RICHARD HANBURY
ENJOYING LIFE
OUTDOORS Richard Hanbury is one of a trio of outdoor adventure instructors who founded Reach Outdoors, now based at Goodrington, in 2012. Anita Newcombe dropped by the beach to find out more.
I
’m meeting Richard Hanbury at Goodrington Sands and he explains that he, Rachel Mayhew-Edwards and Ashley Hone used to work together at a youth charity in Southhampton. Having come up with the idea of setting up their own adventure sports company based in Devon, they gave up their jobs, launched Reach Outdoors and decided they would give it a year to see if their concept worked. Clearly it did as they now have a vibrant calendar of events running plus plenty of training and one-to-one intensive coaching sessions as well as the simple hiring out of kayaks and paddleboards from the beach. The three directors came to the Bay in 2012, initially renting a house together at Combeinteignhead. Operating from
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a shared rural location where they had space to store their kit and where the dining room became their office was a success in terms of keeping costs low in the first couple of years. They worked (without pay initially) at Reach Outdoors in the daytime and took part-time jobs in the evenings to make ends meet. They invested in a van, a trailer, 6 kayaks, a stock of wetsuits and got started. Richard explains that their website was important to their early success, being so professional that they looked really well established from the word go. The work was done by Kubiak Creative thanks to a family link. In March 2014 they were approached by Torbay Coast and
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