Last year, Sunriver Resort launched a new chef apprenticeship program in collaboration with the American Culinary Federation. The four-year program trains chefs on the job, ultimately graduating twelve per year with hopes that these highly trained professionals remain in the Central Oregon restaurant industry. Executive Chef Joshua Hedrick explained to Bend Magazine the origins and hopes for this innovative approach to growing local chefs.

Tell us how this program came to be.

The apprenticeship program started as a conversation with key stakeholders here at Sunriver Resort about finding the right people to join our culinary staff—those interested in building a career. After spending virtually my entire professional life in this industry, I feel an obligation to pay forward what I’ve learned and inspire the next generation of chefs in a supportive learning work environment. This program became a personal passion project of mine, and with the backing of the team here at Sunriver Resort, I believe we have created something very special to offer someone looking to build a culinary career with clearly defined growth opportunities. 

How does the program work and what are its goals? 

Our collaboration with the American Culinary Federation, the oldest and largest certification body in the United States, means the education has a proven track record dating back to the 1970s. Every student is a full-time, year-round associate here at the resort and has access to all of the perks that come along with working for a top-tier employer, including a very good starting wage with yearly increases and promotions built right into the education. A student comes to work like a normal employee and works a normal week in the kitchen learning the trade; then we have online training through the ACF and class time every Wednesday. 

The program is set up in three building blocks of education and experience levels starting at the absolute fundamentals of what being a chef is, i.e., knife skills and safety training. Over the course of four years, the training progresses to a very proficient line cook with the skill set in costing and menu development to be ready for a sous chef level position. We take advantage of how many kitchen and service types the resort has to offer, so over time students will gain experience in a fine dining setting with à la carte service, banquets and weddings, as well as fast casual and café settings. The certification level available through the program here at Sunriver Resort is higher than if you graduated culinary school.

How are apprentices selected? 

Anyone can apply, and those with an interest in food and passion for hospitality should. There are no minimum experience requirements and no cost to the students. This really is the best of everything for the apprentices—a true get-paid-to-learn situation!

What results have you seen so far?

Our first class is getting ready for their first testing and promotion. It is amazing to be a part of the students’ growth and see their confidence build through the experience. We are working to expand the campus-feel of this program and in the next few months will start to offer classes with outside professionals and chefs in things like butchery, pasta making and business finance.

How are you engaging with the community?

Being a key contributor to the local community is something that is important to us. We hope that working here inspires our apprentices to feel a sense of connection to the local community. While the program is relatively new, we are starting to make headway on raising awareness throughout the broader community. We plan to create real opportunities for our graduating students by hosting job fairs and encouraging local restaurants and resorts to attend. This is a unique program that we are very proud of, something that adds to what makes Sunriver Resort special—for both our guests and our associates. That spirit and passion shines through in the quality of our dishes and presentation, all while contributing to something bigger career-wise for our chef apprentices as well; a true win-win. 

Rhino Skin Solutions was created in 2015 in Central Oregon for Smith Rock climbers. Developed to help combat the brutal effects of sharp crimps and rough rock, Rhino has evolved into a suite of skincare products for athletes. We sat down with founders Justin and Andi Brown to discuss the company’s niche, challenges and future.

What niche do your products fill? 

Rhino makes products that dial in skin needs to maximize friction as well as creating products to help recover after a long day of climbing. We worked with alpine, sport and traditional climbers of all skill levels, skiers, yoga instructors and doctors. We are the only company with a full line of products to tailor your skin to your needs, as well as any rock type, based on our skin humidity testers that key you in to how your skin is reacting. We set out to make a product that prevents splits and cracks, and keeps skin durable. Helping to renew sore and worn skin, muscles and joints is our priority.

What has growth looked like for Rhino? 

We started six years ago and invested $5,000. We are self-funded and growing steadily every year, picking up more outlets to carry our products in addition to our business-to-consumer web sales. We are now in about 200 climbing gyms and stores nationwide as well as sold in more than ten countries.

Why Central Oregon for your headquarters? 

