Gear
Gear manufacturers have realised that lots of women like the outdoors and they're different shapes from men. Here's what's out there, and where you can buy it.
Profiles
Misadventures and Fishing Tales is a small book of short stories all about that most unfeminine of activities - fishing! Kelly Bruning is a keen 'fisherlady' who lives in Michigan and shows, just like so many of the other amazing women on GO! Girls Outdoors, that it's possible to excel in a non-traditional sport. Read on for the review of the book...
This Is The Sea IV is a sea kayaking DVD with a difference. Be warned if you have other plans for the week, because after you watch it you will be Googling away at work and dusting off your old kayaks to head for the water. Justine Curgenven has travelled the world looking for the most interesting, passionate kayakers to film and the result is this DVD, the fourth in the series. Click on to read the review...
Kelly is a kayaking enthusiast from Queensland, Australia who, after a late start on her paddling life, has embraced the sport with a passion and now instructs kayaking for a living. She works for an organisation called Kanu Kapers Australia and this is her story.
What better way to rest and rejuvenate than yoga, surfing, good food and great company on the beautiful Costa Rican coast? If this sounds like your cup of tea, check out these amazing looking trips with Tierza Davis and her team at Pura Vida Adventures. Costa Rica is calling!
Jill Ellis, owner and operator of Adanac Paddles, is a self declared "Jill of all trades". Jill has been a welder in the Military, a professional woodcarver, a champion black powder shooter and a web designer, but now she is a teacher and creator of beautiful, hand carved Greenland kayak paddles. Don't miss this profile! Jill has an amazing story!
Surfing, yoga & good food on a Hawaiian island - sound blissful? Well, this is how Me-Shell Mijangos lives every day! After quitting a corporate job in New York City, Me-Shell went travelling with her surfboard and never quite made it off Maui, where she has since set up a surfing and yoga retreat business called SwellWomen.
Surf ache, according to author Gerry Bobsien, is "a state of being where all one can think of is getting back onto the waves". Surf Ache is also the name of her new book for teenagers, which is reviewed here on GO! Girls Outdoors. You can also win a copy of the book! Read on for more information...
A gear review of the Mountain Hardware Hooded Nitrous Jacket, as written by guest to GO! Girls Outdoors, GreyingGearGal, one of the lovely ladies at GearGals. Because everyone ought to know what an ort is, everyone should read this article...
Teresa is a super-keen mountain biker from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. She fell in love with the sport almost immediately and now does as much mountain biking as she can. She also does her best to encourage other women who like the sport or are interested in trying it out, and runs a website called Mountain Biking Girl.
The Shewee is an sleek and high performing FUD (Female Urinating Device) made by Sam Fountain, based in the UK. I took it for a test run in the snow and attempted to fulfill my lifelong desire to "write" my name in the snow. Here's how it went...
Emma Capp is a graphic design artist, photographer and grass roots environmental activist who has made her home in Tasmania in order to contribute to the campaign to save the state's old growth forests from unsustainable logging practices. She is involved with the organisation Still Wild Still Threatened and spends a portion of her time climbing trees and living in the forest at "Camp Florentine", the organisation's forest blockade. Here's what she has to say about her life in the outdoors...
With my recent experience as a "stand-to-pee" device tester, I've gained some valuable new skills. This time I tested the P-Style, as supplied by Krista at Krista's Cups, and I can give it full marks for effective, entertaining, stylish outdoor peeing. From flourishing lemon trees to embarrassing encounters to applauding marsupials - it's all here.
Ever felt like training is something you have to do, rather than something you want to do? That fitness is a chore and no fun anymore? If so, perhaps you should try out the sport of Adventure Racing - Amanda Koerber did, and she liked it so much that now she runs events herself!
If you're here reading this, you probably enjoy playing in the great outdoors - but you've probably also noticed that the great outdoors gives your skin a bit of a trashing. But fear not! The Body Shop have some great products that will help you prevent yourself from turning into a wizened, wrinkly, skin cancer-ridden old hag (albeit one with great photos and stories)...
How would you choose to travel around Australia? By bike? Car? Campervan? Freya Hoffmeister, a German sea kayaker, has made it her mission to kayak all the way around Australia, a task that has only been achieved once, 27 years ago. At the time of writing Freya is over half way around and looking strong - and this is her story.
Most school students in Australia are lucky to have an Outdoor Education experience in the course of their education. The Outdoor Education Group (OEG) is one of the largest Outdoor Education organisations in Australia, and they do their best to employ an equal number of men and women - here's how they do it.
In ‘A Little Bit of Equipment Envy’ I asked whether the reason there are less women than men involved in outdoor adventure activities might be the lack of a useful piece of equipment that allows its owner to do their business standing up. I haven't yet tested this theory, but I have discovered a piece of gear that might make all the difference to your peeing habits - the GoGirl.
