outdoors tagged posts

The United States has a long history of electing sportsmen into the White House. Of course you know Teddy Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman, but did you know about some of these?

1st President: George Washington 
1789-1797

Washington starts off the list of presidential sportsmen. Before becoming our first president, Washington counted “commercial fisherman” among his many occupations. He took several fishing breaks to Mount Vernon during the Constitutional Convention. While the General also duck hunted, his favorite outdoor pastime was fox hunting. 

21^st President: Chester Arthur
1881-1885

Arthur was famous for his salmon fly-fishing technique and even held an Atlantic salmon record for catching a 50-pound fish in Canada...

Hunter Identity, by Katie McKalip

Katie McKalip

I was paying for my new shotgun, several years ago in a sporting good store, when it hit me.

Hunting had become part of my identity. But I wasn’t sure exactly how it happened.

Growing up, I had few opportunities to get afield, even though both my parents came from hunting and fishing families. And my upbringing in the suburbs of a city that severely restricted personal firearms ownership was hardly one that celebrated sporting pursuits.    

But then I moved out west after college and had the good fortune to fall for a man who appreciated public lands and open spaces and opening weekends of various game species. I started going hunting, with him and then with other friends, for deer and elk and waterfowl but mostly upland birds...

All the RepYourWater gear going to blog subscriber Debra Wright.

The time has come! We drew one winner at random who has subscribed to our blog and the winner is… Debra Wright.

Debra has won the following gear from RepYourWater:

• One Trout Camo Hat
• Two Trout Camo Sun Shield Gators
• RepYourWater stickers

Thanks so much to everyone who has subscribed to Camo is the New Black! And congratulations to Debra!

We have more giveaways in the works so keep checking back for your chance to win.

Wondering what to get your sportswoman this Valentine’s Day? Flowers are nice, but we bet you can be a little more original. We’ve got you covered! Check out these goodies for some ideas:

(Clockwise from top left): The Cadillac of lady waterfowl jackets from Drake Waterfowl | Earrings with a bang | The most complete modern how to cookbook (Afield by Jesse Griffiths) for wild game and fish | And last but not least, don’t forget to keep her warm with Hotties

Katniss Everdeen is inspiring young girls to try archery. (Photo from IMDB.com)

A series of news articles (such as here, here and here) report that The Hunger Games movie series, among some other popular shows, have contributed to an uptick of young girls learning archery.

John Shappel teaches at Tri-State Archery in Dubuque in Iowa was quoted in THOnline.com saying:

“Most of the new archers I’ve seen myself are young ladies,” said Shappell, who is on the Dubuque Field Archers board of directors. “Most of the younger girls, say 13 and down, are looking to get into sport. They’ve seen ‘Hunger Games,’ and say, ‘Yeah, I have to go and shoot archery.'”

As it seems we most often hear of negative effects of popular culture, we say this comes as welcome news...