FREE ADVENTURE MAGAZINE WINTER 2016
ALWAYS CHILLIN’…
ALEK PARKER | SANUK.COM
PLANER TX
VICE
WALLA
STAY WILD
MIZU
COver Photo Randy P. Martin randypmartin.com // @randypmartin
IT's all about Our Contributors Randy P. Martin, Courtney “Coco” Ferguson, Megan Freshley, Amy Morrison, Camper Morrison, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison, Hall Newbegin, Tiandra Cummings, Annie Andrews, Maxwell Carl Scott, Kealan Shilling, Marjorie Skinner, Amanda Leigh Smith, Tashina Hill, Skye Sengelmann, Eulalie Welsh, Nichole Vella, Kelsey McNeice, Jenny Czinder, Josh Kurpius, Molly Quan, John Hook, Eric Rewitzer, Annie Galvin, Leslie Sophia Lindell, Brooks Sterling, Evan Schell, Rebecca Nimerfroh, Jonathan Nimerfroh, Zach Epstein, Steve Mull, Liz Devine, Sevag Kazanci, Ryan J. Smith, Alin Dragulin
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Stay Wild
EXPO
THE WORLD'S FIRST
ADVENTURE FESTIVAL
FIELD TRIPS // WORK SHOPS // TRADE SHOW // PARTY
AUGUST 26-28, 2016 / PORTLAND, OREGON
STAYWILDMAGAZINE.COM/EXPO
Harvesting Wilderness Perfume with Juniper Ridge Story & Photos by Justin “Scrappers” Morrison
He asked me to stuff my face into a hole in the dirt. “Turn off your brain and just breathe it in,” he said. I’d known Hall Newbegin for less than an hour, but did as he said—and it totally worked! With a few deep breaths I was set free from all the busyness in my brain. The odor of sticks, mud, and wild animal poop became a doorway to another world. It felt mysterious and oddly familiar, like the smell of birth and death at the same time. I fell in love with that dirty little hole. Hall moaned orgasmically as he leaned in. “Mmmmmm… oh, Gawd. Mmmmmmmmm. Oh, Gawd! Mmmmm… OOOOH Gaaaaawd!” Spitting dirty pine needles out of his mouth and beard, he said, “It changes me almost immediately. I get my nose in here, and mmmmm… gawd, it’s just like a different thing. It’s not about your frontal lobe and exercising that adrenaline and exciting things. It’s about your animal senses and getting into your body. I find that nothing changes my brain the way dirt does. It’s just instantaneous. It’s got to be some deep evolutionary thing. It just instantly takes me someplace.”
“Turn off your brain and just breath it in.”
“It’s about your animal senses.”
This went on for about 20 minutes. Two grown men face down on the
The van helps them scout around for smelly plant goo. It’s how
ground, inhaling dirt on the side of Mt. Hood. Just a typical day for
they’re able to make Sierra Lakes Basin cologne, Siskiyou deodorant,
the wilderness perfumers of Juniper Ridge.
Topanga Canyon beard oil, and other products.
“If someone drives by they’re going to think we’re freaks, but who cares.” I agreed with Hall that this was some freaky shit, and I asked what the heck was in this dirt. It smelled like a taste and tasted like a feeling. It was so many things, I couldn’t put my finger on any one of them. “It’s like that Lew Welch poem. ‘Draw a circle in the earth and there’s 10,000 things you’ll never know.’ There’s so much in there, so much. God knows what species of mycorrhizal mushrooms and critters and everything are in there. And if you go deeper or shallower, it’s always going to
“With all wilderness perfume you’re getting the goo out of the plant.”
As we drove up the mountain, I listened to Hall talk about the origins of Juniper Ridge. Before he started distilling plant goo and selling it at the Berkeley farmers’ market, he was simply a fan of the wilderness. One day when he was out smelling something wild, the thought hit him: “Whatever this is, I want to make it my thing.” So he set out to become a wilderness perfumer. But it’s not like they teach this stuff in school. It took him about 10 years to figure it out. The techniques are more than 100 years old, French, and were forgotten once petroleum made synthetic perfumes cheaper to produce.
change. It’s a stew. It’s so many different things, and you can never nail it down. It’s kind of beautiful that way. I’m
The next day Hall’s friend Tiandra Cummins joined our party, and
going to take some of this dirt back for distillation. Right out of this
we drove the van 10 miles deep into the woods above Trillium Lake.
hole, because I like this hole.”
