How to forge a career in the Outdoors

Part 1: Watersports

I have now spent 8 years with a full time career in the outdoors and having recently achieved some personal mile stones, I thought I would put down a bit about my experience and any hints and tips that may or may not be useful to you. (If you’re reading this, then I’m assuming on some level, even if its just seeing how someone else has made a career in the outdoors then something might be useful… we’ll see!). I have decided to do this as a “two parter”, in this blog I shall concentrate on my career in the outdoors through paddlesports qualifications, from my first time in a boat, up until where I am today (as of November 2020 I hold; Advanced Canoe Leader, Advanced White Water Leader, Open water and White Water Canoe coach, White Water kayak coach, and have attended training in Advanced White Water kayak coach and performance coach for White Water kayak).

In the next part of this blog I shall look at my pathway through land based qualifications ( I currently hold; Winter Mountain Leader and Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor), as for me at least, I had two very different approaches to each strand of my qualification tree within my career in the outdoors, which will be different for everyone. It also means if you are interested in only land or water based qualifications, you can just read one of these and don’t have to struggle through all of it!

As a side not before I start, if anybody who reads this has questions, or would like help planning their own career pathway, or training in an aspect of a specific syllabus, then please do not hesitate to get in touch, via email: yascotland@gmail.com, phone: 07810893805 or fill out a contact form.

 

In the beginning…

As with all stories, it’s best to start at the beginning. I have always been extremely lucky and was exposed to the outdoors from very early, with trips to the beach, walking and mountain biking de-rigour when I was growing up. At school we had the ability to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh award, which I did, going all the way through to Gold. The main turning point for me, outdoors wise however, was joining the Kayaking club at School. Again I was extremely lucky and my school was in the fortunate position, that a couple of the teachers were both qualified and motivated to run a club. As a result, myself and a couple of friends started paddling just after joining senior school. So from age 14 I was paddling every Monday night, and Saturday afternoon, along with longer trips throughout the term, from our base in sunny Taunton in the South West of England. As we progressed through the club it was assumed that we would help bring younger students on, and take a more active role in coaching and providing safety on trips. This was my first taste of coaching in any capacity and I found, that bringing someone from complete novice, to be able to roll or do a draw stroke, (as was the limit of my coaching ability), was rather fun, and quite addictive.

Whilst at school I completed most of my, then star awards, up to 4 star, in White Water Kayak and we did a Level 1 BCU coach. To me at the time these were just an excuse for more days on the water, the thought process went something like;
“Do I want to go paddling?”
“yes”
“well, this course is happening and I can paddle on it”
“Excellent, lets go”
The thought that these qualifications may lead to a career in the outdoors or be in any way useful were far beyond me. I was to go to University, do a degree and get a job. Kayaking wasn’t really a part of that. Having said that, for our star awards at least, these just happened, in as much as when we went away for a weekend trip (often the Dart, Exe or North Wales) we had the opportunity, if we wanted to, to complete one of the star awards with one of the coaches, if it was organised. So there were no barriers, in terms of organisational or monetary extras to getting them. Again, extremely fortunate, and something that at the time you accept as the norm but looking back, realise just how lucky this was!

I left school and had a year working and travelling. I worked for a friend of one of the coaches at the club, in Northern Ireland, doing a mixture of Canoeing, team building, birthday parties etc, for 2 months. This was set up as work experience, and it was an amazing couple of months. In the short time I was there I paddled with folk from the Belfast Uni club, with borrowed boats and equipment, we had epics on steep Irish ditches, lost boats, drank too much, had to borrow phones from sweet old Irish farm wives, to overt mountain rescue call outs, I could write a whole piece on those two months. I have no idea where or what we paddled, I just know we had a good time doing it and by the end, I needed a bigger boat. It was a surprise when at the end of my time in Ireland I received a cheque for the work I’d done. I went home and bought a creek boat with it, if the money lasted more than a month I’d be surprised!

When I returned to Taunton I found employment in a bakery and a holiday camp, doing paint-balling, children’s parties, and team building. All my money went into kayaking, with trips to the Massif Central in France, the Alps and then around the world, New Zealand, Australia and Canada over 6 months. In Australia I met a friend who was working in a school, and was allowed to stay with him, as long as I helped out I the outdoor department; fine by me! Whilst I was there, the school had an outdoor camp booked. We went into the outback, I was given 12 children and a radio and told to get to campsites along a trail, apparently no training, or experience necessary!

