The Land & Wave Team – Paul Taylor
We spend a lot of time talking about activities and awesome adventures, we sometimes to forget to mention the wonderful human beings that are part of the Land & Wave team.
We’ve introduced our intrepid new trainees on the AIT16 course but haven’t, yet, written anything about the Land & Wave family.
We’re going to kick things off with our Activities Manager and AIT Course Leader Paul Taylor.
I managed to grab him on a rare day in the office and got the low down.
Paul, how did you get started in Outdoor Industry?
I got started through my Dad; he used to work at activity centres, loved the great outdoors and to this day climbs waayyy harder than me. He got me involved in the industry and started on my outdoor qualifications. In 2011 I got my first job in the industry, working as a freelance coasteering instructor, the rest is history – I love it, it’s been a great journey so far and I’m looking forward to the future.
What do you enjoy most about working at Land & Wave?
When I’m training on the AIT it’s great to see people learning and so quickly and being able to observe their progression day to day. In terms of Land & Wave as a whole, I love that we do something different every day. We’ve grown loads every year since I started working here and we’re getting bigger and better but we’re still really balanced. We improve not just for clients but for the team too. It’s never been a bad decision for the company to invest in quality, making things better, and it looks like that’s the way things will be in the future which is brilliant. There’s some really exciting stuff in the pipeline but I’m not allowed to talk about it just yet.
You’ve been on LOTS of adventures, what’s been your favourite one?
Definitely Yosemite last year (so far). It was a roller coaster of fun and fear – a month long adventure. I went with Will, a freelancer for Land & Wave and founder of Freeborn Climbing. I’d say we went over quite under prepared for what we wanted to do, neither Will or I are ninja climbers, but because we were able to get on with each other it worked. Spending 5 days sleeping on a rock face, exhausted and aching is certainly an experience to test any friendship but we just got on with it and each other.
It sounds like a pretty epic adventure, how did it feel getting to the top?
I couldn’t really enjoy it until we had got back down; that’s when it started to feel real. Will had hurt himself on the way up, so when we reached the top there are two ways to get down; either a 6 hour walk or abseil down. As he’d hurt his ankle we decided to walk down, which takes a full day to carry everything. As soon as we got into camp it sunk in we had done it and it was quite surreal.
We’re a really close knit company, how do you maintain work life balance?
I don’t have a work life balance! Everyone in our team gets along with each other and we’re all very social. Work and life mix a lot, which has loads of benefits but also means it’s hard to switch off sometimes. I make a big effort to keep in touch with my friends who aren’t in the area anymore, it’s nice to have a different conversation at the pub, it’s good to switch off every now and again…
How do you relax outside of work?
Food and TV, in particular Planet Earth at the moment. Otherwise we’ve just bought a house so DIY and home renovation. To be honest I’m not really allowed to relax, there’s always plenty of jobs to be doing at home.
If you weren’t working for the Land & Wave team what would you be doing?
I’d probably go back into what I was doing before; carpentry and timber framing. It was an entirely different job satisfaction, having something physical to show for your efforts at the end of a day. To be able to quantify what you’ve done. Or I’d have carried on as a skeleton bob racer which I did when I was younger, something entirely different.
What are your 5 essential winter survival items?
Down jacket, thermos flask, gloves – water proof gloves, thick socks and a sense of humour.
Happiness is :
Being who you want to be
Words of wisdom :
Go big or go home
Favourite Drink :
Chocolate milkshake
Favourite Food :
Steak
What’s on the playlist :
Punk – Slaves especially
We’ll be meeting more of the people behind the scenes next year. If there’s anything you want to know send your questions to [email protected].
See you all in 2017 for the biggest and best year yet!
