30 March 2012
21 March 2012
5 March 2012
1 March 2012
27 February 2012
Mountain Skills 1 Course In Burren
Some Photos From Last Weekend's Mountain Skills 1 Course, Which We Ran In The Burren/Galway.
Near Gleninagh Summit Looking For 'Tick Off Features'
View Across Galway Bay Towards Aran Islands
Trip Point On Gleninagh Summit
Abbey Hill, Just Outside Kinvara
Stag-Horn Moss, Common In Both Kerry & The Burren
Working On 'Cut Off Features' At Top Of Abbey Hill
Limestone Rock Split In Two
Burren Green Road
Near Gleninagh Summit Looking For 'Tick Off Features'
View Across Galway Bay Towards Aran Islands
Trip Point On Gleninagh Summit
Abbey Hill, Just Outside Kinvara
Stag-Horn Moss, Common In Both Kerry & The Burren
Working On 'Cut Off Features' At Top Of Abbey Hill
Limestone Rock Split In Two
Burren Green Road
24 February 2012
Killarney National Park - Lakes Of Killarney
Some Photos From Last Week's Canoe Course On The Killarney Lakes, Through Killarney National Park
For More Photos Check Our Main Blog
23 February 2012
Expanding To Galway - Step 7
Sitting in my new office the last three days; wooden floor, wooden desk, big window looking over treetops towards Galway Bay and Salthill, hot coffee pot; lovely!
As I am currently covering all Galway bookings and quite a lot of Kerry bookings, I am trying hard to establish a simple weekly routine. Having our great instructor team in Kerry is helping, but I am still down there each week, and will be for the foreseeable future. It's impressive driving at 50mph how much more fuel you can save as opposed to 60/70mph, especially pulling a trailer; and you generally get there within the same'ish amount of time.
We are nearly over-busy right now, which is an absolutely brilliant complaint, however I am struggling a little to stick to the planned schedule/business plan for our expansion. For example our new flyers are to be ready for Easter and they should have been designed and ordered last week, but it will not be until this coming week that they get done.
We haven't signed off yet on our permissions to use Galway City/Harbour for our guided sea kayak tours and we have some provisional bookings for these sea kayak tours of Galway Harbour next month!
This is a good complaint though - it just makes me a little nervous as I see how quickly Easter and then the busy summer months are rocketing towards us. I can also see how easily something may potentially get overlooked, such as not having hiking boots for participants of our Carrauntoohil Guided Climbs; which happened for one client last week.
I am learning a lot right now and this quieter period of having two operation bases is good to iron out any teething problems and get our entire team up to speed on the changes. Writing these blog updates also helps me to reflect and re-focus on progress.
I needed the past three days to complete the unpacking of all our equipment, catch up on emails and diary jobs and send out an email newsletter, which was about a week overdue.
After a Mountain Skills 1 in Galway this weekend, on the Burren/Galway/Clare border, I have the entire week to focus on finishing off both our Kerry and Galway operations, from new flyers, to pricing trailers/sheds, to PR work, to ordering new sea kayaks, to dealing with the harbour master and county council and following up on some possible funding.
Generally I have avoided any funding/grants over the previous years of running Outdoors Ireland, although have participated in many of Failte Ireland's training courses, provided freely by them. This time around however it really kills me to see how the really hard-earned taxes I pay are wasted by our completely useless government and by the fact that the self-employed are nearly penalised. I wont even begin to start on the VAT/Revenue crooks - so to sum it all up; if I can secure some funding for the large enough capital outlays we are about to have, then this time around I certainly won't feel guilty about it.
On a cheerful note; we have just launched a really nice product, which I am looking forward to working on - Iyengar Yoga & Kayak Workshops In Galway. We have a 'Two For One' Special Offer until April on our Galway Mountain Skills Courses, Kinvara Bay Sea Kayak Trips and Galway City/Harbour Kayak Trips.
Carrauntoohil Guided Climbs and Killarney Lakes Kayak Trips are ticking over in Killarney right now; while there is healthy interest in our Galway Sea Kayaking; and this is actually quite early in the season/year for so much interest - which is very promising.
More next week and hopefully by then I will have a huge list of things achieved and ticked off!
Nathan
As I am currently covering all Galway bookings and quite a lot of Kerry bookings, I am trying hard to establish a simple weekly routine. Having our great instructor team in Kerry is helping, but I am still down there each week, and will be for the foreseeable future. It's impressive driving at 50mph how much more fuel you can save as opposed to 60/70mph, especially pulling a trailer; and you generally get there within the same'ish amount of time.
