Believe it or not we’re not some big conglomerate company that hides its wealth in the Cayman Islands, has offices in Ireland (though we do have two climbing walls there) or has connections in Switzerland (but we do like the chocolate!). At the core of Awesome Walls is Myself, Dave Douglas, my good wife, Stephne Douglas and a small team that helps make the awesomeness happen.
Running climbing walls is more a way of life than a day-to-day job. We literally live, sleep and breath climbing walls. Of course we have desks, computers and gadgets but the thoughts are flowing 24/7.
You see, running climbing walls is our life. I often think there’s easier ways to make a living than having nearly 100 staff members and 300,000+ members to keep happy.
Where it all began…
When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. I can remember meeting a careers officer (yes, that’s what they were called 40 years ago) and she asked me what I wanted to do as a job. I tried to tell her that I was too young to know the answer to that question and I needed to leave school, live life a bit then see what takes my fancy… If there were a tick box on the sheet that was on her clipboard that said ‘NO HOPER’ or ‘DOLE’ I’m sure that’s what she would have ticked (both probably!).
The only inkling of a job I had was to work in the outdoor industry doing all that outdoorsy stuff, you know, big boots, jumping in lakes, abbing off cliffs and the like. I was lucky enough to go to Howtown Outdoor Education Centre whilst at school a couple of times and bloody loved it.
Roll the clock forward a few years and I managed to get a volunteering role at Howtown, complete my climbing award, move on to a job instructing at The Dolphin Centre climbing wall (now that was a wall, 15 meters of concrete claustrophobia in a massive lift shaft).
After a few years of working there and somehow gaining a full-time job in the leisure centre that I venomously didn’t want (Thatcher conned me into it!), I decided enough was enough, packed my job in and moved to Creté to start my new career as a coach excursion tall story teller. I really must apologise to all the lovely holiday makers that came on my coach and listened to my stories about dinosaur bones found in high caves, Wally the one and only Mediterranean Whale that frequented the local shores (look hard enough…) and how the bus drivers were paid a pittance so please tip them generously (half for them, half for me!).
My favourite job of the week which I ended up doing twice weekly was overseeing a coach load of 50ish people managed to enter and exit one of Europe’s most spectacular ravines, the Samaria Gorge. At 16km long it wasn’t to be sniffed at. It starts off with hundreds of rickety steps, zig zagging down to the belly of the gorge, then boulders, bushes and lack of liquids would do their darnedest to deter hapless hikers and try to pause their progress. Despite the high heat and nowhere to hide I managed to get 100% of my clients to the village at the end.
I think my success rate was due to telling them about large, iced beers, crisp tasty salads and the biggest and best burgers in the world (all true!).
After my season in Creté it was time to head home and decide on my future. I returned home with a bit of cash in my pocket and promptly signed on the dole whilst I tried to figure out what to do next…
Have I your attention still?
Want to hear what happens next?
