About Us

Course & Training Director
Anthony Eddies-Davies has operated within the industry working at all levels and all over the world. Starting his career at the age of 18 as the youngest UK Senior Instructor in kayaking he has spent the last 25 years coaching everything from paddlesport to climbing, mountaineering to powerboating, mountain biking to mountain boarding.... right through to currently working as a rescue trainer to the UK emergency services. In fact he's pretty much tried his hand at everything, diving, paragliding, parachuting, wakeboarding.......

Anthony's love of adventure has led to him working around the world, working with Discovery Channel productions and being a technical advisor to the industry. He now runs a host of international training courses, guiding worldwide expeditions and specialising in providing professional training programmes including our outdoor instructor training courses. Anthony is also the Owner/Director of 'The Old Vicarage Adventure Centre' which has been a provider of adventurous activities for over 25 years throughout the UK. This is the venue for the Outdoor Instructors Academy, making use of the wide range of facilities and large selection of activities and also giving plenty of hands on experience of working with all ages and abilities. Anthony is also one of the Directors of the ' Live the Adventure Worldwide Travel' business, offering worldwide expeditions and training, with experience working at the top end of guided expeditions in some of the most remote areas in the world, as a guide, trainer and technical expert.

Training Manager
Bill Brown has been the Centre manager for nearly 12 years. He has had a life long passion for adventure sports and has accompanied Anthony on many expeditions around the world including leading the centre's own range of international outdoor adventure training courses. He is highly experienced in coaching adventure sports and is responsible for the day to day operations. Bill heads the centre's permanent team of staff and will be running the daily programme of the Instructor Academy and will monitor student progress to ensure each participant gets the most from the outdoor instructor training course.

Staff
Hiday Sharon - has over 10 years in the outdoor pursuits industry, leading a variety of activities, Hiday’s passion & speciality is in climbing and mountaineering. He has 15 years of personal experience which has taken him all around the U.K., Europe, Asia and Africa. As an M.I.A Hiday will be responsible for the Climbing Wall Award and Single Pitch Training elements of the academy.

Chris Ashley, Paul Spiers and Matt Jones - are senior instructors at the centre and will be working on a daily basis on the academy with students. Both have worked coaching climbing and paddlesport for many years with experience both in the UK and worldwide

Other staff - Academy students will also get to work with other instuctors, including ex academy students to gain experience in a variety of coaching styles and techniques.

The keys to our outdoor instructor training courses are (a) high staffing ratios and small groups to ensure your own requirements are met, and (b) that you can get first hand advice and coaching tailored to your needs.