35th Parallel has been a long time in the making. Over the past 15 years, I've worked in adventure travel in various capacities, ranging from tour guide to owner/operator. This experience has taught me many things, but above all, it gave me the desire to create my "dream" adventure travel and tour company. To understand what this means, you need to understand my journey.
In 1996 after finishing university in Australia, I headed overseas in search of adventure. After a few months surfing in Indonesia, I ended up in Africa. I'd not returned to South Africa since 1991 and originally immigrated from there in 1986 to live in Australia. Africa is an amazing place that once experienced, leaves a lasting impression on everyone that goes there. I spent about 6 months travelling around, before ending up in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
There I was lucky enough to meet a crazy Kiwi (of American descent) who was boogie boarding down the class 5 rapids of the Zambezi River, Jon Imhoof. Well, one thing lead to another, and before I knew it I was having far too much fun to go anywhere!
Serious Fun River Surfing
Jon and I started a business together, called Serious Fun River Surfing and were the first company to operate commercial riversurfing trips on the Zambezi River. If you don't know the Zambezi River, then you may not quite understand how much fun can be had on this amazing stretch of white water.
This was an amazing time in my life and one which taught me many things about people and the tourism industry. One of the main things I took away from this 5 years was that for most companies it's a numbers game. It's all about bums on seats. The problem with this mentality is that it invariably leads to a lower quality product and as a result the experience is not what it could be. Whilst I firmly believe we ran the best quality day trips on the Zambezi river, I still didn't like the fact that it was all about the numbers.
Here's a short promotional video for Serious Fun to give you an idea of what we were up to!
Serious Fun also appeared on the Getaway travel show in Australia as "the ultimate adventure activity in the world" in 1999! Check it out...
Get out as quick as you can...
In 2000 the writing was on the wall - Zimbabwe was heading in the wrong direction and times were taking a turn for the worse. We sold Serious Fun in early 2000 and packed up our lives in Zambia and moved on. After a few more years of travelling, mostly guiding white water rafting trips, Jon and I again teamed up, in New Zealand this time.
In New Zealand we ran a great little adventure tour company taking people on 2-3 week soft adventure tours around New Zealand. This was a great learning experience which again affirmed my previous learnings - nearly every tourism business sacrifices quality in order to get more bums on seats. We were so reliant on numbers that we would do what every other tour company in the world does (except 35th!) - we would pretty much take the money of anyone who wanted to travel on one of our trips.
That's what got me thinking - there has to be a better way. Unfortunately, the better way, the 35th Parallel way, is hard. Imagine starting a business and having to turn away customers... most people think we're mad. Maybe we are... but I think it will be worth it in the end.
To create something truly amazing requires commitment
Everyone's heard it, but how many people are really willing to do it? In order to create a truly amazing adventure travel and tour company, we do need to have commitment - serious commitment. That's because we're not going for the easy dollars, the bums on seats. Instead we are focusing on providing the best quality experience for our travellers every single time. To do this we have to be prepared to turn away paying customers who aren't right for particular trips - and that's exactly what we're doing and will always continue to do.
My belief is that in time, people will recognise our uniqueness in the market and will value what we do and how we do it. This will then result in the creation of a community of people who put together their dream adventure travel trips with 35th Parallel and other like minded individuals - without the risk of being stuck on a tour with people they have nothing in common with and a fixed schedule which has no spontaneity and flexibility!
So, that's what we're about and what we're trying to create. If you like the sound of what we're creating, then I encourage you to join our community, and get your friends to do the same - then hopefully we'll be welcoming you to some far flung destination in the coming years and introducing you to your future friends!