Heather Swan is a world record holding BASEjumper and Wingsuit BASEjumper from Sydney, Australia. No Ceiling is the book that tells the story of her transition from corporate mum to world class athlete and is a fantastic read. Heather has also offered GO! Girls Outdoors readers a discount on her book - details are at the end of the review so...
Heather Kirkpatrick is an Outdoor Educator with an astounding amount of experience and a fascinating career path. Her work in the outdoors has taken her all over the world, including Antarctica. She now lives in a solar house she built in Tasmania and travels Australia and the rest of the world doing freelance outdoor work, writing and journalism. If you've got a sense of adventure and a hankering for a career change, be wary when reading this article!
Jessica Watson is not your regular Gold Coast teenager. She has decided to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, leaving Australia in September 2009 and aiming to be home by April, 2010 while she is still 16. Good luck to Jessica and may she be an inspiration to many young girls!
The Discovery Trekking Towel is a marvelous new towel sold by a company on Vancouver Island, Canada. Anyone who has a lightweight towel that is small and smelly should have a go at one of these - I was thrilled with the size, drying ability and non-stinkiness.
Robyn Bertram is a rock climber, student, biomechanics research assistant and advocate for women's fitness from Ontario, Canada. She says that conquering the physical and mental challenges of the sport hasn't been easy for her, but she loves the sport and hopes to encourage more women to try it out.
Joanne Stamplis is an enthusiastic and avid climber from Oregon who would much rather be out on a rock than at work! She recently took a year off and climbed all over the US - this is her story.
Did you know that there is a magazine exclusively for women who love adventures? No, neither did I until I found them on the web and visited them in Boulder, Colorado. This is a magazine with a difference and well worth getting your hands on. For more information, read the profile on GO! Girls Outdoors!
The Woman's Guide to Boating and Cooking (The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1968) by Lael Morgan is a book from another era! The author spent two years on a thirty-six foot schooner and the book is a delightful mix of nautical and 'boatkeeping' information, written in the manner of a mid-century housekeeping manual. After chuckling my way through this entertaining and informative book, I decided it had to be featured on a GO! Girls Outdoors profile - so here it is!
Many cultures from all over the world have what's called a 'Rite of Passage', a ceremony that marks when young people become adults. In modern society, adolescents negotiate this journey for themselves - unless, of course, they participate in a three-week course with Rite of Passage Journeys, an organisation based in Seattle in the USA.
While I was in Colorado for GO! Girls Outdoors, Lorene Wapotich and Mary Sweeney invited me on one of their Wilderness and Urban Survival Skills courses. Four other young women and I spent the weekend learning all about survival strategies, both mental and practical, that can be applied to the wilderness and everyday life.
Men and women are different - most people accept that - but did you know that one of the reasons is biochemistry?! And that this biochemistry is highly influential when it comes to risk taking behaviour and the way that men and women approach challenging situations? The Women’s Wilderness Institute in Boulder, Colorado, runs a wide range of outdoor adventure based courses for girls and women, and they have taken into account this biochemical difference in their course design and programming. How do they do this? You’d better...
Did you think survival was what you might watch (or avoid watching) on one of those reality TV shows that are so popular at the moment? Well, Lorene Wapotich and Mary Sweeney do survival quite differently from that. They run an organisation called Her Feet On The Earth, through which they teach "Urban and Wilderness Survival Skills". Intrigued? Well...
Passages Northwest is a non-profit organisation that runs outdoor adventure programs for girls out of Seattle in the country's north-west. They believe that courage is vitally important in the development of a supportive community of girls and women in our society. How is this done? Read on...
Laurie Bernier is an avid and experienced backcountry skier and all round outdoor enthusiast from Maine in the USA. She manages to fit her outdoor adventures around her work as a recreational therapist, and has some interesting things to say about her experiences with men and women in the backcountry.
Anyone who has switched jobs knows that it can be stressful and tiring. Anyone who has quit a job knows that it can put you under all sorts of emotional and financial pressure, and anyone who has taken up a new career knows that it can be very hard work, both daunting and exhausting. For anyone planning a career change, use Julie Angus as your inspiration! A momentous career change took Julie from being a Molecular Biologist in Vancouver, to rowing across the Atlantic Ocean with her then fiancé, Colin Angus. Interested? Read on!
It took gear manufacturers many years to figure out that women are not just small men, and that women's outdoor gear needed more than just a "shrink and pink". There is a steadily growing range of outdoor gear available for women, but Outdoor Divas are one of the only gear stores that stock gear that is exclusively for women. When I was in Boulder, Colorado I went to have a look (and a drool) over all the wonderful gear they have on offer!
