Image: Gorigoli1124, Pixabay
With the province encouraging New Brunswickers to explore in their own back yards during COVID-19, a Saint John-based outdoor adventure company has grown this year, and they’re planning on rolling out new winter offerings in 2021.
Be Rad Adventure Company is an outdoor event company and tour operator that specializes in multisport adventures, specifically mountain biking, for women, co-ed groups, and families. Owner Sam Bosence says when the provincial state of emergency first put restrictions on businesses back in March, the company was in a different position than others.
“We were lucky because all of our offerings are outside so when the first restrictions laid over onto small business, we were like, ‘okay, but we’re outside and we’re sporting events.’ We fell under a category of fewer restrictions,” says Bosence.
RELATED: New Outdoor Tourism Company Wants To Take You On An N.B. Adventure
The company did have to make their mountain biking group classes smaller. This required them to hire two new instructors, something they were planning on doing this year pre-pandemic.
“This only improved the experience for our customers because it was a better ratio,” says Bosence. “It used to be six-to-one, now it’s four-to-one. It really benefited them in terms of having that closer one-on-one experience, all the while still stay two meters apart and everything else.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic encouraging more outdoor activities, Bosence says Be Rad also benefited from the increase in bike sales around the province, especially in the spring.
“There were a lot of bike sales and new riders getting on new bikes or new-to-them bikes and the bike shops were like, ‘Okay, go learn to ride a bike’ and I was like ‘Over here!’” says she says. “Luckily, we were able to benefit from those referrals from the local shops and word-of-mouth now they were getting into the sport. We were extremely busy.”
RELATED: How Mountain Biking Could Help Grow Tourism In New Brunswick
Be Rad also hosted its first Mountain Biking Festival at Poley Mountain this year. It also developed and rolled out a youth program for private instruction and for schools, which included a road trip to the entire province to teach nearly 200 students in eight communities.
Though Bosence stops short of saying COVID-19 was good for business, she does says the province’s promotion of domestic tourism matched the company’s plan and vision.
“We were lucky because it aligned with our strategy of domestic travel and promoting our areas to people from our areas,” says Bosence. “Having tourism campaigns pushing the staycation was like, ‘oh perfect, this is great.’ We can do that. That’s what we were hoping for.
It’s weird to say that we benefitted. I would just say that it aligned well with our goals we established pre-pandemic.”
To build on this year’s success, in early 2021 Be Rad offering guided and self-guided winter mountain biking tours throughout the province, particularly at its home base in Saint John’s Rockwood Park.
“We want to stay active year-round and I have these awesome trained guides who did so well over the summer season and I thought instead of them just leaving, we can continue and extend our season,” says Bosence. “It’s important for tourism that it’s a year-round experience and it just helps us refine those experiences that much more.”
The new winter tours will also feature add-ons such as food or drinks from local businesses.
“They can select their option add-ons. We could do something like a gift certificate at a nearby pub or restaurant so they can go inside or something on the trail,” says Bosence. “We’ve done that before, trailside lunches or snacks. We bring it into them trailside by a fire for example.”
The new winter mountain biking offerings will be available to book in January 2021. As one of the few companies in New Brunswick that offers these kinds of tours, Bosence says Be Rad wants to continue to promote the outdoor lifestyle in New Brunswick has to offer.
It’s here. It’s awesome. It’s rad,” she says. “It’s something we’re super excited about and we just keep figuring out who we can work with because we’re trying to lift our local entrepreneurs and essential partners as much as possible.”
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
