Meet Jule (jewel) Harle (Har-lee)

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jule (jewel) Harle (Har-lee). We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jule (jewel) below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jule (jewel) with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My passions in my work are interwoven. I came into Yoga and paddling at about the same time; trying to heal childhood wounds and pursue a lifestyle in alignment with greater virtues.

When I was 19 years old I moved to Alaska and began exploring it’s great wilderness through mountains rivers; that’s when the path of self discovery began.

I started wilderness guiding in 2007 as a way to make money but also immerse myself in the backcountry as much as possible. I took up Packraft Course from Roman Dial at Alaska Pacific University while I was getting an undergraduate degree in psychology; he showed me how Packraft can access and open up wilderness travel.

It was profound how much he loves teaching and sharing his wilderness travel and passion for the water with others; that let the sparks to continue exploring wild places to land and water travel.

I worked in the wilderness guiding backpacking, Packraft in, see kayaking, and commercial raft trips while exploring yoga and working in the social sciences during the winter time. I’ve continued developing personally and professionally through playing outside and exploring holistic healing traditions and wellness paradigms.

My work ethic with the Alaska Packraft school and creating a culture of “High Vibe Guides” comes from the people I spend my time with outside. Every time I’m on the water it inspires and motivates me when I see someone’s aha moment as they acquire more skills like catching Eddie’s or ferrying, but the joy and playfulness that being in the mountains or on the water inherently brings out of people

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
The Alaska Packraft School is more than just taking a Packraft Course; we train and hire “High Vibe Guides” -not only leaders in packraft skills & education, they are just as excited to be on the water as you are! Courses focus on paddling skills & boat control needed to push deeper into the wild rivers of Alaska, as well as self and group rescue techniques, risk management, trip planning and good “on the water” decision making. But just as importantly, the human relationships & connection to nature that being outside provides: experiences that nurture the soul.

I am involved in paddle sports non-profits: the American Canoe Association and American Packraft and Association; their vision behind safety, education, conservation, and stewardship. This lit the spark for the International Packraft Film Festival. The leader ship team and I are currently organizing an international film Festival to support our mission statement: “Connect communities through packraft adventure stories & films around the world. Celebrate human creativity & paddle diversity – how packrafts have inspired & opened up ways to explore the water of our world.”

We hope the film festival creates opportunities for these nonprofits to build their local paddle sports communities and advocate for various arenas: paddle diversity, skills, safety, education, conservation & the sport’s progression.

The Alaska packrat school is partnering with LGBT outdoors; offering a trip to build community while making Packrafting & wilderness experiences available to populations & user groups that haven’t explored the sport yet.

I’m having a lot of fun blending all of my passions into my work; next year we are hoping to offer mindfulness-based Packraft and Yoga retreats, more adventure film stories, and a video library for people to increase and enhance their Packraft & wilderness trip skills

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Believe in yourself! Do you have an intuitive desire or you are drawn to something, don’t second-guess yourself! Keep talking about it and generating ideas, we suddenly do anything alone, the more you talk about and believe in yourself, the more you can access resources and people to help you along the way

2. Keep it FUN! IT’S REALLY EASY TO GET CAUGHT IN THE TRAP THAT YOU HAVE TO BE REALLY GOOD AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO HAVE AN IMPACT. I WAS FIXATED ON BECOMING A CLASS FIVE PADDLER FOR YEARS; WHEN I LOWERED THE BAR AND RELEASE THAT OBJECTIVE, I ALLOWED MYSELF TO HAVE MORE FUN ON THE WATER AND GRADUALLY BUILD SKILLS IN A MORE SUSTAINABLE WAY

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
My partners parents, Daniel and Sandra Biskind, wrote a book called “Code Breaker.” It weaves together a lot of truths from ancient wisdom traditions like yoga and Buddhism. It talks about how we program ourselves and continue living lies that we believe to be true since we are young. These are often times limiting belief systems or “codes” if you will. It’s beautiful knowing them as they age and they are still walking the walk and living their talk; helping others identify codes or programs that we’ve written within themselves that we don’t need to be bound by. Their book is a beautiful expression and how to guide and realistic methods to unleash your highest potential & live your best life. What is holding me back and how do I want to live my life?

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Luke McKinney: McKinney Makes Media Lynda Wallenfells Trip Kinney

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