Do you hate out adventure activities?

[user1496262496]

I run an outdoor centre which is primarily for young people. The sort of place schools book in to for a week and the young people do climbing, mountain walks, canoeing and bushcraft etc.

The culture of outdoor activities such as rock climbing, mountaineering and paddle sports has traditionally been male dominated. Participation has traditionally been male dominated. British Canoeing’s web site and Mountain Training’s website have loads of figures about this. There is research… but no one seems to ask the women who don’t engage, or who got put off for some reason at a young age.

I want the activities my centre runs to be as appealing as possible and for the young people to have the best time.

Where do outdoor centres etc go wrong?

I am interested to hear from women who don’t like outdoor adventure activities. What was it that put you off them? What is it that means they aren’t something you would do as an adult?

I don’t think I am unreasonable to think there is a problem in my industry.

If your DC didn’t like their school residential, why didn’t it work for them?

lack of confidence and my terrible fear of heights. I couldn't even bring myself to go down a slide a couple of years ago at an outdoorsy place with the kids as it was just too high, I ended up having to come back down the steps! I felt like a right fool. Teen dd seems to have a similar fear of heights and lacks confidence this kind of thing would not be for her either. my son would love it though and would do this activities with dad.

Also, on a more practical front, not having access to appropriate toilet facilities during activities is far more restricting to women than men (especially when on periods).

Also, I remember never being able to access equipment from shared stores that fitted properly e.g. wetsuits. Sometimes this was handled in a very humiliating way e.g. an expectation that if you are short you must also be super super skinny, which I was not.

I'm fat and unfit, it's expensive and I'm not willing to spend the money if I might not enjoy it, I'm unusually proportioned and very small so most things the average person can do I will find far more difficult (never tried a wetsuit but doubt i coukd find one that would fit), don't much like being cold and wet, not a strong swimmer, I'm quite shy so wouldn't feel brave enough to go on my own

Me too! I would eat a spelling test for breakfast. And quizzes I love. But we don't generally fire general knowledge questions at people and make them go down on one knee if they don't get the answer. (At least I hope not. There is a sort of academic cut and thrust behaviour that's also very exclusionary and we should stop doing that too)

Just existing in this body is hard enough let alone having to explain to usually a man that my body won’t fit in the things offered.
have had a man bark at me to shout my dress size so he could look for a wetsuit then didn’t ask the men this. Again ended up in n I’ll fitting gear for boobs and hips etc.
that always sets things offf badly tbh

As a teenager my biggest stress was periods. Heavy and very painful. So being halfway up a hill, in a tent overnight etc would have freaked me out for weeks beforehand.
Creepy male instructors. Far more prevalent in the 70s and 80s when I was made to do outward bound stuff but still possible I dare say.
My parents hating anything that involved getting cold and wet or out of breath or dirty or remotely adventurous. We were frequently told it wasn't something we would be any good at , even though we had never had a chance to be good or bad at it or to even try it. That ,and the idea that you must be good and kind and girly is a powerful deterrent.
Confident , loud ,noisy kids shouting at you to hurry up etc . Teachers laughing rather than splitting you into different groups so the less confident could do the tree walking etc in their in bloody time instead of showy off boy taking the mickey out of you.
I am part of a walking group now. We walk, we chat we change the person we are chatting with naturally as the walk goes on. I have the right clothing and shoes. I am fit. New alpha male types quickly realise that no one is impressed with how fast they can walk, how many ultra marathons they have done.

But in comparison it's fine to humiliate people and kids in sports and these outward bound debacles

I also get p* off with someone bossing me around. Obviously different if it's in paid work

😅

I hated this kind of thing when I was a child and refused to go on our school residential trip - I stayed at school and read in the library (I would also prefer that over P.E. any day 😄). I was a very bookwormy, indoorsy child yet somehow I have turned into a very outdoorsy active adult! I had horses for 20 years and managed to look after them in cold, wet weather and now I love hiking up mountains, trail running, cycling and open water swimming. I've tried ice climbing, canoeing and shooting. I would love an outdoor activity holiday now but as a teenager it was a definite no.

I love them but when I was fit enough to do anything like that I had kids and no childcare. I had jobs that were inflexible and poorly paid, and I don't think there's anything you can do about that.
There wasn't much about the activities that would have put me off. Some women might like taster classes that are aimed at novices, or women only groups.

@MelaniesFlowers

The women into these types of things always claim they’re feminine and not at all tomboy. It’s rarely true.

