Chasing tornados, cave exploring, getting married on a volcano, sounds a far-too-surreal hobby, let alone a livelihood. But for 44-year-old Greek Canadian George Kourounis it is exactly that.

Born to a Greek father and a Canadian mother in the French Canadian province Quebec, George has done what most would arguably run from. Nicknamed ‘the Storm Chaser’, he has been chasing extreme weather for just over 15 years.

Starting out as an audio engineer in his residential Toronto, George would spend his time off storm chasing, until his reputation exceeded him and his work started getting recognised by large broadcasters like CNN and the BBC.

Having been “that guy who was always on the scene when all hell was breaking loose” for so long, he would contact newsagencies informing them of his plans to chase storms, tornadoes or hurricanes that were approaching.

“Before I knew it I had my own television program Angry Planet and I was travelling all over the world, tracking down extreme forces of nature, from swimming with piranhas, to climbing inside active volcanoes, to wrestling anacondas.”

His interest came to fruition when he went out “on a whim”, and found a gentleman in Oklahoma, in the United States, who was in the same line of work, and the two have been organising guided tornado tours since – with interest from all around the world, including Australia and New Zealand.
In the past year alone he has ventured to Antarctica, completed a month of tornado chasing, abseiled down a volcano into a lake of lava, and expeditioned through Madagascar.

And his lifestyle has led to an overwhelming number of near-death experiences, he says.

“I’ve had lots of close calls, especially when dealing with storms and volcanoes, anything that’s so volatile. I’ve had lightning strikes so close I could feel the heat on my face, I’ve been in cars that have been pounded by hail the size of softballs and grapefruit, I’ve been caught in a tornado once where the debris was like driving through a swarm of bees and pieces of siding and roof flying around. I’ve had to dodge lava flying through the air inside craters of volcanoes and things like that.

“They say that a cat has nine lives, I’ve probably used up six or seven of mine.”

George has stood within half a kilometre of a tornado and in the direct path of cyclones (which can stretch over an 800 kilometre path), as was the case with Hurricane Katrina, which wreaked havoc on the south-east United States coastline, devastating much of New Orleans – the most powerful storm George has seen and chased.

But he is unhindered by the exposed dangers.

“Luck lives at the intersection of opportunity and preparation.

“I spend a lot of time preparing for these adventures, I do so much research, and I’ve got a lot of experience.

“I think I’ve been in seventeen or eighteen hurricanes by now, I’ve witnessed probably a hundred tornadoes, I’ve been inside numerous volcanoes all over the world, travelling to all seven continents. When you get that experience you start to recognise patterns and you start to really understand what’s dangerous and what isn’t.”

For traditionalists the idea of a wedding comes with a religious ceremony, but for George, who includes his adventurous lifestyle in every facet of his life, tying the knot meant being aloft an exploding volcano in Vanuatu.

“One of my fondest memories is getting married on the crater’s edge – that was quite the event actually. We exchanged our vows as the volcano was erupting every few minutes, spitting these chunks of glowing hot lava hundreds of metres in the air, it was amazing.”

And his wife isn’t shy of the daring lifestyle, either.

“She was actually quite excited about the whole idea. It was very much a James Bond kind of moment. I climbed the side of the volcano with my tuxedo on and she had her wedding dress, it was very surreal and definitely a memory that will last a lifetime. It was a very unique wedding.”

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for his other family members who have shared in his journey, including his mother, who he says has understandably been given a few scares. His advice for anybody trying to get involved in a daring lifestyle is to completely break free of their comfort zone.

“If anybody wanted to have more adventure in their life I’d strongly recommend doing things that they’ve never done before, that’s how you get adventure in your life. You don’t have to be extreme like I am and go and drive into tornadoes and into the eye of hurricanes and such, but if you’re interested in weather or into any bigger adventures like that, study, there’s so many resources on the internet. Don’t be afraid to ask and don’t be afraid to do things that you’ve never done before, because that’s how you really grow and expand.”

George’s adventures have brought him to Australia, where he was stung by a box jellyfish on the Great Barrier Reef, before embarking on the harsh elements of the Australian terrain.

“I was chasing storms in New South Wales, there’s a lot of wonderful thunderstorms there, but not a lot of roads, which makes it hard when you’re out in the countryside. We spent some time in the red centre and got some wonderful lightning out there.”

“We did an episode of my Angry Planet television show on all the extreme things that happen in Australia, which was a tremendous amount of fun and I look forward to coming back.”

Despite Australia’s ruthless climate, he says he has been subjected to much more punishing weather, including in his own native Canada.

“In northern Canada I experienced -44°C, with -50°C wind chills … you’re not going to survive outside in that for very long unless you’ve got some very serious clothing. I’ve been inside the Naica crystal cave in Mexico, it’s beautiful, the crystals are 10 metres long and 55 tonnes, they’re the largest in the world. But the air temperature inside is 52 Celsius with almost 100 per cent humidity. And with humidity that high at such a high temperature, as soon as you walk inside the cave you start to die, you’ve got about 20 minutes. We had to wear special ice-filled suits that allowed us to stay there for 45 minutes at a time. It’s just so amazingly beautiful.”

He has also climbed into a giant crater of fire, in Turkmenistan, known as ‘the Gates of Hell’.

“I did a big project for National Geographic there last year. The pit is probably about 100 feet deep and 250 feet across. It’s leaking methane and has been burning for over four decades, and I stretched ropes across and wore a special heat protective suit, and became the first person to ever descend to the bottom. More people have been on the surface of the moon gathering soil samples for scientific analysis.”

More recently he climbed into a volcano on Vanuatu’s Ambae Island.

“It’s overwhelming. There’s this violently boiling lake of lava but it’s so hard to get to, it’s a very remote island, there’s not much there, you have to camp at the summit, take a helicopter, and then you have to abseil about 1,200 feet (or 400 metres) to get down to the bottom of this crater. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to get down there and then you can walk right to the edge of this violently boiling lake of lava, and it’s kind of like looking directly at the surface of the sun at close range. My camera started to melt – it was just a surreal experience.”

George explains his job doesn’t give him much down time, having recently returned from Madagascar he is now on a “top secret” adventure to South America. Despite the extremities of his lifestyle, he still gets a kick out of ‘extreme sports’ like skydiving, which keep his fear intact, an essential element in his line of work.

“I’m not without fear, a lot of people think I’m fearless but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. When I’m in a scary situation of course I’m going to be afraid and it’s fear that helps to keep me alive, because it keep me sharp. If I don’t have fear that’s when I get complacent and start making mistakes and get careless.

“Fear without control is panic and that’s when your decision-making skills go completely out the window. You have to be able to acknowledge the difference between fear and panic..”

After South America, he plans on travelling to Iceland in December to climb a volcano, and back to Turkmenistan in the new year to reacquaint himself with ‘the Gates of Hell’.