Introduction
The opening paper by Jess Ponting, Consuming Nirvana: exploring the commodification of surfing tourist space, is somewhat outside the mainstream of those literatures which typically inform outdoor education / outdoor recreation.

However, the theorising that Ponting brings to bear on the development of the Mentawi Islands for surfing tourism, likely resonates with the experience of many engaged within outdoor education and ecotourism. The notion of the outdoors as a commodity is equally relevant to the mountain experience as it is to the exotic surf experience. He argues that the picture of a surfing paradise has been constructed ‘from media supported notions of a normative, pre-commodified nirvana based upon adventure, relentlessly perfect surf, an absence of uninvited peers, and interactions with fourth world host communities’

Perhaps like guided Himalayan expeditions, ‘surfing tourist space in Indonesia has moved from a state of heterogeneity towards homogenized enclavic tourist space as tour operators removed the ‘rough edges’ to provide western tourists with a standardised and controlled experience...’

The commodification of place and experience highlighted by Ponting, poses some important pedagogic, environmental and social questions for those working in the outdoors. As he notes, ‘understanding the implications of commodifying and consuming nirvana may also provide a basis for overcoming the current impasse between the promise and practice of a sustainable surfing (outdoor – ed) industry’

Eric Brymer’s paper, Extreme Sports: theorising participation – the case for phenomenology, provides an overview and analysis of the extreme sport literature. Refreshingly, Brymer moves beyond the superficial ‘adrenalin junkie’ sobriquet and argues that existing research has been theoretically limited in its attempts to understand the nature of extreme sport. In his view there ‘has been a focus on risk and often findings show little real difference between the extreme sport experience and any other activity’. Somewhat critically he concludes that existing research ‘does not help with our understanding of the extreme sport experience but perhaps, ironically, hinders any such understanding’.

In drawing his material together, Brymer suggests that the positivist frameworks which have typically informed research into extreme sports, lack the methodological sensitivity to understand the nature of the human experience. To further this understanding he makes the case for more qualitative approaches to research and, in particular, phenomenology. Echoing the words of Edmund Husserl by suggesting that researchers should ‘return to the experience itself’ through meaningful engagement with participants would, according to Brymer, offer a more theoretically worthwhile means of understanding the extreme sport experience.

The Aliveness Decisional Model by Adrian Ellison provides an experientially grounded model for understanding and facilitating outdoor experience. As a 50 year ‘veteran’ of outdoor leadership, Ellison’s model has evolved through practice, reflection and engagement with a selected literature. The paper is a personal account of his evolving ideas and how they were theorised, tested and revised. He notes that his ‘first experiments in camping were intuitive and exploratory. I was guided by feedback in the classroom, from the parents of the youngsters, and the participants’ evaluations of their camping experience in later years’.

Like many outdoor leaders who work in isolation from others, Ellison was ‘blissfully unaware of any other outdoor leader who was consciously developing the style of wilderness camping that I was using.’ He set out ‘to plan wilderness experiences to maximize the transfer of what I deemed healthy ways of looking at values and attitudes to life beyond the camp scene’.

The Aliveness Decisional Model contains ideas and theoretical orientations about learning that readers might recognise through the lens of other literatures – particularly cognitive and social psychology. However, Ellison’s paper has a depth of feeling an intuitive logic that will no doubt provoke considerable thought and discussion. ‘The current model is a product of 50 years experience in organising and operating camps with behavioural objectives’.

Tracey Dickson is a well known author in outdoor learning. Her paper, Learning Styles: what can we learn?, while primarily quantitative, also has a qualitative dimension in respect of her examination of ‘images of facilitation’. The use of visual images from three books of well-known authors is used as a device to demonstrate how images may in part dictate a type of facilitation best-practice.

Further, she argues, the images may distort the experience of the facilitation process – ‘there are people who are in body positions that may suggest discomfort (this is not limited to physical or emotional discomfort), either turned away, sitting askew and arms folded. But from the images alone we cannot know what people’s experiences truly are....the location for some may could be a place of power and inspiration, for others, threatening and intimidating’.

From this introduction Dickson provides a theoretical overview of learning styles and then goes on to outline the quantitative study(s) which forms the major part of the paper. Her results reveal similarities between groups on a range of learning style preferences and significant differences with others – in particular physical needs, the environment (lighting and temperature) and sensory modalities (seeing). The paper concludes with some recommendations for questions that facilitators need to ask when planning an experiential activity.