The road was so raw and bumpy that the windshield came unglued. Hall and Tiandra reached out the side windows to hold it in place as
After harvesting dirt, we clipped spruce branches, picked sprigs
we pushed into the woods.
of yarrow, and then got into the van to go up the mountain past the timberline.
Once we got to the trailhead, I was happy to be out of the van and started hiking. It took a while before I noticed that no one else was coming, so I
The Juniper Ridge van, or “Field Lab,” is their mobile distillation
headed back and found them hunched over, inspecting and identifying
unit loaded with all the stuff you need for putting a place’s smell into
little plants and mushrooms. This wasn’t going to be an endurance hike.
a bottle. “With all wilderness perfume, you’re getting the goo out of
This was going to be some mellow quality time with nature.
the plant. And there’s like a dozen different methods that we use. There’s steam distillation, cold temperature distillation, smoke dis-
Juniper Ridge loves nature. If they didn’t, they’d go out of business;
tillation, enfleurage, infusion, tincturing… all those techniques are
you gotta have wilderness to make wilderness perfume. They give 10%
about getting the goo out of the plant.”
of their yearly profits to groups like Oregon Wild, Ventana Wilderness
“ This is the stuff that goes into our perfumes.”
Alliance, Friends of the Inyo, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Washington Wilderness Coalition, and others. It’s like paying a shepherd to protect sheep you plan to shear to make a wool blanket, except the sheep farm is open to the public and the sheep are feral. Along the trail, we came across a grove of noble fir trees. These trees get swollen sap blisters about an inch big all over their bark. You can cut them open with a knife, and the pitch oozes out right into an awaiting glass jar. It’s super easy to harvest and doesn’t hurt the tree. I popped one open and it squirted all over my face. “Money shot,” Hall laughed as he milked sap from another tree. It wasn’t sticky; it was oily and smelled so freaking good. Hall rubbed it on his face and beard. “This is the stuff that goes into our perfumes,” he said. When you consider how Juniper Ridge interacts with nature, it’s enough to make you want to join them. According to Hall, “Sometimes I feel it’s just half my job turning people onto this.”
Join Juniper Ridge for a hike and workshop just like this one at the EXPO Adventure Festival in Portland, Oregon, Aug 26-28, 2016. Tickets and more info at staywildmagazine.com/expo.
JUNIPERRIDGE.COM @JUNIPERRIDGE
REACH YOUR HORIZON.
GET YOUR GEAR HERE.
NEXTADVENTURE.NET
SPRING BREAK FOREVER GETTING WEIRD WITH YOUR NEW FAVORITE SNOWBOARDS INTERVIEW BY ANNIE ANDREWS // PHOTOS BY KEALAN SHILLING
Did you see that Harmony Korine movie Spring Breakers? It might be his best one (sorry, Gummo). It’s about a group of girlfriends who go to the party of their lives and never go back to their boring lives. They hook up with Riff Raff (the James Franco version), machine gun down Gucci Mane (trap music king), and wear neon ski masks and bikinis. They party so fawking hard that they can no longer live by the old rules. I’m trying really hard to compare that movie to the group of friends who make beautifully weird Spring Break snowboards. Did it work? Let's ask Maxwell Carl Scott from Spring Break snowboards and see what he thinks.
How do you guys like the movie Spring Breakers? Not as much as Trash Humpers. What’s Spring Break about? How did it start? Spring Break began in 2010 as an experimental art project by founder Corey Smith and friends. The aim of the project was to deconstruct modern snowboarding and reimagine the sport through its surf-style roots—to find beauty in simply turning and exploring the mountain from an entirely different perspective. How do you guys come up with such weird snowboard shapes? We take inspiration for our shapes from all over. Sometimes a shape can be catered to a specific rider’s prefer-
ence or style. Some shapes are inspired by vintage surf or skate shapes. Some are just crazy ideas we want to try out. It’s amazing how much the shape can change the way you ride. It may be even more apparent in a sport like snowboarding where turning is greatly emphasized.
of the sport had roots in surfing, and one of the aims of the Spring Break project is to reconnect snowboarding with the style that it’s since deviated from.
