May 2008 » Pemba Serves

Ethical Play

As some of you may know, I’ve been working on getting a non-profit organization off the ground – theCORgroup – and we’ve been getting some press lately. Madisonians, look for us in the Isthmus’ Recreation section this week. Also online.

A little background: theCORgroup – Conscious Outdoor Recreation – started with conversations about the inconsistency between the outdoor recreation community’s very refined backcountry/LNT ethic, and all the driving we are doing to get to the backcountry. As outdoor enthusiasts, our passion for the outdoors can’t really be separated from our environmental consciousness – but striking a balance between hardcore wilderness experiences and minimizing transportation impacts is difficult… especially when we’re hurting for backcountry skiing, whitewater paddling, and multipitch climbing here in the upper Midwest. theCORgroup has grown out of these tensions to explore how we can continue to have meaningful experiences in the backcountry, while being attentive to the true costs of being there.

We propose a new wilderness ethic – a frontcountry ethic – that applies some of these Leave-No-Trace principles to our daily lifestyle. Folks should still go on that sweet Colorado ski trip… but maybe just once a year, and consider trying to bike to work a little more often the rest of the time. I’m still going to West Virginia this fall for the Gauley River Festival, but you can be sure we’re going to be packing my little Chevy Cavalier to capacity!

We’re not telling people not to go into the wilderness, we just want to promote more critical discussion of how to do it responsibility. As for me and the Pemba Team: we’re exploring opportunities for local recreation. There’s plenty of this in Madison, but I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by all the Rails-to-Trails, river corridors, and quality urban parks all along my clinic routes. Stay tuned for more on Urban Wilderness, but check out that Isthmus article in the meantime, and let is know what else we should be doing as an industry to promote Conscious Outdoor Recreation!

Important Bizness Meetings

Pete sinks a stretch-shot at the Dane during a rainy day in April.

Yeah, we work hard here. Really we do, sometimes even to the point of excess. As you may have read here or elsewhere, we’ve recently asked an old friend of ours – Tom McMahan – to become our Minister of Fun. His job is to come once every other week or so and make us have fun, whether we like it or not. (He practically had to shut off Janice’s computer while she was using it to get her to drop everything and join us.) We thought you might like to see a couple of our recent outings with the Minister of Fun himself. Don’t worry, there will be many more.

Lunch on the Capitol Lawn en route to Olbrich Gardens by bike.

Minister of War and Charity

Pemba Serves is pleased to announce that outdoor industry legend Jeff Weidman has accepted a position on our Board of Directors in the newly created title of Minister of War and Charity. Jeff Weidman is an industry veteran with over 30 years of professional experience.

During his tenure in the industry, Jeff has worn many different hats with complete authority: He has been a retail shop manager, buyer, rep, and store owner. He worked for years for Erehwon Mountain Outfitters, was a rep for lines such as Yakima, Cascade Designs, JanSport and many others, and most recently was co-owner of Rutabaga Paddlesports here in Madison, WI. Jeff is currently completing a term on the board of the Outdoor Industry Association, and also recently began serving on the board of the Big City Mountaineers.

Brad Werntz, our President here at Pemba Serves, feels that fostering on-going mentorship is an important value and has actively been looking for key individuals to help us develop as a team. Weidman has graciously agreed to offer guidance and direction in two areas where he has specific expertise: War and Charity. Says Weidman,”Thinking of the outdoor business as war is just the wrong paradigm, and – at the same time – some of the tools, strategies, tactics, and even politics of war are instructive models in business, today.”

In reality, as we have many times over the years called on Weidman for specific guidance during times of crisis, the War element of his title simply recognizes more formally a post that he has long held in our hearts and minds.

“What I’m really excited about is the Charity deal,” says Weidman,”At Rutabaga we always offered five days of time to our staff so that they could work hands-on with any charity of their choice – it’ll be great to get some of these same things going at Pemba.”

Specifically, we at Pemba Serves will go out once a quarter to do charity work as a team, and will look to develop a more hands-on approach to giving alongside our ongoing financial contributions through 1% For The Planet to the River Alliance of Wisconsin.

It is an honor to have Jeff with our team. Please help us welcome him! He has his own e-mail, and he’s not afraid to use it.

Parental Control

It’s amazing how much control parents can have over their children sometimes. Obviously not always, but a good portion of the time a kid grows up to be much like either one of his parents. In my case, it’s my dad. No doubt in my mind.

Growing up I idolized him, as a good kid should. He was, and still is, the epitomy of who I want to be as a person. So many of the lessons I’ve learned throughout my life I’ve learned from him. I’ll be forever grateful for that.

Even our chosen professions, he’s a pharmaceutical sales rep, are eerily similar. I still have very vague memories of a “take your son to work day”. Dressing up in black slacks and a button up shirt. Having my parents put on a tie for me, clip on of course. I even think it may have been a bow tie to make it even better. It was fun seeing what he did for a living. Seeing what he did while I was away at school.

Now I’m sitting here 15 or so years later traveling through Michigan, and while it’s not pharmaceuticals, I get to talk about and play with products I use every day. I get to work for really cool companies that sell some of the best gear on the planet. It’s fun and I couldn’t be happier doing it.

What brought all this on? I was tooling through some of my old pictures from Mammoth and found some of him. My roommate and I took him climbing one day while he was visiting. I can’t explain how much fun it was to finally teach him something! To show him something new and to do exactly what he had been doing to me my entire life.

Here is a picture of him on one of the climbs. Since then, he found out he had adult onset diabetes he’s lost about 40-50 pounds. I couldn’t be happier for him.

If my memory serves me right, about 10 days after this picture was taken it snowed a foot and a half. Mind you, this picture was taken in early May. More on that in a few days though…..

Birthday Challenges

I found this old picture of me on one of my many failed birthday challenges. I’ve always been in the school of thought that if you complete a birthday challenge, it was too easy. If you fail but still come close to completing, kudos. You pushed yourself proper. If you fail with a horribly miserable tally of completed challenges, you’re just not cut out for birthday challenges. I fall into the last category having had multiple catastrophic failures.

About 10 minutes after this picture was taken I walked over to clean off the topout of my next problem, Pinball Arete. In short order I slipped and fell, 8 foot stick brush in hand, into one of the worst landings at the lake. Luck was on my side and I walked out wanting to try to complete the rest of the challenge. My leg ended up stiff as a log after trying my next climb and I couldn’t climb or walk normally for a couple of weeks.

Lesson learned. I haven’t attempted a challenge since. By the way, what does everybody think of purple??

Proudly showing off the farmers tan.

This is one of the coolest moves I’ve done at Devils Lake.

Fritters are so good. Thank you Greenbush.

There is a rumor going around that Vera is looking for some old pictures of Brad in his lycra and mullet days. We’ll see if he can compete with these. I’m going to wager a guess he’ll be able to beat me.