EDCO and REDI have been extremely valuable resources and the small business community is incredibly supportive. The recreational opportunities are abundant and the lifestyle is second to none. A walk on the river, dinner at a pub and a fun successful peer group make Bend a great location to live. We will be adding a third person to our family in April and can’t think of a better place in the world to raise a kid. Every kid I have met from Bend is compassionate and intelligent. We have to give the community and educational system credit for that. 

Why “Rhino”? 

We wanted a name that was not specific to climbing and conveyed strength and durability. We had some very generous friends help us with a logo and it just came together perfectly.

What are your best-selling products? 

Our flagship product is our 100 percent natural Repair cream, which uses mostly plants with the exception of honey to soothe and heal skin. It contains essential oils as well as magnesium, willow bark and salicylic acid. It’s non-greasy, cooling and anti-inflammatory; It is the best lotion you can buy. 

Tell us a story about a challenge that arose for your company and how you responded. 

We make everything right here in Redmond, Oregon. We had some sourcing and manufacturing issues which produced less than ideal end products. It’s scary sending out a letter telling people of your failures. However, people appreciated us standing behind our products and it made them love Rhino. Self-investing to grow a business is difficult. Cash flow becomes king and incremental improvements are all you do. It could be less expensive in the long run if we brought on investors, but the process of growth feels good and proving the company at each step is so valuable.

What are your goals for the future? 

We plan to be completely solar powered by the end of the year. Our goal is to be in 600 climbing gyms this year and pick up more retailers in other outdoor categories. We also give back to the community, like donating over $20,000 worth of product to nonprofits and community events. This helps customers feel like buying Rhino is helping their community…which it is.

The Mueggenburg Group was founded in Germany eighty years ago to trade herbs and spices around the globe. In 2014, the company set up a North American branch in Culver, Oregon. More than 700 different botanical products pass through the warehouse for processing and distribution annually. Bend Magazine sat down with CEO Nils Mueggenburg to learn about the global business of botanicals.

Tell us about your company and background.

We are a fourth-generation, family-owned and -operated business which supplies dried raw botanical and spice ingredients to the tea, food, homeopathic and nutraceutical industries. These ingredients include roots, barks, leaves, berries and gums. With over eighty years of trading herbs globally, we have established long lasting partnerships with companies and farms around the world to provide high quality organic and non-organic herbs. In addition to our facility in Culver, we currently have operations in Germany, Poland, and Appalachia. The Mueggenburg Group is managed by Dirk Mueggenburg and his two sons, Jan and Nils.

Tell us a little about the business of botanicals. 

Although the herbs and spice industry has changed significantly over the years, one thing has stayed the same: family. Family operations are responsible for most harvests—whether it’s a family farm that grows echinacea and valerian on their land, or a family practice to harvest slippery elm bark in the woods for extra income each spring. The harvests are then purchased by companies like ours, who then prepare the products for the global market. 

 Once received, we analyze the products for pesticides, heavy metals, and any dangerous pathogens, and determine what industry this material is best suited for. Next we process the product accordingly—usually by cutting, sifting, and/or powdering. We heat-treat material to ensure dangerous pathogens are killed and the product is safe for consumption. Once we have completed this processing right here in Culver, the botanical product will be shipped to our customers. 

Why did you choose Culver? 

This farm was owned by an old family friend whose tea company went out of business. We realized the farm had good potential to be our new North American branch and purchased it. It was a regular farm with mills and warehousing space. In the last couple years, we’ve transformed the facility from a traditional farm to a food-grade botanical warehousing and manufacturing operation. Currently we process and handle approximately one million pounds of herbs and botanicals at our Culver location annually.

What is grown onsite at Mueggenburg Farms?

On our humble ten acres of certified organic farmland, we are growing alfalfa and goldenseal. Alfalfa is known to grow well in the area, but in 2021 our alfalfa fell through due to the drought, as the little water we had went to our new project—goldenseal.  Last year we started a cultivation of goldenseal, an endangered species which must be artificially propagated and certified by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to be exported overseas. It’s a long-term project to keep a sustainable supply of this item for our partners.

What are products you import or collect domestically and what are they used for?

