Have Bike, Have Trailer, Will Travel

A few months ago, our good friend Ian Momsen told us that he was planning a six-month bicycle tour across the US. After a fleeting moment of envy, we knew that exciting adventures and challenges were ahead for this fellow Portlander. Ian’s objective for this trip is to connect people with places across the country through his photography and writing while leaving the smallest carbon footprint he can. Hitting the road with only a few key items—his bicycle, trailer, tent, computer, camera and solar panels (to charge his electronics)—the trip began.

Now, a month and half in and covering over 2,000 miles, Ian’s journey is taking him much further than he had ever imagined. Keeping a daily blog filled with rich descriptions and colorful images of the road, he’s able to bring us along on his amazing ride.

Read on »

Hot Off the Web: Wend Goes Digital

Wend, one of our favorite outdoor magazines, went digital this month, meaning that you can flip through a virtual copy of the previous month’s issue online. Check out a free version here.

Based out of Portland, Wend is expanding its reach by allowing anybody with an internet connection a chance to dig their first-person adventure stories, environmental reporting and amazing photography. Not only will this allow for richer content in the future (think video journalism and podcasts), but it also has the potential to lower the amount of paper and energy used in circulation. Aside from experiencing “Wend 2.0″ and doing less recycling, subscribers to the digital version also save around ten bucks a year.

For the next year, Wend will offer the previous month’s issue online for free. After that, it will only be available by subscription.

The Camera Steals the Soul: Outdoor Sports in Cinema

Our Thought Kitchen meetings usually take place at the bar/creperie Le Happy, a little joint around the corner from the office that’s the perfect venue for our informal pitch meetings. It’s usually after a couple beers (or hot toddies) that the best subject matter is born. Such was the case this winter when we began an ongoing discussion about the worst cinematic interpretations of outdoor sports.

What started as a casual conversation about few ‘80s date movies blew up into an email rally 20 replies long. From Keanu Reeves’ bro-brah Johnny Utah in Point Break to Stallone’s piton-firing gun in Cliffhanger, no phony stone was left unturned. A month or so later, we had a hefty list of the bad, the good, and the guilty pleasure flicks Hollywood has made about the sports we love.

The list grew so long that we had to break the post into categories based on the sport genre being butchered. Since it’s still ski season for some of us, we thought we might as well start there.

SKIING/SNOWBOARDING

THE BAD (click for clips):
Ski Patrol
Downhill Willie
Frostbite
Ski School 1 & 2
Snowboard Academy
Winter Break
Aspen Extreme

THE DECENT/FUNNY:
Downhill Racer
Hot Dog
Out Cold
Better Off Dead

THE GUILTY PLEASURES:
Ski Party
Fire & Ice

Stay tuned for the next installment: totally bogus surf films…

Like Cobblestones?

This Sunday, April 13th marks the 106th running of one of cycling’s most famed one-day classics: the Paris-Roubaix. Covering 260km (that’s 161.5 miles) of pavement, country roads, and mud (usually), Paris-Roubaix is perhaps best known for winding over more than 50k of wheel-grabbing, historic cobblestones. And while it’s always a fun race to watch, this year we’re particularly excited to follow the riders of the emerging American team, Slipstream/Chipotle.

Directed by former US Postal Serive (among other teams) rider and US Time-Trial Champion Jonathan Vaughters, and boasting A-list cyclists like David Zabriskie, David Millar, Tyler Farrar and Christian Vande Velde, Slipstream/Chipotle is more than just a stacked team, however. With doping scandals grabbing headlines and threatening the future of pro cycling everywhere, they’ve gone to the pavement to design a team that will bring clean sport back to the peleton.

Given their commitment to making change, we’re proud that they’ve chosen Nau as the team’s off-bike clothing provider. So while you won’t see a Nau spandex TT suit anytime soon, you will catch the riders and the support staff sporting the gear. And with the announcement last week that the team has received a bid to the Tour de France, we’re looking forward to seeing it in Paris as well!

You can read more about the team’s commitment to untainted sports performance, and follow their progress over the cobbles to Roubaix, at www.slipstreamsports.com.

Oh Canada – My Home and Native Land – Announces the Largest Land Withdrawal for Protection Ever in Canada

A few years ago I had the good fortune of paddling the Mountain River located in the Mackenzie River Valley in the Northwest Territories. That adventure inspired a trip that is currently in planning. I depart on June 27th for a two-week paddling trip on the Snake River in the Yukon. Those trips and others like them, combined with the fact that I’m Canadian, have engendered a life-long interest in wilderness preservation.