A change in direction from considering the role of the learners in the outdoors, to a concern for leaders, is the focus of Tonia Gray’s paper. In Examining Burnout in Outdoor Education: an ecological perspective, Gray uses the metaphor of the bushfire to examine the phenomenon of staff ‘burnout’. She argues that ‘burnout is a plague which afflicts our profession and in fact, it may not be going too far to describe burnout as being endemic to the field of adventure therapy / outdoor education'.

She notes that like a bushfire, burnout is a consequence of factors over which we have some or no control. We cannot control the lightning strike or spontaneous combustion but we can control the arsonist and the poorly considered back burn. Likewise broader changes in the construction of work within the economic rationalist agenda such as down sizing, cost cutting and the escalating pace of work around ‘performance’ outcomes are difficult to control at the individual level. However, we can develop personal strategies to bring control to the hitherto uncontrollable. Gray outlines some examples of these strategies while at the same time pointing to potential ‘symptoms’ of burnout. For Gray, ‘times of regeneration, rest and renewal are critical in bringing self back to a balance’

Vinathe Suryanarayan’s paper, Education, Global Citizenship and Further Research: could we focus more on ecological literacy?, presents a view of outdoor learning from the perspective of a developing country. In a challenge to our collective worldview she notes that ‘in the contemporary world, our industrialized lives are mapped by liberal economic policies and modernisation and there is substantial evidence to suggest that the modern world sits arrogantly upon the remains of early civilisations’. This arrogance she argues has social, environmental and spiritual implications for developing countries. The social system is disrupted by consumerist economic values; environmental change is accelerated by extractive industries such as mining and forestry; and the spiritual attachment of many indigenous groups to the land is undermined.

Using India as a case study, Suryanarayan believes that the changes of the type noted above started with British colonisation. ‘Today it is not only rampant and beyond our imagination but is also seriously affecting the value-based lifestyles of people throughout the country. With more and more urbanised and fragmented groups, the gap between the social and the natural systems widen, thus disintegrating humans and unbalancing their lives. What development has taught us, the participants in the modern democratic system, is dependency, competition and consumerism’.

Suryanarayan’s response to the development conundrum is for educators to recognise the various levels on which change impacts upon host communities. More importantly she argues, educational programs and practice must recognise and connect with pre-existing indigenous knowledge within these countries. ‘We need creative, sustaining, integrated and spiritual human beings to protect the life systems with an inner consciousness of the well-being for all’.

The contentious issues of competency standards, appropriate training, levels of experience, risk management and litigation are all raised in Roy Dumble’s paper: When is a Qualification Not Sufficient? When a Law Court Judge Says So. Central to Dumble’s argument are concerns about meeting accreditation and training standards by way of some formal qualification which then provide the individual with a license to practice. His central concern is whether such ‘qualifications’ do indeed qualify an individual to take charge of groups participating in adventurous activities – ‘from zero to hero with a handshake?’.

Using the French Pass Judgement (NZ – 2000) on a diving accident as a case study, Dumble explores both the judgement and training of dive instructors. From there he broadens the debate to philosophically and practically examine what the judgement implies about appropriate training and qualifications for all outdoor leaders. In drawing his material together the author concludes that ‘the intent and content of the syllabus, the philosophy of assessment and teaching, and the ‘passage of time’ taken to become an instructor, play vital roles in how we perceive what an award or qualification enables such instructors to do. Specifically it calls into question the perception of experience, judgement and decision-making abilities of ‘qualified’ instructors’.

The final paper by Evan Steverson, Outdoor Recreation Choices of Sydney Residents Visiting the Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), is very much in the tradition of outdoor recreation planning. In this quantitative study, Steverson sets out to meet four objectives: to assess (Sydney) visitor demand; identify a demographic profile of KNP visitors, identify the seasonal patters of visitation; and identify the type of outdoor activities undertaken while on a visit.

The results of the study confirm existing, yet changing, patterns of participation. As expected, the majority of people intend to visit KNP in winter for snow based activities. However, the data also point to changing seasonal preferences where off snow activities also featured significantly. For example, mountain biking and bicycle touring were the single most popular activity. Scenic driving and picnicking also accounted for a large number of the selected activities of potential visitors. Like broader participation in outdoor recreation, the participants in the adventurous activities were more likely to be younger than the general population overall, and male. Steverson concludes by noting some methodological issues that need to be further addressed and also a recommendation to examine the relationship between predicted usage (demand) and the most recent visitor data when it becomes available.