Guest Bio
Jordan Jamison is the Owner and Operations Manager at Bay of Fundy Adventures, a company specializing in adventure tourism, outdoor education, culinary experiences, and international travel trade. With a background in adventure travel and outdoor education, Jordan has been instrumental in maintaining high operational standards in the travel trade, day and multi-day adventures, wilderness catering, and outdoor education industries. His leadership has contributed to the company’s growth and its recognition as a provider of unique and enriching experiences in the Bay of Fundy region.
Show Summary
In this episode, Jordan Jamison shares his journey in the adventure travel industry, highlighting his transition into adventure tourism and outdoor education. He discusses the evolution of Bay of Fundy Adventures, emphasizing the importance of maintaining high operational standards and delivering unique experiences. Jordan also reflects on the challenges and rewards of catering to diverse client interests, the significance of culinary experiences in adventure tourism, and the role of international travel trade in expanding their reach.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Operational Excellence: Upholding high standards ensures quality and client satisfaction.
- ✓ Diverse Offerings: Combining adventure, education, and culinary experiences enriches client engagement.
- ✓ Adaptability: Catering to varied client interests requires flexibility and innovation.
- ✓ Global Outreach: Engaging in international travel trade expands market reach and fosters growth.
- ✓ Team Collaboration: Building a dedicated team enhances service delivery and operational efficiency.
What You’ll Find on Bay of Fundy Adventures’ Platform
- ✓ Adventure Tours: Guided day and multi-day adventures exploring the Bay of Fundy region.
- ✓ Outdoor Education Programs: Educational experiences focusing on local ecology and environmental stewardship.
- ✓ Culinary Experiences: Opportunities to engage in wilderness catering and local cuisine.
- ✓ Customized Group Packages: Tailored adventures for groups seeking unique experiences.
- ✓ International Travel Trade Services: Collaborations with global partners to promote adventure tourism.
👉 Visit Bay of Fundy Adventures’ Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about Jordan Jamison’s contributions to adventure tourism.
Learn more about Bay of Fundy Adventures and connect with Jordan at:
https://www.bayoffundyadventures.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:51.006)
Welcome to another episode of the Big World Made Small Podcast. Today we’ve got Jordan Jamison here with us from Bay of Fundy Adventures. Jordan’s so excited to have you here. Our last conversation, we touched on quite a few things. Yeah, you and I have a lot in common, so we’re going to try and recapture some of that for our listeners today. So thank you so much for coming back and chatting with me. Yeah, well, thanks for having me, Jason. Yeah, so tell me, Bay of Fundy, where is the Bay of Fundy?
those people don’t know because there might be one or two people that don’t know. Sure and the people who you might not think know go well I did a project on it in grade five you know 30 years ago and stuff and which always you know is pretty exciting to hear. The Bay of Fundy is uh well it’s this it’s uh New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the two provinces in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia hug the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick some people might know as the province
Jason Elkins (01:51.27)
and a lot of people may know PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, well there’s another Atlantic province there which is New Brunswick and it’s if you go up the Gulf of Maine and keep going up there’s a perfectly funnel-shaped bay called the Bay of Fundy and we’re actually home to the world’s highest tides. Yeah I remembered you saying something about that. What is what’s the average tide what are we talking about when we say the highest tides? So it depends on where you are.
on the bay where I operate mainly, we can get upwards of 30 foot of difference between low and high. So basically in a six hour and 13 minute window, it’ll go from dead low and then six hours, 13 minutes later, it’ll be three feet higher than where it was, which obviously has some challenges, some logistical challenges to it, but also really arms out the landscape and makes where I work, where I get to work extremely unique.
But in some places, I think the record, I have to be, it’s close to 60 feet. And that’s kind of what got us the title, in court actually, of World’s Highest Tides. I think it was a place in Norway that really was pushing the issue. And then after it was brought to the world courts there, I think we came out and we came out on top. Interesting, so it wasn’t just, he said, she said, we’ve got the biggest tides. Yeah, no. They actually took it to the court.
It’s documented. It’s official. And not just in the Guinness Book, huh? So all right, very cool. Yeah, I was imagining as you’re describing that, I’m imagining being out there with a group of clients doing kayaking tours. Yeah. I can’t get my head around it. You might have to explain. When you say it presents some logistical challenges, I’m thinking this is like adventure on a whole other level.
Well, it is and it really may we do really live on two different types. We live on low tide world and high tide world and high tide world. As you can imagine where I’m at, which is not only are there adventure tours from us going on, there’s fishing, there’s lobster fishing and scalloping. It’s a high tide world. It’s a pretty, pretty busy time of day. And then with your low tide world is a little bit of that recovery time. All right. OK, very, very cool.
