New Outdoor Tourism Company Wants To Take You On An N.B. Adventure
SAINT JOHN– A new business out of Saint John is planning to provide curated outdoor adventures that showcase the natural beauty of New Brunswick and the Maritimes.
Be Rad Adventures is an outdoor event company and tour operator that specializes in multisport adventures for women, co-ed groups and families.
“We’re looking at trail networks and parks in New Brunswick that are established places,” said Sam Bosence, the company’s founder and owner. “Water and trails are what we’re looking for and are trying to bring people to.”
The idea to start the business came a few years back when Bosence was on maternity leave. An avid mountain biker, rock climber and all things outdoors, she was looking for something that would encompass all those things into a fun outdoor experience while also helping her increase her skill level.
“I was trying to think of something that tied it all together because I was doing the club rides and hanging out with the different communities, but what I wanted was getting them all in one place,” she said. “I saw that they were doing that a lot on the West Coast of North America where they have single and multi-day retreats that are centred around adventure and community and a lot of them are specifically for women.”
Bosence really wanted to go on one of these kinds of retreats, but she didn’t really want to travel across the country to go to one. That’s when she realized she could just create one herself.
“I started chatting with people and I realized, ‘why am I trying to gather my funds to go across the country when we have the trails here?’ ” she said. “We have the rivers, we have the lakes, we have the bay, we have the hills and we already have a bunch of really cool outdoor enthusiasts. I could just bring this here. I can do this.”
Be Rad’s first event will be a women-only event, which is called “She Rad Adventures.” Taking place June 15th, it will be a one-day skills clinic and multi-sport retreat (mountain biking and padel boarding) at Rockwood Park in Saint John. All participants will receive instruction, coaching, and encouragement from certified mountain bike coaches. The event is almost sold-out.
“It’s a hands-on adventure planned out for them and we’re going to escort them on the trails and the water and give them high-quality gear and instruction,” said Bosence. “We’re literally there to catch them and we’re trained to do that and get them through the tough sections.”
You don’t need to be super athletic to take part in Be Rad events, said Bosence. You just need to open to an adventure and meeting new people.
“They don’t have to be an avid anything. They don’t need to be triathlete fitness level,” she said. “I’m looking for people who enjoy traveling and are also interested in developing skills and being part of an outdoor community.”
Starting out, Be Rad will focus on New Brunswick events, then expand into the rest of the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and New England. The goal is to eventually introduce multi-day retreats, which would include overnight accommodations, meals, music and more.
“We’re basically going to offer a fully curated weekend to the out-of-town people and expand more into the tourism side of it,” said Bosence. “We’re starting with local people who are maybe just coming for the day … then we will move into the overnight/weekend fully curated events … that’s where the tour operator side of the business comes in.”
From there, they would like to partner with adventure retreat companies in other provinces and states to work on growing the industry together.
“The plans are grand. We’re trying to show off some of our local landscape and the community that we have here, but not to the point of exploitation,” said Bosence. “It’s really just to grow a really healthy, respectful community of people who happen to like mountain biking and being outside.”