The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Turning passion into project
Apaddle sport enthusiast with a love of the great outdoors has turned his passion into a flourishing business based in Blairgowrie.
Piotr Gudan founded Outdoor Explore in 2014 as a one-man operation, but the venture has expanded significantly since then.
The firm, which has managed to weather the Covid-19 storm, now has four core team members and 10 freelance staff.
So how did Outdoor Explore come about?
Piotr said: “I have been involved in paddle sport coaching and guiding for over 20 years. I gained my experience and qualifications at the various locations I have worked and lived – Poland, Ireland, England, France, Wales and eventually Scotland.
“When I came here just about a decade ago, I looked for organisations where I could enjoy some slow-pace kayaking adventures.
“There were some great clubs and good paddlers, but none was exactly what I wanted to enjoy – exploring the sea, lochs and rivers from the kayak perspective simply to admire the views, wildlife and history of the places.
“With busy lifestyles, we have often little time to commit to new clubs, hobbies and interests – so offering shorter guided kayak tours, where previous paddling experience wasn’t necessary, was one of the first reasons to start Outdoor Explore.
“We catered our offer to visitors and local residents who simply wished to see things from a completely different perspective. You will be surprised how many people had never seen dolphins in Dundee area, kingfishers in Perth or explored amazing castles by the water’s edge in rural sites.”
Piotr said Outdoor Explore now has more guides than ever before – delivering trips and coaching sessions at various locations at the same time across Scotland, and also south Wales where the firm expanded to just over a year ago.
He added: “We take kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding to a new level, offering some superb experiences.
“For example, we deliver a lot of night kayak tours in the autumn and winter – great for star gazing, sitting at a small fire with hot chocolate.
“We also offer picnic/ cheese and wine boards for kayaks, with local food or coffee on board during sunrise or sunset kayak tours.
“In addition, we have ‘base camp style’ multi-day sea kayaking experiences on Skye, from a private croft by the water’s edge, which all is just a truly magical experience.”
Piotr – who also works as an on-call firefighter based at Blairgowrie – said his team is very diversified and this improves massively the quality of experiences that Outdoor Explore can offer clients.
He added: “If you are looking for a solo trip, or one with your young family, or maybe you wish to take a dog out paddling as well, or have a disabled friend or family member, or if you are new or experienced, among our team we have guides who specialise in all these fields.”
Outdoor Explore is open all year round, and Piotr said the peaks of the season are during the school holidays. On average the business gets 100 participants a week, with numbers steadily growing.
Piotr said that Covid-19 had meant that Outdoor Explore was forced to close for an extended period, but the firm survived this by slimming its overheads.
Before the pandemic the company had depended on a big chunk of its business coming from abroad, so the fall-off in international travel due to Covid was a second blow.
As a result most of Outdoor Explore’s customers in the last couple of years have been UK-based, with more than 70% of them from Scotland.
But Piotr is optimistic that customer numbers from other parts of the world will pick up again.
He said: “We are working slowly again with travel agencies from abroad which used to bring about 45% of our business, but this will take probably two years to get regular again.”
Asked about the biggest achievements for Outdoor Explore since it was founded, Piotr is particularly proud of how his small business has made a positive difference in the local community.
He added: “From the beginning, my aim was to always leave places we take people out exploring in better shape than we found it.
“We also offer litter-free paddle trips, which cost participants nothing but we ask them to help us to collect the litter we find along the way.
“In eight years of this project we have collected over five tonnes of rubbish from various locations across Tayside, and that’s definitely something to be proud of. There are a lot of people who helped us to achieve this. Thank you.”