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Ben Morton teaches Henry Darron, 9, to tie a square knot |
By CATHY JETT
Ben Morton has an easy way to help youngsters learn the importance of holding a canoe paddle correctly.
The T-shaped grip, he told the 12 students crowded around a canoe at the Virginia Outdoor Center, can easily knock out someone's teeth if mishandled.
"Just remember that if you swing the paddle by the shaft, you can get 'some here teeth.' You know, some are here, some are there," he said, checking for smiles to make sure they understood. "I always want to see your hand on the T-grip."
Morton, a 2004 Orange County High School graduate enrolled in the adventure sports program at Garrett College in Garrett County, Md., is teaching whitewater paddling and rock climbing adventure classes for 9- to 15-year-olds this summer.
He's hoping the experience at the Virginia Outdoor Center, located on a leafy drive off Fall Hill Avenue near the Rappahannock River, will eventually lead to a career in the emerging outdoor adventure field.
"I took a whitewater kayaking class here in 2004 and decided this is what I wanted to do," said Morton.
His timing couldn't be better, according to Mike Logstan, executive director of Adventuresports Institute, part of Garrett College and Frostburg State University. It began offering the first adventure sports degree program of its kind in the country in 1992.
Adventure sports businesses, such as companies that offer white-water rafting trips, are starting to diversify so they can stay competitive and be open year round, he said. They're also facing a demand from the public for more professionally trained staff.
"When I was a guide in the '70s, it wasn't unusual to get clients who wanted all the adrenalin rush they could get," Logstan said. "Then word started to spread of accidents and fatalities in adventure sports. Now training guides has become a more important aspect of the industry."
The Adventuresports Institute offers a one-year certificate and a two-year associate's degree that are designed to train students not only how to do such things as canoeing, mountain biking and rock climbing safely, but to know how to exercise good judgment.
"Our fun doesn't come from taunting nature," Logstan said. "We learn how to work with nature and learn the forces and action of nature to maximize enjoyment and minimize risk."
Morton, who is working for the third summer at the Virginia Outdoor Center, will complete the institute's two-year program in December. He then plans to transfer to one of the handful of four-year colleges and universities that offer an adventure sports degree.
"I'm looking at Warren Wilson College and Brevard [College, both of which are in North Carolina], and Prescott College [in Prescott, Ariz. ]," he said.
That's a much different plan than the one Morton originally envisioned. An avid soccer player in high school, he had planned on finding a college where he could continue playing that sport.
After taking that life-transforming kayaking class in 2004, he spent the summer honing his skills on the Rappahannock and helping out at the Virginia Outdoor Center. He also took a class at North Carolina Outward Bound, which is in the Pisgah National Forest near Morganton, N.C.
"It was an eye-opening experience as to how much there is to learn," Morton said of the adventure skills program. "They not only taught me new skills, but also how to teach."
Adventure sports trace their roots back to the original Outward Bound program, which started in Aberdovey, Wales, in 1941. It was founded to give young seamen the ability to survive harsh conditions at sea by teaching confidence and tenacity, and took its name from the nautical expression for the moment a ship leaves the pier.
Today there are about 40 Outward Bound schools worldwide.
The adventure sport movement didn't take off in the United States, however, until the 1970s, according to the Adventuresports Institute's Logstan.
"Most of those started out as ma and pa sorts of businesses, and they had a largely seasonal staff," he said. "If they offered whitewater rafting, they started hiring and training in March for the summer paddling season, which was over in September."
These days adventure lovers cruising down the highway with a canoe on top of their car are just as likely to have mountain climbing gear in the trunk and a bike on a rack in the back, Logstan said.
That's partly because people are discovering that they don't have to be diehard kayakers or canoeists to enjoy getting out on the water, said John Garman, a co-owner of the Virginia Outdoor Center since 1996. They're also getting interested in such things as rock climbing, which the center started teaching several years ago.
"Each year there's a more diverse community of people," he said. "It's much more mainstream."
That, in turn, is helping drive the demand for people with Morton's skills, training and credentials.
"Everybody wants to be a guide. But when you ask for their certifications, they say, 'Well, I really like [to kayak.]' I'd rather have a guy I can use immediately like Ben," Garman said. "Really, the world is his oyster in this business."
To reach CATHY JETT:
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