Domestically, we get Oregon Grape root and Cascara Sagrada bark out of the Cascades. Oregon Grape is used for its anti-bacterial properties and Cascara Sagrada is commonly used in laxatives. Out of Appalachia we harvest items such as Slippery Elm Bark, used in teas, as well as black cohosh root which is commonly used in women’s health products. From South America we import botanicals such as pau d’arco bark, guarana seeds, and sarsaparilla root. Through our sister companies in Europe, we regularly import immune boosters, such as elderberry and echinacea, but also items like valerian root, licorice, passionflower, and juniper berries. Occasionally we’ll also import kava kava root from Fiji, green tea from China, or even yohimbe bark from Cameroon. 

Who are your clients? How do they differ?

Our clientele varies greatly: tea companies, extract manufacturers, breweries and distilleries, pet food manufacturers, dietary supplement companies, herb and spice shops, homeopathic companies, skin care companies, flavor companies, as well as pharmaceutical companies. One of our core strengths is flexibility, as we can offer various cut sizes of the same product. 

What are some industry challenges? 

One of the big challenges we face is increased standardization. The consumer side of the industry requires consistent, standardized product. But the supply side is the exact opposite—nature will give us good crops and bad crops; strong oil content and weak oil content; strong assays one year and weak the next. It’s difficult to navigate at times, which is why supplier relationships are crucial to maintain. Our harvesters and growers are the first to know what the harvest will be like, and the more we communicate, the better we can prepare ourselves and our customers for inevitable fluctuations. 

Your products are natural plants that largely rely on Mother Nature. What global climate change impacts are you and your partners experiencing? 

Increased unpredictable weather leads to unpredictable crops, which causes price fluctuations and uncertainty. In other words, it makes prices go up when we are less sure about a harvest. 

We saw several Oregon growers last year completely cease their growing operations due to the drought, which was quite sad to see. There’s not much we can do when something like this happens, and the unfortunate result is just a decrease in confidence in that growing region. It’s hard to imagine that in ten years’ time things will be better. Climate change was absolutely a contributing factor to why we have pivoted our primary operations from a farm to a manufacturing operation. 

What are your goals and plans for future?

The new manufacturing facility has allowed for significant increase in productivity which will allow us to offer our milling services to third parties. Also known as “toll work,” customers can send us their product and we can cut, blend, and powder it for them.

 Additionally, we’re looking to expand our small-volume side of the business. Currently our volumes we offer start at around fifty pounds which is too large for many small businesses who may just need one to five pounds of a product. We’re hoping this can help grow our business while also getting us more involved with other Central Oregon businesses. And who knows, maybe we’ll make some friends along the way!  

Learn more about The Mueggenburg Group here. | Read more about Central Oregon businesses here.

Bend-based company Metolius Tea brewed into existence in 2010, when founder Amy Stahl began mixing potions based on her love of fine tea and plant medicine. Bend Magazine sat down with her to talk about challenge and growth, the search for amazing chai, and her desire to place equal value in both what her company does as well as how they do it.

Tell us about Metolius Tea’s beginnings.

My journey started in the study of plant medicine. At first, my teas were “book” designs: teas that, based on my research, might cure a headache or ease a stomach cramp. A teahouse downtown graciously let me build their apothecary menu, giving me the opportunity to interact with hundreds of customers as they were drinking my tea. I quickly realized my teas needed one more important quality to be effective: they should taste good! That’s when I flipped my priorities: I made teas to taste lovely. The medicinal and functional qualities of the plants still informed my designs, but they acted as the underlying architecture.

What makes Metolius Tea special?

There are companies who blend tea on cheap leaves with fake flavoring, and there are companies who source high end, pure teas, but few companies blend with beautiful, high-end leaves and avoid synthetic flavorings like we do. That’s what made us special when we started. Now I believe we are also special for creating a remarkably kind company culture and developing organized and responsive customer service. As I’ve grown as a company owner, I’ve placed equal value in what we do and how we do it.

Share a major turning point for your company.

