Wildside - Outdoor Mentors

Outdoor life the ideal education for our youth

©Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Outdoor life the Ideal Education for our Youth, Nelson Mail, 3 January 2009

’Twas the night before Christmas, and some drunken hoon was urinating on my letterbox. After making what was probably the mistake of challenging him on his behaviour instead of just ignoring his Christmas message of goodwill, I received a hail of expletives and had several young men fuelled on liquid courage and testosterone charging up my driveway in an attempt to intimidate me while I stood on my deck.

Having a screaming match or worse with antisocial drunkards was something I didn’t want my wife, in-laws and children to witness, so I reluctantly retreated inside in an attempt to set a good example to my family.

I’m no angel and have done stupid things before, like most of us have in our lives. I still love a good party, some loud music and a few drinks, given half a chance, but it would seem that today’s youngsters just don’t have the same respect they used to have.  I’m pretty sure Aimee and I never behaved like that as university students and over the past several years, we have witnessed demolished letterboxes, stolen metallic numbers and broken bottles littered down our street. I’ve even been threatened by an intoxicated punk, complete with spiked hair and metal studs in most of the visible parts of his body, waving a Steinlager bottle at me in the Richmond Mall carpark several years ago while I loaded my groceries. When I pulled a heavy aluminium fly rod tube out of my truck and called his bluff, he and his mates beat a hasty retreat in their car, with wheels squealing.

Just last night when I was walking home alone from a friend’s house in the dark, I had to walk past a large group of young men and women on both sides of the street, all clearly intoxicated and many smoking goodness knows what. As a guide, my job involves knowing the habits and behaviours of the animals and fish we hunt and catch, and I knew enough to stay out of the way of these young people, say nothing, and walk at a brisk pace. I made it through OK but was heckled and intimidated. Aimee reckons I lead a sheltered life, but I’d have to say that nowhere in the New Zealand bush is as frightening as having to walk the streets of Richmond at night.

Every generation worries about the state of their young people but it seems to me that many of these young people have not experienced discipline and the respect that follows. They are now trained by their peers and not their elders. They now understand that they can challenge authority and the social order and get away with it. Maybe my friends and I were lucky, but we were always more interested in the outdoor scene and I’m sure it moderated our behaviour. Challenging ourselves against the mountains, sea and rivers was all positive and we never developed the anger and aggression that many of today’s young people so readily exhibit.

It’s pretty sad that the only outdoor experiences some young people may have enjoyed is casual sex down the Back Beach or urinating on someone’s letterbox.

As a male, it is important to be surrounded by older males of all stages of life who can advise, teach, and illustrate civilised social behaviour. As a young man growing up, I was fortunate to have male mentors all around me, men who would say a kind word, make a suggestion or offer some advice to a young man who needed it. The men I respected most were always those who hunted or fished.

Having been a member of the local branch of the NZ Deerstalkers Association and the local trout-fishing club for close on 30 years, I was lucky to have close contact with decent men who I could calibrate myself against on the road to manhood. In my early fishing guiding years, and still today, I was fortunate to have great mentors who I could learn from and be guided by.

Mentors other than parents or family are essential to young men integrating themselves into society and the common bond of hunting and fishing made it easy to admire, respect and listen to the older men I was associated with. You may not always agree with older mentors and many times you will grow beyond their advice, but the wisdom and knowledge an older generation can pass on is their enduring legacy.

An outdoor saying from America goes ‘‘It takes a hunter to make a hunter’’, and it is so true. I wonder about some of the aggressive young people I have encountered lately and ask, what mentors do they have in place in their lives?

It’s entirely possible that it is just as easy for ‘‘a mongrel to make a mongrel’’ if we let our young people down by not making the effort and time to involve them in our lives, society and outdoor sports. A few kind words and friendly guidance by all of us to our young people can help make our community a better place.

On the wall of the Sport Tasman offices in Nelson’s Rutherford St, there are the words ‘‘A kid in sport stays out of court’’, which speak volumes.

Neville Male, the Sport Tasman chief executive, recently emailed me initiatives by Sport and Recreation NZ to get people involved in the outdoors by identifying the barriers and obstacles to outdoor participation. One of the major barriers in my mind would be the lack of mentors of all ages, taking the time to introduce new people into the outdoors, sharing their values and passing on their skills and knowledge.

This is where all outdoor people can assist in their own way. If you have the opportunity to introduce some young person to the outdoors these holidays, you will be making the world a better place.

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