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.
Organisations
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!
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.
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...
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!
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.
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!
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.
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...
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!
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
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.
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...
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.
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.