Saturday and off to a new adventure… or so I thought.

            It was a dreary northwest morning; coffee in hand, flannel shirt on my back and a few days worth of scruffiness on my face.  I was on my way to a new project deep in the woods and was mentally running through my usual checklist.  Was my schedule cleared?  Were there enough supplies in the van?  Were there any uncharged camera batteries to be aware of?  What were my layering options?

            In the middle of my mental rundown, I had noticed that the van batteries were a little lower than they should have been after the previous night’s two-hour drive.  Could the alternator be on its way out?  Naaa, I didn’t want to accept it and chose to move that farther down on the “To Think About” list.

    Bad move.

            I was already nervous about it, and as I neared the undisclosed location, all systems went down and I found myself with a van full of passengers and the potential to lose power steering and braking ease.  That was enough for me.  I got the caravan to pull over and I bailed on the mission.  And just as I did, El Guapo conked out.  I jumped him with an extra battery I carry around and tried to get back to civilization before a complete meltdown, but we only made it a few miles.

            Sucking up my pride, and feeling a bit embarrassed, I called AAA and had a tow truck within an hour.  The driver, Gerry, was great, and I had a nice time talking with him on our ride back to Eugene, OR.  He even had some unique subject ideas and contacts for me to shoot while I’m in the northwest.  Whoa?!  It just goes to show that you never know what this life will bring you, or who is around the next corner.  I think as long as you are open to it, you can find something good in every situation.  Thanks again Gerry.

            Finishing our ride at a Ford dealership in Eugene, I found my suspicions about the alternator were correct.  It was shot and I was immobile.  Most dealerships would have one on hand and be able to replace it lickidy split, but I have a much higher amp, custom alternator to keep up with my battery consumption, so I was stuck.  I explained my situation and the management staff agreed to let me live in the van while it sat in their lot.  I know, sounds like a nightmare, but to me it was a huge relief.  I could have access to all of my work, not have to pack anything, have no hotel expense and hook up to all of the electricity I could use during my stay.

            Really, I just had a few free days to take care of all of the other things that typically cloud my schedule.  Awesome!

            It is now Wednesday morning, and I am finally mobile, but I am okay with that.  This little detour has put a hiccup in my plans, but that is life.  Re-organizing, thinking on our toes and adjusting accordingly is all we can do in these situations because as much as we try to plan, plans change.

            Can’t wait to get back on the road.  A lot of good things came together during my few days at the dealership.  Now it’s time to put it all into action.

            Kite training, trail runs, dollar showers, waterfall rappel, shooting, editing, planning, problem solving with software issues, hearing some bad news, uploading images to Aurora, dropping my co-pilot off at the airport, planning a surf-style bachelor party in SoCal, sleeping under the stars, sleeping in a city, driving, hanging out with an old friend, making random and not so random connections, the Apple store, being interviewed, learning new technology and upgrading.

            All in a week’s work.

            I’m not sure where my personal life ends and my work life begins, but I like it that way.  When I first sat down to type this, I actually thought I had a boring week, but I really didn’t.  A lot happened this week, even if I wasn’t on some ridiculous trip in some crazy location.

            Crazy, for me, is being on the other end of an interview.  I am used to being the journalist, so answering questions about myself and my pursuits showed me what it must have been like for all of the people I have interviewed and photographed over the years.  It was very humbling.  If you would like to read the interview, go to:

http://www.worldkayak.com/article_wk.cfm?newsid=862

            My answer to one of the questions made me think a bit about my past and my adolescent life spent wakeboarding.  It made me think about good friends and great memories.  Then I realized that I had the perfect way to pay tribute to my friends and the time we all spent together. 

Last fall, as part of a project to test some online storytelling software, I rounded everyone up for a day of hanging out and riding.  I photographed the day and got my buddy to record sound bites.  We took portraits and everyone donated some old pictures for the cause.  I put the project to together, but I never made it public as part of the agreement for testing the program.

Well now it is.  Check out the link to get a look at how one sport shaped one group of friends.  Be sure to click on the four icons within the collage to get a deeper understanding about how our lives came together through wakeboarding.

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/0c921dae6

Enjoy it guys!  Can't wait to ride with you all again.