I really found myself as a teamaker the day I designed our earl grey. At the time, I enjoyed drinking high quality, single estate black teas, and I enjoyed bergamot flavored earl grey, but I noticed the conspicuous absence of a well-crafted, quality earl grey. Since I couldn’t find it, I made it: hand-picked leaf and bud black tea, bergamot essential oil, Madagascar vanilla bean and bright, beautiful bachelor’s buttons—all farm direct from small production farmers. In 2017, we reached another pivotal milestone. I could not find a chai that I loved, even though cardamom and ginger are my favorite flavors. I spent one crazed-year designing our chai. I filled a pink notebook with hundreds of drafts, research on solubility, chemistry and aromatics, and drawings of processes. In my final months of refining the recipe, Palate Coffee became our first chai customer. Chai now represents over 65 percent of our business and we sell it to hundreds of coffee shops across the country.

How did you name your company?

My first company name was “Lovely Goat Plant Medicine.” When I approached Tetherow Resort about serving my tea in their restaurant, the owner, Chris van der Velde (who would one day introduce me to my husband and officiate our wedding) communicated to me in a series of Dutch swear words that I had better change the name if I wanted my tea at Tetherow. So, I came up with a new name. Water is essential to tea. I used to drive to Sisters once a week to bring tea to Sisters Coffee Company and Angeline’s Bakery. I would keep on driving to the Metolius River, where I’d go jogging along the river, making wishes, being with the grand old ponderosas, cataloging the medicinal plants along the river’s edge—rose, Oregon grape, elder. While I did just change the name so Chris would buy my tea, Metolius has come, like a river, to represent both where we came from and where we are going. While we have stayed “plant-forward,” true to our organic roots, we have grown into a company with viable goals to enrich our world with our work and through our products.

How much tea per year does Metolius currently sell?

We are about 90 percent wholesale facing with approximately 300 wholesale accounts across the country, and we do some direct retail sales through our website, MetoliusTea.com. It’s kind of crazy to think about. Ten years ago I was living in odd little backyard places around town—yurts and tree houses and such—and I had my mason jar collections of locally wildcrafted plants. Now, as I look out the window of my tea factory, I see my team unloading three pallets of organic Peruvian ginger that we will brew in our chai.

What have been your most significant challenges over the years?

It’s been full of challenges: losing confidence as I came to terms with my limitations, then gaining confidence as I came to terms with my strengths and how to leverage them. Waiting. I know we are making real progress year over year, but it isn’t flashy like a time lapse in a movie set to a single song. It is stable: uncomfortably, painstakingly real-time growth, accompanied by the requisite untamable queue of emails, meetings and details that feel miles away from my plant passion origins.

What do the next ten years hold?

This year we are launching a not-for-profit line of teas to be initially sold through our wholesale customers, with 100 percent of the profits going to schools and nonprofits in tea growing regions. I want to find more people who are doing environmental and social justice work in tea-growing regions. If we can partner with them and leverage what they are doing, that would be my dream come true.

After careers in beverage sales, wine distribution and brand marketing, Duane and Dina Barker planted wine grapes on their land east of Bend. In 2017, the couple took their first harvest to a winemaker. Today, Lava Terrace Cellars is a thriving, award-winning winery. Duane Barker answered Bend Magazine’s questions about the naysayers, the challenges and the medals won along the journey.

Tell us about your background and how you ended up in Bend.

I grew up in Carmichael, California, where I worked summers helping my dad on his Coca Cola sales route. By the age of 23, I was a Coca Cola branch manager. Wine distribution and sales during Oregon’s early wine industry days followed. Coca Cola of Bend brought me to Central Oregon, where I met and married Dina, and we started Brilliance in Branding in 2015.

How did you decide to launch Lava Terrace Cellars?

We already had a garden, chickens and a few cows, so the next thing to complete our sustainable farming would be a vineyard. We love to enjoy wine with a meal, especially one using ingredients grown on our five-acres in Bend. We were ready to start a new business. What makes us a great team is we both have the MacGyver mindset, allowing us to successfully work together to meet whatever challenges we encounter. Managing a vineyard takes a great deal of homework, ingenuity and sometimes spur of the moment decisions. 

