Essentials Preparation for Outdoor Programme

Everybody loves outdoor activity, but not everybody able to organize a memorable outdoor programme. 

“In order to know where you’re going, you’re going to need to know where you want to end up.”

Who is going on the trip? What adventure activity will we choose? Where will the trip take

place? When will the trip be held? Why are we going on this trip? How do we do everything that

needs to be done in order to plan a FUN, safe and challenging backcountry trip that both

leaders and participants enjoy? These questions form the basis for trip planning. The following

is a series of more specific questions that, when answered, will help establish trip details.

Leadership Team

● Who’s interested? Who’s available?

● Relevant and recent backcountry experience?

● Recent and relevant experience working with the age group of the participants?

● Current qualifications?

● Who has worked (tripped) together before as leaders?

● What are their leadership styles? Communication styles?

● Night Owls vs. Early Birds; Grazers vs. Meal-timers

● Health status (allergies, medical conditions that might be problematic in the backcountry)

● DIY (Do it yourself) vs. TPSP (Third Party Service Provider)

Can we do this? Should we do this? What’s my comfort level?

Participants

● Who’s interested? Who’s available?

● Relevant and recent backcountry experience? Current qualifications?

● Are there prerequisites in order to be considered for the trip?

● Do they know each other?

● Have they camped or tripped with each other?

● What are their learning styles? Communication styles?

● Health status (allergies, medical conditions that could be problematic in the backcountry)

● How much training and orientation will they require to be successful on the trip?

Support (Home Contact Person) Team

● Who’s interested?

● Who’s available?

● Are they always available and what’s Plan B?

● Have they been oriented as Support Personnel?

● How well do I know them?

● How well do they know me and my competencies and experience?

● Communication styles?

The What

● What’s the primary means of transport?

● What do we need (gear, knowledge, skills, etc.)

● What is the activity? What are we doing while on the trip?

● What’s plan B?

● What documentation is necessary pre-trip (authorization and approval), during the trip

and debriefing/report post-trip? 

The Where

● Where will the trip start? Where will it finish?

● Where are you going to stay and camp on a day-by-day basis (trip/float plan)?

● Where are they ‘emergency exits’ along the way?

● Is where we’re going a controlled area or Crown Land (Cdn waters vs. intl waters)?

● What kind of climate is it? (marine, tundra, Canadian Shield, alpine)

● Are permits required? If so, what are the permit restrictions (size of group, numbers of

tents, cooking methods, etc.)?

● Are there fire restrictions or bans?

The When

● When are we going? For how long?

● What time of year is it?

● When do we need to leave home to be at the trailhead/put in on-time?

● Large group/small group (high vs. low and shoulder seasons by activity type)

● When do we need to acquire our permits?

● When do we need to communicate with our leadership team? With our home support

team? With our participants? With GGC? With the relevant parks/police authorities?

The Why

● Why do we want to do this trip (WIIFM – What’s In it for Me?)?

● Why does each of the participants want to do this trip?

● What are everyone’s trip expectations? (Are they only interested in how many kms. they

can log, or do they want to be able and stop and smell the roses along the way?)

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Navigation Tips for Beginners

Put all your navigation skills together to create a route for a group activity/adventure. Using variables such as the group’s goals, needs and abilities, you can research and explore options for your activity. Acquire relevant maps (recreational/topographic), read about the route in a guidebook, and find some recent route descriptions from an online source. Select the best path to achieve your objective. Mind map: think about the route to take, the conditions that may affect your day (temperature, winds, second day of a trip) and how far you want to travel. Look at options; are there other routes or campsites available to use as a contingency plan? If you plan for the unexpected, and find yourself having to adapt during your day, you will have another

route to follow and succeed.

Your home contact person (HCP) is your lifeline and back-up plan. The HCP should have a good understanding of what you are planning to do and how you plan to do it, including alternative plans. If you are using a locator beacon to check in, the HCP should have an understanding of what the SPOT can tell them – your position, and a SPOT’s limitations – it is only a one-way communication device. If you have UTM co-ordinates listed as part of you route plan, your home contact must know what the coordinates are. Ensure your HCP has the information and training she needs to assist you.

Landmarks

Landmarks are distinctive features that you can find in your area as well as on the map. Examples include peaks, lakes while on land, the end of a small island or the mouth of a stream. Matching your map with landmarks is one of the foundations to all map reading.

