25 years and still Nae Limits

Ballinluig trailblazers now training Emergency services

A trailblazing Perthshire water sports company which has spent 25 years enriching peoples’ lives is now turning its attention to emergency training.

Nae Limits started 25 years ago with one guide and a single van but has become the nation’s principal water sports provider employing 16 staff and 6 freelancers at its Ballinluig adventure hub and café.

Now, after two and a half decades of providing adrenaline-fuelled experiences such as rafting and canyoning, it is harnessing its deep knowledge to help rescue people who get into serious difficulty in water.

A focus on training

The family-run outdoor adventure firm has become an accredited centre for training outdoor guides and Emergency Service professionals who are tasked with saving and rescuing people who have fallen or been dragged into rivers and canyons.

Already, the company has assisted at a Perthshire swimming spot as part of the local asset register call-out system, designed to respond efficiently to crisis.

Within a few months of accreditation, Nae Limits has trained a steady flow of people across bodies such as Mountain Rescue, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The company is an approved provider of Rescue 3 Europe Water courses, a standard which must be achieved by those tending to emergencies or accidents in Scotland’s rivers or lochs.

Achieving the levels

The evolution from exhilaration to training provision has come through self-professed Professional Development ‘geek’, co-owner Dale Strang.

He, personally, is able to train to Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Technician level after the lack of mentorship within the industry led him down a multi-faceted training and standards pathway.

Nae Limits has also become the main UK centre for UK Canyoning, delivering essential training for around 300 canyoners as their official UK training address.

“The training side, on a personal level, has been a five year journey,” says Dale. “The starting point was safety and knowing what to do when things go wrong. My experience and knowledge with white water leant itself naturally to being able to teach that.

“We are 5 minutes from our base to Grandtully, one of the heaviest used stretches of white water in Scotland. If there is going to be an incident, it is going to be in an environment like that. So, not only are we able to train people, we are able to train people where they’re most likely to attend a scene and that is invaluable.

“We have a combined 100 years of experience within Nae Limits and we realised that the safety of people in water environments could be vastly improved, in general, if we just opened the doors.

“Delivering courses such as this is going to be a massive part of what we do as a business going forward.”

Adapting to societal change

Despite the success so far, Nae Limits has no intention of departing from its core outdoor adventure offering, which has stood the test of time.

From seeing a gap in the market to trading through pandemics and moving to a bigger home, the company has managed to stay a step ahead.

It now has over 65 000 social media followers as adventure tastes evolve in line with trends and developments within outdoor sports.

“It has always been based on giving the best customer experience and stemmed from wanting to get people outside and experiencing new adventure activities,” says co-owner Kate Mason.

“It was quite innovative at the outset but the appetite is still growing, the more awareness there is. It is also very Instagram-able!”

Enthralling the thousands

Last year, Nae Limits provided 12 500 customers with an outdoor experience and has plans to continue growing.

Since the company’s birth, there have been 5 different business premises.

The acquisition of the current base, complete with café, opened up greater options – something it continues to benefit from.

“It has changed the size of groups we are able to cater for. Having the café and the bigger space means we can open up more to corporate groups and youth groups. We can offer a whole day experience,” added Kate.

And where is Nae Limits now, in terms of its standing in the adventure sports world?

“If you look at the water industry, we are pretty much up there in terms of size, quality and volume. We are a compound or a hub for adventure and that is pretty much what I envisaged Nae Limits to be,” says Dale.

Not bad for a business that started out from a single van.