How did you choose which wine grapes to plant?

We researched what varieties would grow at 3,400’ elevation and survive Central Oregon’s cold winters. We wanted grape varietals with a later bud break and an early harvest. Our property was mostly sagebrush, lava rocks with incredible outcroppings and unusable slopes. We had to engineer stakes into the ground, using the lava rocks as stake posts. Everything we have done is a labor of love. It takes patience and tenacity to grow grapes—about five years from when the vines are planted to when they produce high-quality fruit to make commercial wine. In 2017, we took our first harvest to a winemaker. Today, our wines are produced in Bend at Elixir Winery. 

What have been your most significant challenges and rewards?

The rewards are opening a bottle of our wine and enjoying it with friends and family, and when someone tastes our wine for the first time and shares how much they love it. It’s fun watching someone who has never heard of La Crescent, Marechal Foch or Marquette be wary and then seeing how much they enjoy it. 

Every farmer worries about dealing with whatever Mother Nature throws their way. We have learned ways to protect our vines and grapes that allow them to thrive. We have a frost protection system for nights when it drops below freezing during May and June, and we are creating a canopy system to take advantage of warm days. Harvesting the grapes and seeing the winemaking process begin brings us a huge sigh of relief, and harvest is a time
of celebration. 

Tell us about your varietals. 

We grow cold-hardy hybrid grapes that thrive in Central Oregon’s climate. The hybrid grapes are created by crossing two or more of the French varietal species with Native American grape species. The grapes we grow are disease resistant, have shorter growing seasons and require less water. What is great is that powdery mildew is almost never a problem here on Central Oregon’s high desert.  

The white varietals we grow are La Crescent and Brianna, and the red varietals are Marquette, Marechal Foch and Crimson Pearl. The Brianna is related to Muscat and can be dry or sweet in style with flavors ranging from grapefruit to pineapple. We plan to use our Brianna to create a sparkling wine. Maréchal Foch makes a deeply red wine with earthy characters as well as some jammy, dark-fruit flavors.

Which is your favorite? 

We really enjoy pairing wine with food, so if we are having fish, pork or lamb dishes, we will pair it with our La Crescent or if we are having beef, pork or curry dishes, we will have our Marechal Foch, which is also awesome with chocolate desserts. Our Marquette goes well with a pasta, stew, beef, lamb or spicy recipe.

Tell us about the awards for your wine.

In 2020, we entered our first two wine competitions resulting in six medals and international recognition. At the 2020 Sunset International Wine Competition, Lava Terrace Cellars received silver medals for its 2017 Barrel Aged Marechal Foch and 2018 La Crescent. The 2020 San Francisco International Wine Competition awarded silver medals for its 2018 Reserve – One Barrel Marechal Foch and 2019 Marquette, and bronze medals for its 2018 and 2019 La Crescent.

There were many naysayers who said wine grapes couldn’t be grown in Central Oregon. The recognition is a celebration of proving them incorrect. We believe this is just the beginning for not only our success, but for our fellow vineyard and winery owners in Central Oregon. The Central Oregon Winegrowers Association supports and celebrates one another’s successes. Receiving awards both inspires and motivates us to continue to grow high-quality grapes to make outstanding wines. We have learned a great deal about growing grapes and making wine in Bend in the last nine years, and we are happy to share what we know with anyone.

Oregon has 19 AVAs (American Viticultural Area) but none in Central Oregon. Do you expect us to get our own wine-growing region designation?

Lava Terrace Cellars is a member of the Central Oregon Winegrowers along with several vineyards and wineries including Faith, Hope and Charity and Redside Ranch. The goal is to eventually establish an AVA. Several wineries think Marquette may be the signature grape for Central Oregon, like pinot noir is for the Willamette Valley.

What does the future hold?

We plan to complete the necessary steps to open our tasting room in 2022, with plans for some fun events to introduce more people to our wines. We are adding baby-doll sheep to the vineyard to oversee weed management. Wine aficionados can order our wine from lavaterracecellars.com, which we can deliver locally in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook County. The wines can also be purchased at many local shops around Central Oregon. 

