#ShootingTheBreeze with Howard Dracup
Welcome to the second in our irregular series where we chat to outdoor industry professionals: Shooting the breeze. We’re hoping to start conversations, help people coming into the industry and share interesting advice and thoughts which come up.
Second up is Howard Dracup, running coach supported by Montane, Scarpa UK, Voom Nutrition, Mountain King Poles, Sungod sunglasses and Dexshell UK. For coaching enquiries click here. Thanks for answering our questions Howard.
What quick advice would you have for someone looking to combine a love of the outdoors or sport with their working life?
I think if you’re someone looking for a career change and wanting to combine your love of the outdoors or your sport or both into a job, a good way to start would be to start volunteering at events and find some connections. It’s also a good idea to do some research and look at what qualification’s will help you get to where you need to be, something like a 2 day outdoor first aid course would be a good start and then start to build from that.
Once you have built up a few good relationships volunteering, maybe put the feelers out and see if anybody has any work for you. If you’re truly passionate about something it won’t take long for this to be seen and you’ll be hired before you know it!
What do you feel is the biggest issue facing the sector in next 5 years?
I’ve not really given it much thought to be honest, but I think it all boils down to things like sustainability and climate change. If some big changes aren’t made real soon the planet is going to be in pretty bad shape.
What’s the one thing you always pack for an adventure?
I didn’t even need to think about this one! Filter papers and coffee!
Has working in the outdoors or sports ever killed your buzz? How do you stop it becoming just another job?
Genuinely I can’t say it has, I’m very lucky to be honest, as my job is quite diverse working in different locations, with different people, companies and brands. Every athlete I coach has their own vibe and personality which helps keep things fresh. I can also dip in and out of my old job as a mechanical engineer at any point too which involves working all over the UK on some big projects.
And finally, tell us something Outside Of Ordinary about yourself?
Ohhh haha probably the time I had a go at the mars bar challenge! I was working on a site and one of the lads was telling me about a challenge where you had to eat 12 Mars Bars in 30 minutes and that nobody had done it. I told them it would be easy and to go and buy the Mars Bars and I’ll do it! So he came back with the goods and long story short I demolished all 12 in 10 minutes!
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