By Balan Selvamuthukumaran
If you’ve ever thought about making a trip to the wilderness, or doing really any kind of outdoor activity that’s more than just a day hike, you’ve probably come face to face with the problem that affects all broke college students on a day-to-day basis: lack of funds. Going backpacking requires a backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, fuel, food… so on and so forth, even if you’re just going for a day and a night. If you attempt to buy this all from scratch, you’ll find yourself on the hook for $500, easy.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone has five hundred dollars to blow on gear that may only be used once (what if you find out you hate backpacking?). Luckily for Pomona College students, you often don’t have to spend any money at all for gear to make it outdoors, thanks to the OEC (Outdoors Education Center). Pomona’s OEC is a center at the college that exists for a few reasons. Firstly, to rent out gear to students that want to make it outdoors without breaking the bank. Everything I mentioned earlier that you might need on a backpacking trip? You can get all of it at the OEC, free of cost. Need a headlamp? Ski equipment? Surf gear? You name it, you can rent it at the OEC.
The OEC also exists, as its name indicates, to help with outdoors education. Often, knowledge of the outdoors is something that is passed on in families, which makes it difficult for students with no outdoors background to get started. Its daunting, as it is hard to know what gear you need, proper techniques, and general survival skills to learn. However, the OEC hosts workshops, training sessions, and much more to help anyone that is interested in gaining the requisite knowledge to make it outdoors as they please, going as far as to host trips for beginners that are specifically aimed at learning.
Finally, the OEC is just a nice play to hangout and talk to like-minded people. The OEC hosts events fairly regularly, where people watch movies, play games, and just chat to discuss upcoming trips or reminisce about national parks that they’ve visited. I have visited the OEC three or four times over the last two weeks, and the people there have always been friendly and helpful, even when playing (and losing) ping-pong. Well, so long as you return all your gear on time, that is!