    “Hood River, Oregon is not too shabby.”  I believe I was quoted as saying that earlier this week, and I still agree.

            After two days of van and computer repairs in Reno last week, Christian (brother along for the ride for 5 weeks this summer) and I sprinted up to Portland.

Leaving an area with friends is always sad, but it was nice to be moving toward something new.  I have not had a chance to spend much time in the northwest (even though I have always wanted to), so planning out the next few months of my life up here just seemed to make sense.

            I called up an old friend who lives in Portland and made arrangements to park in front of his apartment until we could get things sorted.  It was a great reunion, and his year and a half old daughter cracked me up the whole time.

Connecting with old friends like that is one of the true blessings of being on the road full time, but like always, it was far too short.

A late night text message confirmed some plans we had made earlier and by coffee and bagel time, we were on our way to Hood River, OR.

We relaxed and listened to music for the one-hour trip, motivated and did some grocery shopping, then met up with Andy Maser and Trip Jennings of the Epicocity Project (http://www.riversindemand.com/) for some shooting on the Little White Salmon.  They had both been out on the river the previous week setting up an intricate video pulley system to get their camera above the renowned Spirit Falls.  Andy had told me a thing or two about it and I was all about checking it out as well as scouting a bit for my own shooting.

We ended up spending two days on Spirit Falls and I’m pretty sure they got some great perspectives of the rapid.

The set up was awesome, but my favorite part of the two days was hearing Trip divulge some details about their trip down the Congo River last summer.  It was about as adventurous as I can imagine an expedition being.

The trip was isolated to an area of political unrest, they were held hostage, paddled the unknown and boofed from the edge of one 25-foot deep whirlpool to another in 1.3 million cfs of water, carried hi-tech sonar equipment built into one of their kayaks and sought out 6-8 foot long piranha style fish that swim up rapids and hunt in packs.  It was too good.  I wish I could have been there.

Since then, Christian and I have been taking care of a lot of things that have been building up over the last few weeks.  Not as fun, but necessary.

Shooting some kayaking in the next few days is looking promising and today might be my first day of kiteboarding.  When in Rome I guess.

Last fall I had the privilege of meeting renowned paddler Luke Hopkins while on a run of the Upper Gauley in West Virginia.  We hit it off pretty well and ended up having a great day of paddling, laughing and doing the “shakey face” in front of his new HD video camera (I still think mine was the best).

Like all great days on a river, we learned a lot about each other.  He learned about my journey through the photo and adventure world and I learned about his recent passion for stand up paddleboarding (SUP) on rivers.  I could see in his livliness that he was genuinely excited to tell me about his new discovery. In his words, he had found an entirely new way to experience all of the rivers, lakes and inland waterways that he loved so much.  Not only that, but he was going to start his own SUP company.

I was floored. Here was a guy with intense passion and motivation breaking new ground with a little known (and still new in the main stream) sport and going against all convention to start a company in completely unknown territory.  I only had one thought.  How do I get in on this.

We talked, went over some ideas, exchanged contact information and decided he would call me whenever he was going out.  All in all, we ended up getting in another great day on the Gauley, one on Summersville Lake and two more in the true testing grounds – Great Falls of the Potomac.  From flatwater exploring to the unknowns of standing up in class V whitewater, Luke truly showed me what it is like to be a guinea pig.  To our knowledge nobody else had ever attempted these rivers, lakes and rapids on a SUP.

We sent a few photos to the publisher of Stand Up Journal and had an amazing response within minutes.  He (and most others) had never seen anything like this and wanted more.

It ended up turning into a full story about Luke, his life and his new dream.

The spring issue of Stand Up Journal hit newsstands in late March and had a great response. I am a little late posting this, but I would still like others to read and learn about Luke, his experience, my experience with him and the new ways to get on the water.  The magazine is still available at any Barnes & Noble or Borders, but the summer issue will be replacing it soon.

I will always remember those few weeks last fall, and I am proud to have played a role in the inland SUP movement.  I know there will be more to come.

Keep an eye out for Luke’s new boards which are hitting the water as I type this. Like everything else in this whole experience, they are very innovative and I expect will become the standard for inland SUP.  For board info, tour dates and anything else, go to:

http://www.ridestride.com/

Thanks again Luke!