Risk Management
Avoiding Target Fixations and Incident Pits in the Backcountry
…“Look where you want to go!” I have conveyed this message to wilderness course participants countless times, shouting, screaming, and using hand signals when necessary. Sometimes I’m yelling above the roar of a set of rapids or the sound of an adjacent waterfall. “Look where you want to go!” I emphatically issue the same advice…
Wilderness Medicine
What Outdoor Industry Pros Recommend You Keep in Your First-Aid Kit
…Having a first aid kit handy is always a good idea, but what should it contain? The answer to this question really depends on what you plan to be doing. There are different considerations for a kit that you carry in your car versus one that you grab up for a mountain bike ride or…
Medical Training
Heat Illness: Symptoms, Prevention, and Treatment
…Nobody likes to be hot and sweaty on the trail. But when things turn from being uncomfortable to becoming downright dangerous, it’s time for quick, on-the-spot emergency action. Heat illness is a range of medical conditions that result from the body’s inability to cope with an elevated heat load. When that occurs, it is more…
EMT Training
8 Alternative Jobs to Pursue with an EMT Certification
…Just obtaining an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license opens a world of career possibilities both inside and out of the medical field. Sure, you have to put in the effort, but the opportunities are as diverse as our EMT students here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). Fact is, we receive…
Emergency Medicine
Maintaining Resilience and Mental Health in the EMS Profession
…The suicide rate among emergency medical service (EMS) professionals rose a shocking 38 percent since 2009, according to a study published in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. But as shocking as that statistic is, it should come as no surprise. As an emergency medical technician (EMT) or paramedic, you typically work a five-day rotation…
Emergency Medicine
Spinal Immobilization or Spinal Motion Restriction: Which is Safest?
…While spine immobilization has long been the standard procedure for treating patients in the backcountry, growing research suggests Spinal Motion Restriction may be the safer option!…
NCOAE Recommends
Engaging Teens in the Outdoors
…Getting your child or teen to look up from their smartphone, put down their Xbox controllers, or step away from the TV can be a chore — and that’s just when you’re calling them to dinner. Mention taking a walk around the block or joining the family on a picnic a local park and witness…
EMT Training
Mental Health Issues for Emergency Medical Technicians
…Becoming a full- or part-time Emergency Medical Technician requires extreme and rigorous training, and it’s not a career choice to be taken lightly. That’s because emergency medical responders encounter patients in life-threatening situations, ranging from traumatic incidences of cardiac arrest and auto accidents, to drownings to drug overdoses. EMS techs like the ones we train…
Land Management
Bears Ears Controversy Threatens Outdoor Retailer Show in Utah
…The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s founders Zac and Celine Adair recently returned from this month’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market show in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the buzz inside The Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center was centered around moving the show out of Utah and to a state with “a…
Wilderness
Mother Nature Requests a Non-Disclosure Agreement on Secret Spots
…You’ve just finished packing up your gear and made sure that your favorite secret camping spot is in better shape than when you arrived. You’ve disposed of your waste properly and minimized your impact. Suddenly, someone stumbles out of the tree line with a couple of sidekicks, tosses down a backpack and pulls a smartphone…
Outdoor Lingo
Surfing Terminology and Slang: You Can’t Play BINGO Without the Lingo
…Seems most every human-powered outdoor recreation activity has a language of its own. And the more popular that activity becomes, the more expansive the list of slang words and new terminology become. It’s a way of communicating efficiently with your fellow enthusiasts, and let’s face it, speaking the language makes your part of the group….
NCOAE Recommends
Here’s the Cold Facts about Canyon Coolers — in Our Opinion
Here at The National Center for Outdoor Adventure & Education (NCOAE), we just aren’t all that interested in touting the attributes of the materials and products we use while traversing the worldwide wilderness areas in which we work. But every once in a while, we’ll step back and look at a piece of outdoor gear…
Backcountry Prep
Now’s the Time to Explode Your Backpack
…Most successful outdoor retailers take monthly, quarterly, and/or an annual inventory of what they have in stock, what needs to be replaced, and what might need to be added to the store’s shelves. Items that sit ignored on the shelf or are no longer in fashion go in the “50% Off” bin or “sale” rack,…
Backcountry Prep
Sleeping Out: From Cowboy Camping to Luxury Tents, the Choice is Yours
…Few things on Earth can match the unsurpassed contentment of sleeping outdoors. “If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night,” Bill Watterson once wrote, “I bet they’d live a lot differently.” Amen to that! The stars above, the clouds floating by like sailing vessels, the trees whispering in the breeze. And, of…
Land Management
State Offices of Outdoor Recreation are Now a Thing
…Stereotyping is never a good thing — primarily because such finger-pointing prejudices are usually unsupported by fact. Take, for example, the 140 million Americans who either dabble in human-powered outdoor recreational activities to some extent or are fully immersed in everything related to the backcountry and Wilderness itself. That’s almost half the nation’s population, if…
Conferences
Upcoming and Important Outdoor Industry Conferences
As you’re probably aware, we here at The National Center for Outdoor Adventure & Education (NCOAE) do a lot more than just organize backcountry trips for teens, Outdoor Educator courses for outdoor education industry professionals, GAP Year Programs for college-age students, and wilderness medicine and EMT training for anyone desirous of such certifications. For certain,…
Risk Management
2 Words When Natural Disaster Threatens Your Outdoor Campus: Be Prepared
For those of us who work day in and day out at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s (NCOAE) headquarters in Wilmington, N.C., tropical storms and hurricanes are part of our environment. Just last year, Hurricane Matthew paid our campus a visit — right in the middle of a three-week campus-based course. But…
Adult Courses
Dates Announced For 2015 North Carolina Women’s Wilderness Initiative
…If you believe being in the backcountry allows for a freedom that can’t be found anywhere else, or that backpacking and river rafting by their very nature sets a subtle but intentional pace that’s good for your soul, then our September 7-13, 2015, Women’s Wilderness Initiative course in North Carolina is tailor-made for you and…
Outdoor Education Research
The Early-Camper Gets the Worm, According to Wilderness Study
…It’s common knowledge that hanging around the outdoors, whether that be running bases on the baseball field or trekking in the backcountry — is nothing less than beneficial for you. There’s all that fresh air, exercise, a release from the stresses of everyday life — we could go on infinitum. So now we have a…
EMT Training
21-Day Intensive EMT-Basic Training Now Available in North Carolina
…Starting and completing EMT-Basic training in North Carolina doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out exercise. It’s now possible — in just 21 days — to obtain the proper training and knowledge to take and then pass the National Registry and the North Carolina state EMT exam. Editor’s Note: This course was previously a 19-day…