SOU Outdoor Adventure Leadership

04/18/2024

We are finishing up our time here in Thailand with the largest water fight in the world! It’s called Songkran! An important event on the Buddhist calendar, this water festival marks the beginning of the traditional Thai New Year. The name Songkran comes from a Sanskrit word meaning 'passing' or 'approaching'. This is by far Thailand’s biggest holiday and it lasts for 4 days! Just imagine the entire country of Thailand shutting down and people taking to the streets with sq**rt guns, buckets of ice cold water, and a mindset of washing away bad fortune. Pouring water is an ancient ritual that symbolizes cleansing, reverence and good fortune and Thais have taken this idea to a new level. It’s literally impossible to walk outside and not get drenched during this time and when it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s quite welcoming! We started Songkran in Hua Hin where Sage was wrapping up a 2 week volunteer program. But then we headed to Bangkok, the epicenter of Songkran. Alisa and I witnessed this phenomenon over 20 years ago and wanted to show Sage the famous Khao San Road during this time. And it did not disappoint!!!
Oh yeah. We also visited some amazing temples, beaches and had a wonderful time seeking out who has the best Pad Thai, one of my all time favorite dishes. I really liked visiting Thailand this time around and spending some quality time in one place. Since this was my 4th time to visit Thailand, I didn’t feel the need to run all over Thailand seeing the sights again. So we just rented a flat in Hua Hin, shopped at the same local night markets for food, got to know the local vendors and visited smaller Buddhist Wats with absolutely no tourists. It was a great experience in slowing down and just absorbing a single place. Hua Hin also has amazing day excursions to national parks such as Khao Sam Roi Yot with a spectacular temple built inside a cave where sun beams pe*****te from above through a collapsed ceiling, giving life to a surreal forest. Or you can visit the Wildlife Friends Foundation and learn the ins and outs of running a wildlife rescue center. I also spent plenty of time writing. It turns out that being on sabbatical and getting away from your daily grind gives you a lot more time to write and get your thoughts on paper. I typically find a nice coffee house with good WiFi and often find myself closing down the shop, getting lost in my writing. I am currently working on an article that will connect OAL skills to emotional intelligence and 21st century skills. I am almost ready to send this article in for peer review. Next on the docket, I am writing about the essence of expedition travel for a chapter in an upcoming book by my AEE friend Bob Henderson about returning to a more placed-based and ethically grounded form of exploration. The book will focus on three Norwegian climbers that embarked on an “anti-expedition” to Nepal in 1971 designed to create a less extractive climbing culture that focused more on honoring local customs and connecting to place. Today these concepts are well known but in 1971, these Norwegians were forging new ground based on the Nordic idea of friliftsliv. Check out the link if you haven’t heard of it. Now it’s time for our next destination! Nepal!

https://adventureuncovered.com/stories/the-story-of-the-mountaineering-anti-expedition-of-1971/

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20171211-friluftsliv-the-nordic-concept-of-getting-outdoors

04/05/2024

While I was traveling in the Philippines during sabbatical, one of my recent graduates Mason Gray from the Southern Oregon University Outdoor Adventure and Expedition Leadership Master Degree program, reached out to me and said his grandpa lives in the Philippines and has an amazing place right on the water in the Comotes Islands. I looked up the location and saw it was not to far away. So I reached out to Bill, Mason's grandpa, and the next thing we know, we are on a ferry for the Comotes Islands. Bill picked us up at the ferry terminal and whisked us away to his place called Comotes Cay Hideaway. We had an amazing time exploring the islands via motorcycle and bangka, the local double outrigger watercraft used to navigate the shallow coastal waters. He was considering doing some sunset cruises for his guest. I said that sounds amazing. So he organized a bangka cruise with some of the local fishing families that live on the beach right next to his place. I put together this edit to help promote the idea and let people know about this amazing place. Hope you enjoy. Can't wait to come back here with SOU OAL students!

My family and I did an amazing Sunset cruise in the Comotes Islands, Philippines. Check out Comotes Cay Hideaway where Bill and Cristina have a fabulous acco...

03/21/2024

One of the great parts of working in higher education is watching your students go out in the world and thrive. Justin Carmack participated on an international expedition to Southern Africa with me way back in 2010. One of the countries we visited was Mozambique where students had the opportunity to learn how to scuba dive. Justin received his open water dive certification there and continued traveling the world searching for the top one hundred dive sites in the world. He spent over 10 years traveling from one dive destination to another, documenting his travels and sharing his knowledge with the world. Justin settled down in Dauin, Philippines where he owns and operates Critter Republic with his wife Judia. Justin just certified my daughter Sage in open water this past week, introducing her to the magical world of diving.

One of my goals during sabbatical was to search out new international locations for future SOU adventures. The Philippines is for sure at the top of the list now. I always thought that our typical SOU expedition time of August to mid September was not ideal for the Philippines but it turns out it’s actually a great time to visit with awesome underwater visibility and water temperatures in the mid 80’s. I look forward to bringing SOU students back to Dauin to learn the art of scuba diving with the amazing crew at Critter Republic.