Er, even if that were true, why is it relevant?

And why should being "feminine" (whatever that means) be more important for girls than trying new things/learning new skills?

Remembering Barbara Woodhouse for the brisk outdoorsy woman

Siiiiit

Anything involving strength seems to default to male, so from the off you’re on the back foot. I don’t have the upper body strength to haul myself up walls/paddle for ages and I always just feel shit when doing these kinds of activities. I’m a confident runner so it’s not a fitness issue. Male instructors have no idea, frankly.

Also the UK is shit for this kind of thing. I’ve swum for ages in Alpine lakes in the summer, where it’s warm so when you get out you’re dry quickly and changing facilities are great. In the UK with crappy facilities, shitty communal equipment an when it’s cold and windy? Ha, no thanks.

The Uk does fetishise outdoor pursuits though and attaches weird moral superiority to tramping about in the wild.

I love outdoor activities but they're quite scary if you haven't done them. I was terrified doing GoApe but the sense of achievement I felt after was amazing!

It's also an income level issue. If you want to be outdoorsy with dc it's expensive to get the kit especially as they grow!

I’m simply making an observation.

I also never said it should be. But it isn’t something I will ever encourage.

Agree with cold and wet.
You know the harnesses etc are going to squash your boobs, pinch your vag and the helmet’s going to make you look a twat and then ruin your hair/make it need a wash for the rest of the day afterwards.
At some point something is going to hurt, you’re going to fall, something’s going to be humiliating or otherwise painful. Nobody will be kind or have any sympathy.
Theres never anywhere to warm up/sit down/have a rest from the relentless adventuring.
There’s never any emotional acknowledgment that what you’ve achieved was fucking scary and you’re a legend for getting it done.
Thats about all I can think of for now! It wouldn’t stop me but TLDR: strapping on a helmet and harness to get hurt in the cold is not my ideal way to spend an afternoon.

This.
I hate anything sports team related. I was clumsy and permanently anxious about anything requiring good gross motor control. People always say " Oh come along, it's just for fun, no pressure ". People who are good at stuff have no concept of how awful it is to not be naturally good at physical stuff. I went to a 'fun' skittles evening when my eldest son was a baby. He is 30 now but this thread has reminded me of it. We were split into teams. Just for fun. One of our team played skittles in the county league.Oh joy. If the purpose of the event was to get the ball between each skittle without knocking any over then I would be an Olympic champion. Sadly its not. It was awful. Everytime I stood up to play she laughed, rolled her eyes, made some cunty comment. It was just like being at school but I was 28. The more I knew how bad I was the worse I played.

I know

I remember trying archery once and I hated it

I couldn't bring the bow back correctly, it was difficult and felt self conscious

I could ice skate well though and I liked doing that

I loved all this as a child. Both DC enjoyed, but def harder for DD - she gets colder, has long hair to deal with (her choice!), and when I went on the school camp, I noticed the free time suited the sporty kids much better. They ran around playground with groupies organising games. But there was no warm dry room for those who wanted to sit / play board games / read. And I’d say about 1/3 were exhausted and wanted to do that. We did go in March though, and was freezing.

Yeah it's the weather for me.

The only time things like that really appeal are water sports in the middle of a heatwave when I just want to cool down and the gear would dry quickly.

But even then... I'd rather swim or be on the beach

And the snobbery related to the gear being worn is often off the scale. I am a member if a walking group. I have cheap and cheerful gear from mountain warehouse. The waterproof stuff is waterproof. The boots are walking boots. The trousers are those horrible zip off leg things that are brilliantly practical for walking. The amount of time that is spent discussing the gear that other people have....boots that cost 5 x what mine did, breathable this breathable that. I don't give a toss. My brother has the most expensive kit you can get but never leaves his house. I can see how you could feel very intimidated by the need to spend huge amounts of money in order to fit in.

Years ago I worked at an Outward bound School. We’d have kids from aged 8 (I think) upwards, & adults at weekends. They were really put through their paces, we’d wake them up early morning banging saucepans 😆. I loved that job.

Doing "outdoorsy" stuff is not my idea of fun. Add in the patronising "don't look down", "you can do this" type comments I used to get when I was made (as a school girl), to do rock climbing, absailing etc when I was literally crying due to my fear of heights, means that now, as an adult, I steer clear of any "adventure" activity.

Umm, whaaaat?

@AngelinaFibres the all the gear but no idea types are the worst 😂