Jason Elkins (04:10.174)
All right, well, we may touch on that more because I’m definitely fascinated by all the different things you have going on there. But I also really want to touch on who are you, Jordan? Because most tour operators have some kind of interesting story about how they got from where they are or from where they were to where they are. Not too many people just kind of start off like, yeah, my father was a guide, my grandfather was a guide, so I’m a guide. I mean, you see that. You do see that.
But a lot of people like yourself that have really kind of stepped in full time and just and done something a little different in this space usually have some sort of story, maybe started out doing something else and ended up here. So tell us your story. Well, yeah, I mean, it was not that long ago that being an outdoor guide in New Brunswick was an absolutely impossible dream. It was not something that could happen because
you either going to be ski patrol in the winter or you were a scuba diving instructor down in Costa Rica there wasn’t really an option to be a full year guide in New Brunswick and I was kind of always driven to the outdoors I really enjoyed the outdoors I was extremely heavy into climbing cross-country running later on
As trail running became more popular, I was also into kayaking, all of these great things. Rappelling was huge. We had these programs in high school that really encouraged the outdoors. It was in New Brunswick. And through these programs was the first time I went kayaking on, you know, Bay of Fundy in the Atlantic Ocean waters and really tested my might on climbing and rope work and things like that. And I worked for a tourism outfit outside of high school.
or when I left high school or finished it, and then through my first year of university. And then I went through university kind of doing the whole, you need to graduate with a job, graduate, do something, get your degree, get a job, all that great stuff. I ended up kind of bumping around. I was in an arts program and was kind of enjoying that, but didn’t really see a future in it. And then I was actually in engineering and worked at an engineering firm for some time.
Jason Elkins (06:23.49)
and ended up just kind of leaving that firm because I started to see my life kind of be, start to get played out from behind a desk really quickly. And I got to say the people I worked with and the people I worked for were amazing. They’re amazing people. They wanted nothing but the best for me. But I just, I saw this small window of time where I could reasonably make an extreme life change and still kind of come out from behind a desk.
It is scary for sure. A lot of people were kind of, well, you know, give it five years, give it five years. I really didn’t want to start to get used to a lifestyle of behind that desk for five years, the money that came with it. I had basically no responsibility, very just your normal bills, your phone bill, things like that. And so I had an opportunity to maybe not make so much money, but in the long run, be exponentially happier.
And so I took that, that extremely scary leap, scary, not only for me, scary for everyone around me, everyone involved with my life for sure. And it took a lot, a lot can happen in five years. I mean, yeah, lots of things can happen in five years. You could have five kids. You know, my, my girlfriend at the time and my now wife, we were just kind of getting to the home ownership scene, that kind of thing. And, um, so it was.
Yeah, a lot can happen in five years and I got to give credit where credit’s due. The people that I worked for really had the rest of my life played out for me. And I think that was probably the scariest part and the part that really pushed me to go, okay, but, you know, did I really want to be in this growing up as, you know, as young Jordan really going to appreciate the effort I put in here or am I going to take a chance, take a risk? You know, I’ve always taken little bits of risk here or there and really kind of.
dive in the deep end and make this work for me and just kind of, instead of chasing money, maybe chase a little more happiness. And so far I’ve been extremely, extremely lucky and it’s worked out for me. Yeah, well, that’s very cool. And you had told me before that you’re quite an accomplished climber. You kind of mentioned it in passing that you have done some climbing, but you’re quite accomplished in the outdoor sports. And I just think of something like climbing. It’s like
Jason Elkins (08:49.106)
It’s that risk, right? Yeah. If you’re climbing, you’re into those outdoor activities, those risk activities, you’re not, guess what, risk averse. It’s like, OK, I’m willing to take risk to get to where I want to go. And I love that you just kind of, you know, I don’t want to say it’s natural because I’m downplaying it because I know it wasn’t easy. Right? I know it wasn’t easy, but here’s the thing. You did it.
Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people wish they had. Yeah. You know, and so I, although it wasn’t easy, at least it was in within the realm of possibilities for you. It was. And, and again, credits to where credits do it, it became a realm of possibilities because after I left, um, my professional, you know, desk job world, I kind of chased the outdoors a little bit. I worked for an outfitter and it was through the people.
at the outfitter who knew the people who were involved in outdoor tourism that I kind of was able to, I don’t want to say sneak or snake my way, but I was able to make these connections and it was because of them that I was able to really connect with the next person that was able to push me on in this next part of my life. And, and, and Ellen, I like the climbing analogy because it is risk. It’s, it’s extremely risky, but as any climber will know, calculated risk.