Tom Beans grew up in suburban Philadelphia and moved West in 1993, landing a job at Tower Books in San Mateo, California. He moved to Bend in 2011 and, after stopping by Dudley’s one day in 2014, happened to speak to the owner and suddenly had a new job. A few months later, Beans purchased the shop. Bend Magazine sat down with Beans to talk the rewards and challenges of owning a bookstore, and the future of print.

Rumors continue to fly about the death of books. What is your feeling on the future of the printed book industry?

First it was the big box stores that were going to wipe out indie bookstores. Then it was the combo of Amazon and the rise of eBooks. Amazon is the 900-pound gorilla in the room, but eBook sales continue to decline year over year. We all spend too much time on screens, and the resurgence of indie bookstores is in part due to screen-time backlash. Printed books aren’t going anywhere.

How did you survive the pandemic closures of last year?

Like just about everyone else we were closed from mid-March until the end of June. It was usually just me sitting in a dark shop fielding emails and phone calls. We had plenty of customers coming by for curbside pickup and we did (and still do) free local delivery. What was a real difference maker for us was the launch of our online sales platform partnership with Bookshop.org. Online sales paid our rent from April to June which was a huge relief. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of our community rallying around us like they did at a time when we were all struggling. 

Dudley’s has been mentioned in big media. How did that come about and what was the impact on your store? 

I wish I could say I had a direct hand in that, but I think it’s just a factor of Bend growing into a national tourist destination or, in the case of The Guardian from the United Kingdom, a worldwide one. Those pieces came out as things were really taking off in Bend, but I still hear folks mention, “We read about you in The New York Times,” and that’s pretty cool.

How do you see your relationship to the Bend community?

Pre-Covid, Dudley’s was a meeting place for so many different members of our community, and we loved providing that space. I’m really proud that we’re the first bookstore in the country to join one percent for the Planet and all of that money goes to local environmental non-profits doing great work here in Central Oregon.

Tell us about your daily rewards and challenges.

There’s so much I love about this job. I get to talk to folks about books I love all day long. I get to meet interesting people, both locals and folks from all over the country. If there’s one single thing I had to choose, it’s deciding what books to bring into the shop. I spend just as much time reading about books as I do reading them and, almost daily, I get to apply that knowledge and try to choose titles that I think our customers will find interesting. We don’t just stock popular titles and I try to choose books that will push people a bit and maybe expand their horizons beyond their normal comfort level.

As for challenges, there’s this misconception that owning a bookstore is an easy dream job for any booklover, but the reality is the “business” part has to come first. What really made the difference for me was the two-year Small Business Management program at COCC. For any curious local small business owners, I can’t recommend the program highly enough.

Describe your dream future for indie bookstores.

The “Shop Local” message continues to spread and there’s a great little indie bookstore in towns all across the country.

Dudley’s Top Five Bestsellers of 2020:

1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

2. Untamed by Glennon Doyle

3. Promised Land by Barack Obama

4. Overstory by Richard Powers

5. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Dewayne Hornbeak launched Epoch Ascent in 2015, bringing his background as a U.S. Marine and his work with the State Department in high-threat protection to creating a sport-specific training facility. Today, Hornbeak trains competitive athletes, tactical athletes such as firefighters and law enforcement professionals and “everyday folks” who just like to push hard. Bend Magazine sat down with him to learn more about elite training, adaptation in the COVID-era and the “mad scientist” part of his work.

What led you to create Epoch Ascent?

My biggest inspiration has been Gym Jones out of Salt Lake City, Utah, founded by former alpinist Mark Twight, who trained the actors for the 2007 movie “300”. After reading about Twight’s climbing exploits, I developed my own interest in starting a gym with the understanding that it’s not just for people who want to go and do aimless workouts. I wanted to build a facility and training model that was purposeful, planned and sport-specific minus anything that was accidental, random or unnecessary. I set out to develop a training methodology where preparation for outside performance was paramount and closely mirrored various aspects of real life (hardship, integrity, courage, adaptation, failure and perseverance).

Who is your typical client athlete?

