A vote for Sean Seville of St. Albert in Woods Canada search for Canada’s Greatest Explorer is a vote to…
“Set you free,” replied Seville, one of 25 outdoor enthusiasts selected by Woods Canada for its online voting contest to determine 12 adventurists to compete in a series of outdoor challenges.
“I believe you live in the present and this race is completely aligned with doing that,” explained Seville, an accomplished runner, whether it’s road races, trails or ultra adventure racing, who is also a rock climber, snowboarder, skydiver, fly fisherman and kayaker.
“All these activities make you think on the spot and to me that’s living life to the fullest and you’re getting the most out of it and for myself, my spirit comes to life when I’m doing these activities and I haven’t really met anybody that doesn’t feel the same if they’ve given it a shot.”
Last year Woods Canada unveiled its Ultimate Dream Job competition, as four Canadians earned the opportunity to spend five months trekking across the Trans Canada Trail for an action-paced adventure of hiking, climbing, paddling and portaging.
More than 3,000 application videos were submitted.
When this year’s contest was announced it was a “no brainer” for Seville to apply.
“It actually popped up on my Instragram feed, the Woods Explorer Dream Job, where they pretty much pay you to enter a competition where you’re doing adventures outside all around Canada for a month and a half,” said the civil engineer by trade. “With the economy down-turning I found myself unemployed at the moment and during my job search I stumbled upon this job as well. It’s up my alley.
“I’m already doing it so it wasn’t something that I fabricated. My experiences are genuine. I don’t have the credentials as a tour guide or any kind of outdoor certificates but it’s in my nature to find and to search out that journey and to find that adventure.”
Applicants were accepted from April 1 to 22, followed by an interview process to confirm the online participants.
“It went through a video review. You submit a video to a panel, Woods Canada,” Seville said. “They met me, kind of got to know my character and then published my 60 second clip on their website, which I only had about an hour to update at the last minute. You need to have copyrights for your song so I had to take out the song I had and put in actually one of my own songs that I had written, which was kind of cool, but it was a last minute thing.
“It’s super exciting. I didn't expect to even be selected or even get an interview but I thought I might as well try.”
Visit www.woods.ca to vote for Seville. Voting closes May 11.
“Every day you can vote so I need my friends and family and my supporters to vote every day if they can,” said the Paul Kane High School alumnus. “I’m starved for it. I’m not as connected as some of those other guys on there. I might not be the most popular but I’m definitely an adventurist.
“A lot of these videos are choreographed but mine’s not. My clips are genuine. I didn’t compile these specifically for Woods Canada. They wanted a 60 second video of the outdoors. I have that. I didn’t choreograph something specific to them. I wanted to take part in this. My outdoor experiences were already collaborated.”
The 12 individuals will compete in the brand-new Canada’s Greatest Explorer contest, pitting themselves against the elements and each other in a series of challenges to prove their strength and passion for the Canadian wilderness. The winner receives $25,000.
Each explorer will be equipped with the most innovative and latest Woods outdoor gear to help them navigate through each challenge. It will also be taped as a mini-series for fans to follow along throughout the journey.
“They will not release any details about it,” Seville said of the outdoor competitions. “It’s not Survivorman, that’s what they’re telling. It’s a little bit more tame than that but I’m presuming it’s entailing some paddling down a river, some trail running, some climbing and potentially some craftsmanship in the outdoors.
“I think it will be a bit of an adventure race.”
One of Seville’s favourite adventures was climbing the Ancient Arches with his fiancĂ©e, Jen McCormack.
“It’s a tower that stands a few hundred feet straight up in the Red Rock valley in Utah. It’s completely out of body when you get to the top because you almost lose your balance. The peak is only about 15 inches around and you stand right on the very top a few hundred feet straight in the air. It’s different than our Rockies because there are no bearings around you at that point so that was probably one of the most memorable climbs and experiences I’ve ever had,” said Seville, who recently went rock climbing with McCormack at Railay Beach in Thailand.
Seville, 32, is also an accomplished runner and notable results include back-to-back Leading Edge RunWild half-marathon championships in 2014 and 2015 – his time of one hour, 15 minutes and 39 seconds last year is a course record – and was the 2013 runner-up.
Seville was also the second-place finisher in the St. Albert Fall Challenge half-marathon in 2013 and 2014 and last year’s 10-kilometre winner.
Seville has also run different legs of the Death Race and Sinister Sevens and his first marathon was the 2014 United States trail national championships in Moab, Utah and placed 28th at 3:55:44.
Last year at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront half-marathon, Seville finished 12th overall at 1:12:52 as the 11th fastest male for fourth spot in the male 30 to 34 age division.
Sunday he acted as coach and cheerleader for McCormack at the BMO Vancouver Marathon.
Seville is an easy runner to spot rocking his trademark bandana, symbolizing the Zen spirit that defines his personality and outlook on life.
“I’m into it, especially after my grandfather (Frank Seville) passed away about a week and a half ago,” he said. “Timing is the ultimate, most important currency in life. I’m finding time to relax, slow down and speed up at the same time and the outdoors definitely allow you to do that but I’m taking time to really, I guess, find the most enjoyment with being outside, looking for these experiences and really allowing myself to remember my grandfather. He was an explorer as well, so I find I’m just doing a lot of thinking about that. He grew up in Jasper and hiking all these mountains and I think it’s perfectly aligned with this Canada’s Greatest Explorer competition as well.”