That’s that’s in climbing can be as risky as you want it to be. I mean, I’ll tell you, I’m not one of those guys that goes out there without a rope. It’s it’s roped up every time. And and really in these later years, I’ve really become more of a professional belayer than a professional climber in ways. So I’m just kind of guiding from the bottom, really. Well, it’s great. You know, there’s the climbing analogy. And then you mentioned the ropes, the protection and that kind of like those people.
along the way that you’ve connected with. And I don’t wanna say use them the same way you would a rope, but it really is about figuring out, okay, what are the tools? What do I need to make this happen in the safest way possible so that this woman that I love doesn’t like live in a cardboard box with me as I’m a fishing guide in the summer and a ski patrol guy in the winter. And how do I make all this stuff work?
Jason Elkins (11:10.09)
So you were able to take all of those tools in your bag and put them together. And that’s pretty cool. And I think you also, I guess where I’m going with this is I think you get to take credit too. Because this is not easy. When you’ve got family members, you just spent all this money on school or maybe your parents spent all this money on school and you’re like, I wanna go learn how to kayak and take people to kayak or whatever. Yeah, and it definitely took a few years for the people around me to understand what was going on because you know,
The biggest part for them was, sorry, you want to leave this whole landscape of everything all planned out and everything working out well to be what? A kayak guide? That’s what you’re going to do? You’re going to go take people kayaking and that’s how you’re going to make your living. And it did take, I will say, a couple years for people to start to understand how comprehensive Bay of Funny Adventures is.
Uh, just how diverse we are in our offerings and what we’ve kind of like built and continue to build and the involvement and community and things like that. So I think now it’s, it’s certainly, they get it, they understand it, they see it. It’s, it’s been drilled into their head that this is great. I’m not like that now it’s, it’s certainly, um, it’s certainly acceptable. And, and fortunately I’ve been able to. The.
you know, myself, my colleagues, and now some other people able to make these decisions to work in the guiding and outdoor tourism, tourism world, the culinary world, travel trade, everything with that. It’s so it’s been really cool to bring others along on the ride, really. Right. Yeah, it’s, it’s very cool. Because, you know, if you if maybe imagine the scenario where you tell your family,
I’ve got this idea for a product. I’m gonna develop it, take pictures of it, put it on Amazon and I’m gonna sell it. I’m gonna make a lot of money. People are like, oh cool, look at him. Isn’t he like ambitious and- What an entrepreneur. If you wanna, you know.
Jason Elkins (13:20.714)
learned that the trades of HVAC design, I think you’d mentioned you had some connection with that. Yeah. And it’s like, okay, that just makes sense, because that’s something people see around them. They see the AC truck driving down the freeway, or they called the guy and had him come fix their AC. So it’s within the realm of possibilities that they bought things online. But if you’ve never been on a guided, I mean, I was fishing guide before I never went on a guided fishing truck.
I like nobody in my family would have ever spent four or $500 to go on a fishing trip. You know, so I actually became a fishing guide before I’d ever even been on a fishing trip. So I could see why my parents are like, well, are you gonna make money doing that? You know, like who would pay enough money to make it worthwhile? But then you add in the business elements, the same business elements that an HVAC company would have, you know, marketing.
um, hiring equipment, logistics, all those things. Yeah. It’s you’re just selling a different product. So, Oh yeah. We’re totally a real business. Yeah. Well, and that’s exactly kind of what it, you know, sometimes I see the, and really what we’re selling is more, it’s not so life essential to most or some people, but the, what we’re selling is kind of like
the spice, you know, the spice of life, that adventure that, you know, for a lot of people, the reason they go to work, the reason they work 40 plus hours a week is to go do something fun and live and enjoy the landscape around them or travel to enjoy a landscape that’s unique or new to them. And then that’s where we come in. And that’s extremely special because we start to see and meet people who have spent our time.
earn time and money and we know we’ve all worked you know quote-unquote regular jobs we know what it’s like to spend those hours at a place that you may not necessarily want to be and how important it is that we deliver on basically joy when they come and see us out in out of New Brunswick. Yeah and I would make the argument that it is life or death in a sentence. For many people it is.
Jason Elkins (15:45.186)
For many people, this is super, super important to travel. It’s important. A lot of people work to travel. This is how they get from day to day. It may not be traveling every weekend, but they’re gonna take a trip or two a year or one every two or three years. And it’s important to me, it’s important to the people I work with that we deliver on it and that, you know, try to go above and beyond on every single thing that we do and really kind of promote the province
in a way that we see the province. Cause basically one of our biggest, you know, when I hire people, when we hire people, we want to know that, do you, do you like doing this kind of work and do you like doing it in New Brunswick? Right. Okay. Yeah. That’s, I want to definitely touch on that a little bit more about, cause you’d mentioned that one of the, of running a tour operation and a small province like New Brunswick, definitely,
Want to touch on that and go here. Bear with me here for just a second. Go ahead.
