’s mission hit the internet, teary-eyed grown ups all over the world started opening up their pocketbooks.

From Charlie Simpson’s donation site:

“My name is Charlie Simpson. I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives. I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.”

Follow me on Twitter @Kyle_Cassidy

Via: Getty Images

In all the hub and bub about the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver it’s easy to forget that thousands of gold medal hopefuls across the world are packed away in warm gyms, sculpting their bodies for the 2012 summer Olympics in London. Being an Olympian means being the best. And being the best requires sacrifice, which is why 27-year-old Australian track star Jana Rawlinson had her breast implants removed in order to increase her performance on the track.

“Yep, I’m back to being flat as a pancake,” Rawlinson told Woman’s Day magazine.

Cosmetic surgery is expensive. Rawlinson admitted to having spent over $13,000 over the past 14 months to have her breasts enhanced, only to realize that, for her, bigger wasn’t better.

But it was patriotism that finally convinced Rawlinson to go back under the knife:

“Every time I raced, I panicked about whether I was letting my country down, all for my own vanity,” she said.

Rawlinson, who told Women’s Day she “loved having bigger boobs”, doesn’t see her decision as final. With today’s medical technology she can always get the reversal reversed.

“I can always get my breasts enhanced again when I finish my career. I know there are no medals for being beautiful.”

[Via: au.sports.yahoo.com]

Follow me on Twitter: @Kyle_Cassidy

If you’re craving some Christmas pudding at High Timber in central London, be prepared to give up your right to sue. The traditional Christmas dessert is generally made out of a steamed or boiled mix of fruits and spices, as well as silver coins and charms. Finding a coin in your dish is supposed to bring you good luck, but as the owner, Neleen Strauss, was told by her lawyers, it could also bring in lawsuits from diners with newly chipped teeth.

[Via: San Francisco Chronicle]

Follow me on Twitter @sarahesterman

Anyone walking along the River Thames in London is in for a surprise: there’s a polar bear floating on an ice berg. Alright, it’s only a sculpture, but the animal is very real looking, and created to symbolize a very real problem.

15 artists spent two months constructing the sculpture to remind onlookers of the severity of global warming. Check out more photos of the installation here.

I’m sorry for this post’s general irrelevance to everything we do at Wend, but…I mean…I couldn’t resist – could you?

The gorillas in London’s Chessington Zoo were in a funk after being served a Christmas treat of brussell sprouts last week. Zoo-keepers were forced to issue an apology to visitors after the stench caused by the gorilla farts caused horror amongst the men and women with reports of nausea and small children crying.

According to Michael Riozzi, gorilla keeper at the Chessington Zoo,

Sprouts can cause bouts of flatulence in animals and humans. But I don’t think any of us were prepared for a smell that strong.

Coincidentally, this is also why we don’t allow brussells sprouts in the Wend office anymore.

[Via: metro.co.uk]

Oh, what will those cheeky bastards think of next? Check out this video of what the British can do with a little bit of recycled garbage (including motorcycle parts, two Citreon 2CV engines, coffee filters and bits of broken cars) and a lot of freaky ingenuity.

[Via: Uk.Gizmodo.com]

When I think of car rallies, two big names come to mind: the Mongol Rally and the Paris-Dakar Rally. Although incredibly adventurous, they don’t really evoke images of eco-friendliness. But a group of British eco-enthusiasts have recently finished up their own environmentally conscious rally — Grease to Greece –just to show that a crazy road-trip can be done without fossil fuels. How did they do it? They drove all the way from London to Athens on nothing but waste vegetable oil.

The team made their way all across Europe using grease thrown away by restaurants and cafes along the way. And apparently it wasn’t as difficult as it might sound. “It’s true we spent a lot of time fat-finding, knocking on the doors of restaurants begging for their waste, but it worked. And the beauty, of course, is that when such supplies are collected straight from a restaurant and used as fuel they have a zero-carbon footprint,” said Andy Pag, an organizer of the rally.

Pag isn’t a newcomer to carbon neutral adventures. In 2007 he drove from London to Timbuktu in a truck powered by diesel made from cocoa butter. Sounds like he can feel good about eating french fries and chocolate; at least he’s making use of the leftovers.

It’s ads like these that make you appreciate the European style of life…

[Via The Goat]