Outside Magazine

Tina Currin’s dance card remains full after completing our 27-day Hybrid Wilderness EMT course this past March. For starters, Tina is currently wrapping up the Triple Crown of American long-distance hiking. In fact, she’s about 1,600 miles into the Continental Divide Trail, which runs the length of the Rockies — from Canada to Mexico.

“I should be done in about a month, by which point I’ll have hiked more than 10,000 miles on National Scenic Trails across the USA,” she recently told us. We should note that traversing the Divide isn’t the first of her long-distance backpacking rodeos. Tina’s also tackled the Appalachian & Pacific Crest Trails, as well as major trail systems in Arizona, Florida and throughout New England.

Depending on the season, Tina is a freelance writer, National Park Service (NPS) Ranger, and a long-distance backpacker. She’s worked as a ski liftie, spent a summer season guiding cave tours, and organized large-scale charity events and bike races.

Professionally, Tina has created content for the NPS’ social media accounts and currently contributes articles to NPS.gov. She also writes blog posts and conducts product testing for Hyperlite Mountain Gear and Nashville Pack and Equipment Company. And she occasionally contributes what she terms “grainy photographs” to Outside Magazine.

Why Tina Chose NCOAE’s W-EMT Course

So, with a schedule that makes her feel “like a strange assemblage of a zillion somewhat-related skills stuffed inside a hiker’s body,” why did this backcountry wonder carve out a full month of time for NCOAE’s intensive W-EMT training program?

Tina said the reason she signed up for the (more…)

When shopping for human-outdoor equipment, keeping up with the Joneses used to be the norm. New skis, boots, boards, kayaks, apparel, bikes, wetsuits and more. Whatever your sport or pursuit of choice, you had to have the latest technical outdoor gear, whether that be the freshest technology, the most wicked new design, or equipment that’s sleek and half the weight of last year’s model.

Photo © by Lukas Robertson. | Used with permission – sourced from Unsplash.

But that was then, and this is now. And good luck discovering what’s the norm in today’s adventure sports world. Stroll into your favorite outdoor store, surfshop, bicycle store or paddleboard purveyor and your head will spin at the options available to outdoor recreation enthusiasts today.

And while the manufacturing side of the outdoor industry might try to sell us on the notion of a new norm, the participants themselves hold the upper hand. That’s because this is the best time to be an outdoor recreation enthusiast. The offerings are endless and the manufacturers in the field are treating us to new equipment that was unimaginable just a few (more…)