What a year it’s been, from raging bush fires, to killer hornets, COVID-19, lockdowns, protests and the dramatic finale; the US Election. This year has been far from ‘normal’ and has quite literally turned the world upside down. The FarOut family have put up a good fight, and we are incredibly lucky to be healthy AND still have our family business.

Here’s our year in review:

The Trenches

In March, we were thrown into the storm – with the rest of the world – when it became apparent that our summer season would quite literally need to be put on hold. I clearly remember sitting on our sundeck with a beer in hand wondering how the hell we were going to navigate this new highly unpredictable environment. For a couple of weeks, we were quite literally paralyzed with the gravity of it all.

When the shock subsided, we kicked into action and felt that the right thing to do was to offer EVERY booked client the opportunity to cancel or postpone their FarOut adventure. During this process we were astounded to learn that over 85% of clients were going to postpone and this act quite literally saved our family business. To our clients, we say thank you.

The Pivot

For those of you that know us, you know that we are NOT good at sitting still and definitely NOT good at sitting idle. We knew that our fellow Canadians were literally itching to get outside and camp this summer and we wanted to help them do this safely and in style! So, we set up additional safety and cleaning protocols for the overland vehicle rentals and launched Vancouver Island Roof-Top Tents, a business focused on tent rentals and sales. This meant we could offer the vehicle AND the tent, OR just the tent – depending on what our clients needed.

The Lows

Realizing this was an ironman: We knew we had been signed up to an endurance race, and we came to the table with our race face on, but the day it dawned on us that we had been signed up for the ironman we knew we’d have to dig deep.

Toddler lockdown: Enough said. We know you get it.

Digital Family Time: While we are so grateful for Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp, FaceTime and all the other hundreds of platforms out there, nothing can replace that first hug from family and friends and as time creeps on, that’s what we miss the most.

The Highs

Our clients: we have loved getting to know our clients and we have thoroughly enjoyed having them become part of the FarOut family. We have been blown away by their kind words and support throughout the year.

Family Time: we really seized the moment and took advantage of every opportunity to get into the back country this season. We have loved re-connecting as a family around the campfire and have enjoyed many sundowners at incredible remote locations.

Building Partnerships: we have made lots of new friends in industry this year and we have had great fun learning about other people’s businesses and trying to figure out ways in which we can help each other ride the storm.

HELLO 2021!

Boy are we looking forward to a new year, a chance to wipe the slate clean. This year we are excited to be welcoming our postponed clients to BC (fingers crossed!), rolling out our new booking system and finally building our next truck with our improved drawer-rack and storage system. Watch this space!