That’s why I read with interest the Canadian government’s announcement about the creation of a new national park. It’s called Naats’ihch’oh, which in the Dene language refers to Mount Wilson, a major landmark in the area and means “pointed like a porcupine quill.” The plan is to convert 25.5 million acres of northern boreal forest into a new national park and wildlife protection areas. For those who are counting, that’s about 11.5 times the size of Yellowstone Park.

The boreal forest comprises a band of trees about 1600 miles wide that spans across much of Canada – just below the arctic tundra – and continues in northern Scotland, Scandinavia and Russia. Large numbers of migratory birds and waterfowl make their summer home in the boreal. It’s also an important habitat for grizzly bears, dall sheep and woodland caribou and its trees are believed to play an important role in offsetting the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also excellent news, given the accelerating industrial activities such as the Mackenzie Gas project (including a proposed pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley) and unprecedented uranium exploration east of Great Slave Lake.

Killing a Bird

I killed a bird on the way home from the beach. There was no way of avoiding it. It crossed in front of my car quickly, emerging from the snowy bushes on the left shoulder and flying madly toward the other side of the road. I didn’t have time to react—to do so anyway would have put my family’s life in danger on the icy mountain pass.

I heard the small thud and looked in my rearview to see feathers flying and a black dot in the lane behind us.

I felt bad.

When I told my wife what had happened, it spawned a conversation about the cost of doing the things we love. We talked about the gas used to get to the ocean and my petroleum-laced wetsuit and toxic surfboard. Was the negative impact I had on the environment worth the positive impact the environment had on my life through surfing? Read on »

Catch Their Drift

Based out of the UK, Drift Magazine strives to recapture the lost soul of surfing, similar to the way the esteemed Surfer’s Journal and Surfer’s Path highlight non-commercialized, environmentally-minded content in their publications. One look at the magazine’s design and photography clues you into the fact that something different is going on at Drift. Artful, thoughtful imagery and insightful stories grace the pages of their first three online issues, which are available for download HERE. Now the magazine is venturing into the printed realm, and I wish them the best of luck. Being a surf-blogger in my other life, I’ve always appreciated the respect they show for everyday surfers by highlighting blogs in their newsletters and soliciting content from “non-professionals” who have stories to tell about their experiences in the ocean.

Branding by the People for the People

Take a bit of entrepreneurial flare, mix in a bit of eco consciousness along with a dash of digitally enabled community participation in the form of “crowdsourcing” and “crowdfunding” and what do you get? How about Nvohk (pronounced “invoke”) – an eco-friendly, surf inspired clothing manufacturer that appears to be decidedly democratic in its management approach. The concept: You sign up for free and when membership hits 20,000 everyone invests $50 a year. In return, you get a say in the management of the company, including — according to its founders — major business decisions like logo design, product design, athlete selection and advertising direction. You’ll also have a voice in choosing what charities receive 10% of net profits and 35% of net profits will be directed back to members via award points. As of March 21st, over 2106 future members had signed up. This experiment is one to watch, if not participate in. It will certainly test the power of crowds and our capacity for collective decision-making.

4:30 AM

There was a time when those numbers used to scare me.

Now I’ve grown accustomed to seeing that time blinking on the alarm clock as I bottle-feed the baby in the morning. So last week, when I decided to go surfing at 4:30 AM (leaving my wife with our infant until noon), I actually looked forward that ungodly hour. As a matter of fact, I woke up at 3:30 in anticipation of perfect waves peeling in the half-light of dawn.

The forecast promised epic conditions: 7 feet at 14 seconds with mild offshores. My surf buddy arrived right on time in his veggie-oil rig and we departed at quarter-to-five, leaving the smell of fried wontons in our wake. On the ride along empty freeways, over the oily river, past the drowsy city, and through the dark woods, we joked about our daily lives—the ups and downs of fatherhood (me), dating (him), and of course the surf we’d be enjoying soon.

The ocean obviously hadn’t read the report. We were the first ones in the water, but the waves were bumpy and crossed up. We surfed for a few hours, milking as much fun from the session as possible, but in the end only caught a handful of waves each.

A quick change and hike back to the car and we were on the road again, talking about the waves we got, the week ahead, and our next corn-oil-powered dawn patrol.

My wife asked me if it was worth it as I stumbled through the front door at noon with my surfboard under one arm and a dripping wetsuit over my shoulder. I smiled and she rolled her eyes. Would I do 4:30 again? Maybe 5:30, considering the time change.

Are you really aware?

This public service announcement by Transport for London is one the best viral campaigns we’ve seen to raise awareness of the cyclist in your rear view mirror. Check it out.