Chris Burkard Instagram – Growing up, California was mainly sunny beaches and coastal living to me – but as I got older and started to venture outside of my hometown of Arroyo grande, I started to realize that the State actually has a few really distinct ecosystems that captivated my attention. In 2017, I decided to take an 8 day road trip to dive deeper & spend some quality time climbing, surfing, and hiking to understand the diversity in a more immersive way. I jumped in an old VW bus, with some friends and made our way to Alabama Hills to climb and camp in the desert. After a couple of nights, we moved on to the forests at the foot of the Sierra Nevada… home to some of the biggest trees in the world and continued to the northern sections of coastline to surf colder waters bordered by wetter, lush forests. Even though I’ve spent a ton of time exploring California, I still love finding new details in these ecosystems and will keep exploring them as long as I can. Shot for @prana 2017