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?

Whe I was in my teens I did one of those. I loved most of the activities but some things could have been done better.
As someone who was very short for my age I really struggled with the rock climbing. The planned route was easy for the taller kids, ok for the average kids but impossible for me. I took twice as long and at one point had to jump and hope I caught a fingertip while digging my toes in to stay on the wall. I was also paired with the girl who bullied me which really didn't help my confidence I refused to make that jump without an instructor on the rope which didn't go down to well.

I've never been climbing again despite abseiling, canoeing, kayaking(prefer the canoe), riding etc.

Agree with the other comments about somewhere to dry your wet clothes where they won't be trashed by others.

Because not everyone likes the outdoors, countryside, getting wet, cold, been forced in doing pointless activities in all the above for no reason. None of them have any purpose or relevance in my life or those of many people.. Just because you enjoy it doesn't mean everyone will.

When I was 11 I went on the school residential and I really enjoyed it but have never done anything like that since, I am just not an outdoors person at all!

It's too cold and wet! And if it was warm I'd rather relax than do any activities!

I also am scared of heights and a lot of these things involve heights so just now my cup of tea at all!

I love the outdoors and have always wished I had the confidence to have taken up activities like this. I have always been overweight and too worried about being too big for activities (fitting in the kit, weight on ropes/in boats etc) and being judged by all the other fit healthy weight participants.

I love outdoor activities. When we went in the uk as a family and there wasn't enough space to dry clothes and shoes. The other thing was accommodation: we had to sleep in bunk beds which is fine for kids but not so much for adults especially when there isn't anywhere else to sit in the room except the floor which was a shame

My weight. I was size 14 aged 13 and all my friends were dainty little things. The harnesses and holding each other's weight with ropes etc was awful.

Plus the canoes were uncomfortable.

I've always hated forced fun, outdoor group activities etc. I've never been very sporty but happy to attend a fitness class or go for a run. I enjoy swimming but I hate canoeing or kayaking. I've been forced into stuff like that when work. Skiing has never appealed to me either.

I love forests, not keen on water activities, unless it's jet skis, like camping, although prefer the log cabin types, climbing I'll give it a go, but not too fussed with heights etc, although it's more falling.

I'm not from the UK and my school residentials were never like this. We'd go hiking or visit a city. All this outdoor high adrenaline stuff doesn't appeal to me in the slightest because I hate heights, I hate speed, I hate being cold and I hate getting muddy. Always have, always will, not because I've been scarred by a former school trip. I think it's just not what many girls / women are naturally into.

This is really interesting.

Thinking about it, the outdoor activities I have enjoyed are ones where I don’t get cold. So in the UK, activities where I stay fully dressed and don’t involve water (climbing, abseiling, hiking, Go Ape). I have enjoyed watersports in the Med or other warm seas but they just don’t appeal in UK water. I get cold easily and hate it.

I do actually like these activities if they don’t involve cold! At school we got to do things like kayaking and ice skating in year 10/11 instead of netball hockey etc. I much preferred the kayaking etc as they were non competitive and I’m shit at ball sports. I did deliberately miss the week where we had to do the capsize test though….

Yes this is spot on in my experience. I don't mind getting wet or cold, don't mind camping, don't mind basic loos and showers as long as they are not totally filthy. I will happily run miles, hike, do stuff in the moutains or swim and am pretty fit.

But at school, the idea of doing something I hadn't done before with the potential to make a fool of myself in front of people, have people laugh at me or risk all the usual bullies stand there making nasty comments, not be very good at something and let the team down, etc. was offputting. Plus I was and still would be very anxious about the idea of doing anything potentially dangerous. So while I might be up for giving stuff a go now, I would prefer it to be in a friendly, no-pressure environment where any instructors would be encouraging.

Happy to stick to the outdoor pursuits I do like though tbh.

I'm a bit a wuss and scared of heights. I also hate being cold and wet.

I think it’s funny how it always seems to be sports.
I had to do one of these residential things at work once too. My work was in STEM and you basically had all these people with maths, engineering, chemistry degrees being told to make their own paddle boat and reach the other side - a group of people that almost certainly include a fair few people who were last to be picked for PE, trip over their own feet etc etc. Some loved it, of course, but I remember feeling so angry that I thought I’d left all the feelings of being rubbish at sports / physical activities and the resulting embarrassment behind at school but apparently not.
It seemed that whatever job you ended up in - even if you purposefully went down a route where you thought you’d end up with people like you - somehow it’s out to find you.

I know this is OTT, and I can see the point of these sorts of activities at school to give everyone, in particular the non academic kids, a chance to do something completely different. As an adult though I don’t think there should be any extra curricular that gets forced upon you.

I've done lots of outdoor activities and enjoyed them but I've always felt the changing rooms/showers and hair drying facilities put me off.
When I'm cold and wet I want somewhere decent to change and come out feeling fresh and dry.
I want a warm, well maintained, CLEAN, single sex facility, with proper hot showers, a good amount of private cubicles (I wouldn't feel comfortable with people that work for me seeing me starkers), proper sized working hair dryers that don't overheat and cut out and are in front of a mirror.
You are often going for a team meal or another activity afterwards and there is nothing worse than wet hair dripping down your back and not being able to get warm, looking like a you've just been dragged from a swamp.
I'd also run single sex courses as lots of women and young girls feel more comfortable trying new things without males present.