This was the landing spot we were fortunate to call home after our day of epic proportions. We had walked hours of beach in the hottest weather BC has ever offered, sang Oh Canada to a very healthy black bear and shed tears of relief when we finally found drinking water. Peace is an understatement, that is until the nightly game of Yanif begun.
Portra 400 35mm
A few years ago I found myself burnt out, aggravated and weighed down by an invisible 1000kilo cloud. I was uninspired, stagnant, stuck and that was just the appetizer. I couldn’t compute the gargantuan incapacity I had acquired to even just be a human being.
Tired of my own bullshit, I took a break from everything — work, phone, friends, all of the internet, travel (keep in mind this was before COVID) and spent all my time starring at the ocean.
Wave after wave after wave. Months went by in a catatonic blur until a tsunami crashed, demanding I get up off my ass and do something new. The “something new” had two rules:
1- I had to have NO reason to try it other than my oceanic boss telling me to do so
And
2- it had to be something I was going to be really f****** bad at. Which to me sounded really f****** gruesome.
Scared shitless I dove into a wide range of things from motorcycling to pottery to knots to stand up comedy. Rock climbing, cooking, sewing, painting, chopping, back packing, French, etymology, ukulele and my favourite of them all, surfing.
I still wouldn’t call myself a surfer. I resemble more a land seal on a baguette but somewhere in the salt water rinse, the freezing cold of the Pacific and the washing machine cycle of a botched wave I didn’t feel so Je ne sais nah anymore.
Since then I’ve caught a party wave with my seal sisters, bruised my tongue, and eaten the shores of California, Oregon and Vancouver Island.
Not all the skills have stuck but as I tackle new ones I’m always reminded that discomfort leads to the best transformations and that enthusiasm is contagious!
Please share with me your scared shitless stories – let’s tackle them together!
Skills for near future: sign language, sailing, pole dancing, piloting…
PSA for my Comic-Con friends…
Unfortunately I have made convention plans that I haven’t been able to follow through on lately. Like, I was supposed to get in a tin can and launch myself over 19,731 nautical miles to see you in Australia and I was supposed to get into a differently equipped tin can to meet you at Pike Place but I’ve been deep in the jungle, amidst ice fields and in other eras making stories we can hopefully watch together soon. Alas, working on these projects has pulled me from seeing you and for that I am disappointed and I am sorry.
I want to get the chance to see all of you again I hope to make it happen soon. XX
(sorry x infinity + 1 can’t go any higher x infinity)
Hi, it’s me! Your braless, ocean washed, health imposing, matcha consuming, adult child looking for recommendations on your favourite multi day hike/treks around the world…
Ready to eat dehydrated food and kiss blisters!
The flare on this film is just a representation of my heart when @minimaldentist has her arms wrapped around me
“No duck face. You’re better than that.” @realtimrozon said to me once as I was mid selfie.
“It’s not a duck it’s a kiss.” I mean obviously — how could my kisses be mistaken for ducks?! I would NEVER in my life SEND A DUCK FACE to the love of my life… or so I thought. After careful scrutiny of my scarce supply of what I thought were sexy selfies I realized I am in fact not “better than that”.
Tim, you were right. I’ve been ducking instead of frenching, blowing 🦆, and impersonating birds for much longer than I realized.
Life is a journey. Accept and never stop learning about yourself y’all.
DODO Gossip Duck
I knew Jean-Luc before he knew me. Some connect through an old roommate that maybe he dated is neither here nor there, the point is that when I met him I started our friendship 10 years in. Though we hadn’t yet backpacked through Europe or interpretively danced our way through Irish pubs across North America we are from the same home town (which he would debate), with the same occupation and the same incapacity for our own bullshit. He not only continues to say YES to impromptu adventures and listens to all my lamenting about the purpose of life he levels out the playing field with his obsession for RUSH, his knack for hospital visits, and those incredible table drumming skills you see here.
It’s wild to meet new friends as an adult. It’s rare you find kin in the shape of a bearded Canadian comedian with a Bboy stance but when you do spit shake on it and laugh your way into the future.
Anything is possible folks. Sanitize your hands and go make some life oaths! #coupleofkidsfromsurrey
@jeanluc
Sometimes I see pictures of myself and remember my dad stealing my nose when I was a kid. Then I wonder if the nose I have now is just a replacement nose, and if so, did dad keep my real nose? Is it in a drawer with my brother and cousins noses or did he sell it on the nose market to someone on the other side of the universe? Are they breathing in another planets atmosphere with my nose right now? Is it working? Is that why I sometimes smell grapes when it snows?
I have to admit the nose that I have currently doesn’t really pull its weight in the senses department. Sometimes I have to press a flower to my face to smell it. Other times I get a waft of a dinner from 4 nights ago.
Should I go searching for my original nose or maybe just try to train the one I have…Thoughts?
Portra 400 35mm
Today thousands of other Vancouverites and I, starving for vitamin D, will douse our outer shells in SPF like a badge of honour. We will prematurely dance to In the Summertime with the taste of artificial coconut filling our senses, pump our bicycle tires to full and revel in the promise of a bright summer while simultaneously the snow will slowly ghost from the mountain tops.
I must confess I didn’t hit the pow, crush a blue bird, or shred the slopes at all this past winter… My closest encounter with 7th Heaven was meeting pals for their après at the very bottom of the Sea to Sky.
I realize by admitting this I am putting myself in danger of having to denounce my BC citizenship and my ability to say “POW” at leisure. I can only hope that mama nature will graciously take me back to slide down at mach speeds singing Shania Twain at the mach pitch when the tops turn white again.
Until then let’s promise Summer we will prune ourselves with skinny-cold-ocean-dips, chase the sound of the Entertainer and let the dogs take us on as many walks as possible.