We are nearly over-busy right now, which is an absolutely brilliant complaint, however I am struggling a little to stick to the planned schedule/business plan for our expansion. For example our new flyers are to be ready for Easter and they should have been designed and ordered last week, but it will not be until this coming week that they get done.
We haven't signed off yet on our permissions to use Galway City/Harbour for our guided sea kayak tours and we have some provisional bookings for these sea kayak tours of Galway Harbour next month!
This is a good complaint though - it just makes me a little nervous as I see how quickly Easter and then the busy summer months are rocketing towards us. I can also see how easily something may potentially get overlooked, such as not having hiking boots for participants of our Carrauntoohil Guided Climbs; which happened for one client last week.
I am learning a lot right now and this quieter period of having two operation bases is good to iron out any teething problems and get our entire team up to speed on the changes. Writing these blog updates also helps me to reflect and re-focus on progress.
I needed the past three days to complete the unpacking of all our equipment, catch up on emails and diary jobs and send out an email newsletter, which was about a week overdue.
After a Mountain Skills 1 in Galway this weekend, on the Burren/Galway/Clare border, I have the entire week to focus on finishing off both our Kerry and Galway operations, from new flyers, to pricing trailers/sheds, to PR work, to ordering new sea kayaks, to dealing with the harbour master and county council and following up on some possible funding.
Generally I have avoided any funding/grants over the previous years of running Outdoors Ireland, although have participated in many of Failte Ireland's training courses, provided freely by them. This time around however it really kills me to see how the really hard-earned taxes I pay are wasted by our completely useless government and by the fact that the self-employed are nearly penalised. I wont even begin to start on the VAT/Revenue crooks - so to sum it all up; if I can secure some funding for the large enough capital outlays we are about to have, then this time around I certainly won't feel guilty about it.
On a cheerful note; we have just launched a really nice product, which I am looking forward to working on - Iyengar Yoga & Kayak Workshops In Galway. We have a 'Two For One' Special Offer until April on our Galway Mountain Skills Courses, Kinvara Bay Sea Kayak Trips and Galway City/Harbour Kayak Trips.
Carrauntoohil Guided Climbs and Killarney Lakes Kayak Trips are ticking over in Killarney right now; while there is healthy interest in our Galway Sea Kayaking; and this is actually quite early in the season/year for so much interest - which is very promising.
More next week and hopefully by then I will have a huge list of things achieved and ticked off!
Nathan
11 February 2012
Rock Climbing Course In Kerry
Rock Climbing Course In Kerry. Learn To Lead Climb Course Earlier In The Month On Dingle Sea Cliffs, Run By Dave Roche & Nathan Kingerlee.
23 January 2012
Mountain Skills 1 In Kerry Mountains
Photos & Video From Our Mountain Skills 1 In The Kerry Mountains Over The Past Weekend. The MS1 Course Was Run By Kilian Kelly & Nathan Kingerlee, With A Small Group Of Participants & Cold Dry Weather - Perfect Hill Walking Conditions!
13 January 2012
Expanding To Galway - Step 5
I have had little information to give out recently about progress towards having our Galway base operational. Things have been ticking over quietly in the background. I have also been caught up in a flurry of Kerry work, focusing on business planning, advertising planning, an exciting couple of days snow and ice climbing, plus some time off.
There has been constant behind the scenes planning (and amending plans) around having both a Kerry and Galway base. By this time next month I will be living in Galway, just outside Kinvara; although still spending a lot of time back in Killarney on the lakes and mountains.
We have recruited a fantastic instructor – Kilian Kelly – to run our Kerry operation, especially our guided kayak trips and kayak training courses. I was in college with Kilian years ago. In more recent years he assessed me on one of my kayak instructor assessments. He is one of the best instructors I have met or trained under, so I am really excited to have the opportunity to work alongside him. Kilian is going to bring a lot to the quality and value of what we offer, and he will be assisted by our current fantastic team of instructors.
We have also recruited an excellent freelance instructor and really nice guy – Henry – to assist in Galway; although it is a little hard to know at the moment exactly how busy or quiet our first summer season in Galway will be...
