Equipment located in the new Adventure Center which is having its grand opening today.

Adventure Center Opens In Union

By: Aly Shea

Posted: 2/22/08

The new UConn Adventure Center offers more than just camping equipment and mountain bikes. The cold little storefront across from the Information Desk at the Student Union is an enabler for adrenaline junkies across campus.

The center allows students to rent equipment for camping, snowshoeing, mountain biking and rock and ice climbing as well as less-intense activities such as in-line skating, Frisbee golf, bocce and horseshoes.

Outdoor Adventure Assistant John Huck said that the equipment available at the center is all brand-new and top of the line.

"We've put the best in name-brand products out there," Huck said, naming Sierra Designs tents and Trek mountain bikes, among other products.

Students can rent items for a day, weekend or full week and pay with cash, a check or Husky Bucks. Renters must reserve equipment and pay the total rental balance up to five days in advance. Cancellations made less than 48 hours before pick-up will result in students forfeiting fees paid for the equipment. The equipment must also be returned one hour before the center closes. The Adventure Center is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

But the Adventure Center doesn't want to be seen solely as a rent-all kind of venture. Students can use the center's resources, including computer programs and literature, to plan trips.

Adventure Center employee Lauren Wihbey, an 8th-semester biological sciences major, listed topography maps, national park programs, maps and trail guides as some of the information students can get from the center.

A brochure for the center describes it as "a place where any [Student Recreation Facility (SRF)] member can come and find the necessary resources to do numerous types of outdoor recreation activities."

The Adventure Center will also be sponsoring clinics to help students new to outdoors programs and trips for students looking to learn and test out new skills.

"We're here to help students try new things," Wihbey said.

Outdoor Adventure Assistant John Huck said the free clinics, aimed at beginners, would help people learn to use the equipment, learn the terminology and then test out their skills.

The clinics include geocaching, mountain biking and backpacking as well as open-water SCUBA diving certification.

"Everything's for the beginner, "Huck said. "Students shouldn't feel intimidated."

The Outdoor Adventure program also has programs across New England in the works, including cross-country skiing in Vermont, hiking and mountaineering on Mounts Monadnock and Washington, N.H. More locally, the trips include mountain biking along the Hop River Trail, backpacking along a section of the Appalachian trail and climbing at Wolf Rock.

All trips use the equipment in the center and the cost of each trip includes the cost of using the equipment.

However, some don't even need to go far to use the equipment ñ Wihbey said that several students had gotten tents from the center to camp out at Gampel before a basketball game earlier in the semester.

The Adventure Center opened for business in January, but will celebrate its formal grand opening today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. and cake after. Because it is also National Recreational Sports and Fitness Day, the event will also feature healthy food such as yogurt and granola.

To celebrate their opening and National Recreational Sports and Fitness Day, the Adventure Center will have a table with brochures, stickers and carabineers as well as displays of tents, snowshoes and other equipment in order to encourage participation in their programs.

"We want to encourage people to get outdoors and get physically fit," Huck said.

Other events will show students the variety of activities offered by Recreation services including Bodywise classes and intramural sports.

Students who swipe into the SRF on Friday will receive prizes, according to a poster outside its door.

Recreation services will also be hosting events throughout the day and weekend for students including a trip to the Banff Film Festival. The festival travels all around the world showing outdoor adventure-based films.

"We've been trying to get them to come out to UConn for years," said Jay Frain, director of the Outdoor Adventure program. "This year we're taking a big group out to Glastonbury to see it."

Tickets and transportation to the film festival are $15 for SRF members and available at the SRF.

SRF members include all full-time students and any part-time students or faculty and staff who have purchased memberships.

But there are other events going on as well, Frain said.

"We conceptualize it as a whole weekend," he said, listing off events such as Huskython, Outdoor Adventure trips and Bodywise classes going on both on Friday and over the weekend. "We try to highlight everything we offer students on our campus."

Two sessions of the "largest Bodywise classes ever" will take place at 3 and 4 p.m. in the SU Ballroom. The classes being offered are among the most popular ones ñ Interval Express at 3 and Pilates at 4 p.m. There will not be a size limit for those two classes. Even if it snows, the classes will still take place, according Michael D'Alfonso, coordinator of fitness and wellness. Students who attend Bodywise classes tomorrow will also receive free T-shirts, he said.

Students can also participate in a "Happy Hour" of volleyball, badminton and table tennis from 6 p.m. until midnight at the SRF.

For more structured, tournament-style play, Intramurals will be hosting a wallyball tournament at 6 p.m. at the racquetball courts. Participants should arrive at the courts after 5:30 to register their four-person co-rec teams, according to Bhavin Parekh, assistant director of intramurals and special events.

Contact Aly Shea at
Alison.Shea@UConn.edu.