Caia Koopman created the art on these skis and snowboard from Rossignol. She's a lowbrow artist contracted by Oakley, Rossignol and a few gear makers to create signature designs, and as you can see her work is bold, assured, and whimsical. Much like the 4-year-old girl I raise, if I may inject that. You try getting her bathed, brushed, chilled out with a book and finally to bed and you'll see for yourself. I need a drink just thinking about it.
The line of Rossignol boards and skis is significant not just because of the fanciful feminine artwork . . .
Child carriers and backpacks are not all that new, but you probably knew that already. The entirety of human history all over the globe show examples of slings, pouches and cradle boards used for hands-free baby transport. However, in 20th-century U.S.A., child carriers were absolutely non-existent. That changed in 1968 with a young Peace Corps volunteer named Ann Moore who witnessed the women in Africa carrying babies and infants in slings on their backs. Moore eventually returned from her service in West Africa, started her own family, and having loved the idea of keeping a hands-free active life while keeping her baby snuggled against her body, she went to the store to buy a baby sling. She couldn't find one, so she designed her own soft carrier, called it the Snugli (link) and practically launched an entire industry.
Kelty came along in 1992 with their iconic kid backpack and you could say the trails of the National Park system haven't been the same since.
And now there's a new, fancier, snazzier pack on the street from Osprey . . .
If there's a story that hits the bulls eye so sharply as Dr. Seuss's Oh, The Places You'll Go, we have yet to know what it is. The good doctor gave us a wonderful tale that outlines precisely what to expect from life and it has tickled the hearts of many over the last 21 years since it's first printing. There's a reason why this book's sales spike every May, sending every graduate off into the world with a diploma and a copy of the pithy story that every last one of us identifies with. This time, a fella named Teddy Saunders wanted to do something special with the story. . .
What is it that we can say about a device invented to satisfy the hole in humanity's heart that only the sheer joy of leaping great heights and distances can fill? And what is the internet if it isn't a place to spill some ink for the obscure lowly and unholy and therefore long forgotten and undercommercialized past times? So here you go. Three minutes of some of the most wicked pogo stick action you're likely to see anywhere . . .
Delivering plastic toys to the well-behaved, well-mannered children of planet Earth is a commendable act. So is stuffing coal into the stockings of the naughtiest ones. Yay Santa!
You'd think that in our day, in which we hear such pieces of advice for going green like ride a bike to the store or do multiple errands in one drive, that Santa's method of riding a Scandinavian sleigh tugged by Arctic reindeer would be near the top of the green-o-meter. It requires no fossil fuel to burn and no lead-acid batteries. According to this whimsical, entertaining and fun infographic from Ethical Ocean, I couldn't be more wrong . . .
A year ago, the Disney movie Tangled landed in theaters and stole the hearts of little girls and their weepy, misty-eyed dads. The old folk tale of Rapunzel and her locks shouldn't be too foreign to you. The most famous version, before Disney's, was likely the one that's found in Grimms' Fairy Tales, the compilation of German folk tales assembled by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th Century. As you can expect it's not quite the same as the movie, but the nuts-n-bolts are the same . . .
Down in the ol' grungy southwest U.S., you'd think we'd be more tuned into the upsides of the poncho for our winter kit. Especially for the kids. Ponchos are the warm garment of choice for native Andean folk and other pre-Hispanic cultures of Central and South America. But the poor things get misrepresented and misconstrued from the bad guys with straps of bullets around their chests in old Clint Eastwood flicks, to the late night infomercials extolling the virtues of the blanket with sleeves called the snuggie. Add to that, outdoors folk tend to hear the word poncho and think, "That's a plastic thing inside the pocket of my emergency kit I got for 99 cents in case it rains." It's no wonder we just don't see classier version of ponchos at all.
