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Nitram Fursuiting at Montreal Pride Parade 2015
10 years ago
So last Sunday was the Montreal Pride Parade, which I decided to take part in. I joined a group of costumers called Heroes of Hope (https://www.facebook.com/Herosdelespoir) that was walking in the Parade - roughly 40 costumers, maybe 10 of which were furries. The Parade had 7-8 fursuiters, 3 of which were in fullsuit.
You can see some pictures from the event in my gallery and a compilation here: http://imgur.com/a/8Emq6
These pictures were taken during the Montreal Pride parade, on an extremely hot and humid summer day in the middle of August. We walked over 4 kilometers over the course of four hours - from 11:30am to 3:30pm. I went through the entire Parade without ever removing any part of my suit.
Every time someone in the Parade complained about the heat, I silently smiled under my fursuit mask and drank a little bit of water from my Camelbak. I never ever felt thirsty, but I drank anyways. Your body won't tell you need water - it will only tell you you have enough water. Drink until water becomes physically unappealing. Drink until you have to pee. (spoilers: you won't have to pee. Your body will sweat it out.)
I was one of the three furries insane enough to wear a fullsuit in this kind of weather, and as I walked I wondered how far I would make it before I passed out. The heat in the suit was beyond scorching, and I envied the brilliance of the two furries who showed up wearing nothing more than handpaws and a head.
I drank over 4L of fluids throughout the parade - my handler had to refill my Camelbak three times. You can imagine how gross my suit was near the end.
I did not pass out, and in fact I was still functional after the Parade (though exhausted) thanks to a combination of factors:
-My Camelbak (seriously, if you suit, get a Camelbak. You need one)
-My head fans (if you're commissioning a suit, get all the fans you possibly can)
-My handler (Who diligently refilled my water whenever I ran out and who found a bottle of cold water near the tail end of the parade)
-The parade cart (so I could sit down and take a break from walking when feeling woozy)
-The girl who fanned my head a few times with her hand fan (I would've had her do that the whole time if I could)
-The occasional life-saving gust of wind
-Strong, focused breathing technique; breathing with my mouth, exhaling air as strongly as I could aimed directly through my head's muzzle, and sucking air in as strongly as I could from the outside. You can force a good amount of hot air out of your mask just by aiming your breath, and it makes a huge difference.
I made it out of the Parade alive, although I'm pretty certain I injured myself - I felt genuinely ill/feverish for hours afterwards, and I'm still recovering two days later. I don't think I'll ever attempt anything this extreme ever again, but I'm glad I did it - if I can fursuit there, I can fursuit anywhere.
Our parade cart was fully supplied with bottles of water and VitaminWater - I drank one bottle of VitaminWater before suiting up, and had my handler fill my CamelBak with a bottle of VitaminWater after went through all the water in my Camelbak. The sugar water did wonders for my energy levels, and I felt immensely better after drinking it. I drank a few more bottles of VitaminWater after I unsuited and inhaled calories in whatever form I could find - mostly bags of chips and tuna wraps.
My heart was racing during most of the parade, especially near the end when I started feeling woozy and had to sit. I could feel and hear my pulse throbbing in my head, and while it wasn't painful it definitely was worrying. I had to focus on breathing slower in order to try and slow down my heart rate. Sitting down helped, and controlled breathing also helped.
Note that I wouldn't recommend what I did to anyone - one factor I failed to mention earlier is that I'm in really good physical condition. I've been doing physical training for years, I do high-intensity workouts five times a week on a regular basis and my body is in its prime. I'm no stranger to pushing against my physical limits, and I'm usually cognizant enough to know where the point of failure lies. Doing this was as challenging and exhausting as any workout.
My kudos to everyone who performed in the Parade in a warm outfit.
You can see some pictures from the event in my gallery and a compilation here: http://imgur.com/a/8Emq6
These pictures were taken during the Montreal Pride parade, on an extremely hot and humid summer day in the middle of August. We walked over 4 kilometers over the course of four hours - from 11:30am to 3:30pm. I went through the entire Parade without ever removing any part of my suit.