You know, you had talked about, you know, we were just talking about, you know, that life or death that look, I worked really hard for this. This is super important to me. And I guess the easiest thing to do is point at, look at what happened the last couple of years, you know, a couple of years ago, where we went from people that were out and about doing their things, whatever those things are, to a situation where it’s very, very difficult to get out. And I guarantee you that was a life or death situation for a lot of people.
Unfortunately, that was a tough time. So it’s really easy to look at that. And then I love the way you said, look, we take it as a responsibility to just do our best to make sure that we’re delivering on this because otherwise you might be like, oh, it’s a kayak trip, what’s the big deal? So what if I was half an hour late? So what if I didn’t have the right equipment and we had to delay or whatever? Well, if you’re the person that’s…
Jason Elkins (17:49.878)
waited through two years at COVID and finally got your first trip to go do something with your parents. It’s really, really important. So anyway, yeah, you’d mentioned that when you go to hire and you talk to people, is this something you want to do and do you want to do it in New Brunswick? So help the listeners understand that question because that’s interesting. Well, so with Bay of Funny Adventures, we’re fairly diverse.
company in terms of what we offer. So we have not only our shorter or, you know, two and a half hour to six hour kayak trips, we have our three day kayak trips where you’re we’re camping, we’re making fresh food on the trail to all the way to five day fully supported funny footpath hiking trips and anybody who knows anything about the funny footpath, you don’t know anything about the funny footpath and you’re a hiker, I highly recommend you look it up.
It’s a very challenging hike that takes three to five days on average to do. So when we do it, we do it in five days, but it’s fully supported. So as you go along with your guide, we have the support team come in, set up camps, set up your air mattress, drop fresh food. And so your guide kind of takes care of you as you come into camp. They’re cooking fresh coffee in the morning and the morning you leave to continue on the trail. My team comes in on the scene, breaks down camp, takes all your garbage out, moves to the next camp. And magically.
your tents and another round of fresh food with fresh coffee grounds is there. And so, and who says this isn’t a demanding business? Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, it’s a great way to get your steps in if you want to run on our support team, that’s for sure. So we do we have that component, we have our outdoor education component. So between September and June, we’re working with students and we’re teaching them.
from grade six to 12, we’re teaching them how to be outdoors. We’re teaching them, you know, leave no trace style responsibility. We’re teaching them about sustainability. We’re teaching them how to kayak, new camp, all that great stuff. Summer, winter, fall, spring, all four seasons we’re taking them out. We have our culinary stuff. So, you know, with those tides comes a really unique opportunity to be able to dine on the ocean floor in that way. So we’re bringing mobile kitchen, mobile dining spaces out onto the ocean floor.
Jason Elkins (20:11.778)
And then of course we work in the travel trade realm. So the travel trade, we’re taking people from different parts of the world for upwards of nine days and showing them basically the best parts Southern New Brunswick in the way that they signed up for, whether it’s extreme adventure or really soft adventure. And I really love doing that. And then we also have a cafe within our realm of what we do in our…
HQ, I guess you can say. We have the Shipyard Cafe. So whether you’re a hardcore adventurer, whether you’re really versed in the outdoors and camping and kayaking, hiking, there’s something within our wheelhouse for you. So I’ve hired people this year that were just baristas, but they were really tourism adjacent.
because our cafe kind of acts as a visitor information center as people will come into the cafe and be like, tell me about the kayaking trips. And it’s up to our people who are worth the cafe to not only know about that, but tell you where the St. Martin sea caves are, to tell you their favorite trails and lookouts on the funny trail parkway, which is right next door to us, how to get to the lighthouse, all, you know, what are the tides and what are they doing? It all kind of like interconnects. And in that way, it’s really…
cohesive machine we’re working with at the company as a whole. Yeah, it actually sounds really brilliant. It’s fun. Because I’m thinking, OK, if you have a little storefront and you put out front Bay of Fundy adventures, tours, get your tour here, you know. Something like that. Hiking, da-da-da-da-da. OK, we’ve got some people that will come in.
But what a great approach just, hey, come in, have some coffee, ask some questions. We’re not gonna sell you a timeshare. We’re not gonna try and get the free tour if you do this and that. And it’s just a welcoming environment that they get to come in. Maybe I suspect there’s times when people are in there getting a coffee and people are coming in to meet their guide or coming in to book a trip and they overhear things. And I see it. We’re a small company, but sometimes it is quite a scene out there.