Why does that one board have all those holes drilled into the tail (see previous page)? Ha, I like to say they are for speed. But actually they help your tail sink into the snow, which allows the rider to sit back and relax in the deepest pow.
What’s up with the Capita line? Capita has taken some of our favorite and best-performing conceptual shapes over the years and, with our direction, we developed them into state-of-the-art shred machines built for the resorts. The boards are produced at their new factory in Austria, one of the best snowboard manufacturing facilities in the world.
The handmade wooden boards seem kind of surfy. Where’s that come from? Our board shapes are definitely surfy. A lot of the pioneers
Are you on spring break forever? Fully. Drinking a piña colada, even.
SPRINGBREAKSNOWBOARDS.COM // @SPRINGBREAKSNOWBOARDING
PHOTOS BY KEALAN SHILLING // KEALANSHILLING.COM // @ KEALANSHILLING
Photo by Molly Quan mollyquan.com @mollyquan
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by Marjorie Skinner // @MJSkinner800
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“I can do this. I need my own bike.” Around four years ago, Jenny Czinder had this thought while riding on the back of her boyfriend’s motorcycle. Soon after, she became one of an increasing legion of women who are dismantling the image of riding as a manly pursuit—but the world’s still trying to catch up. Czinder grew up with Harley-Davidson in the periphery. Her stepdad had one, as did her boyfriend, and now she has one of her own. It made sense that a vintage Harley jacket would become her gear of choice, but despite its iconic power… it kind of sucked. Riding gear in general tends to excel in fashion or performance—rarely both. For women, it’s even more limited. “A lot of the fashion-oriented jackets are shorter in the waist and sleeves,” Czinder notes. “It’s a classic look… maybe because [when it was established] girls were wearing higher-waisted pants.” It looks good, but in practice the cut exposes midriffs and wrists to cold, sun, and added risk of road rash. Frustrated with the lack of options, Czinder rallied friend and fellow rider Kelly Wehner, a designer with years of experience balancing style and performance in apparel while working for Nike. The two went in together on Strange Vacation, a newly launched riding brand explicitly for women. The branded tees and “shitty” trucker hats appeal to the rowdier end of the female spectrum, and the hero pieces—a quintessential riding jacket and thick rugby top—bear the hallmarks of quality and street cred that savvy apparel collectors value. Both are produced in collaboration with respected brands and manufactured stateside: Vanson Leathers, one of the most trusted brands in the motorcycle world, produces the jacket, while Columbiaknit partnered on the rugby. As the products roll out, Czinder and Wehner find themselves part of a wave of new efforts to meet increasing demand. “It’s great that people are realizing women want to be spoken to,” Czinder says, noting the potential for Strange Vacation to evolve out of a motorcycle-specific niche, tossing out swimsuits and leather tube tops by way of example. “We want to be a brand that supports adventurous women. It’s unpretentious.”
Photo by Josh Kurpius // joshkurpius.com
strangevacation.com // @strange.vacation
Get Into Hot Water
A WOODSY ADVENTURE TO BAGBEE HOT SPRINGS
WRITER: MARJORIE SKINNER // @MJSKINNER800 PHOTOGRAPHER: AMANDA LEIGH SMITH // ALEIGHSMITH.COM // @A_LEIGHSMITH STYLIST: TASHINA HILL // TASHINAHILL.COM // @TASHINASPARKLES
MODELING: SKYE SENGELMANN // @DEMONICUNT EULALIE WELSH // @EULALIEWELSH NICHOLE VELLA // @SEAUNICORN KELSEY MCNEICE // @HUNGOV3R_AND_PR3GNANT TASHINA HILL // @TASHINASPARKLES
Bagbee Hot Springs
44.93537째N 122.17356째W
THE SPRINGS ARE NAMED AFTER BOB BAGBY, A PROSPECTOR AND HUNTER WHO FOUND THE SITE IN 1880.
