September 2025

Bleary eyed from a scarcity of shuteye, you shimmy out of your sleeping bag, stick your head out your tent flap, and observe your campsite. It’s not a pretty picture. In fact, it looks like you woke up in the middle of a yard sale. Or the tail end of a party turned bad.

There’s gear spread out everywhere, a tarp blown up against a tree, protein bar wrappers discarded by hungry racoons. And now it’s time to pay the piper for last night’s decision for selecting and setting up a terrible campsite.

It happens. Sometimes it’s due to unpredictable weather, poor planning, inexperience, or just bad decision making. Fortunately, you can take steps to reduce its frequency. This post explains how, but first, let’s look into the importance of even having a quality campsite.

What’s the Big Deal Over Selecting and Setting Up a Quality Campsite?

Campsite selection, setup, and management aren’t always a top priority. It’s something we outdoor adventurers often do “on the fly,” when the need arises. However, the more thought and planning you put into it, the safer and more enjoyable your camping experience will be.

When contemplating the construct of a up quality campsite, you might want to consider the following factors:

• Safety: Providing protection from the weather and its effects, as well as from natural and human elements and neighboring campers ensures you’re not posing a risk to anyone’s safety.
• Comfort: You need to seek a sheltered area with a patch of soft, level ground to sleep on and an area where you can eat your meals in comfort.
• Efficiency: You should have enough room to organize your food and gear for convenience, and you want easy access to water and places to use the toilet and wash your dishes.
• Ecology: You want a campsite that’s conducive to practicing Leave No Trace (LNT) Principles. For example, try to find an established campsite instead of one that requires clearing vegetation.

Including Campsite Selection in Your Trip Planning

The process of choosing and setting up a proper campsite in a quality location should begin well before you embark on your backcountry adventure. During our pre-trip meetings with groups or during training sessions, we always talk about what makes a good campsite and important factors we need to consider before choosing sites.

When planning a trip and thinking about where you will spend the night, take the following factors into consideration: (more…)

Recently I watched “Heritage,” a short documentary about one of the early professional skateboarders, Steve Caballero. At some point in the viewing, I realized more time was being spent on Steve’s mountain biking skills and passion for motorcross than on his skateboarding career, and I had to wonder why. 

If you’ve been a whitewater paddler, a climber, a surfer, or a skateboarder all your life, why would you want to try something new? You’ve proven yourself. You’re an expert. Why risk failure?

It occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, Steve wanted to experience the feeling of  improve at something new rather than watch his skateboarding skills plateau or, worse, decline. After all, progression is a lot more fun than regression. Sure, you might suck at it when you’re getting started, but the sky’s the limit in terms of potential for improvement.

So, in the spirit of sucking at something new, let’s dive into novice experiences and what we gain from trying something new.

What I Chose to Suck at

I’ve been a surfer all my life. I’ve ridden massive waves all around the world and was good at it. When I moved away from the ocean, I wasn’t able to get in as much surf time as I wanted, so I started whitewater kayaking. I never got to be an amazing whitewater kayaker, but I ran some big rapids, explored remote creeks, and progressed as far as I had expected. 

Knowing I wasn’t going to get much better at kayaking and knowing I was not surfing as much as I wanted to, I decided to try whitewater stand-up paddleboarding (SUP). At the time, I didn’t know anyone doing (more…)