Jason Elkins (22:33.354)
I mean, we specialize in small tours, so I really only take 12 people kayaking out at a time with two guys. But that is still enough on day to day to kind of be like, there’s some action here. And the people who are only coming in for a coffee and a scone and things like that kind of see the action. And it’s, you know, the village that we operate out of St. Martin’s or where our HQ is, is 279 people in the village proper. So it’s really fun.
to be in that old house and talk to people and kind of get them excited, not only about what we do, but about the area. Cause that’s just as important to us. And the people, our guides and everything are more than happy to steer you in the right direction of what’s gonna make your day, rather than be like, well, get on a trip with us or get lost. It is kind of like a promotion of area rather than a promotion of ourselves.
both sides of that. I mean, I go 100%. Yeah. So one of the things you mentioned was the community and the connection with the community. And you talked about one of the things you did to help kind of expand the season for your grades is that could be a challenge is more the educational front with the kids. And you talked about kind of giving back to the community, the kids and you actually shared a story with me.
about that. So just share with us kind of what that’s all about and what are the highlights you’ve taken away from that experience working with the kids. Yeah, well certainly working in a place like Atlantic Canada in this business can be difficult because usually a season would go from you know early June, maybe the end of May if you’re really motivated till the beginning of September and then tourism starts to trickle off. Now we go mid-May to mid-October
because just the people we hire are around to kind of take in that tourism side of things. But we have an education side where we work for example with right now a couple independent or private schools whatever you’d like to call them and we are offering great grade 6 to 12 different outdoor educational programs. In the past we’ve worked with First Nations individuals, First Nation youth,
Jason Elkins (24:57.002)
and kind of grew from their educational side of things. Tell me what first nation, when you say first nation, I think I know what you’re referring to, but how about our ancestors? First nations would be our indigenous groups in Canada. So we have, I mean, we’ve got several on this side of Canada, well, more than several, and a few groups that reside
still in the province. And so we worked with First Nations youth at one point to kind of get them outdoors and get connected with the roots with the collaboration of the elders and the community as well. Are the kids excited about that? Is that something that they want to do? Or is it something that they feel like their parents and maybe the elders kind of say, oh, you need to reconnect with your, your history, but they’re like, but I’m playing Pokemon right now. I don’t want to go do that. So what kind of response have you got from the kids?
I think it’s certainly the responsibility of every elder, whether it’s First Nation or not, to get the youth outdoors. Now I’m not saying you have to be aggressively pushing them out the door. I mean, my parents, they didn’t have to aggressively push me, but I certainly heard stories of you know, kids getting gooted out the door and those doors being locked to see you at dinner time.
Jason Elkins (26:26.078)
I think with the, for example, the last group I had was a moose hunt with the First Nations kids. And this was pre-pandemic and we were basically facilitating everything but firing the weapons at the animals. So we were facilitating the camping, the cooking, the, you know, the circle up.
talk about the day, talk about what we’re learning, things like that, and kind of the outdoor skills. We did a little bit of fire building, we did a little bit of like understanding nature and circle of life and all that great stuff. And then it was actually a successful hunt for the youth. They did down to Moose, Mises, Moose, and to bring back to their community, to bring back to their elders. And it was really cool, actually. It was one of the most profound moments of my career happened on that.
my career so far has happened on that trip. It’s one of two really big moments in my outdoor adventure career and that was we were talking to the kids about you know when you go back what stories are you going to tell? It’s important to tell stories and things like that and what are you going to tell the elders? How are you going to pass this on to your kids and encourage them to be out? How are you going to you know make your parents proud about being successful in this thing?
And I was telling the kids, you know, it’s important to talk to your elders and everything like that. And I had just been only in the business two or three years at this time. And I said, you know, I had one grandmother who was very supportive of everything I did. I think she was just happy to hear.
to hear about my adventures. She didn’t necessarily care if I was making money or what it was, but she loved hearing about my adventures was extremely encouraging for me whenever I got her on the phone to tell her about the hike they did or business I’m being involved in. And I said, listen, it’s really important to tell your elders, because, you know, one day you’re not going to be able to tell them they’re not gonna be there to tell them. And those are the moments you’re gonna really miss. And I had one young, one young man turn to me he couldn’t have been any more than
Jason Elkins (28:35.458)
13, 14. He turns to me and goes, I can teach you smoke signals so you can continue to tell those stories to her. And I just was like, Oh my God, like hit me like a ton of bricks and was like, Oh, okay. Like this means something to the kids. Like this means something to someone. This means something like there’s a connection. In a few days, I’ve made a connection with enough of the connection with this, at least one individual who was like, I want
you older person who’s taking me outdoors continue that touching tradition that you had before you couldn’t do it anymore. And it was just like, holy geez, like, maybe I’m not mature enough to be here. You know, like that was the most profound thing I had heard in, in a long, long time. It’s very cool. It’s cool that it’s profound that it’s coming from a young man like that. And he connected to his heritage, you know, and
This it’s just it’s great when you get to see it. He connected it to me with no expectation of assimilating to his culture. He was just like, here’s a guy who’s very obviously, I mean, I’ve got some really forgiving lighting going on, but I am, I am full Atlantic Canadian male. I am, I am ghost white. I am, I was for sure the white guy teaching, you know, the indigenous kids.
