Outdoor people do not spend hours aimlessly scrolling
What I’ve noticed is that the people of the outdoors are not tethered to their devices
I believe Gabb is an outdoor company. Bear with me. This concept came to me in a circle of my buddies under a tarp as we waited out a storm. I’m not saying we should show up at Outdoor Retailers, but we are a company of people trying to get humans to have the option of a device that can allow for more time out in life beyond a screen.
Since my teens, I’ve reluctantly seen myself as an “outdoor person”. My friends in high school made me one. They introduced me to hiking and camping in summer and winter conditions — we were by no means hardcore — but they helped me see that life was better outside. I had always loved canoeing, waterskiing and days that are spent mostly in the lake, exploring. This set me up to be the kind of person who would go out for crew, when a chunk of my college days were on the water, mostly between the hours of 4 and 8am and mostly when it was cold and damp. It was a ton of fun, even in wool sweaters. This is where I learned to love sunrises and the power of witnessing them in the company of other people.
I have found community in people who do such things, even before we had performance fabrics and the right gear. The best move for me is to move — outside, on a trail, lake or river. I think food tastes better outside, the view is better from a canoe, kayak, bike or from a mountaintop and my closest relationships have been built through hours of conversation on the trail, step by step, stroke by stroke, just contemplating life. All of my best times have happened beyond the screen.
So, when I arrived at Gabb and Monday morning conversations often consisted of adventures in Moab on bikes and by foot, or people were chatting about their next camping excursion or the snow predictions for the upcoming ski season, I felt at home.
And what I notice about the people of the outdoors, the true people of the outdoors, is that they are not tethered to their devices. They might use them in service of their pursuits, snap a photo in appreciation, but they are not ones to aimlessly scroll and they usually aren’t the ones to worry if things got captured on strava or posted to social. They might not be up on pop culture and that is aok. When I was going through a particularly challenging time recently, I found myself googling a personal and philosophical question and I actually laughed. I closed the browser on my iPhone. The answers are not in that screen, my dear, I told myself, and laced up my shoes to go outside.
About my “phone fast,” 30 days of swapping to a Gabb Phone that calls and texts.