PERFECT SYNERGY Husband-and-wife team Erik and Jennifer Marter reflect on 30 years of growth and adventure at Synergo.
BY KATIE BRINTON AND BOB CURLEY
Builder Profile
Erik: I was running a Northwest Youth Corps program and was kind of in between things. A local school I went to for kindergarten through fourth grade called me up and said, “we have this ropes course on our property, and we want it fixed up. We don’t really have any money for it, but we can let you use it for other programs.” And I thought, “I can do that.” A few other sites around the region heard about what I was doing and asked if I could work on their courses, too. I loved it. Over time, I worked with bigger pro- grams and built larger courses. It was like a snowball going downhill that I just couldn’t get out of the way of. I would build all day, then come home exhaust- ed at night and write emails and send proposals and bids. I had a hard time transitioning, and Jennifer said, “let me help out.” Jennifer: I had a long history of work- ing for the YMCA. I grew up working at summer camps and at my local Y. When I moved to Portland, I went to the YMCA and worked part-time until I saw a job posting for program director, and I got that job. Part of my responsibility was to coordinate with Erik, who was the contractor building the climbing wall for the new facility that we were opening. That’s how we met.
Our Builder Profile series high- lights the history and goals of the people around the world who have, literally, built this industry from the ground up.
From a modest start building and repairing challenge courses for local nonprofits and camps in the Port - land, Ore., area in the 1990s, Syn- ergo has grown into a multifaceted leader in adventure course design, construction, management, training, and equipment supply. Signature projects include adventure parks in redwood forests, a Hawaiian quarry, and a Montana dude ranch. API recently sat down with Synergo owners Erik and Jennifer Marter to discuss the rewards and challenges of operating as a husband-and-wife team, the company’s core competencies and guiding philosophy, and why the biggest challenge facing the adventure park industry isn’t necessarily technology or safety but recruiting passionate people. API: Synergo was founded in 1994, so you are coming up on its 30th anni- versary. Can you tell us a bit about how you got started in the industry and how the company was formed?
Above: Synergo founders and owners Erik and Jennifer Marter now (top) and in the early days (bottom). started to help manage the business in my “spare time.” A couple years later, around the time that we got married, I said, “we might be able to support both of us on this.” We had some dedicat - ed camps that wanted help with their programming. So, they contracted that out to us, which allowed us to bring in larger programs and spread the word. Erik: And it was great—like, holy smokes. When Jennifer came on in the beginning, it was a scary time. We got baseball hats, which sounds a little weird, but you only buy baseball hats when you’re successful, right? So, we got hats that said, “Team Synergo” on them. I still have some of the originals.
API: You’ve come a long way since then. Jennifer, you talked about taking on programming aspects for some of your clients, and obvious-
Over time, seeing his workload, I
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