The old, weird Oregon still lives on. For proof, one need only take a journey to Bagby Hot Springs, the legendary retreat built by the state’s hippie elders under the tall canopy of Mount Hood National Forest. To get there, take a dramatic drive through the roads outside small-town Estacada, beyond the grasp of cell phone towers and past ad hoc signage and mossy forest walls. Rugged and raw, the slightly dangerous lore of Bagby has been mitigated in recent years by low-impact privatization in the form of a $5 parking fee. From the Bagby trailhead, it’s a breathtaking, easy 1.5-mile hike deeper into the wilderness. Take it slow. Ponder the mushrooms and bridges. Barring disastrously extreme weather, Bagby is arguably best in wintry months. The crowds are thinner, but the water boils hot just the same. Consider quitting your day job so you can go on a Tuesday, thereby maximizing your chances of privacy as well as having close encounters with the wildlife. Nudity is allowed. Littering and drinking are not, but attitudes are generally lax. That tends to be the case when you submerge your bones in the ancient heat of nature’s mid-winter hot tub.
All the swimwear featured in this adventure is from our friends at Volcom Womens @volcomwomens #volcombabes #welcometowater
VOLCOM.COM/WOMENS
ThaliaSurf.com
915 S. Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
11am–6pm Daily 427 NW Broadway Portland, OR 97209 WWW.HANDEYESUPPLY.COM TEL. 503.575.9769
All For Fun The Surf Photography of Brooks Sterling Full interview and video by Evan Schell at evanschell.com
“It’s all for fun you know. I really want to document what surfing means to me. The photos that I’m shooting now mean something to me. If they don’t have a specific place, whether it’s with a brand or a magazine, maybe 30 or 40 years from now, they’ll hold a place in time that I was happy to be a part of. I think photography should be fun. Surfing should be fun. As long as you’re having fun, that’s all that matters.”
Brooks Sterling // iambrooks.com // @brookssterling Surfer // James Addonizio
with John Hook
JOHNHOOKPHOTO.COM // @JOHN_HOOK
Obviously the biggest perk is the year-round good weather. In Hawaii, you never have to line the inside of your Westy camper with foil to keep warm in the middle of a January night.
倀刀伀伀䘀 䔀夀䔀圀䔀䄀刀
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椀眀愀渀琀瀀爀漀漀昀⸀挀漀洀⼀搀漀最漀漀搀
Even on Oahu, the most populated of the islands, there are still miles of coastline where you can find a spot to park your bed. There is a law in Hawaii that loosely states: If you are fishing at the beach (a pole in the sand, with fishing line cast into the ocean), you are legally allowed to stay at any public beach overnight any day of the week. So pull up in your van, cast a line, and hang out until the sun comes up. There are a few city and county beach parks that sell weekend permits for beach park camping. Usually those official parks are in nice areas, and they provide bathrooms and public showers. I recommend doing this if you plan on camping in a big group. In the summer, beach camping provides radical views of stars and the Milky Way, as long as you are far, far away from the city lights of Honolulu. In the winter, if you are on Oahu, you can park near the beach and wake up to goliath surf right outside your sliding door. If you don’t already own a Vanagon or some type of imaginative Astrovan, no worries—most times, you can find a rental on Craigslist throughout the islands.
Love
States of
MAKING ART WITH 3 FISH STUDIOS 3 FISH STUDIOS was founded by two of the sweetest humans you’ll ever meet. Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin. Printmaker and painter. Husband and wife.
