The existence of a certain pattern of outdoor recreation activities and participation by individuals in a specific activity depends upon many variables, which can be grouped into the following classifications: (1) socioeconomic characteristics; (2) demographic characteristics; (3) leisure time available for recreation; (4) supply factors, i.e., available facilities, their location, quality, quantity, knowledge of them and cost of using facilities;' (5) the user's past experience with recreation activities; and (6) user characteristics. Of all the above-listed factors, the individual's past experience has received little attention in outdoor recreation research. The fact that there is still a good deal of "unexplained" variation in participation roles, in spite of the fact that many of the socioeconomic, demographic and supply variables have been included in the analysis, indicates that there are other factors that should be considered. One of these would certainly be the past experience of individuals currently engaged in recreation activities. The objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis that recreation experience in youth is an important factor determining participation in outdoor recreational activities later in life. It explores the extent to which outdoor recreation activities and skills are molded by one's experience in the formative years.