Bryan Morales, a young man who “grew up on the freeways of LA” was on the first Outdoor Educators Institute cohort in 2012. The Outdoors Educators Institute (OEI) is a Bay Area scholarship-based program that aims at diversifying outdoor education. Bryan’s first backpacking trip was with OEI in 2012, then an incredible ten week program jam-packed with two backpacking trips, a sea kayaking trip, and earning a certificate in Wilderness First Response. He admitted to only having two or three days off of the entirety of the program–which was hard on his relationships and difficult for many of his colleagues who were also college students and held part time jobs. “It was an amazing experience, but it was hard to continue daily life”, he admits.
After graduating from the program, Bryan was invited to Spring Training with Outward Bound California at Henry Coe State Park. He met many of the skilled instructors and endured an intense three days of cold and constant rain while still learning the ins and outs of Outward Bound courses. “We got worked”, Bryan said. Before he could start the season with Outward Bound California, he had an opportunity to travel along the coast of Baja, California on a stand up paddle board for four months–an offer he couldn’t refuse with his deep-rooted connection to the ocean:
“One summer I was part of a Junior Lifeguard program with a friend. I was one of the least comfortable students in the ocean. They made us swim to buoys through pounding surf and I was absolutely terrified. But not long after I caught my first wave on a longboard and that was sort of a revolutionary moment in my life.”
Upon his return from Baja, he spent a summer working for the Student Conservation Association in Virginia and Colorado working on trail restoration in the front country. He managed a high school crew, committed to the month of service. When I asked him what he remembers most of working in Colorado, he sets a scene:
“In Floyd, the little town where we were stationed that summer, the tiny general store held a Bluegrass Jamboree every Friday. There was a stage inside, and a lineup of bands, but everyone from around the area would flock to the front of the general store and play bluegrass songs on the street. Local bands would play inside and out. Everyone danced in the streets and had a great time.”
The following year, Bryan lived in Chile, working for NOLS’ Patagonia base, where he picked up drinking “the gaucho’s vegetable” (Yerba Matte tea). Summer of 2014, he applied to work for Outward Bound California’s High Sierra base–making it full circle from his original training two years before. Now that he has worked in the High Sierra and Bay Area, he explains his style of instructing as “knowing how to communicate with everyone–I may not have the most experience backpacking or rock climbing, but I have a fair deal more experience working with people. I speak Spanish, but I don’t normally speak Spanish with students who are Spanish-speakers. I just talk to everyone about food, and that’s how we connect. They start out asking me about my matte, and we end up talking about their favorite foods. The only time I really speak Spanish is when I am giving a history of where we are in California. California’s history is completely wrapped up in Mexico’s, and so many of the places are named in Spanish.”
Now that Bryan has been working as an instructor for Outward Bound California for two years, he has a new perspective of how working in outdoor education changed his life. Friends and family think Bryan works for a survival school. He says, “I have to tell them that it is a place where you challenge yourself and discover yourself. The challenge comes from the natural world in the form of crazy storms and climbing large mountains, and the discovery is through self reflection. The reason why I work for Outward Bound is because when I am not working, I am doing the same things I would do on course. Climbing, hiking, making connections with my friends and co-workers and getting to know the landscape of California.
When asked about Outward Bound California partnering with Outdoor Educators Institute for a 4th year, Bryan explains,
“I am excited because it’s a great program and I want to work those courses as an instructor! I’ve met one other OEI group that graduated after me and it was really easy to connect with them. They were interested in hearing what my experience was. I was in the Guinea Pig group and OEI has changed a since 2012. My highlight back then was on my birthday. We were camping at Prophory Lake in Ansel Adams Wilderness. We woke up at 4am to hike to the top of Post Peak at 11,000 feet to watch the sunrise. We even brought some cocoa. My instructor, Anders, surprised me when he threw me a package wrapped in duct tape. I opened it and it was gummy worms. It was such a unique moment watching the world come to life, being filled with color, it was magic. I don’t know what the next crop of OEI alumni are going to be like, but I hope they are stoked to be outdoors. Most of the group I was on had never been backpacking before. It was a powerful experience–eye opening.”