During the past three weeks I started my Dive Master training with Justin and have learned so much, especially about the smaller critters of the world. I have been scuba diving since 2002 and I have slowly been ticking off creatures from my bucket list…whale sharks in Mozambique and Mexico, great whites in South Africa, hammerheads in the Galapagos, sun fish in Indonesia and giant manta rays in the Red Sea. Most of the bucket list creatures had something in common, they are all rather large in size. I had completely ignored the smaller critters and that is what Justin and his team have shown me, a whole new universe of diving that I barely knew existed. Now, my favorite thing to do is look for the smaller creatures, some no bigger than a quarter of an inch! Night diving is when you really see these critters come out. On a single night dive you can see flamboyant cuddlefish, coconut octopus, sea horses, nudibranches, hairy frog fish and much more! My bucket list is now filled with animals I never knew existed.

Justin has a huge following on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook with millions of hits each months. He just posted a fun video of how he started his international journey that eventually led to him certifying Sage. It’s a full circle story for sure. Enjoy and check out Justin’s other entertaining and educational videos.

My story is crazy today, and it is sort of a full-circle situation. Who here has heard this part of my life story?Join this channel to get access to perks:ht...

03/19/2024

Alisa, Sage and I are already 6 weeks into our 6 month journey around the world. Wow, the time is zooming by so quickly! We spent an amazing month in Australia and now we are two weeks into our time in the Philippines. As some of you may know, this journey is part of my sabbatical year. I am taking off the winter and spring quarter from teaching at Southern Oregon University in the Outdoor Adventure Leadership program to do a little earthly exploration with the family and gain new insights about the world of adventure across the globe post pandemic. Also doing a lot of writing. Sage took off the second semester of her Sophomore year and is enjoying a different kind of educational experience. We feel so privileged to do this as a family, especially in such an influential part of Sage’s life.

Travel has always been a huge part of my life but this trip is different on many accounts. For starters, it’s for sure a longer trip than I am used to. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to go for longer but it’s not often you have the holy trinity of time, money, and health. When you’re young, you have plenty of health and often time, but no money. In your middle years you may find you have your health and funds, but usually time eludes you. And when you’re older, time and money is often easier to come by but you’re not as youthful and healthy as you may like. The longest time I spent outside the US included a trip to Peru and Ecuador in 1999. My brother Brian and I spent a couple months traveling through Peru and then I headed north to Quito for a semester study abroad experience. This lasted about 6 months but only involved three countries, and pretty much sticking to one location with a host family. Back then I didn’t have a family, car, or house. So it was pretty easy to get up and go. Typically, I head out for 4 to 10 weeks to a particular geographic region that requires specific gear to that area. I usually travel with a group of college students as part of my job and can simply leave my home in the safe hands of my family. So the logistics of this trip are very different. What do you do with your house for 6 months, your cat, vehicles, and mail? Who will mow the lawn while you’re gone? These things I never really had to worry about on shorter trips. Then we must consider all of the geographic location we would like to visit. Sure, we could have made it easy and just visited a single region but we’ve done that a lot. A trip around the world. Now that sounds like a challenge. We will most likely see temperatures that surpass 100 degrees (checked that off already in Australia) with extreme humidity and dry heat to below freezing levels. Our elevation levels will range from below sea level to over 18,000 feet if everything goes as planned. So you can’t just throw in a couple pair of underwear, pants, shorts, shoes and call it good. The clothing packing list for this adventure ranges from down jackets and swimsuits to Chacos and hiking shoes. And to complicate things, we brought all our camping gear for overnight nature experiences. And to take it up one more notch, we brought our mountain bikes as well! So you can imagine what we must look like at the airport or traveling on the subway, or better yet, the facial expression of the taxi driver as you convince him that everything will fit!

09/24/2018

First day back at school tomorrow! Hope everyone is ready to learn, grow, and adventure this year. Lots has happened since we left for summer break. We had a group of amazing students trek through the Himalayas under the tutelage of Erik Sol and Adam Elson. We also had our first ever cohort complete a 31 day bike-packing trip from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea with Chad Thatcher. We can't wait to be back and see what adventures await us this year.

08/31/2018

The skies opened up an opportunity for a portion of the 2018 Nepal Expedition Team to enjoy the vista of the Annapurna-Dhaulagiri Range seen in the background.

08/24/2018

Day 6: Rest day in Mestia. Nino from the guesthouse tracked us down to return Nathan's lost cash! She made her way to us and had the police find us so that she could scold him like a loving mother and hand it back. Chad and Abbie explored the alpinist museum in the house of Georgian climber Mikheil Khergiani. They scrambled up a 700 year old tower and for views of the north section of the city and massive peaks beyond. [ 1,063 more word ]

Day 6: Rest day in Mestia. Nino from the guesthouse tracked us down to return Nathan’s lost cash! She made her way to us and had the police find us so that she could scold him like a loving m…

08/20/2018

MOAEL is in Georgia (country) and Azerbaijan doing a bike packing trip from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. If you are interested in learning more about their trip take a look at their blog. Tctmoael.wordpress.com

08/13/2018

Day 1: We arrived in Poti and headed straight for the Black Sea. What a great way to start a trip! The water was crashing over the rocks as we pulled up with our bikes. Huge storm clouds loomed out over the sea, making a formidable wall. We took a few minutes to appreciate the beauty around us and then came the torrential downpour. [ 628 more words ]

Day 1: We arrived in Poti and headed straight for the Black Sea. What a great way to start a trip! The water was crashing over the rocks as we pulled up with our bikes. Huge storm clouds loomed out…

05/14/2018

Surf Up Surf Rats! This last weekend the SOU Outdoor Adventure Leasdership hosted an amazing surf trip for OAL majors AND non-majors! Believe it or not this surf class is worth two credits and will be hosted every spring term! Stay tuned for more amazing adventures we host!

Photography: Bailey Vidaurri