…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…

…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…

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…

…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…

Gabe Issac’s experience and passion for the outdoors and the environment makes her an ideal NCOAE field instructor….

…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,…

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…

…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….

…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…

…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…

…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…

…There are always lessons to be learned on the trail, and they aren’t always related to building a campfire, setting up a tent, or leaving your campsite cleaner than when you arrived. Some of these are life lessons that fall in the category of treating others as you would like to be treated and adhering…

…There are few activities that provide a greater explosion of sense and emotions than putting foot in a new land — a foreign place where you have to navigate language, landscape, and culture practically the instant you arrive. Memories of stepping off a plane and heading out of the airport in Kathmandu, Port Au Prince,…

Shoshana loves using the outdoors and wilderness to teach about the environment and opportunities for personal growth and development….

Lilly Ade brings a raft of experience in outdoor and wilderness education to her position as a field instructor for NCOAE….

Zac and Celine, co-founders of NCOAE, are featured in Episode 15 of the “It’s In the Experience” podcast, presented by the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) and hosted by Sherry Bagley, AEE’s executive director. This 45-minute episode, titled “Overcoming Challenges: Creating Positive Experiences in Experiential Education,” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast App,…