Their studio is in Stay Wild’s favorite San Francisco neighborhood in the Outer Sunset called Ocean Beach (not San Diego’s Ocean Beach). The waves are very rideable (by cold water standards), the sidewalks are very skateable (cracked and sandy), and the people are very talkable (crazy talkable). It’s the perfect environment for a studio that nurtures creativity and helps people resist perfection. But don’t take our word for it, hear it from one of the fish’s mouth (Eric's mouth):
PHOTOS BY LESLIE SOPHIA LINDELL // LESLIESOPHIALINDELL.COM // @LSLINDELL The 3 Fish name comes from Annie’s Irish family crest, which also has the phrase “By Industry We Prosper” on it. Have those 3 Fish come to represent something different as the years have gone by? People sometimes ask us who the third fish is, assuming we are the first two fish—which is a funny assumption if you think about it. We didn’t start out self-identifying as fishes, but as the years have gone by, we have embraced the association. Annie is a salmon. Eric is a trout. Sometimes we say the third fish is Orlie, our wonderful assistant who has been with us for more than two years (she’s a guppy). But more likely
the third fish is San Francisco, or our creative community, or the ocean, or the redwoods. Was 3 Fish Studios born from love? Yes, love had a lot to do with it. We met in 1998, when we were both in other careers, and after a few years we thought, “Wouldn't it be great to do what we love to do every day, and do it with each other?” And 3 Fish Studios was born. What is love? We think love is a connection to the beauty that sur-
rounds us. We feel so lucky to live and work right by the ocean in the wonderful city of San Francisco. We bring love into everything we do, and we believe that it's why people respond to our work so much and want to take a piece home with them. What are some challenges and triumphs of being married and in business together? When we first started working at the studio full time together, it took a while to realize that we are both good at different things when it came to running the business, so we developed a division of labor that works for us and takes our individual strengths into
JO IN 3 F IS H S T U D IO S
FOR A PRI NT- MAKI NG WORKSHOP AT THE EXPO ADVENTURE FESTI VAL PORTLAND, OREGON, AUG 26- 28, 2016. T ICK E T S A ND MORE INFO AT STAYWI LDMAGAZI NE.COM/ EXPO
3 F IS H S T U D IO S . C O M @3 F IS H S T U D IO S
account. I mean, we love to make art every day, but we are still running a business, so there are some less fun things we have to do, like paying bills and taxes! One thing we sometimes struggle with is talking about nothing but 3 Fish Studios when we are taking a walk or having a nice dinner out. It's easy to fall into the habit of talking about work all the time, so we really try not to. And the triumph that we each get to work with our favorite person every day! How great is that? How do you divide up the art side of 3 Fish Studios? Annie is a painter, and spends hours a day with a brush in hand making cards, collages, and works on canvas. When her paintings
are done, Eric sets up a photo studio in our backyard on foggy Outer Sunset mornings, takes a shot with his Canon 6D, and uses that digital image to make archival prints of her work. While Eric paints too, most of his practice is devoted to printmaking. Eric hand carves all of his plates and pulls them one at a time on our 48” Conrad Machine monotype press. So not only is our work different, but our approaches differ, too. When we collaborate it is always fun, because we end up with something that neither of us would have done on our own. Where did the bear hug series come from? Why do you think people connect with it so much? Annie has been painting bears since a dream inspired her more than a dozen years ago. The first bears stood starkly in the woods, often with a little girl peering up
in wonder, and sometimes the bear would be wearing a wrestling mask. Hey, we’re talking the subconscious here. We called this series Bears in Thoughtful Repose and people really started responding to them. The bears were always looking at something, on the edge of a profound thought, or processing something just said or done to them. While cuddly, they were always painted with fierce claws.
a sweet bear giving the state a hug has really hit the right note with people all over the place, and we are thrilled to have played a role in reviving this iconic image. Many people have also been inspired to do work based on this image, but you can always tell ours by looking for the fierce claws.
Then about eight years ago, we stumbled upon a sheet music cover from 1913 for a song called “I Love You California.” It was a great discovery, and wonderful way to play with the bear design. We both were delighted the moment the first painting was done, and over the years, Annie has painted dozens of versions based on this revived image. People feel a great deal of love for California. Either they live here, have lived here in the past, or dream of living here. So
We love watching people go from nervous to confident over the course of the workshop. Some people have done a little printmaking when they were very young, usually in grade school. Back then they jumped right into it joyfully without being afraid of making mistakes. So to watch them rediscover that part of themselves is very rewarding. When they resist perfection and take their time, people are generally happy and proud of their finished print.
What do you love about leading workshops?
Happy 100th Birthday National Parks! Getting into the HBD spirit with Parks Project
PHOTOS OF BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK BY LIZ DEVINE // LIZDEVINE.COM // @LIZ_DEVINE
THE USA’S NATIONAL PARK SERVICE TURNS 100 YEARS OLD on August 25, 2016, and Stay Wild magazine knows we’ll see you at the party. What kind of gift do you bring to this epic HBD party? Ummm… no idea. Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii probably wants something different than the Grand Canyon. The National Parks are like that friend who doesn’t want “things”—they’d rather just spend quality time with you while you restore a hiking trail or clean up tourist garbage at a historic picnic area. But what’s a party without a birthday gift? Parks Project is a clothing brand that loves the National Parks. Their goods are responsibly made to promote, protect, and preserve the parks through an impressive list of projects ranging from Denali bear care to Laguna Coast plant restoration. We hit up Sevag Kazanci from Parks Project for birthday party advice, and he knew just what to say.