The common thread binding my clients is a want; they all want to be immersed in a “no social hour” culture of hard work, calculated stress and consistent adaptation. One of my main wheelhouses is mountain athletics which includes local and visiting climbers, skiers, downhill riders, backcountry hunters and endurance athletes. Another is “tactical athletes,” which includes fire/rescue, law enforcement, mountain/ski rescue, and individuals wanting to prepare for military special operations. Not everyone who wants to train here has to be an accomplished mountain sports or tactical athlete. They do have to be willing to commit, to go the distance and push hard alongside their peers who have a similar understanding.

What are your strengths as a trainer and as a motivator?

I feel that I’m good at being an enabler that understands there are many different paths for each individual to reach that next level. One thing I’ve learned in twenty years as a coach, mentor and team-builder is the significance of helping others progress and with that I constantly strive to offer the greatest training to each member I take on. I accomplish this through teaching, succeeding (and sometimes falling short), experimentation, listening, being restlessly ambitious, leading by example and by constantly expanding my base of knowledge.

What do you love about the work you do? 

I love the “mad scientist” aspect of what I do. Similar to my experiences as a father, I’m afforded opportunities to be a motivator, myth buster, educator and a psychic mind reader all in the same day, and sometimes even within the same hour-long training session. Every time someone walks into my gym I know they are going to present me with another puzzle that we get to work through, whether I have four weeks to get them ready, or a year. It’s not like we can adjust one piece of that puzzle and all is well, oh no. We not only have to work on the physiological aspect of training, but also their foundational nutrition, their post workout recovery and their mental toughness.

What is the biggest challenge you face in your work?   

I often meet athletes (mainly on the mountain and field sports side of the house) that make the mistake of training for their sport by only doing their sport. This works to some degree for a while, and then things like injuries, boredom and an overall lack of “adequate stimuli” leads to stagnation in their progress. The challenge I face is altering the preconceived notion that training in the gym space only leads to being heavier and as a result, less capable. On the contrary, appropriate programming and training in the gym increases an athlete’s power output, resistance to fatigue, and a durability making them far less likely to get injured and reduces down time if they are.

Can you share a recent satisfying success story or two? 

One of my athletes that I’d consider a “success story” is Janessa Bork, a local Mt. Bachelor athlete and owner of ViVi Designs Co. She’s been training with me for a couple of years now and placed first at the Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge against some very tough competition. She also won the Women’s Masters Division, and has won a number of the local banked slalom contests. Another of my athletes is Aaron Tiegs, one of the head instructors at Clarks University here in Bend and an up and coming top competitor on the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene. He won his last two UFC fight pass fights quickly and confidently.

How have you had to adapt to COVID-19? 

It’s been an endurance challenge for the mind, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the impact has been anything less than significant. We saw a drop of about 50 percent of the members within the first couple of months alone. The shutdowns had me moving quickly to implement new plans in order to stay afloat despite not receiving a loan, a grant or having any of my business expenses like rent waived.

I turned to remote programming in order to keep the members I still had supplied with training they could do from home. Everyone was caught off guard, so very few had any chance to stock up on home training equipment before everything started selling out. As a solution, much of the remote programming was written so that members could train with items on-hand or no equipment at all.

When we were able to return to in-gym training not much changed as far as 1-to-1 training goes. I already maintain “social distance” as a professional courtesy, even before COVID, and the need to go hands-on with a client or athlete is pretty rare.

What’s next? 

As a part of Epoch’s post-COVID contingency plan, we now have an online library with just over fifty programs with the intention of adding a few hundred more. This library covers training for those interested in mountain sports, tactical and general fitness preparation. Epoch’s programs are also purpose built for a whole spectrum of individuals from those with access to a commercial gym to those that have little to no training equipment.

Why is Bend, Oregon your choice location? 

It’s beautiful here with plenty of mountains to climb and backcountry to get lost in. I’ve lived in big complex cities like Vancouver, Canada, Osaka, Japan, and more recently Seattle, and found the simplicity of Bend to be good change of pace and safe place to start a family. No frills here, just plenty of trails, mountains and desert for outside activities.