Keep Telling Stories: A Podcast with Under Pressure Outdoors
- Rick Stewart
- Mar 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 12
Campfires have been a gathering place since man first discovered them thousands of years ago, used for everything from keeping warm to cooking game meat to warding off predators, for song and dance, and as a way to hold back the dark. For today's hunters, however, campfires have become a place to gather after long days in the field to share in the hunting camp's greatest tradition, telling stories.
Stories were the theme of the evening as the six of us gathered around the campfire. Six young and old hunters gathered to tell some of our favorite stories from the field. Our campfire, however, had no logs, flames, or hot embers to keep us warm. No, this campfire was a wooden table with microphones recording our every word in a built-out garage studio. The only resemblance to an actual campfire was that we circled it with cold beers. To some, this may look like just another podcast studio, but to those who know what they are looking for, know it is anything but that. This was my first experience being a guest on a podcast, and after the experience with the Under Pressure Outdoors crew, I can only hope it will not be my last.
Under Pressure Outdoors was started by Will Crebs and his brother Jordan Crebs in 2019. What began as just two brothers recording their conversation on an iPhone gathered around an old sewing table has quickly turned into a five-person crew consisting of Will, Jordan, Easton, Jim, and Briar, all sharing their hunting and fishing experiences. What was once two brothers in a garage is now a full-blown studio. What was once just an idea has turned into a community of almost 2000 thousand strong, known as the Under Pressure Outdoors Nation.
I heard about Will and Jordan's company through our mutual friend Brad Hancock asking me if I wanted a hat from them. He told me his buddies from high school were starting a hunting podcast. Little did I know that four years later, that hat would turn into sitting down for an evening of great conversation. After starting Racks Or Tails back up in 2020, and then really hitting it again strong this year, I reached out to Will to see if he would be interested in letting me come on to share my company and my story, to which he accepted without hesitation.
Under Pressure Outdoors has three words at the top of their website, which sums up their company's mission: "Recruit, Retain, Reactivate." These guys live and breathe that statement daily through their voices on the podcast and multiple events meant to spread the hunting experience and the fellowship that comes with it. They have recruited many new hunters to join in the experience of the outdoors and reignited the passion in seasoned hunters, who thought they had hung up their gear for good. They have spent countless hours and untold amounts of their hard-earned money to provide habitat improvements to the public lands of Florida.
For people who may not know, Florida is going through a severe environmental crisis regarding their waterways and wildlife habitats. Once thought to be caused by Florida's sugar industry, new science has shown that a bigger factor in the pollution of these waterways was the introduction of non-native grass found in a vast majority of people's yards. Overcrowding of these coastal areas and outdated septic systems have leaked into the waters killing native grasses and devastating the wildlife in the area. Some of these items I knew about, and some Will was able to educate me on during our conversation.
Conservation of these wildlife habitats is a charge led mainly by the hunters and anglers who seek to enjoy what this great outdoors offers. The Under Pressure Outdoors crew lead by example. Just in the short two-hour conversation, I had with them; you could tell that this issue lived at the front of their minds. To non-hunters and transplants of Florida, these issues may not seem important, but for the outdoorsman and angler is an issue that threatens their way of life. Without these habitats, we would have no chance to have the outdoor experience; without the adventures, we would not have the stories to share.
Our evening consisted of sharing funny stories as we went around the room, telling stories not of ourselves but of the people who shared them. We all shared stories about first hunts, boat plugs lost, hog hunts from vans, squirrel attacks, most memorable hunts, and one about a possible popped testicle. Recording them on a podcast no longer makes them just stories between friends; now, they would become an oral history to share with everyone. Our companies share a common bond: they record and preserve oral history, and I maintain mine in the written word.
Writing down my experiences allows me to create a history of my experiences in the outdoors. It gives me the ability to deliver the whole story and to provide the details that a picture can not. There is a quote by Penelope Douglas that states, "A picture is worth a thousand words, But my thousand words slice deeper." To me, that truly wraps up what it is to be an author, to have such impact with words that someone can see it in their mind and feel it in their soul.
Podcasting also allows the storyteller to have the same impact on someone. To use a long forum for diving deep into the topic of discussion. It may take an hour or three, but your listener will better understand your mindset and what you felt while experiencing it. The Under Pressure Outdoors crew does this as well as any podcast I have listened to, and the proof is shown with the dedicated listeners who tune in every week to hear what they have to say.
With quick observation, it was apparent that putting on events with their community was a top priority within their company. At the time of this podcast, they had five upcoming events scheduled. Some of these were a crawfish boil and poker run with over two hundred fifty people planning to attend, a Duck Unlimited event, and a conservation event installing wood duck boxes in different areas across Florida. They also just held a small game hunt at the Seminole Forest WMA. If that's not spreading a passion for the outdoors, then I don't pretend to know what is.
Some may look at a group like this and see just another bunch of guys trying to get famous on social media; others see a group of dedicated outdoorsmen willing and ready to heed the call for conservation and wildlife habitats. For me, well, I saw a group of buddies with such passion for what they love to do that people not only want to join their community but genuinely want to hear what they have to say on the subject. The outdoor experience is something everyone should seek out, but you have to ask the right people, and people like Will, Jordan, Easton, Jim, and Briar are the right people.
In the final moments of the podcast, I heard a statement from Briar that stuck with me and should stick with all of us who share in this outdoor experience. That statement was, "Keep telling stories." Tell stories to hunting buddies, tell stories to friends and family, but more importantly, tell stories to anyone who will listen because those stories may spark a flame in someone to want to chase after their own.
It was a pleasure to sit down and share a conversation with the Under Pressure Outdoors crew, and I am grateful to be able to share my passion with them and their listeners. If you still need to, go and listen to our podcast and their others. Search them out on Facebook and Instagram. If you are like-minded or just interested in the outdoor experience, send them a message so you can join the Under Pressure Outdoors Nation and share in fellowship with them at their next event. Remember to keep telling stories, and if you are already an outdoorsman, to keep recruiting the next generation, retaining the current one, and reactivating the older ones.
Written By: Rick Stewart
Links for Under Pressure Outdoors
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