To hear my wife tell it, I present no shortage of difficulty when it comes to Christmas trees. She's probably right. Before our second Christmas I barnstormed with fury that we forget a tree and get a cactus instead, because that was something we could plant in the yard after making a spectacle of it. Well, that unfestive suggestion grew no wings and did not fly. We still found ourselves at a tree lot, looking for something perfectly triangular and uniform and just tall enough and something more or less out of a storybook and everything else that just doesn't come naturally to things that are, well, natural.
We bought one. Probably for 60 bucks. The whole experience left me dissatisfied . . .
It may be that the only thrill that's more intense than being a boy who's riding a bike is being the dad who takes him out for a morning of some tasty singletrack. Watch this.
* * * The Sunday Morning Chillax? Here's the idea. It's Sunday. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your kids sleep in. No need to read, this is always a video; something to give you happy thoughts about mountains, fresh air, stoke, fun, or being outside. Enjoy. Relax. Not guaranteed to be weekly . . . hey, you get what you pay for.
It may be that the only devils out there are the ones in costume. You know how they get when they've had too much candy.
While we all have some quirky neighbors—perhaps our neighbors believe we're the weird ones—it seems that on Halloween night they might not be lacing their candy with lye and rat poison or not even handing out razors and used hypodermic needles. Joel Best is a sociology professor from University of Delaware who's been researching the phenomenally generalized fear of tainted Halloween candy. He's studied news reports as far back as 1958, and though he's found some wild stories, the truth of the matter might surprise you. "No child has ever died or been seriously injured by contaminated Halloween treats," he says.
Yesterday, I took my 4-year old daughter to the gear shop to buy some new warm gloves and hat. Kids being kids, we can only find one left glove out of a total of three pairs she owns. We have some adventures planned this fall and winter so we had resupply this department.
When we arrived, we found a whole 16' row packed full of gloves and hats just for kids. She couldn't contain herself.
Surfing, skiing, riding bikes, and climbing. These are the outdoor pursuits that come easier to the little ones than many of us realize. That is until we see our kids give them a shot. That's when we're delighted and surprised, or surprisingly delighted, to see them try, maybe fall a bit, but also get back up and keep going with no shortage of stoke. This video should really get you excited. Watch little Jaime. He's just 4 years old and cranks 5.10b in the gym on lead.
By now, everyone should know about the upsides of bringing a "kid's tent" for a play area. But when is the time right for kids to sleep the whole night in their own tent?
Like many families with super little ones, we like to pack along a small ground tent for the kids to play in during the day. I've secretly been hanging onto the hope that the kids will get this bright idea and go, "We want to camp in here tonight!" But get this - my plan is to say no way. Use it as leverage, and dangle it out in front of them a bit. "Finish your vegetables, then we'll think about letting you two camp in your own tent someday." Yes, I'm playing with fire here. But I want them to want it so bad that their hopes will be sky high. Because, truthfully, I want them to feel so elated and stoked when it finally happens that no bump or noise or coyote howl in the night can possibly spook them back into bed with me. I'm terrible, I know.
Well. Gee. It hasn't worked like that. Go figure. So far it's never occurred to them to want to camp in their own kids-only tent. This isn't going the way I want it to go. Hmph. Should I be surprised? That's practically the pure definition of fatherhood . . .
In April, my wife, Brooke, and I hosted a discussion-presentation on family adventure travel at Overland Expo, and if there's anything that I learned from that, it's everyone has their own wildly varied concerns when it comes to adventure-travel and everyone is different. My absolute favorite came from a young mom with a baby just a few months old who, right away, wanted to dive into how the hell to fix her husband - it was cute and good humored, rest assured. But obviously there was a hint of truth to it . . .
Every parent who wants to get more exercise, keep up with their desire for, say, backpacking, or hit that goal to compete in a triathlon (or insert your own goal), wonders how other parents do it. And the big one, especially for first time parents, is as simple as how do you take a baby camping for the first time? The truth is none of us are experts at this business of juggling family responsibilities with our outdoor pursuits. We're all winging it in different ways because our children are dynamic critters with their own personalities, quirks, and soft spots. And so are we.
