Team
The Magazine Editor
ROISIN FINLAY, in her own words, is no expert adventurer or hardcore adrenalin junkie.
But she has hiked a few trails, become competent-ish on a snowboard, been through the spin cycle a few times in her efforts to surf and travelled lots.
It might not always look too pretty but she’ll give most things a go. Despite her lack of expertise she finds herself in the position of having the dream job, combining writing with travel and the great outdoors.
As a director, she is a reluctant corporate type and would prefer to have business meetings after a surf session, or on a hike, or not at all.
The Sales and Marketing Type
VANESSA LAWRENSON has an undiagnosed condition which gives her a crippling interest in almost everything.
Currently obsessed with social media and filmmaking, she was equally as obsessive about adventure racing last year and rowing the year before that.
She is thanking her lucky stars to be working for a company like Outsider which seems to reward obsessively interested behaviour. 10 years in IBM almost qualifies her as a geek and she enjoys the media, marketing and digital mix which her role as a director of a small adventure media company seems to bring.
The New Media Girl
MIRIAM FAYNE is a graduate of media studies at NUI Maynooth and an aspiring cameraperson, photographer and filmmaker. Miriam has an innate fear of all highlands, lowlands and coastal areas after growing up in Offaly in the middle of the Bog of Allen.
In terms of her adventure credentials, she has brandished cameras at adventure racers and was the last person to have photographed model Glenda Gilson before she disappeared off across a valley in Kerry on a zip wire. She is often found with her head in an edit suite and is fast becoming the digital media expert in Outsider. Often she asks herself how she ended up in here when her true calling is fashion and art, and is still being teased in the office for asking, “What is hiking boots?”
The Mountain Biker
BEN MARCHANT is Outsider’s biking editor and has been mucking around on mountain bikes for 17 years. A career in bar management allowed him free reign to bike and rock climb during daylight hours but a change in direction has seen him combine a passion for extreme sports and journalism with a university career. He has produced a thesis on mountain biking in Ireland and is currently pursuing a PhD in entrepreneurship and adventure tourism.
Ben has also been busy writing for Outsider and setting up his own website (www.spoke.ie), doing the arduous task of reviewing all the latest MTB gear. When not on his favourite trails he can be found whispering to his baby son about the merits of XTR over XT and this suspension design over that. Sod’s law says the kid will be into football.
The Surf Guru
RICHIE FITZGERALD – big waver surfer and star of epic Irish surf movie ‘Waveriders’ – recently signed up to become Outsider’s surf editor, which we think is quite a coup! At this stage, he probably has salt water running in his veins having been involved in every aspect of surfing you can think of for over 25 years, both at home and abroad. But our surfer dude isn’t just one dimensional. His other interests include Star Wars, spear fishing and soccer (he’s a passionate Chelsea man).
When he’s not dropping into monster waves or trawling the globe looking for them, you can find him ripping up his home break – the Peak in Bundoran – and imparting his wave wisdom to intermediate and advanced surfers through his recently formed surf academy www.surfcoachireland.ie. Richie will be keeping us up to date on all the big surfing scoops over the next while and promises to keep his North West and Donegal bias to a minimum. Well maybe toned down a bit anyway.
The Gear Nerd
KIERAN CREEVY, our gear editor, was recommended to us as a certifiable gear nerd with a scary amount of knowledge crammed in his head.
Thankfully he’s also amassed considerable practical skills in the outdoors, having worked for many years as an instructor in adventure centres and as an International Mountain Leader in Europe and Africa.
Having spent one full winter punishing his knees in the Alps in the search for powder he’s developed the unnerving habit of spouting French at the least sign of provocation. Just don’t ask him to detail what the HH and RET of various waterproof and breathable fabrics are?
The Mountain Man
DECLAN CUNNINGHAM, Outsider’s mountaineering editor, hails from Kerry where he picked up the walking and climbing bug. When he’s not Out ‘n’ About for Outsider, he’s got a few other irons in the fire.
He is a safety trainer with Industrial Safety and Rescue Techniques (ISRT) so if he’s not hiking or climbing for fun you’ll find him up a mast teaching people how not to fall off. He also runs Ascents Of Adventure where he organises and leads treks to high altitude peaks. Declan holds the Mountain Leader and Rock Climbing Leader awards and is also a member of the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team. Basically, he’s a level-headed lover of the vertical who does all his own stunts!
The Triathlon Guru
ADAM KELLY is our triathlon editor. Hailing from the hills of Co Wicklow, where he works as a personal trainer and life coach, he has been competing in triathlon for over eight years and loves it more and more.
Seven years ago Adam started Zest Fitness Studio where he promotes gradual and realistic lifestyle changes and tries to lead by example. If he gets any spare time outside of swimming, biking, running and training others, he can be seen trying to surf in Strandhill, even if there are no waves. He also loves to snowboard, and did it for fun, until earlier this year when he successfully climbed Mont Blanc and boarded off the summit. Adam also suffers from an addiction to the Olympics and specialises in novel ways to get to them having travelled overland to both Athens and Beijing. London should be a doddle so!
The Landscape Photographer
PETER MCCABE was born in Belfast and is a self-taught landscape photographer. He is a happy man when he’s amongst nature and her elements. His imaginative use of colour and strong, yet simple, composition combine to create a spirit of contemplation and appreciation.
His determination to capture the perfect moment has seen him wait for hours and in some cases camp at a location to capture that alluring moment when all of nature’s elements combine to capture the wild rugged beauty that is the Irish landscape. It’s not just us that like Pete’s work. His images have been published both nationally and internationally, and have been used by the ESB, Bord Fáilte and Photography Monthly.
The Tech Geek
AIDAN SMYTH is Outsider’s designer/developer and web video expert. He is also our freelance webmaster and general all-round tech nerd. When not on his surfboard, he has no problem with full frontal nerdity and is rarely happier than when he is tinkering with new web technology. He studied design communications at college and went on to do a degree in interactive media before joining the Outsider team. His ever-increasing list of technical skills includes Photoshop, CS3, Dreamweaver, CMSs, Flash Video and Flash. He enjoys coding in PHP, CSS and HTML.
The Director of Photography
TORQUIL FLEMING -BOYD was born in Glasgow in 1966 and started making tea on various film sets in 1983. He worked his way up through the camera department ranks to become a Director of Photography in 1996.
A youthful 43, he frequently gets mistaken for a runner on set. Rumours are of a picture of Dorian Grey in the attic. He is very proud of his motion picture steadicam.
As well as filming motion pictures, commercials and music videos, he has spent considerable time covering war zones throughout the world and has photographed most extreme sports, extreme behaviour and some extreme fashion! He still makes an excellent cup of tea.
The Argentinian Designer
PABLO FERERRO has more than 15 years of experience in graphic design. He is very passionate about his work and always attempts to find the perfect solution for design challenges. He has experience using a wide variety of software programs and graphics techniques and can add that special flair to design projects. His strengths are both in static and motion designs, press, web and multimedia. He continuously looks for new and innovative techniques to apply to his work. Pablo brings to the Outsider design team a depth of experience in web and multimedia and a passion in development that is second to none. He has worked for design agencies all over the world and now lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Pablo has a design team of 10 people working for him and has been collaborating with the Outsider team for the past two years.
