I thought I would take a couple of days after getting back to Boulder to reflect on all the experiences that accompanied biking from British Columbia to Baja to launch SWAE Sports before penning my magnum opus. It’s been an interesting couple of days as I’ve readjusted to civilian life. My initial realization was that most importantly, the 2-½ months on the road helped to solidify our team and define the direction of SWAE Sports.

After getting off the plane and driving back to my Rocky Mountain home, I immediately began to miss the other four guys that I’d spent just about every waking moment with since mid June. After feeding off one another’s excitement, sharing the hardships of the road, and waking every morning to the team immediately talking SWAE, life as it was began to seem, well, rather quiet.

When I separate myself from being a part of this whole expedition, it seems truly amazing that a group of five highly dedicated young men would undertake such an endeavor to launch a company.  As a consumer, it would hardly matter to me what it is SWAE was selling because if anyone was really that motivated, odds are that it was something I should be a part of.  I’d rep their shirt. It would get even crazier for me as I started to explore their website and realized that the reason those boys were so psyched was because they held in their hands a truly paradigm shifting business model for the adventure sports industry.  Of course they’d cycle 2,500 miles to spread the good news. It would all start to feel quite logical.

Whenever I return from a big trip it’s always a bit weird to think about the places I just was.  Sailing through the waters of the San Juan Islands, biking through the primordial Redwood forests of Northern California, and camping along the rim of Crater Lake begins to feel like a dream, or clips from a movie I watched before falling asleep. But they are my memories, my life experiences, the way I became a part of an organization that will undoubtedly shape the course of my life.

The greatest thing I’ll take from this trip is being witness to the fact that my actions along the West Coast will not only benefit my own life, but every outfitter, guide, and outdoor adventure school that sat down with us and subscribed to the dream that is SWAE.  I can only believe that they saw in our eyes the motivation to make our company’s principals a reality and that that kind of excitement was something they wanted to attach themselves to. When looking back over my notes, its almost ridiculous to see that the only companies we didn’t partner with after a meeting were those that didn’t want more business.  That’s crazy and yet it’s the truth.

The way people get outside is about to change, and I’m truly humbled to be a part of that shift. It’s happening because the team that comprises SWAE is actually our targeted customer. We live and breathe this lifestyle and we’ve somehow figured out a way to make a career out of doing the stuff we love. I don’t think I could be more stoked.

My culture shock aside, I’ve probably learned more about the adventure travel industry in these last few days than in my whole tenure as a SWAE Sports Adventurist. This is, in large respect, due to the fact that the industry was pretty much born in the Bay Area by people with an incredible amount of foresight.

On Friday I had a meeting with Dr. Olaf Malver, the CEO of Explorers’ Corner and I can’t begin to speak to the trove of knowledge this man possessed. In addition to running one of the most respected companies in adventure travel, Olaf’s resume of “firsts” ranges from sea kayaking Hao Long Bay in Vietnam, to exploring the uncharted island shorelines of the southwest Caribbean – populated only by the remnants of Carib Tribes.

Additionally, in recognition of his “true” explorations, Olaf is a lifetime fellow of the world-famous Explorer’s Club. It was an absolute privilege to sit down with him for almost three hours to talk about business strategies and long-term growth, what potential partners SWAE needed to speaking with, and how the systems we’re developing have the potential to truly affect the direction of eco-tourism.

Let me speak to the last point for a second. Because SWAE will never accept money for superior placement on our sites, it allows smaller companies to be able compete beside the big guys. The quality of each guide service is based upon user reviews and the niche in the market they’re filling. In addition, 10% of our company’s revenue is actually dedicated to providing local guides in the developing world with the necessary start up capital and expertise they’ll need to create their own eco-tourism business. Once their company has been created, they’ll have access to targeted marketing and the world of adventurists via swaesports.com.

In doing this, SWAE Sports has the ability to promote true eco-tourism, poverty relief, and sustainable outfitters in the developing world.  This model has been tailored in large respect to meet the challenges outlined by Bill Gates in the book Creative Capitalism, where he calls for a new form of capitalism that works to both generate profits and solve the world’s inequities.

It’s when I start talking about this aspect of SWAE, which is truly at the core of our mission, that I start to get really excited. It was wonderful to speak with a man like Dr. Malver, who in addition to the resume I’ve already lined out, also served as an eco-tourism development specialist for the United Nations.

I guess what I’m getting at is despite being taken out of my comfort zone of blue skies and expansive vistas, the Bay Area certainly has been one of the most important pin drops on our Pacific Coast Bike Trip. In addition to partnering with Explorers’ Corner, we’ve met, spoke, and partnered with some of the greatest companies out there from hang gliding outfits, to scuba diving and kayaking guides. Though we’re all ready to get back on the road, what we’ve learned from being in the city is sure to stay with us for a long time to come.

During a conversation that I had the other with a potential outfitter, I was being watched by the godfather himself, Mr. Epstein. After the call, Epstein stated that although the info about SWAE that I was plugging to this guy was great, the tone in my voice as I spilled it all, well, it sucked. I was just spewing info, not sounding passionate, talking dryly. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I knew the man himself was listening, or because we are a start-up company, and this is my first week of attempting to get meetings with outfitters, and subsequently sign them (which by the way we have been doing… killin’ it).  We are excited, and passionate guys, especially about what we are doing with SWAE. So when we are talking with potential outfitters, and even emailing them, our language has to be just as excited as we are… Good advice, because my next calls went extremely well, and scheduled meetings with 3 more outfitters (see them on “people along the way”) and signed them all on the spot. 

We are coming into these companies who have been operating for 20 some-odd years and completly changing the way they do business in under an hour. So it should come as no surprise that when we do this they offer us rad things. For example,  yesterday when we signed Outdoor Odysseys sea kayaking (www.outdoorodysseys.com)  one of National Geo’s best adventure companies of 08′, the owner (Clark- awesome guy) let us use his newly built eco-office to take showers.  Will also went sea kayaking, and after Epstein signed a rad sailing company (www.sanjuanclassicdaysailing.com) they took us out on their boat, let us sleep in their beautiful house in the woods, and fed us breakfast… 

All of these amazing experiences, and we are only 9 days into the trip. It feels like all we have been doing is first, connecting with people, and then we innovate their business… Not the other way around. I am beginning to understand why business isn’t just business, business is people.