Anyone have any “best kept secret” recommendations on where to stop on a road trip through Idaho and Utah?
Nature tips welcome! X
Sunshine Coast babies. Will work for treats and cider.
This photo was taken outside a graveyard in New Orleans after a @fantasesay birthday brunch. I have polaroids of her surrounded in balloons smiling up at her September sun in the southern sky before we traipsed through the streets filling our already stuffed souls with jazz, deep fried pastries and orange cream slushies. I drank so many my hair increased in vibrancy and as it turned up it’s power I learned that redheads attract other redheads like magnets.
I also learned that deodorant and probiotics are paramount and I swore to myself that if my gluten intolerance ever goes dormant the first thing I’m doing is grabbing these two and soaring straight back to NOLA.
PSA to all our friends- Even though September is still a few months away please remember Fantas birthday usually lasts a month and no matter how prepared you think you may be for Virgo SZN it always comes in hot, without warning and demands us all to have a good time. Hydrate, be prepared and have a great summer y’all.
Raised on public transit I never really needed a car until my first steady job made it mandatory for me to get one. The real deciding factor of “what car is the car for me?” was this:
My girlfriends and I were going to the Sasquatch music festival in 2013 to see the bands of our generation. The Postal Service, Vampire Weekend, The XX just to name a few, and someone (meaning me) had to get a car big enough for us, our spandex, and our attitudes QUICK.
I can’t stress this enough we were going to see the BANDS OF OUR GENERATION and we needed to arrive in style.
No, I am no longer a Jeep gal but yes I did fit the “basic 20-something Jeep rollin’ woman” mold for 11 years and we loved it. But as I got older so did Ophelia and she demanded a ride that was lower to the ground so she could continue to independently launch herself full throttle into the backseat.
We drive electric to all our festivals now. xx
If your happy place is also on a beach in @cadlymack arms put your hands up 🙌
This cute, sweet, little furry angel likes to roll in shit. What kind of shit you ask? She’s not picky and doesn’t seem to learn that every time she does this mom is very VERY mad.
I have been forced to wash her in a lake using a impromptu shampoo concoction made of toothpaste, in a trailer shower, with a strangers hose, with cold tea from my thermos, with baby wipes, and yes with the last bit of water for miles and my own two hands.
I don’t know who taught her this but when I meet the spirit that did I am going to wash them so clean they are going to wish they were soap.
It took all of my twenties for me to come to terms with the fact that I am not a night owl. I’ve tried my hardest to outlast you at a party but after my shift toe-tapping on the dance floor I am, without fail, in bed before the lights go out. IF you have heard rumors of me walking barefoot through the streets of LA with the bar lovers or still up to catch the Mexican sunrise I won’t deny them! It’s true! I have (albeit seldom) been successful in my efforts to grasp a hold of the intimate hours of the afterparty but even with FOMO as a motivator, my attempt to make it a habit has been futile.
SO… I’m an the early bird! The lark! The ever-so (less) popular morning rooster! And since I’ve realized the morning hours on the other side of a sleep cycle are my forte I have created my most powerful plan to date: THE DOUBLE SLEEPOVER. Every summer I adopt the persona of my power hungry pre-teen and aggressively force the pals to spend two nights at my moms house. I’m greedy, incorrigible but having them all in one place guarantees me the magic of morning with them, making them coffee oceanside… while they nurse their hangovers.
I’m not a doctor but replace the apple a day thing with seeing your favourite faces first thing in the morning. That is medicine.
I’m ready to learn more about how we can save our ocean and our planet. I am but a tiny guppy ready to swim out into the expanse empowered by the Ocean and my inspiring friends at @studentsonice Their passion for Ocean Conservation, and their determination to create a more sustainable future for all of us is iconic! Consider me an innate outdoor enthusiast turned novice climate activist.
This window into the Pacific here was a view from the beautiful Nootka Island in British Columbia.
Share your ocean photos with us, we can never have enough!
X
Ophies kind of runway.
On one side of my step family everyone is Spanish, even the dogs and I’m currently learning French… (with a Spanish flare) Mais si!
Thank you all for your Trek suggestions. I’m so hyped researching everywhere from Cape Breton to Uganda!
Mother Earth has so much to offer us — including epically long stretches of beach that go on for eternity and make us feel like we have gone out of orbit!
Here’s to chasing that overview effect right here from planet Earth!
It was almost another Canadian teenage summer and @mir.martin and I were biking home from our best friends house. We had spent the morning jumping off the pier into the Pacific and I had decided to ride commando home while my wet bathing suit hung expertly on my handle bars.
Unfortunately, one block after takeoff my salty one piece got caught in the front spokes. Mir tells it that I went back-wheel over noggin in slow motion like Neo slowing down bullets. Except I wasn’t The One and therefore landed chin down on the asphalt. Blood.
I received this sick cut under my chin that really needed stitches so my doctor for a dad, sewed me up in the kitchen stoked to have some quality time with his only daughter.
Before I got to school the next day Mir told everyone that over the weekend I got in a fight in order to up my “street cred”. That cred ended me up in the principles office with the school counsellor asking me questions about my extra curricular fight club activities which I had no idea existed. High school is weird, chins are essential and helmets are as paramount as best friends who still try to get you the street cred you never got 19 years later.
“Hey girl, that kombucha you were saving in the fridge? Ophie drank it not me. Woof it up with her.”
Portra 400 35mm
If you’re considering taking off in a float plane with your pals so you can hike 5 days on the coast in the middle of the heat wave, I say do it. I say trade your water, and worries for SPF, and dehydrated food, and bring a nurse. Everyone needs a nurse.