Handrails

Handrails are linear features leading you in the direction you wish to go. Identify a handrail on the map and in the field and then follow it towards your objective. Trails and roads are the most obvious handrails but you can follow fences, streams, edges of fields and other long narrow features just as easily as long as they are both on the map and in the field.

A good example would be a stream: a good way to get to your destination is to first get to the stream then follow the stream to your to help you find your destination. Following a handrail takes much less concentration then following a compass bearing. Also since a handrail is illustrated on a map and a compass bearing isn’t following a handrail makes it much easier to keep track of where you are. Using the water’s edge as a handrail while navigating on water can be more difficult as every bay can look similar, and some portages can be hard to locate.

Aiming Off

Aiming off is a technique to ensure you find your final destination, once you have hit your handrail. If you walk out onto a road, which way do you turn to find the parking lot on this road? When you cross a lake, is your campsite to the left or right along the shoreline? When trying to hit a handrail, plan to intentionally veer a few degrees to one side of your objective, so that when you hit the handrail (the road or opposite shoreline), you will be confident in which direction you need to turn. If you aim off to the right slightly, when you hit your handrail, you would turn left to reach your destination.

Estimating Distance

Estimating the distance between two points can be done using the following methods:

● Measure the straight-line distance with the ruler on your compass, and compare with the scale chart on the bottom of the map.

● Use the string on your compass to measure the direct line, or curve it along a known trail: Start fingers at one spot, lay the string on the map/trail, mark the end point by pinching with your fingers. Pull the string straight and measure against the scale chart.

● A quick way to estimate distance is to count the UTM 1 km gridlines, although this will only be approximate. Always count both the gridline across and the gridline up as one each; never count a gridline diagonally as one. This can work very well for cross-country travel without trails (alpine or grassland), and when on the water. Meandering trails with numerous switchbacks will be more difficult to estimate distance for using this method. Although it may be easy to estimate distance over water, factors such as tides, currents, waves and wind will greatly affect your travel time.

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Outdoor Recreation Course Level 1 2013

Another series of Outdoor Recreation Course to be participate. Open to all outdoor recreation enthusiast who are looking for the next level in understanding the knowledge of outdoor recreation. Conducted by experienced certified coaches and their assistants, this course can be an introductory as you wish to upgrade your certification until Level 3.

Let's check it out as details below:

Course: Outdoor Recreation Course Level 1
Date: 3-5 May 2013
Venue: UTM Johor Bahru Campus
Fee: RM188 per person
Organizer: UTM in collaboration with Jabatan Belia & Sukan Johor

This course including:

• camp craft
• night jungle exploration
• basic navigation
• rope & knots 
• wilderness first aid
• search & rescue simulation
• kayak
• lecture: Outdoor Program Management

May the course will benefits all.

For more details & registration:
email me: miha5123@gmail.com
facebook: Blackopoulos Johor

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.

Nutrition for Outdoor

Just like a car needs fuel to drive, so does the human body need food and drink to build up the energy needed to walk. The provisions you take with you will largely depend on your own preferences, the duration of the hiking or outdoor trip, and if you will be able to replenish your supplies along the way. In general, good planning and precautions can prevent serious nutrition problems.

Selecting your Foods
Selecting what food to take with you will depend on your plans. On short hikes, you can pamper yourself by taking all kinds of snacks. The additional weight and volume might not be any serious factor, so why not. However, if you are going on multi-day hiking or camping with no sure places to replenish your provisions, careful choices will have to be made to make sure you can pack the necessary provisions. Thus, choosing your food becomes a challenging puzzle where nutritional value, volume, weight, and preparation method have to be taken into account.

Here are some tips when it comes to selecting your foods:

• Dried or dehydrated foods: retain most of their nutritional value but since most of the water content has been removed, the foods are lighter in weight and smaller in volume. This makes dehydrated foods very popular in the outdoor community. Preparation is mostly very simple but will require water.
• Canned Foods: are even easier to prepare but are both heavier and take up more space. Canned foods can be added to your selection if you want to build in some luxury treats.
• Select a variation of foods that fulfill different nutritional needs. Variation in your food intake is very important especially on longer trips.

 planning & cooking a meals is a greatest & worthiest things to be mastered

Plan your Meals
You need to plan your food and fluid intake to make sure that you have enough to last for the duration of your hike. Planning your meals will make sure that you do not over indulge on day one, leaving you with nothing to eat on the third day.

