The Outdoor Retailer Show and why we're excited about it

Much to our dismay, we often miss out on what's happening in the outdoor world. And while Costa Rica has its fair share of adventuristas, our geographic location limits the number of outdoor conferences and events we get to attend. If a private jet was parked outside our office, however, our calendar would be marked in bold with the Outdoor Retailer Show where outdoor enthusiasts can congregate and unabashedly geek out over new gear. Simply put, it's a mecca for industry members and outdoor retailers to flock to so they can showcase new products before they're available to the public.

Instead of physically being there, we've been keeping digital tabs on the Outdoor Retailer Show via Twitter, Facebook, and a handful of blogs. As an organization that revolves around and depends heavily on our equipment, we're looking forward to scoping out new gear. Despite the fact that its currently featuring primarily winter products, there's still plenty of reason to be "twitterpated" (Twitterpated? Yeah, twitterpated.) Here's what's already caught our attention this year. Let the geeking-out begin.

All of our students, staff, and instructors could probably lecture about the need for a decent headlamp here in Costa Rica. For many of us, they're vital. Whether it's used for reading at night, trekking in low light, or even just getting around base, they are a fixture at Costa Rica Outward Bound. That's why we've been googly-eyed over this one, which was featured in a preview from the The Gear Junkie blog. It's super light-weight with powerful LED technology and practically indestructible - made by Light and Motion.

Nearly all of our courses have to deal with finding clean drinking water or treating it at some point. How awesome would it be to have a convenient portable filtration system that's built into the water bottle itself? The folks from Hydro Flask pretty much answered this question with their nifty new device. The answer, by the way, is pretty awesome (pictures from the UtahOutside.com blog).

With a gang of dogs running around our offices, sometimes it can be a challenge to corral them. It would sure be great if they carried their own leashes with them. Turns out they can thanks to the Super Collar which features a built-in retractable leash. You can see it action on their site - it can even pull a car!

Almost all of us down here at Costa Rica Outward Bound rely on our backpacks for traveling, backpacking, and going on weekend trips. With so many pack styles to choose from, we think it's pretty cool that Boreas Gear, from San Francisco, is letting people design and attach patches at their booth. Their website provides pictures of their backpacks and even shows a live feed of them at the show. Their initial lineup expected to launch in Spring, we're excited to see how people react.

Interested in following the action yourself? Here's a live twitter feed to help you keep up to speed with what's happening right now.





Are you anticipating any exciting or cool new gear? Which of these items are of interest? Let us know!

Allow me to introduce myself

As the new Social Media Coordinator for Costa Rica Outward Bound, I wanted to properly introduce myself since I'll be managing our social networking platforms, including Your Hanashita. Having just graduated from the University of Washington with a marketing degree and an emphasis on international business, I'm excited to bring our followers updates about what's going on here in Costa Rica and to strengthen our interactive online communities.

Although I've already traveled a bit throughout Central America, my journeys were far too short-lived and I definitely plan on exploring as much of Costa Rica as possible. What's great about working here is that visiting other parts of the country is actually encouraged! So while I'm off surfing for the weekend and improving my Spanish, I'll also be constantly trying to create content that is valuable to you as a reader.

As a unique experiential learning organization nestled in the cloud forest, we've got plenty to report and even more to share so if there is anything you would specifically be interested in reading or learning about, please don't hesitate to mention it - I'm here to learn as well, so why not do it together? I hope to be pulling together as many resources as possible in order make this space a worthwhile stop and a regular part of your browsing. 

That being said, muchas gracias for the visit and feel free to contact me anytime with questions at britten@crrobs.org. While this blog will be reserved for more in-depth posts, please don't forget to check us out on Twitter (username: @CROutwardBound) and Facebook (facebook.com/crobbs) for more regular updates. We're all about making new friends.

My name is Britten. Nice to meet you.