I still didn’t really consider a career in the outdoors as a viable, surely you couldn’t make actual money doing this, not enough to buy a house or a car with anyway. It was great in the short term, but long term I surely needed more? So off I went to Bangor University to study Geography for three years. I like being outside, my kayak coach in school was my Geography teacher, it seemed to fit! Unfortunately (for my mother at least) I enjoyed University life style more than study, and left with a (semi) respectable 2.2 in Geography BSc.

In the summers I would come back to Taunton and work at the summer camp, but my end goal after University had been to join the Royal Marines, so no need to do any more kayaking qualifications, I thought, not much point.

However, I decided I didn’t really want to have to iron my socks or crawl around in the mud, so a couple of months before graduation I withdrew my application, now what?

My dad and I looked through my CV to see what jobs I should apply for, maybe renewable energies, or environmental consultant? Not much in the way of work experience in that, and sounds dull. Maybe a teacher, I had patience, was good with children, it would make mum happy; another year at university, hmmm. Put that in the maybe pile. What did I have most experience in? Working in the outdoors, but the nagging doubt of was a career in the outdoors a thing came back. Solution? Give it a go for a year, if it doesn’t work out, then I could maybe stomach formal education for another year after a break from it, maybe…

So I started applying for outdoor traineeships and was lucky to gain a position with Mendip Outdoor Pursuits . I started in October 2012 (just after the Olympics!) and 8 years later I have started my own business during a global pandemic. Now the how.

 

How I moved up the ladder…in a boat,

during my career in the outdoors

So I had a good grounding in paddling a white water boat, I had done bits of coaching, both at school and University but nothing very formal. The questions became where to focus my attention, where did I want my career in the outdoors to go and what did I need to do to get there?

I have always liked to write lists and find them useful to keep on track of what I should be doing and when. To write a list without purpose, just becomes a jumble of words, so I needed to define an end goal and have some sort of time frame involved (everyone likes SMART goals!).

My end goal was that I wanted to be able to lead and coach people on the water, in the environments I was comfortable in, in white water kayak and canoe, and maybe deliver star awards.

So what did I need; at the time I worked out I’d need a level 5 coach in both disciplines, and both 5 stars. To get there however there were quite a lot of other steps and it may take a while. I was 22, I thought by the time I was 30, that should all be achievable…

As a trainee, if we ran our own sessions we got a cash bonus, the quickest way to that for me would be if I got my UKCC level 2, as then I could operate independently. So that became the first step. I had heard horror stories of massive portfolios, session planning and all sorts, but more cash would be worth it. First step was to get the pre-requisites, I already had my FSRT and 4 star white water so I just needed a 3 star in a different discipline, sorted easily enough and I was on my way.

I won’t go blow by blow into each award, but suffice to say that having a defined end goal meant every course I went on, every time I went paddling, I could use it as purposeful practice. If I went to a pool session, instead of just going and giving some hints to some one, I could write a session plan (probably forget it) review it at the end and I’d be one step closer to the end of the portfolio.

Having a Macro and a Micro goal (Macro being level 5, Micro being the next practical step) kept me focused and allowed me to be booking course and planning what I needed to be doing next. For example, British Canoeing re-vamped the star awards, my 4 star became equivalent to a 3 star, I’d need to do my 4 star again, for that I’d need to do my White Water Safety and Rescue course. With paddling seasons being relatively short, that meant I knew I needed to get on a course ASAP. I convinced a few friends they also wanted to do theirs, we broke ice on the Exe and the next step had been ticked!

To some, the thought of me gaining a white water award seemed fairly pointless, and I was asked, “why are you bothering doing that, you’ll never need it on the Mendips”. I didn’t want to be in the Mendips forever, I wanted my career in the outdoors to move me closer to bigger mountains and steeper rivers.

