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Sam Sutton on the outdoor pursuit of happiness

By Sam Sutton

Owner / Director of Growth, New Forest Activities

When Sam Sutton, along with his friend and business partner Rich Pearsall, bought some Canadian canoes in 2003 with permission to run tours on the Beaulieu River, it was to be the beginning of an incredible business adventure.

Launched from their shared passion for paddle sports, their company Liquid Logistics later added land-based pursuits to its offer and expanded to become New Forest Activities. The company’s outdoor endeavours are not only fun and accessible for their participants, but also often profound and developmental experiences for mental wellbeing.

As they prepare to celebrate 20 years, and with new ventures on the horizon, the company is on course to add many more strings to its bow.

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What’s the New Forest Activities set-up?

We're spread out around the Beaulieu Estate. The backbone of our business is still paddle sports which we run from Bailey’s Hard and Buckler’s Hard on the banks of the Beaulieu River.

Our multi-activity programmes began with running residential programmes for the Prince's Trust. Seven years ago, we bought what is now our woodland activity centre, where we have our ropes course and archery. We can hold large events there and we’ve put in a classroom. We also have a limited number of nights we can do seasonal camping for schools and youth groups.

Over the last few years, we've branched out to do residential programmes for schools. We've probably got the complete package now – the summer and tourism experiences; the schools’ packages with residentials and day trips; and then corporate team building and training development work.

What's been the biggest challenge to overcome?

The biggest challenge is always seasonality and managing spikes like weekends and summer whilst keeping the quality high and recruiting and retaining people.

Dealing with that seasonality whilst managing the staff and the cash flow so that you've got a sustainable 365 business is, and continues to be, the biggest challenge.

Introducing land-based and multi-activities has helped with that and has allowed us to create income out of the main season.

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"Our business purpose is fun and enlightenment. The fun is the enjoyment of the activity; enlightenment is finding out a little bit about the environment, learning new skills, or how you react to different situations."

Which lessons have you learnt on your journey?

My journey has always been about personal self-development, self-awareness, and how that impacts when you involve other people: teams, colleagues, family, or fellow learners.

I’m big into mindfulness, meditation, and awareness – trying to apply it to my own life but also using our activities to get people to think a little bit deeper about what they’re doing.

Our business purpose is fun and enlightenment. The fun is the enjoyment of the activity; enlightenment is finding out a little bit about the environment, learning new skills, or how you react to different situations and dynamics from family interaction to corporate training events or supporting school kids.

I’ve learnt that you’ve got to be as present as possible and enjoy the journey. I think happiness is a balance of being grateful for what you’ve got, enjoying it, and making the most of it.

What are your future plans?

Eight months ago, we bought a business in Scotland and Cairngorms Activities is our current project. Delivering our activities in a much more rugged National Park is an exciting new adventure.

We’ve also got plans to scale our canoeing and kayaking with something called PaddleTime – a microsite of canoeing around the South.

Are there places, things, or people that you draw inspiration from?

I’m certainly humbled, especially when I’ve been travelling. I’ve paddled on the Zambezi, paddled in Uganda, I’ve travelled in Peru. What’s humbling is that there are people who have effectively got nothing by comparison who seem to have a zest for life which is a real lesson of relativity. We have so many things we take for granted and yet we’ve got a mental health crisis.

It may be quite utopian, but I think if we can fix our mental health, we might then become a lot more aware of the human journey rather than the developed world journey.

"For me, the purpose of our industry is to act as a metaphor for the idea of pushing yourself gradually for growth."

Sam Sutton - Owner / Director of Growth, New Forest Activities

How do you think your business and industry can help with those mental health challenges?

Our industry has an ethos of challenge by choice. If you push yourself to the edge of your ability, you’re going to get a little bit better. If you push it too far or unwillingly, you’re not growing; you’re going to contract.

For me, the purpose of our industry is to act as a metaphor for the idea of pushing yourself gradually for growth. We’ve got so much potential to help with mental health and I’m quite passionate about it.

Your business was created from your passion for paddling, do you still manage to fulfil that passion on a personal level?

It’s great if you make your passion your work, but if you’re not careful, suddenly the thing that you love doing you don’t want to do anymore.

I try to balance the business and enable it to grow without sacrificing my family or sanity for it.

I don’t get out on the water anywhere near as much as I would like but I try to spend one or two nights away on an adventure at least every couple of months.

I’ve got two children and they’re starting to enjoy the activities now too. I took my oldest to Scotland in the summer, we did all the activities and had a brilliant time – it’s an amazing thing to share with your family.

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