Joe Jackson has 25 years experience in the outdoor industry as a guide, retail employee, magazine editor, and gear tester. He is best known as the author of Outside Magazine's Gear Guy column, with over ten years of bylines, which has given him the opportunity to test thousands of pieces of gear across running, hiking, backpacking, camping, water sports, and more. He has run two 50-mile ultra marathons and wants you to be impressed by it.

Jackson's love of the outdoors started young, surfing coastal Los Angeles in his youth. During his early years in the outdoor industry, from 2005 to 2010, Jackson lived in his truck and worked as a white water rafting guide between magazine gigs (RIP Paddler Magazine and Canoe & Kayak). Thereafter he joined Outside Magazine, where he still contributes, in addition to earning bylines for Popular Mechanics, Canoe & Kayak Magazine, Deseret News Magazine, Men's Journal, SPY, among others.

Now a father, Jackson still makes time to kayak class IV/V whitewater (when in shape) and take his family rafting every weekend he can, in addition to ski instructing for Oregon Adaptive Sports during the winter, racing skimo, climbing volcanoes to ski, and more.