The Outdoor Parent

Today I am happy to announce the launch on a new website that I have the pleasure to be involved in in a small way. The Outdoor Parent was the idea of Fitz Cahall of the Dirtbag Diaries, where those who've been reading the Dirtbag Dad Diaries know allowed me to shamelessly use and alter the name for this site.

The Outdoor Parent is in our own words...

The Outdoor Parent is a collection of surfers, climbers and skiers who have embarked the greatest adventure -- parenthood -- and lived to tell about it. Stories, perspective and reflections on parenting, children and the outdoor lifestyle.

I'm am going to be a contributing writer on the site, as well as Steve Bohrer, and other fathers and mothers of like mind who are doing what we can to raise our children with a love of, and respect for, the natural world and all life has to offer outside of our "modern" bubbles.

Bedtime Stories for Wanderers

If stories are the currency of travel, then writer Ryan Nickum is a very wealthy man. By the time he turned 30, Nickum's passport was chock full of the brightly colored patchwork of entry and exit stamps from dozens of distant countries. He was consumed by a desire to travel and haunted by the inability to sit still. The gaps in his resume developed into oceans between jobs. Cynicism grew. The overwhelming urge to quit the job and pack a bag sprang up every six months like a song that would not leave his ears. With his career stalling and idealism flat lining, Nickum looked into his past to search for the seed of the travel affliction. There was only one person to blame -- his father....

Listen to the Short at the Dirtbag Diaries.

Snowboarding

I seem to be hearing a lot lately about everyone around me who's going up to the mountains. The news this morning was interviewing people who took advantage of the 20 inches that the mountains got from the last storm, a buddy at work is going up tomorrow (he had to tell me about it), a customer is going up next weekend in time for the next storm. Me, this will be 3 years without going to the mountains ONCE! Its the nature of being in a business where you have to put in more hours when times are slow. If you have a family to support, that's the priority! Hopefully as Levi gets older we'll be in a better position to go up, I don't want him to miss out.

Until then, if I have to suffer, so do you. Here's a video of me cruising down the mountain (big bear) several years ago.

Dirtbag Diaries T-Shirts

If you've read my early posts you know that I stole the name for Dirtbag Dad Diaries from the Dirtbag Diaries. They now have T's available here.

On a side note, I did ask and receive the blessing from Fitz to go ahead and use the name. Didn't want to bite his style without permission!

Shorts - Balance

The Bohrer clan isn’t your average Idaho Falls family. “Our neighbors have trampolines to break neighborhood children’s ankles and wrists. We’ve installed a slack line for that purpose,” writes father of five, Steve Bohrer. Juggling goals in the mountain with parenting is no simple task. Sometimes balancing competing passions requires combining them into a lifestyle. After all, whether you’re old or young, everyone likes to play hooky if there is snow on the hill...

Listen to the rest of the story here