your door. It is there is a little bit of a balance there for sure. But he just was like, bringing me wholeheartedly into his culture, didn’t care who I was and sent me, you know, this little, you know, you know, gesture that has stuck with me for, for years. And that’s a big part of what I think is special about adventure. And anybody listening to this has probably heard me mention it in a couple other conversations as well as it’s
the bay, it’s not about the water, it’s not about the kayak, it’s not about the mountains, it’s not about the moose per se, but it’s about the connection that these things bring together. When we come together to experience something, your experience and his experience are two totally different experiences. And yet you come together over a moose hunt and that’s when the connection happens. And that’s like…
Jason Elkins (31:03.178)
By far the most important thing that I think comes out of adventure travel, as opposed to, you know, going and sitting on a, you know, at a beach resort or on a cruise ship or something like that, where, yeah, okay, you might be connecting with people that all look like you, sound like you, talk like you, and drink like you. That’s not adventure tourism. That’s something different. You can go down to a bar and do that. Right. And that’s what I love about this, this space of adventure tourism, whether it’s, whether we call it soft adventure.
Um, you know, wing-suiting and the, and the Swiss Alps to, uh, you know, to just, to going on a, a mellow kayaking trip, which with 30 foot tides might not be that mellow. I don’t know, but, um, it doesn’t call them all in at once. It’s very, you’re 100% correct. And, and the connections we do get to share, whether it’s the short trips and especially on the longer trips, especially on the overnight, when you, you know,
those connections around a campfire or those connections about taking pictures of people in the sea caves in a kayak, which they’re going to have forever, which is part of we’re privileged, 100% privileged to have that as our every day. It’s huge and it’s great and you know there is there’s a decent amount of them that are that are time tested and we stay connected with some people for a long time.
because we’ve taken them on a trip to, and done something that they thought they wouldn’t be able to ever do. And so that’s a pretty special world to live in, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And you and I both know, and you kind of touched on it when you talked about, if you’re on the hike, on the Funbee, what’s the trail? Funnee Footpath. You know, you’re out hiking all day, you show up and magic appears like, oh wow, look.
Here’s a guide that’s got our food ready and our tent ready and all this stuff. So there’s a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes in this business that people don’t always fully appreciate and maybe surprises them. Cause I know that I’ve had many times when I’m like, man, I’m working my butt off today. I’ve been managing a lodge in Belize for a while and it was falling landscape around all day. I was…
Jason Elkins (33:24.682)
I had to go into town to get parts for the generator, you know, all this stuff. And the clients come in at the end of the day. And part of my job was to ask them how their day went, spend time having conversations about the fish they saw or didn’t see or whatever. And they’d look at me and say, well, what about you? Did you catch any fish today? Yeah. You know, I’m just like, they’re on vacation. I’m not gonna be the guy to root it for them. I’m like, no, it was pretty tough today. I didn’t see any fish. Yeah.
Oh, a hundred percent. And you’re still, you know, our, our guides are, are extremely well trained. We take pride in getting the biggest, most proper certifications for a guide. So with that comes a level of we’re having a great time. We’re having a great time. I still have to make sure you stay upright, whether it’s on a trail or a kayak, like there is always that essence too, and that can get tiring. And then at the end of the day, you know,
Sometimes depending on the tides, tides could be later in the evening, you’re putting on that headlamp to load these 100 pound boats onto the boat rack, take them to where they’re stored and you’re just like, you’re exhausted. But many times it’s been a really great day. But yeah, especially with us being a small business and in a limited staff, everyone’s doing multiple and multiple things all of the time.
Yeah, I’m an owner and a guide, but you know, marketer, finance individual, whether it’s bookkeeper, whatever the heck you want to call it. You know, guest guest, whatever. Unfortunately, for the people that work with me, I’m also HR, which is a pretty, you know, you know, and then and then being in the adventure culinary education and travel trade side of things, which is kind of like the four pillars of our business.