During my Level 2 training I had met two guys from The Outward Bound Trust. They turned up in a staff car, said OB was paying for everything and that they used their qualifications to the ut-most, intriguing… I went home and did a bit of research, they had centres in Wales, the Lakes and Scotland, a defined line of progression, led expeditions, and worked progressively with young people to help them make the most of their lives, sounded great. To work for them became my next goal. I had the prerequisites for applying, so the next time a job advert for the Trust came out, myself and Sarah (my now wife, then girlfriend), applied and were successful.

We started working for The Outward Bound Trust in their Aberdovey centre in January 2015. I still had my overarching aim, but I also had to align with what the Trust wanted from me, but they were paying, which seemed agreeable! I continued working towards my end goal, which meant I booked Advanced White Water Safety and Rescue (AWWSR) course, 5 star training and 4 star canoe. In this time I had to balance completing my Mountain Leader, Power boat courses among others.
My AWWSR and 5 star training, were in Scotland, I travelled up, slept on a friends floor and paddled for a week, amazing. Before this I had only been up to Scotland a handful of times. 2 months previous we had come up to go paddling, been met with low water, midges and run away thinking “how could you ever work or live up here!”. When I was on my course, we had good levels, no midges and I met some great folk, I came home buzzing, telling Sarah we NEEDED to move to Scotland! She looked at me like I had six heads, asking if I’d forgotten our trip not 2 months ago…(I have a very optimistic memory which lets me only remember the good times, so my answer was; yes, it was great!). The answer back was firmly no. 2 weeks later, Sarah, came downstairs and said “shall we move to Scotland then?” Before she had drawn another breath I had asked our line managers for a transfer to Loch Eil, near Fort William (another bonus of working for the Trust. At the time, after a year of service in your initial centre you could request a transfer to another one). The answer came back that we could transfer in March of the next year – well that worked! We moved to Scotland in March 2016, the next step of our career in the outdoors had started.

 

The Scottish chapter of my career in the outdoors

British Canoeing had revamped their coaching awards. I was now working towards Advanced Coaches in both disciplines. I had managed my Canoe Leader training in the year in Wales, and I would need my Moderate Water Endorsements. I booked my kayak training and my Advanced Leader assessment for Kayak. Over the next couple of years I managed to complete my Advanced Kayak Leader, both my Moderate Water Coach awards, my Canoe Leader and my Advanced Water Endorsement training in Kayak. I was still applying my mantra of purposeful practice, so made sure every time I went on the water it was useful in some way. This didn’t mean that I never paddled just for fun, because whenever I’m on the water I had fun. It did help focus what craft I was in, or where and who I was going with. I had had to pay for my kayak awards (shock horror!) But Outward Bound did support me with days off, which was much appreciated. After completing my Moderate Water Endorsements I booked onto a UKCC level 3 core training and a discipline specific training. I was starting to run into road blocks however. Whilst I was working my way through my paddling qualifications I was also working through my Winter Mountain Leader and Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, both disciplines I had less experience in so needed to concentrate efforts there, but this had a knock on that meant I was less able to concentrate on paddling. Couple this with the fact that the UKCC level 3 (now Performance Coach) requires you to coach 2 or 3 students for a year, and I wanted to complete my Advanced Canoe Leader, again a discipline that I needed work quite hard towards, my kayak coaching took a back seat and has remained uncompleted, so far…. I completed my Advanced Canoe Leader training in December 2019 and I set my sights for assessment before the summer of 2020. I needed to work on my trad skills but nothing a bit of purposeful practice couldn’t solve!

Then, as you may or may not have noticed, plans went a little awry. I was however able to complete my Advanced Canoe Leader in November 2020. I am now able to lead in all the environments I am comfortable in, and not worry whether I’m in remit or not, which is nicely liberating. I still have much to learn and do though. Sarah will roll her eyes if she reads this but my list is as yet incomplete, but I am very close to achieving my goals that I set myself, (8!) Years ago. I have registered my interest to be a provider for canoe and kayak leader courses, and am awaiting space on a providers orientation. I intend to complete my Advance White Water Kayak coach and performance coach in 2021, but we will see what the world has in store for us!

 

Lessons I have learnt from my career in the outdoors:

So what lessons have I learned from my career in the outdoors so far; what will I continue to do, what might I stop doing and what will I start doing from now?