Here are some guidelines in planning your meals:

• Do not depend on other possible sources of food and bring everything you need to keep yourself well-fed during your hikes. Only if you are 100% sure that you will be able to restock should you take less with you.
• If you are sure about re-supply points in your outdoor plans then anticipate on what provisions they can replenish.
• Separate your meals in daily rations and package them separately. This will make it easier to determine how much you are allowed to eat to have enough for the full duration of your outdoor trip.
• Package and label emergency rations. Labeling them as emergency rations will make you think twice before you use them as a snack!

Plan your Water Needs
Under normal conditions, the human body will be able to go without food for days. Without water, however, problems come a lot quicker.

Here are some guidelines in planning your water needs:

• The absolute minimum is at least two liters per day. Take at least two liters with you even if you expect to find places where you can refill your water reserves.
• Take about one liter for every two hours of hiking or other outdoor activities with the above mentioned two-liter minimum.
• Under normal conditions, three to four liters per day should suffice.
• Higher temperatures will increase the needed fluid intake.
• Increased intensity will increase the needed fluid intake.
• If you plan to spend nights outdoors, calculate extra water reserves for washing yourself and possibly rinsing cooking utensils.
• Hydration Packs and water bladders have drinking tubes that make it easy to drink as you continue hiking. However, a possible danger is that you have no real way of checking your fluid reserves. So make sure to stop and check your bladder's content at regular intervals.
• Make sure to bring water purification pills or devices even if you are bringing sufficient fluids for the trip. Water bottles and bladders can burst, leaving you with nothing. In these cases, water filters and purifiers can make the difference. If you have nothing to filter the water with but you do have your cooking gear then you can make most outdoor water potable by boiling it for at least 10 minutes.

Eat adequate amount of nutritious foods and drink lots of water to keep you energized on your outdoor trips. Proper selection of foods as well as enough planning and preparation of what to bring will ensure that you will not go hungry while do outdoor activities.

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.

Basic First Aid

How to assess the needs of someone who has been injured or is in physiological distress

Basic first aid allows you to quickly determine a person’s physical condition and the correct course of treatment, whether the distress is due to to choking, heart attack, allergic reactions, drugs or alchohol or other medical emergencies. You should always seek professional medical help as soon as you are able. The following correct first aid procedures can be the difference between life and death:

1. Evaluate the situation.

Are there things that may put you at risk of harm? Are you or the victim threatened by fire, tosic smoke or gasses, an unstable building, live electrical wires and other dangers? Do not rush into a situation where you could end up as a victim yourself.

- If approaching the victim will endanger your life, seek professional help immediately; they have higher levels of training and know how to handle these situalions.

2. Remember the A,B,Cs of first aid which refer to the three critical things you need to look for.

- Airway - Does the person have as unobstructed airway?

- Breathing - Is the person breathing?

- Circulation - Does the person show a pulse at major pulse points (wrist, carotid artery, groin)?

3. Avoid moving the victim.

Avoid moving the victim unless they are in immediate danger. Moving a victim will often make injuries worse, especially in the case of spinal cord injuries.

4. Call Emergency Services.

Call for help or tell someone else (a specific person, if possible) to call for help as none as possible. If you are the only person on the scene, try to establish breathing before calling for help, and do sot leave the victim alone for an extensive amount of time.

5. Determine responsiveness.

If a person is unconscious, try to rouse them by gently shaking and speaking to them.

6. If the person remains unresponsive, carefully roll them onto their back and open his airway.

- Keep head and neck aligned.

- Carefully roll them onto their back while holding his head.

- Open the airway by lifting the chin.

7. Look, listen and feel for signs of breathing.

Look for the victim’s chest to rise and fall, listen for sounds of breathing (place your ear near the nose and mouth, and feel for breath on your cheek

- If the victim is not breathing, see the section below.

- If the victim is breathing, but unconscious, roll them onto their side, keeping the head and neck aligned with the body. This will help drain the mouth and prevent the tongue or vomit from blocking the airway.

8. Check the victim’s circulation.

Look at the victim's colour and check their pulse (the carotid artery is a good option; it is located on either side of the neck below the jawbone). If the victim does not haves pulse, start CPR.

9. Treat bleeding, shock, and other problems as needed

After you have established that the victim is breathing and has a pulse, your next priority should be to control any bleeding. Particularly in the case of trauma, you should take steps to control or prevent shock.

How to Stop Bleeding - Control of bleeding is one of the most important things you can do to save a trauma victim. Use direct pressure on a wound before trying any other method of managing bleeding.

How to Treat Shock - Shock, a loss of blood flow to the body, frequently follows physical and occasionally psychological trauma. A person - in shock will frequently have cool, clammy skin, be agitated or have an altered mental status, and have pale color to the skin around the face and lips. Untreated, shock can be fatal. Anyone who has suffered a severe injury or life-threatening situation is at risk for shock.

