The True Barbour Experience at Orvis Sandanona
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Update to my dating profile: Krista Robertson enjoys long walks on the beach clay shooting, a nice glass of wine off-roading in top-of-the-line Land Rovers, and great company and wearing Barbour.
I don't have a dating profile but if I did, I just imagine that's how it would read. I was lucky enough to be invited for the full "Barbour Experience" with the Barbour team and some fabulous brand influencers (magazine editors, bloggers, personalities -- you name it!) up to the Orvis Sandanona Shooting Grounds and boy WAS IT FUN.
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The day started out pretty gross. Overcast, rainy and HU-MID. I had on the cutest shooting sweater but it was just so dang hot I couldn't wear it on the trip #bummer. We all met at the Barbour HQ in New York, hopped on a bus and we were on our way.
The grounds were beautiful and the place was massive! It was so fun to explore and hang around. The leaves were just starting to change so I was excited to see some foliage. When we got in we all sat down for a quick lunch which was so needed (#hangry). Carly, Katie and the boys all snagged a table together. It was so fun catching up with Carly and Garrett on their life outside the city!
After lunch they split us into two groups: one to go fly fishing and the other to go clay shooting. My parents love to fly fish and I've always wanted to learn so I was pretty excited to head that way first. Who knew it was so difficult and technical?! It didn't help that the wind was really blowing so the line was all over the place. My wrist was starting to get sore from all the snapping!
We were just test fishing (a line and no hook) to get the hang of it. Good thing too! Katie and I were a little all over the place at first and if there were hooks on those lines... woof. Would not have been the best story to tell!
We had an instructor with us the entire time in the booth and he would "pull" the clays and help us to figure out when to shoot. He was such a wonderful teacher and really made the whole experience a lot of fun! Out of the three of us (Katie, Nick and I) I had the best shot so the competitive side of me was pretty proud.
We shot off to different targets. The first shot straight up over the trees and you shot the clay the moment it started to come down. This one was hard because with this direction of clay shooting you're not supposed to follow it, you're supposed to wait for it to come up and then BAM! shoot. It was SUCH an adrenaline rush.
I also pretty much looked like a boy while shooting because I tucked in my hair, my hat was backwards (would get in the way of my view) and borrowed the instructors glasses. But it was totally worth it.
The second target we shot was one that came out right in front of us and out. This was where I got really good. I was hitting them right in the middle and it was an awesome feeling just seeing them explode mid air. By this time I was also loading, locking and prepping my own gun so I kind of felt like a BA. My instructor was still there of course but he had total faith I could do it on my own.
And with that I want to go back SO badly. Orvis actually holds a two day shooting school on their grounds where you learn how to shoot different clays and really understand of the sport. Our instructor was telling me about it for five minutes and basically sold me on the whole idea. It's already No. 1 on my Christmas list! Who wants to go??
(this was my posing for the camera shot!)
ALSO, did you know that there are two ways to hold a shotgun? There's the American way (four photos above) and there's an English way (photo below). *There are probably more ways but this is what our instructor shared with us* And while I was talking to the President of Barbour he was telling me they designed most of their jackets for the English way.
THAT IS WHY THERE ARE EXTRA POCKETS NEAR YOUR CHEST. Is that not the most amazing thing you've ever heard?? I always thought those pockets were just extras to keep your hands warm but they were literally made for keeping them warm while holding your gun. Is that amazing or is that amazing? I love learning stuff like that.
You can see below the awkwardness of my hand before I learned about this amazing feature.
What we did is what Land Rover offers all around the world: The Land Rover Experience. They basically take you around this course to show you what all these awesome cars can do. Because while you may see these all over your nearest wealthy city just driving up and down paved roads, they're actually made for the dirt path, the water and the road less taken.
The whole drive was about 10 minutes and you had a representative from Land Rover in the front seat with you the entire time. They helped you navigate the road, showed you the car's features and told you to take your foot off the break when you're going straight down a hill. Like straight down....
It was totally counterintuitive because while you wanted to completely control the car, they were showing you that you didn't have to; it would take care of itself. Other than making me want a Land Rover for myself, the drive was so, so cool. The car felt like it was going to tip over from every side and you could basically touch the ground from the driver seat windows at different points.
Add it to the #LifeGoals list: go up to Vermont and take their full course! Just look at these photos:
(that thing out the window is the flat ground-- you're at a 90 degree angle looking at it!)
Overall it was the BEST day ever. I get to do some pretty cool things because of my blog but this bar far has to be at the top of the list. I wanted to thank all the wonderful people at Barbour for inviting me, Orvis Sandanona for hosting and Land Rover for teaching us!
Be sure to shop my favorite Barbour Coats here:
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