The guys at Redraw Life recently went para-motoring to Azhikode beach with a group of fellow adventurers. For the uninitiated, para-motoring is a form of paragliding that doesn’t require high altitudes and one where a motor provides the propulsion. It is an activity for open spaces such as beaches. Their roster of activities for the next couple of months include river rafting to Cherupuzha in Kannur, kayaking on the Vemabanad lake, a wildlife jeep safari to Konni, scuba diving, cycling, hiking, rapelling, surfing, river crossing, trekking…a list that reads like an adventure junkie’s to-do list.
To think ‘this’ is what they do for a living!
‘This’ happened when Joel Kuriakose, Sreeraj Krishnan and Vishnu R. decided to ‘redraw life’.
As a result, today they “make a living out of their passion”. They want to create a community of like-minded adventurers, engage with Kochi and make it interesting by bringing in a clutch of events through their adventure company Redraw Life.
Their story is one about following the heart, wanting to combine their interests – travel, photography and a shared love of adventure. Childhood, growing up and grown-up, friends, the trio was placed comfortably – Joel, an MBA, with financial planning, Vishnu pursuing his masters in Engineering and Sreeraj, also an engineer, at his job with Amazon.
Meeting daily and hanging out together had shrunk to meeting once every few months, added to it a general sense of dissatisfaction – they did a rethink last year as the year was drawing to a close.
“We travelled to Gokarna for New Year where we got talking about stuff and realised we were not doing what we were passionate about. After some brainstorming and thinking, Redraw came about,” says Vishnu. Joel is the CEO.
They see Redraw Life as a medium for those who follow their passions – “we decided to focus on adventure because we love travelling.” The focus, as an adventure company, is to provide quality outdoor activities with a reasonable price tag. Also explore, along the way, the myriad options Kerala has as an adventure destination.
Six months down the line, they started in February, the response to their venture has been stupendously encouraging. Their events are booked to the brim, they rue the fact they cannot scale-up events as they’d like to. The activities are scheduled for weekends, and every weekend, they ensure, there is an activity. Like this last weekend the activities included a camping-trekking trip to Meeshapulimala near Munnar and cycling in Fort Kochi.
Growing up in Vaikkom, they thought they knew every ‘fun’ place in and around Kochi. Only when they got down to work did they realise that the city, and Kerala, had so much more potential. “Kerala has so many options for such activities.
We find these locations through the Net and word of mouth,” say Sreeraj. The activities are not limited to Kerala, they have activities in other parts of the country as well.
The first step toward preparing an activity involves reconnaissance – going to the location, interacting with locals, learning more about the place and researching what can be done. “Usually locals have better ideas, they tell us of places of interest. We work out the feasibility and logistics – of access (trains, timings etc), stay (if required)…the basics,” Vishnu adds. One from the three accompanies each group on the activity. Logistics include getting requisite sanctions, if required, planning the activity and posting it on their website and Facebook page.
For activities such as scuba diving and paragliding they collaborate with experts, in fact these experts point them towards potential places of interest. One of the activities is the photo walk, where an experienced photographer takes a group on a photography tour. Group sizes are decided, for activities such as these, by the expert. Camping, trekking, cycling and similar activities have bigger groups, “but not too large”.
They try to keep the rates at the bare minimum, just enough to meet expenses. “Right now this is an experimental model and this is not really about making a profit (right now),” Sreeraj says.
Their average adventure-seeker is between the ages 20 to 30, some in their 40s, mostly techies from Infopark, the number of women is staggering, they say. They have their regulars, some of whom are women and some from as far as Thiruvananthpuram. “We have people from Bengaluru and even Pune making enquiries and joining us. From far off places such as Pune, feasibility is a factor,” however for places such as these,” says Vishnu. Whatsapp groups are created for each activity, mainly for the group to keep in touch and share photographs.
It has been worth the chance they took they say. They are love it as “it doesn’t seem like work” after all.
For more www.redrawlife.com