Lists, as mentioned I like a list. I have lists about which rivers I’d like to paddle, what qualifications I want to do, what climbs I want to complete, I could probably have lists of my lists. I find them useful to keep on track, they provide focus and set out clearly what needs to be done next. Its also satisfying to to tick things off the list as you complete them!

Timelines, arguably a list, but I think worthy of a separate section! I tend to write out a timeline of when I think I should be doing certain things. This helps me visualise time frames and when I should be booking courses. It also helps visualising how realistic your time frames might be, to go form no awards to advanced canoe leader in a year may sound doable, but when you write it down and realise all the different steps that are required, an idea turns into a plan. You can also look at when courses are available, something which is out of your control but will impact on your timeline.

Timescales, given the previous point, I tend to write 5 year timeline and then work to manageable timescales. Giving a goal a time frame creates something to aim for and makes goals reality, just be sure to be realistic in your timescales. For this you have to be honest with yourself, where are you starting from? But also appreciate that life will happen and qualifications are not the be all and end all, so be ambitious but not at the detriment to the other important people and things in your lives.

Purposeful practice, this is a big one. Our time outside is great and should be cherished. But we all know that between life, work and other responsibilities, its pretty hard to justify extra time out just to practice for a specific award. Therefore when we do get out it’s important that we make the most of our time. If you need to practice leading, ask the folk you’re paddling with to lead them down the next rapid, if they say no, you can still think how you would be doing it. Make all the leadership eddies, consider what would happen if someone swam etc. Are there people you know who would like coaching or leading? You get the gist. My personal mantra is to “always get off the river knackered”. This means no matter the grade of water or length of trip I will play it to death, catch every eddie, surf every wave and, usually, roll, a lot. This not only means I get the most out of each trip, but that I’m also constantly practicing, reading the river, and getting fitter. I love being on the water so this has never been too much of issue!

Enjoying the now, whilst working towards specific targets and goals its very easy to be sucked into constantly thinking about the next step, what are we paddling tomorrow? Who’s free? Which course am I doing next? But it’s also important (arguably more so) to stop and appreciate where you are and who you’re with. Paddling has taken me all over the world, into some of the most beautiful, remote, spectacular places I’ve had the privilege of visiting. I’ve paddled the Grand Canyon, dropped off waterfalls in Norway and been eaten alive by mosquitos canoeing in Sweden, not to mention the classic paddling trips to the Alps and around the UK. At the heart of the “why I work to gain formal accreditation”, is my love for paddling, paddlesport and wanting to share this passion with as many people as I can. When I would come back from a days paddling, my parents used to call it my “paddling grin”, it would stay on my face for days. I try now, to enjoy each day on the water as much as I did back then and appreciate where I am and how lucky I am to be there with good friends and great craic!

Appreciate the good, coupled with the last point, it’s also important to notice how much you’ve achieved and acknowledge the good things. This doesn’t have to be a qualification, it could be a life event, starting a new job or finally nailing your roll. Make sure you pat yourself on the back and take time to appreciate all that is good!

Realise that the deadlines you set are only set by you, this again leads on from the last point, you have the power to be either happy or devastated if you miss them, because you set them. Reviewing and realising why you missed a deadline is a useful tool, but don’t beat yourself up too much. Some things happen that are completely out of our control, this year being a pretty good example!

Big picture thinking, this is all about keeping your head above water (pun most definitely intended) and making sure you are on track with your ultimate goal, which means you’ll need an ultimate goal! Mine was always to eventually start my own business, which guided me into making decisions about which qualifications I needed to work towards and where I wanted to be (figuratively and literally). We all know life has a tendency of throwing us curve balls, so keeping in mind the big picture is a good way of staying the course in the stormy seas of life, a guiding light house if you will, if you wont, an end goal.

 

And there you have it, my career in the outdoors in a nutshell. If you’ve made it this far I commend you! If you enjoyed reading, please let me know. Make sure you follow us on Instagram @your_adventure_scotland and like our page on facebook @YourAdventureScotland to be up to date with our news and more articles on qualifications and all things outdoorsy. If the vast miriad of sometimes confusing qualifications has you in a muddle, I will be writing another piece explaining the structure and order of things in the kayaking world. If you didn’t enjoy it, also let me know, but id rather it was constructive!

 

See you on the water soon, Rich