If hanging out outside isn't about food and happiness, then what is it about? I'm sure we all know that the magical combination of graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow is the near-ultimate manifestation of happiness in food. On my list, s'mores rank third after mint chocolate chip ice cream and my wife's homemade brownies, neither of which can we replicate on a campfire. S'mores have the upper hand there.
If you don't know about the outdoor clothing by Mountain Mama, you probably should. In the simplest terms, Mountain Mama creates stylish and functional clothing for women who enjoy the outdoors. Especially pregnant women. Mountain Mama doesn't stop there, because, well, who could when there are beloved babies involved? The company works with Seth Neilson, a graphic designer, to make this ultra-cute adventure alphabet series of onsies and toddler t-shirts.
I remember the first day my dad removed the training wheels from my bike and launched me down the neighborhood road aimed right at the certain death he maintained was "just the cul-de-sac, son." I have to be honest and confess that I cried in terror. If only this little dude was my bud at the time. Watch and listen to how stoked this kid is to have learned to ride his bike.
I commute 44 miles to-and-from work every day of the week, and a couple of days I'm also in charge of drop-off-and-pick-up for my daughter who is in pre-school. Her school is five miles in the opposite direction of my office, which means an additional 10 miles for me on those days. So not cool, and so not possible on a bike if I value sleep.
Shortly after she started school, I sold my lifted-with-oversize-tires Jeep Wrangler for more money than I hoped for, and bought a used Audi A3 that sips a gallon of gasoline for every 30 miles I drive. I'm so pleased with that improvement. And sometimes I can manage to ride to work on a Trek mountain bike that I've bastardized with a rack, panniers and a set of skinny Serfas road tires. Sure it's kind of goofy and miscalculated, but it also meets my budget. It is what it is.
Yeah, yeah yeah. I know it's Easter and you probably should be hiding eggs right about now. And it's good and fun, but you can do that in a minute. Watch these cute little girls hit the waves. This comes from one stoked dad down under who's put together a number of videos of his groms in the water. Keep it up, kids. Keep it up.
Not a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone asking about photography. Shamefully, it's a difficult task to coach people on photo tips with the written word as my only tool. It's even more awkward when I'm asked, "What kind of camera do you have?" because it feels like that's someone's way of digging to the depths to find the treasure of nabbing some great photos. And what I end up doing is saying something like, "I shoot with a Canon 5D, not the Mark II, but an obsolete version that few would be willing to accept for free. But here's what really helps me . . ." and they get some version of the following.
The web isn't short of photo tips, so why should I bother? Because I feel that it's only polite to answer the questions. And I didn't invent the following tricks, someone taught them to me. Learning together is what this website is all about. So without any more fuss, these are three photo tips out of like 5,000 that I think are pretty helpful when it comes to snapping shots of the kids outside.
We might not know the origins of the mighty unicycle, but there is no doubt whatsoever that we all get a little giggle and must stop to stare when we see someone riding one.
The American author Sloan Wilson wrote in his memoir, What Shall We Wear to this Party? The Man in The Gray Flannel Suit, 20 Years Before and After, "A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard."
Well, what says freedom like a unicycle? And I can imagine all the aid a unicycle brings to parenting:
"But Dad I want a bike!" "Start with this. You can have the second wheel when you earn it."
Or for that 16-year-old daughter who became a sweetie over night because she's dying to get her own Jetta:
"You get one speeding ticket, I'll take away the car, your phone, your bike. You can have a unicycle."
Location, Location, Location: The important element in a successful hammock siesta. Chloe's enjoying the Pacific side of Baja the proper way.
The day Brooke hung a hammock from a mesquite tree in our back yard I watched her and Chloe swing in it for three or four minutes while the anchor on one end began to fray.
"Join us, Papa." Brooke said.
"No way. That rope around the tree is about to break."
She looked at it. Chloe looked at it. "Oh, come on. It's fine."