Like I mentioned a couple of months ago, we have run our first Galway Mountain Skills 1 and have a series of Mountain Skills 1 and Mountain Skills 2 Courses scheduled for Galway over the coming months. We are running some of our Learn To Lead Climb Courses in the Burren in Feb/Mar; followed by a Kayak Skills Course in May. Apart from these training courses, we will be focusing on three main products over the summer season; Guided Sea Kayak Tours Of Kinvara Bay, Galway Bay Sunset Kayak Tours and Galway City & Harbour Sea Kayak Tours.
By the end of Jan I need to have one, possibly two, storage trailers in the pipeline – this is currently our latest thought in terms of efficient storage of equipment. I need to have the office successfully moved into our Galway base and most importantly I need to have some great CDs for all of the driving I will be doing between Killarney and Kinvara!
A couple of other changes have happened recently. Ruth who ran the office with me (and in fact worked part-time with me since she was in transition year), will be doing less and less work as she recently qualified as a primary teacher and her teaching work is taking up more and more of her time. I will be sad to see Ruth leave, especially as she knows more about certain aspects of Outdoors Ireland than I do! Happily Aileen, who has a pretty amazing business background, will be stepping in to take on Ruth’s role, plus a whole lot more. With Aileen’s yoga business background also, we hope to run some Galway Yoga & Kayaking Workshops over the spring, with a morning’s Iyengar Yoga followed by a quick walk to Kinvara Bay for a relaxing afternoon’s sea kayak through the islands and inlets...
The other change is that Ferghal O Grady; again who has worked with me since the early days of Outdoors Ireland; has moved for the time being to Australia to follow another career. Ferghal always did an awesome job outdoors and put people quickly at ease, so we will miss him... Hopefully no more changes or losses for the time being!
Click Here To See Our Up To Date Website Blog
Nathan
There has been constant behind the scenes planning (and amending plans) around having both a Kerry and Galway base. By this time next month I will be living in Galway, just outside Kinvara; although still spending a lot of time back in Killarney on the lakes and mountains.
We have recruited a fantastic instructor – Kilian Kelly – to run our Kerry operation, especially our guided kayak trips and kayak training courses. I was in college with Kilian years ago. In more recent years he assessed me on one of my kayak instructor assessments. He is one of the best instructors I have met or trained under, so I am really excited to have the opportunity to work alongside him. Kilian is going to bring a lot to the quality and value of what we offer, and he will be assisted by our current fantastic team of instructors.
We have also recruited an excellent freelance instructor and really nice guy – Henry – to assist in Galway; although it is a little hard to know at the moment exactly how busy or quiet our first summer season in Galway will be...
Like I mentioned a couple of months ago, we have run our first Galway Mountain Skills 1 and have a series of Mountain Skills 1 and Mountain Skills 2 Courses scheduled for Galway over the coming months. We are running some of our Learn To Lead Climb Courses in the Burren in Feb/Mar; followed by a Kayak Skills Course in May. Apart from these training courses, we will be focusing on three main products over the summer season; Guided Sea Kayak Tours Of Kinvara Bay, Galway Bay Sunset Kayak Tours and Galway City & Harbour Sea Kayak Tours.
By the end of Jan I need to have one, possibly two, storage trailers in the pipeline – this is currently our latest thought in terms of efficient storage of equipment. I need to have the office successfully moved into our Galway base and most importantly I need to have some great CDs for all of the driving I will be doing between Killarney and Kinvara!
A couple of other changes have happened recently. Ruth who ran the office with me (and in fact worked part-time with me since she was in transition year), will be doing less and less work as she recently qualified as a primary teacher and her teaching work is taking up more and more of her time. I will be sad to see Ruth leave, especially as she knows more about certain aspects of Outdoors Ireland than I do! Happily Aileen, who has a pretty amazing business background, will be stepping in to take on Ruth’s role, plus a whole lot more. With Aileen’s yoga business background also, we hope to run some Galway Yoga & Kayaking Workshops over the spring, with a morning’s Iyengar Yoga followed by a quick walk to Kinvara Bay for a relaxing afternoon’s sea kayak through the islands and inlets...
The other change is that Ferghal O Grady; again who has worked with me since the early days of Outdoors Ireland; has moved for the time being to Australia to follow another career. Ferghal always did an awesome job outdoors and put people quickly at ease, so we will miss him... Hopefully no more changes or losses for the time being!
Click Here To See Our Up To Date Website Blog
Nathan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