How to Treats Burns - Treat first and second degree burns by immersing or fleshing with cool water (no ice). Don’t use creams, butter or other ointments, and do not pop blisters. Third degree burns should be covered with a damp cloth. Remove clothing and jewelry from the burn, but do not try to remove charred clothing that is stuck to burns.

Treat a Concussion - If the victim has suffered a blow to the head, look for signs of concussion. Common symptoms are: loss of consciousness following the injury, disorientation or memory impairment, vertigo, nausea, and lethargy.

How to Treat a Spinal Injury Victim - If you suspect a spinal injury, it is especially critical that you not move the victim’s head, neck or back(Unless they are in immediate danger). You also need to take special care when performing rescue breathing or CPR.

10. Stay with the victim until help arrives.

Try to be a calming presence for the victim until assistance can arrive.

Source: News Straits Times - 1Klassifieds - Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.

Definition, Purpose & Goals of OE

During my first class for Outdoor Education (OE) course this semester, all my students were really pleased & enthusiastic to have me as their lecturer. I shared some of the my past experiences and encourage them to start develop their unexplored potential. I was also set a few main and minor goals for them to execute and achieve by the end of this semester.

OE Definitions

• the use of experiences in the outdoors for the education and development of the ‘whole person’ - The Outdoor Institute
• an experiential method of learning with the use of all senses. It takes place primarily, but not exclusively, through exposure to the natural environment. - Priest, 1990
• an international, experiential education phenomenon which engages people in adventurous activities for enhancement of the well-being of individuals, communities, and the environment - Neill, 2002

Purposes

According to Priest and Gass (1997):

• Recreational programs aim to change the way people feel. The purpose is leisure, fun and enjoyment, e.g., surfing for pleasure.
• Educational programs aim to change the way people feel and think. The purpose is to learn skills and/or information, e.g., learning how to surf classes or geography field trips.
• Developmental programs aim to to change way people feel, think and behave. The purpose is is to undergo personal growth, e.g., a surfing program in which the goal was to push personal limits, test endurance, develop personal goal setting, self-discipline, and build individual's self-esteem, etc.)
• Therapeutic / Redirectional programs aim to change the way people feel, think, behave, and resist. The purpose is correct an individual or group problem, e.g., a low security prison may conduct surfing classes and work on a beach habitat restoration program as part of a pre-release detention program for inmates)

Goals

• Physical goals include physical fitness, weight loss, balanced dietary intake, physical movement and physical and health well-being. Physical goals may be preventative, educational, developmental, and/or rehabilitative (therapeutic).
• Spiritual programs aim to help development of spiritual knowledge and experience (e.g., many Church and Religious groups conduct camps for young people with a combination of spiritual instruction and other goals, such as fun (recreation).
• Relationship / Family / Group / Community oriented programs aim to change the way a particular dyad, small group or community are functioning (as opposed to individual). The unit of interest/analysis in this case is not the individual. Team productivity and school climate are examples.
• Environmental goals include having a positive impact on a specific ecosystem (e.g., native vegetation regeneration), environmental education knowledge (e.g., local area knowledge through to awareness about global climate change), and environmental attitude.

May this post sharing can make my OE course this semester become more enjoyable and more successful.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to campus life to my students especially the prospects who will be following Outdoor Education (SPR1832) course right here in UTM.

This semester, our class will be conducted on every Thursday 2:00pm. The mode of delivery including lecture, presentation by students and practical session. There were two main projects to be completed are Outdoor Recreation Coaching Course (Level 1) and an expedition to an island. Two other minor projects are Kayak STAR 1 course and Basic Outdoor Survival Test.

All the students must be prepare physically, mentally and financially to going through this course. Perhaps, there are a large number of student can achieve an A for this course in this semester!

Launching of Blackopoulos Second Blog

A new year of Islamic calendar 1st Muharram 1432 Masehi or 7th December 2010, another second blog created by MrBlackopoulos named Beyond Outdoor Education. This blog planned to create for more than two years and now the time has arrived and the blog operate using http://www.drblackoe.blogspot.com.

Outdoor Education are one of MrBlackopoulos field of interest in his studies. Many aspect of human and environment can explore, develop and harmonious from actively involved in any outdoor education programmes.

Perhaps, this blog will create more awareness among recreation activist, coaches, educators and public, deeply beyond outdoor education.