You do that across four different categories or four different divisions of the company and everyone’s got several jobs to do. And fortunately, we’re starting to really nail down those people who are taking so much pride in their work that you can kind of start to see like, oh my God, like this is gonna work. And God forbid to say the word pandemic again but we’re gonna come out of this pandemic situation pretty strong.
Jason Elkins (35:43.714)
Pretty good, pretty good looking, you know? That’s very cool. And in this conversation and the other conversations I’ve had with you, I definitely get the sense that you guys are just rocking and rolling up there. And yeah, I love your energy and passion around that experience. When you first told me the Moose Hunt thing, I was like, oh my gosh, that’s so cool. And I’m like, it kind of made me want to sign up for a program to learn how to do smoke signals, to be honest with you.
I think you guys should offer that as a program. That’s a big part of something we bring into not only the outdoor education side of things, but we’ve had full grown adults. But yeah, adults when they come, they have the option to do something like meet with a First Nations chief to understand what it’s like for the people now and what it was like then. And I mean, you want authenticity.
on down to the maritimes or come on up to the maritimes depending on where you are. We’ve had you know travel trade uh tour operators come to us and be like you know we would like to here’s a list of people you know we’d like our people to meet you know whether it’s you know a woman in business or you know or first nations individual or blah uh a list and we go uh-huh so we don’t put that in our itineraries because it’s gonna happen anyway
We’re going to run into so and so because when you stay at this particular inn and you want to meet a woman, well, she’s going to come down the inn owner. She’s going to come down and sit with you on the fire side and have a glass of wine with you and you’re going to have your chat. It’s going to be authentic. It’s going to be honest buckle up kiddos because it’s going to, you know, it’s. And it’s going to be great. And it’s going to be, you know, a good time and a party and, you know, we’re, we’re really lucky to live in a place where authentic people.
reside and all of those interactions, all of those connections are fairly organic day in and day out. One thing I really like on a day-to-day basis, for example, we get a lot of people from away, they’re looking for their lobster, things like that. They want to do their lobster dinner and as we’re paddling out of the harbor, for example, I go, great, that boat there, Captain Pat Spinney, he’s got a food market up the road. He just pulled lobster off his boat today, won’t you?
Jason Elkins (38:10.186)
right after this, just go right up the road, see his wife Sandy, she’s been cooking and cracking lobsters since 3 a.m. She’d love to hand over a quarter pound lobster roll to you and they’re just like, you mean right here? And then with 300 meters or a kilometer that way, and that’s where I get the lobster roll that came from that boat, and you’re like, yep, no, this is all how this works in this area, it’s fantastic. That’s super cool. I’m a…
I haven’t eaten yet today. Just thinking about that lobster roll right at the market. Oh, yeah. It wouldn’t be any fresher unless the lobster came out of the water cooked, you know. And then we definitely have a problem with global warming if that’s what’s happening. Well, exactly. Yeah. All right, man. Well, so if people are interested in going there, give us one or two things that they need to really kind of understand before they start planning their trip.
Tell us how they can connect with you, how much lead time they should give, whatever you think they should know before they start planning a trip to MCS. Well, I do recommend the people who do visit Atlantic Canada or the Maritimes, give each province a good amount of time. Once you start to come here, you’re gonna wanna be like, oh, you know, you can drive through it or across it and forward six hours, depending what direction you’re from.
But it’s everything you see along the way that’s gonna wanna make you stop. And I think that’s the major mistake of people who visit the area thinking they can do everything in a day because it’s such a small place. But you start to get in these little nooks and crannies of the province, the small villages, things like that, and all we have to offer. The biggest thing about New Brunswick is we are so spoiled, especially if you enjoy the outdoors. We are our biking trails, our hiking trails, our kayaking, our climbing.
They’re all top-notch, just in smaller packages than the biggest, baddest things in the world. We just all have it in a smaller little spot. The people are fantastic and really, you know, the Maritimes or Atlantic Canada really kind of, you know, they’re where all the good Canadian stereotypes come from. They’re the nicest people. They’re the invite you over for dinner, even though they just met you kind of people. And I think so giving New Brunswick.