Every time someone in the Parade complained about the heat, I silently smiled under my fursuit mask and drank a little bit of water from my Camelbak. I never ever felt thirsty, but I drank anyways. Your body won't tell you need water - it will only tell you you have enough water. Drink until water becomes physically unappealing. Drink until you have to pee. (spoilers: you won't have to pee. Your body will sweat it out.)
I was one of the three furries insane enough to wear a fullsuit in this kind of weather, and as I walked I wondered how far I would make it before I passed out. The heat in the suit was beyond scorching, and I envied the brilliance of the two furries who showed up wearing nothing more than handpaws and a head.
I drank over 4L of fluids throughout the parade - my handler had to refill my Camelbak three times. You can imagine how gross my suit was near the end.
I did not pass out, and in fact I was still functional after the Parade (though exhausted) thanks to a combination of factors:
-My Camelbak (seriously, if you suit, get a Camelbak. You need one)
-My head fans (if you're commissioning a suit, get all the fans you possibly can)
-My handler (Who diligently refilled my water whenever I ran out and who found a bottle of cold water near the tail end of the parade)
-The parade cart (so I could sit down and take a break from walking when feeling woozy)
-The girl who fanned my head a few times with her hand fan (I would've had her do that the whole time if I could)
-The occasional life-saving gust of wind
-Strong, focused breathing technique; breathing with my mouth, exhaling air as strongly as I could aimed directly through my head's muzzle, and sucking air in as strongly as I could from the outside. You can force a good amount of hot air out of your mask just by aiming your breath, and it makes a huge difference.
I made it out of the Parade alive, although I'm pretty certain I injured myself - I felt genuinely ill/feverish for hours afterwards, and I'm still recovering two days later. I don't think I'll ever attempt anything this extreme ever again, but I'm glad I did it - if I can fursuit there, I can fursuit anywhere.
Our parade cart was fully supplied with bottles of water and VitaminWater - I drank one bottle of VitaminWater before suiting up, and had my handler fill my CamelBak with a bottle of VitaminWater after went through all the water in my Camelbak. The sugar water did wonders for my energy levels, and I felt immensely better after drinking it. I drank a few more bottles of VitaminWater after I unsuited and inhaled calories in whatever form I could find - mostly bags of chips and tuna wraps.
My heart was racing during most of the parade, especially near the end when I started feeling woozy and had to sit. I could feel and hear my pulse throbbing in my head, and while it wasn't painful it definitely was worrying. I had to focus on breathing slower in order to try and slow down my heart rate. Sitting down helped, and controlled breathing also helped.
Note that I wouldn't recommend what I did to anyone - one factor I failed to mention earlier is that I'm in really good physical condition. I've been doing physical training for years, I do high-intensity workouts five times a week on a regular basis and my body is in its prime. I'm no stranger to pushing against my physical limits, and I'm usually cognizant enough to know where the point of failure lies. Doing this was as challenging and exhausting as any workout.
My kudos to everyone who performed in the Parade in a warm outfit.
Something that has always helped me (which harkens back from my athletic years) is being able to gauge myself in terms of how effective I am at doing whatever it is that I'm still doing. So, for (slightly extreme) example, I know that if my paws start tingling, I'm right on the verge of needing to sit down, but if my vision starts getting fuzzy at the edges, I know I must sit down immediately or risk falling down. The more you experience, the more of these little "gauge ticks" you can order in your library of "self assessment" so that you can, at any one point in time, reasonably know how well you are doing. This will protect you from accidentally hurting yourself in the future.
Another thing I would mention, especially as you are now starting to experience the world in a very different manner, is to be careful of "already done that" syndrome. Develop confidence in yourself, learn your capabilities, but understand your limitations as well, and remember that no two situations are ever exactly the same. One parade may be in very high temperature weather, and you are fine; another parade, which seems to be in that same temperature region, may occur with much higher humidity than you expect, which changes everything, and suddenly, you find yourself overheating for no apparent reason.
But above all, you are out there doing what you love and you are doing it well! You make people's lives awesome.
Stay fuzzy, my friend :)