Part 2
David: Quick divergence here: How are you at hunting? I mean, what did you hunt, and were you a skilled hunter?
Todd: I certainly was a skilled hunter. I passed the Alberta Conservation and Hunter Education program in 1990 with a ninety-six percent, and we hunted moose, whitetail deer. I don't think we ever got a black bear license, but we hunted grouse, which is also prairie chickens, and we hunted rabbits as well. We used to set snares, actually, down cut lines. One year, we had ninety-nine rabbits-I think that was in 1998, we caught ninety-nine rabbits. I studied all aspects of hunting-the camouflage, the scents, you know, to mask your human scent so you smell like maybe a skunk or a weasel or something in the wilderness, I don't know. But yeah, I got a lot of skills from my father. He owned several different rifles and a shotgun, and he had a license for many, many years. My father hunted for years and years in Newfoundland, back in the sixties and seventies, and he could tell you a lot of stories about what he hunted and what he caught.
David: Part of the most exciting part of hunting, as far as I'm concerned, is the tracking. Rather than setting up and waiting-I'm sure there's a term for that-instead of that, I really am impressed with the tracking. Did you do the tracking, and what did you track?
Todd: We used to look at the tracks in the snow, whether they would be moose or deer or grouse or rabbits, or whatever, we'd follow them. We'd know the trails very well and we used to wear-not camouflage, we used to wear blaze orange, actually, so that other hunters would be able to spot you. Because if you stand perfectly still, no matter what you're wearing, a whitetail deer, chances are, will not be able to spot you. He'll pass right by you if he doesn't catch your scent, but if he spots any movement at all, that's when you're caught red-handed. So the best way to track is to set up a tent or maybe a chair up in the tree-I can't remember what we call those-those tree stands. If you can wait a week or so, and you've got your food and water with you, you never know what will pass below. David: So this was the progenitor of the whole dart throwing game. So how-explain more about darts. You're somebody that's played so many sports, just about every sport there is, and you've excelled at all of them. Your concentration right now is on darts. It is one area that you are focusing all your attentions on. I think you explained why darts, but tell me about your passion about darts. What is it?
Todd: Well, you know, it is one of the few games that I can excel at and actually have a chance at becoming a professional at. I don't know, I've just got the hand-eye coordination. You know, I practice every day for one to three hours a day, I defeat ninety-five percent of the competition I encounter, on average, I would guess. I don't know, that's about it. I own five dartboards, I have twelve sets of different darts, all different weights. Some are tungsten, some are titanium. It's kind of-it's difficult for me to describe the true fascination I have. I guess it's just the hitting of the target, the infatuation with hitting the bulls-eye. I guess that's pretty much it. Like I said, it was on my dad's side of the family, and I started playing when I was six years old, and I was finishing games at ten years old, you know, and everybody else was thirty, forty, fifty. I was a young legend, so that's pretty much where it goes. I'm not going to quit, my goal is to become a professional dart player in this world, and I think I'll achieve that. David: Do you see yourself actually improving with every-I shouldn't say every practice game, every game-but over the course of, say, a week, two weeks a month? Do you see honest improvement in your game?
Todd: I always am improving in my game, because I play every single day, like I said, one to three hours per day. I take it extremely seriously, and I don't strive for perfection-I strive for the epitome of excellence, and that's my motto. David: I like that motto.
