CORNER BROOK — When Amanda and David Robinson watch “The Amazing Race,” commercial breaks are usually filled with debate and discussion.
Envisioning themselves doing the challenges, Amanda, 22, said they’ll talk about which of them would have done better or how they would have handled things together.
It’s their “couple thing” to do. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don’t.
“David would say, ‘I definitely would be better at this challenge,’ and I would say, ‘No, no, I think I’d probably be better.’ And then we’d end our bickering once the commercial break was over,” said Amanda.
Added David, 24, “I think it’s fun for us just to imagine what we would do and how we would resolve any of the challenges we’d come across.”
Now the Newfoundland couple — she’s from Corner Brook and he’s from Pasadena — is hoping they’ll get to put that strategizeing to use. The Robinsons, who are living in Markham, Ont., have applied to be contestants on the Canadian version of the popular reality show.
Amanda’s parents are Dr. Rijk and Christa van Gelder and David’s parents are Lorne and Cathy Robinson. The young couple moved to Markham last June. David is completing a PhD in history from the University of Toronto and Amanda is working as a circulation clerk at a public library.
The couple has already submitted their application, complete with a video, pictures and bios.
“We wanted to be ourselves,” Amanda said of the application.
“We’re not too crazy, wacky because that’s not really our personality. I think we’re really different and we have a pretty interesting story.”
David is a friend of one of her brothers, and they met at a bachelor party paintball game for another of their brothers. Amanda said they needed another player and she was it. She and David were on opposite teams and by the end of the game they were the last two standing.
“I ended up winning because I shot him,” she laughed. “We developed a really strong friendship and it kind of developed into a romantic relationship.”
They got married in May 2009. Amanda was 18 at the time.
According to Amanda, she and David are a bit on the nerdy side. She was a wrestler in high school and was also part of an outdoor pursuits club. He’s intellectual and enjoys learning more and more things. Together they enjoy playing everything from card games to video games.
They also have an interesting height difference. She’s five feet tall and he’s six foot one.
“I think with both of us together we’re pretty well balanced,” Amanda said.
The couple also enjoys travelling, and Amanda thinks their experiences will help them as contestants.
“It brings out the best in us when we’re travelling,” she said. “We’re adventurous people, but we also like to have plans, and we thought this would be a great way to go out of our comfort zone and really work on our relationship and develop it more.”
They both have a good knowledge of who’s better at what.
For David, it’s the memory-related challenges. He’s also a bit more flexible than Amanda. Meanwhile, she’s great at planning and he has no fears of her getting them through airport situations. It’s when those plans go awry, however, that David’s able to step in.
As for the physical challenges, David said Amanda is the more adventurous one.
“She’s the one with the courage for jumping out of planes.”
The deadline to apply as contestants on the Canadian version of “The Amazing Race” is Feb. 28. Amanda said they are hoping to hear something from the show’s producers in March, and she’s equally nervous and excited about the possibility of being chosen.
While it may be a longshot, they are preparing. She’s talked to people at work about taking time off and David has been looking at how to work his studies around the show’s filming schedule.
