Chris Riley and Brent discuss Chris’ entrepreneurship, his interest in sailing and mountain biking.

Entrepreneur

• After graduating from college Chris, while working at a school for outdoor education, he forms his first business with his brother, photographing weddings and other events
• While doing that he and his brother worked on developing programming to improve the photo editing process and it became an important part of the digital photography explosion.
• He also saw an area of need supplying summer camps and campers with gear, that becomes another leg of their business.  With the covid pandemic closing summer camps there is a possibility that the business will not reemerge in the same form.
• While he was looking for more warehouse space he found a business that interested him which was looking for new direction,Fabric Warehouse.  They purchased it expanded it so now has both a retail and online component.

Sailing

• Sailing has always been an important part of Chris’s whole life. He believes that sailing does not have to be an elite sport. He looks at his form of sailing as “dirt bag sailing,” a non-pejorative term that refers to doing things that you love the cheapest possible way. He and his wife have retrofitted and flip sailboats.
• How he and his wife planned and budgeted for years for a 6 month sailing trip.
• Chris shares the adventures and experiences they had while sailing the Bahamas and how they grew as a family.
• Unfortunately the trip didn’t end as planned due to a violent weather event.  Chris shares the lessons learned from dealing with adversity and the importance of being flexible.

Mountian Biking

• Chris is also an avid mountain biker and works hard on supporting mountain biking in Maine.
• Currently president of the Central Maine Mountain Biking Assoc, working to create trails improve the sport.  He also loves to ride the Augusta Trail and Bondbrook Trail system and is impressed with the challenges of the Carrabassett NEMBAtrails.