Jason Elkins (40:31.442)
extra, even if it’s not with me, giving your Brunswick extra days is definitely essential, especially in the small towns. If you’re coming out with us, you know, we have, you know, Sea Caves kayaking tour, which is fantastic, runs twice daily. We also have the three-day kayak tour, which takes us out to a place called the Funtialles Archipelago. It’s a little closer to Maine. Really easy to get to, but there’s an archipelago out there that’s just a haven for whales.
and really nice islands that we camp on. And when we say fresh food, it’s kind of like our cafe was a little self-serving because we like good coffee. When we go out on these trips, the food’s also very self-serving because we only like to eat good food. So it’s usually like a maple plank salmon and vegetables and rice and things like that we bring out on these trips. But I’ve got a crew of colleagues out in the Fundy Isles today,
and looking for right whales. So there’s less than 350 in the world. I’ve seen, I’ve seen for the first and probably the only time in my life I saw some this year a few weeks ago. So they’re out there right now kind of looking for them in their kayaks and hanging out in the fun day aisles. I’m disappointed I can’t be with them today but that’s you know I’ll get out there no worries. But that’s a three-day trip that is spectacular, spectacular and it’s and it’s fun you’ll learn a lot.
we take all of our guests out in doubles. So there’s also, those things are extremely stable. And I love them for people who may not be expert paddlers. Because even if you gas out, there’s another engine in that boat. And the carrying capacity of those things means, you know, the tents are nice, the sleeping bags are fluffy. And we have all the kit we need to have a full kitchen with really good food out there. So I really like bringing people out on that trip. I think it’s, it’s great. It’s extremely fun for me to do. And if people book it, I get to go.
So again, self-serving. I understand. I can see how you roll, which is the way we all do. I think anything. So what is 2020? Cause we’re kind of at the end of this. Let’s yeah, we’re pretty much near the end of season here for 2023. So any, any big exciting new stuff coming up in 2024 with the business or in terms of big, exciting, new, nothing big, exciting and new. We’ve done that over the last few years.
Jason Elkins (42:54.646)
We’re getting into a zone, a time of our lifespan where we’re in the nitty-gritty perfectionist stages before we continue on to grow, which is really exciting for us because I was talking to my business partner last week and we were kind of looking at each other going, you know what, that kayaking, that kind of ran itself. We have the best people. I just couldn’t believe how great and smooth everything ran and how everyone was just clockwork and awesome and…
and you know, excuse me, you know, everything ran so great. So we’re just continuing on that. And then on the side growing things like our travel trade industry and our culinary and outdoor education side of things, which is great. But on the tourism side, we’re feeling more dialed in than ever. We’ve, you know, and it’s, so that’s been fantastic growth period for us. And that, so nothing new, nothing big, nothing.
But everything’s exciting. Yeah, well, no, absolutely. I think that’s it’s great to be in that spot where you’re like, okay, we’re not just trying to keep up. We’re really working on dialing in the details and just really maximizing. And that’s a cool place to be in. Congratulations. Not everybody’s there. It’s in. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s great that we have such great staff on our side, on our team and everything.
and these people who know these trips inside out, and all of the crew is kind of up on what it means to be on the Fundy Footpath, what it’s like to be in the Fundy Isles, all the way down to the little details of the person I work with’s wife found an arrowhead on this beach, it’s this amount years old, and all of those little pieces of connection throughout history to now.
is certainly come together because we, as a team, started to really collect all of these stories and connections and we’re able to bring those connections to the people who are coming to the area. It actually sounds like a fun place, a fun team to be a part of, so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone listening to this podcast, there’d be some people who just want to come do a vacation with you, I wouldn’t be surprised if…
Jason Elkins (45:14.41)
If someone else reached out to you and said, hey, I’m really passionate about this site, and maybe someone will first hear of you on this call. I don’t know, but thank you so much for being here. That would be pretty cool. Yeah, that would be really cool. Yeah, yeah, it would be. And I look forward to meeting you and I can get up there as well. It just seems like a great place and you seem like my tribe. So speaking of First Nation stuff, we’re all kind of part of the First Nation in a sense, right? And
Really appreciate you for coming on the show and sharing it with us. So thanks so much, Jordan. I appreciate you having me. And if anyone’s looking to get in contact with us or see what we’re looking to do, they can find us at Bayofundieadventures.com. That’s Bay of Fundie, F-U-N-D-Y, adventures.com. We’re also on Facebook, Instagram. I recently worked with a really, really cool young lady this year who got us on TikTok, which is not something I ever thought I would be supporting, but it seems to be.
catching it’s got a little bit of legs, tiny legs, but it’s got legs. And it’s an interesting format. But we’re wrong. She’s she’s just in her own way. She’s teaching you how to send smoke signals. Right? We’re all connected. It’s all the same. No, it’s been great. Yeah, it seems like smoke signals to me. At this point, I do a lot of digital marketing stuff, but I’m still kind of like, Oh, just showed my vulnerability there. Well, why did that work? And that didn’t? I don’t know.
Well, OK, we’re going to keep plugging away at it. All right, well, good. All right, Jordan. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate you. And I’ll see you up in Eastern Canada at some point soon. So thank you so much for coming on. All right. Thank you. Bye.
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