Adventure Out Blog
Guide Training and Affiliation Program Launches!
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These are very exciting times here at Adventure Out HQ. As many of you have read in the media this past week, we have officially launched our Affiliation Program. Applications are rolling in, and by the end of 2013, we will be announcing our first 10-15 Adventure Out Satellite locations around the country.
– Read the official press release here –
In short, our guide training program will be pushed out and offered to the public to come learn the nuts and bolts of our programs and business. How do we do it, what are our teaching methodologies, how the business is run, and how we grew to the company we are today with over 30 guides serving over 5000 people per year. Existing outdoor schools with a proven track record, or new guides/schools upon completion of the training course, will then be able to “affiliate” with Adventure Out: they can license the brand name as well as receive business and marketing assistance, client referrals, discount group purchasing power on outdoor gear, liability insurance, and more.
As this program has been gearing up for launch over the last few months, I’ve been getting one question over and over: ”Why? …why would you do this? Why would you serve up all the knowledge and experience you’ve acquired so that other people can copy your model?“.
The answer is quite simple: because I want to, and because I can. Adventure Out has grown to be an amazing organization – it has taken me on a ride and become bigger than me, and bigger than I’d ever imagined. I want to share this with people. I’ve been getting requests to franchise for years – but that’s not what we’re about. I don’t want to own a hundred outdoor schools across the country, I don’t want a percentage of their profits. I want to see people own their own business, control their own program, and be passionate about what they do. I want to give new adventure entrepreneurs the chance to use my knowledge, my teachings, and the lessons of my successes (and failures!) to go out and start amazing new outdoor schools anywhere. I want to form a network of trusted programs, offering a level of top-quality service, and unified by a community, and a brand, known as Adventure Out, that stands for integrity and professionalism in the outdoor industry.
Who’s going to join me?
Cliff Hodges
Founder
Adventure Out LLC
New Giant Sequoia Backpack Trip!
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Check out our new Giant Sequoia Backpacking Trip! September 20-22 – spaces are filling fast!
As the Bay Area revels in 70-degree weather and sunshine, the Adventure Out team is headed up to North Lake Tahoe to hold our annual Winter Survival & Snow Cave Camping trip. This trip is always one of our most fun – and to have a beautiful blue-bird spring day (with FRESH SNOW THIS WEEK!) makes it even that much more perfect.
We have just a couple spots (3 to be exact) left for the last snow cave trip of the year – Apr 5-7. Sign up now if you want ‘em!
Stay tuned for updates from the field this weekend…
So, you think these automatic government spending cuts that are being collectively referred to as the Sequester have nothing to do with our Parks and Wilderness? Think again:
http://www.npca.org/news/media-center/press-releases/2013/emerging-evidence-shows.html
According to a recently leaked Park Service memo about potential impacts to park budgets, information suggests the sequester will cause drastic cuts to jobs, educational programs, visitor centers, and visitor access points, including:
• Jobs: Blue Ridge Parkway would cut 21 seasonal interpretive ranger programs, which would result in the closure of 50% of its visitor center-contact stations at our country’s most-visited national park site. By eliminating these seven stations, an 80 mile distance will be put in between each open facility.
• Education: Gettysburg National Military Park would eliminate 20% of its Student Education Programs during the spring, which will impact 2,400 students.
• Impact to Gateway Communities: Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road would delay its reopening by two weeks. In previous instances, closure of the road has resulted to $1 million in lost revenue daily, to surrounding communities and concessions.
• Permanent Visitor Center Closure: Mount Rainier National Park would permanently close its Ohanapecosh Visitor Center, affecting 60,000-85,000 visitors.
• Tourism: Grand Canyon National Park would delay opening of its East and West Rim Drives, and reduce hours of operation at the main visitor center – impacting a quarter of a million visitors.
This past weekend was another beauty here in Santa Cruz – the sun was shining, the waves were good – we had surf lessons running, 3 rock climbing programs, a mountain biking class, and 2 survival workshops. To say we were busy would be putting it lightly.
But after work on Saturday we got the Adventure Out crew together for some laughs and good times. I feel truly blessed to be working with all these amazing people. They show up every day and give 110%. They are all experts in their own right, and they choose to spend their time with Adventure Out, working to make our programs simply the best.
-Cliff Hodges, Founder, Adventure Out
While much of the country is battling cold weather and snow, we are enjoying sun, warmth, and beautiful surf conditions here in California. Here are a few shots from a surf lesson in Pacifica last weekend. Anyone up to join us this weekend? We have classes in Santa Cruz and Pacifica!
For all of you that have been surfing with us at our surf classes in Pacifica, CA, you know how special of a place it is. Please make sure you come to the Pacifica Beach Coalition’s fundraiser on February 22nd. They’ll be showing Surfing For Life, a beautiful surf doc on lifelong surfers by David L. Brown and Roy Earnest.
Showings at 6:00pm and 8:30pm
Location:
Mildred Owen Concert Hall,
1220 Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica
$15 Advance Tickets
$10 – 16 and Under and Seniors (65+)
$20 – At the Door
Great Raffle Prizes
No host wine and beer
Disneyland’s got nothing on this place.
The Adventure Out crew was in Yosemite for the past week for a National Park Service training seminar. We learned a lot about the park’s new push in wilderness management and some fascinating history behind the Park Service and the Wilderness Act. If you don’t know who Aldo Leopold is, read up – I would venture to say one of the greatest nature philosophers in the history of mankind.
For anyone familiar with Yosemite in the summertime, visiting in the winter will immediately strike you with one amazing difference: there’s no one here. The solitude is incredible. On one morning this past week I meandered through the Valley for almost 2 hours without seeing another human being – surely an impossible feat in the high season.
We look forward to guiding you all this summer, and if you have the time and inclination, get up to the park ASAP for some winter action. You won’t regret it.
Welcome to 2013 – with a new year brings new changes. We are proud to release our new website:
www.adventureout.com
Fully redesigned, up-to-date, and completely integrated reservation system for all your favorite outdoor adventures! Check it out:
Cliff Hodges
Owner
Adventure Out LLC