Bec Fox is the manager of Kindilan Outdoor Education and Conference Centre near Brisbane, Australia and a mother of two small children. As I meet more and more people through GO! Girls Outdoors, a common question comes up when I’m among young outdoor professionals - whether it’s possible and viable to have children and still maintain a career in the outdoor industry. Bec is the perfect person to show that the answer is a resounding yes!
Chandra Crawford is a Canadian Cross Country Skiing champion who won a gold medal at the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006 and the hearts of Canadians after enthusiastically belting out the national anthem from the winner's podium! She is also one of the founding members of Fast and Female, an organisation that uses participation based ski days to encourage girls to take up sport and to provide them with positive, healthy role models.
Mish Morgenstern has been connected to the ocean for her whole life, from watching Jacques Cousteau and Alby Mangels movies as a child, to working in the industry and undertaking a large number of sea kayaking trips, to her current work as a photographer and the manager of a film production office. Her love for the ocean has led to a strong dedication towards protecting it, which she does through volunteer work and donating a portion of her photography profits to organisations that help to preserve the ocean environment
GirlVentures runs an alumni program that trains up the girls they've had on their programs who have an interest in pursuing a career in Outdoor Education. Anna Fry-jung Hoff is one of these alumni who gained valuable experience working with the organisation. She is currently a university student but hopes to convert her love for the outdoors into a career.
Emmy Hendrickx is a passionate canoeist, hiker and camper who has overcome many challenges and hardships in her life. She now owns her own business, Wilderness Wanderings, through which she runs outdoor expeditions in Ontario for a wide variety of women. Let her story be an inspiration to you all!
GirlVentures is a not-for-profit organisation based out of San Francisco, California. They run outdoor adventure programs for girls and ensure the diversity of their groups by having one third full paying students, one third partial scholarship students and one third full scholarship students. GirlVentures have a wide variety of programs and their Program Director, Priscilla McKenney, told me why outdoor programming for girls is so important.
Priscilla McKenney has been both working and playing in the great outdoors for over 30 years, ever since the age of 16 when her family was fogged in on a sailing trip and Priscilla went ashore and met an Outward Bound instructor. Today Priscilla is a Program Director at GirlVentures and is currently conducting academic research in girls' outdoor programming. Make sure you read her story here!
Lots of people think sea kayaking involves putting a few paddle strokes in on glassy water, maybe with a dolphin in the background. This is not how Justine Curgenven sea kayaks - at least not all the time. Justine is the filmmaker behind the 'This is the Sea' DVDs (there are four in the series), which show a very different side to sea kayaking.
Nancy Sathre-Vogel and her family - husband John and ten year old twins Daryl and Davy - describe themselves on their website as a normal, everyday family. If this is the case then they are a normal family doing an extraordinary thing - riding their bikes from Alaska to Argentina.
Do you like staying fit and healthy, but don’t like going to the gym? Do you like spending time in amazing locations, pushing yourself to new limits and pursuing adventures with like-minded companions? If so, you’ve got something in common with many other Australian women...
Heather Swan is a World Record holding BASEjumper and Wingsuit BASEjumper, as well as an award winning author, photographer and professional speaker. At the time of writing she is also the only women in the world to combine high altitude mountaineering and BASEjumping.
Allison Shreeve has made it her goal to windsurf across Bass Strait, one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world. She also plans to break the speed record (currently 13.5 hours) and help to raise $100 000 for Coastcare while she's at it!
Brigitte Muir is one of Australia’s best known female mountaineers. Her passion for the outdoors, in particular for climbing the world’s highest mountains, has given her a truly inspiring life of adventure and excitement that has led her all over the world.
Ever wondered how you can get in touch with other women cyclists? Gear up Girl organises cycling workshops and events for women of all abilities, shapes and sizes.
There may just be a very simple reason why less women than men are out there enjoying outdoor activities...
Working in the outdoors can provide an exciting and adventurous lifestyle, even if it's not always consistent! Amy has been working in the industry since she left school and shares some insights with GO! Girls Outdoors.
Taking on a career in the outdoor industry can be a rewarding, fulfilling and sometimes daunting task. Outward Bound offers an internship program that provides the necessary skills and qualifications to become an outdoor instructor. Two of the current interns, Ashley Olsen and Erin O'Reilly, share their experiences in this article.
Adventurous Women organises expeditions for women to a wide variety of locations, and the Women's Adventure Club is a social network for adventurous women. Both are run by Sue Hile.
Thor is Australia's top ranked athlete in the sport of Mountain Bike Orienteering - a sport in which you must be an excellent navigator and skilled mountain biker, be able to think quickly and plan effectively.