WHAT’S THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THE NATIONAL PARKS? A big basket of love from all of us, and a hefty dose of education for all park visitors on human impact and what we can do to better support our parks. Probably a little envelope of cash, too, like you used to get from grandma to cover a bit of the budget deficit.
GET INVOLVED WITH PARKS PROJECT PARKSPROJECT.US // @PARKSPROJECT
WHAT KIND OF FESTIVITIES DOES THE PARKS PROJECT HAVE PLANNED FOR THE PARTY? So wow, the ideal day has a little bit of everything. Morning hike to a peak, soak in the goodness. Then we gotta stick to putting on a volunteer event, trying to lead by example. Great way to bond and celebrate. Couple of cold ones creekside after, too. Maybe a little evening music and campfire laughs.
WHO DO YOU HOPE COMES TO THE PARTY? Teddy Roosevelt brings the ideas, John Muir handles the guest list, Ansel Adams takes photos, Mardy Murie documents the party, maybe Bob Dylan and the Roots collab on music… and my mom’s comin’ too. ASIDE FROM YOUR IMPRESSIVE LIST OF CURRENT PROJECTS, WHAT NEW ONES ARE ON THE WAY? More localized projects. Perhaps tackle a skatepark project, and some international ones, too. There are so many amazing stories out there, from rangers in African parks to sustainability efforts in Southeast Asia. We can’t wait to bring them to life.
www.northernlightsoptic.com // @northernlightsoptic // Style NL-7 @benjaminhardman Reykjavik, Iceland
Slurpee Waves BY REBECCA NIMERFROH // @REBECCANIMERFROH
“THE WAVES WERE FROZEN. IT WAS THE TRIPPIEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN. DO YOU WANT TO SEE PHOTOS OF IT?”
The day of February 20th, 2015 started just like any other day for Nantucket island photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh, with a surf check at his favorite beach: Fisherman’s. The winters on Nantucket are known to be notably lean in terms of photography work, and this winter was no exception. With the amount of “summer money” in his bank account dwindling, Jonathan’s one consistent escape was to get in the water and surf. But on this day it was too cold. Not the air, no. After several winters on Nantucket, he was well accustomed to surfing in dangerously low temps — the kind of cold in which some surfers leave their car running the entire time. This day was different. The ocean was frozen. “The ocean was frozen?” I asked that night when Jonathan told me about what he’d seen. “The waves were frozen. It was the trippiest thing I’ve ever seen. Do you want to see photos of it?” “Yeah!” I said. Jonathan pulled out his camera and showed me the icy barrels. “Whoa.” We stared in disbelief. “I want to see this!” I said. Jonathan told me he had to take turns sitting in his car to warm up in between takes with the camera. At one point, he had to run to the car because he thought he’d pass out from the cold. And the waves — they were frozen. “Like slurpees,” he said. Slurpee-slushy waves that slowly rolled to shore. “It’s the craziest thing I ever saw,” he said. We agreed to return to the beach so I could see the slurpee waves in person. A day or two later (and after some extremely low temperatures), when we finally made it to the beach, there were no waves at all anymore. The ocean itself had completely frozen. It was so strange — one of the island’s most popular summer beaches was frozen solid like a lake, silenced in the cold. Two days later, Jonathan decided to share his photos with Stay Wild Magazine, and they quickly published
the images to their website and social media accounts. Thrilled, Jonathan lingered for hours in the glow of his computer screen, seeing his frozen waves on Stay Wild’s homepage. He was swiftly taken aback by the overwhelming response, scrolling through over 157 comments and laughing at how much the readers loved his shots. As a photographer, Jonathan felt it couldn’t get much better than this. Stay Wild’s Facebook and Instagram posts were being shared and quickly growing in exposure. Jonathan decided to share the photos again, this time with fellow islander Holly Finigan of The Nantucket blACKbook to post on her Instagram feed. “I’ll never forget it when he sent me the pictures and texted ‘I think people are going to freak out,’” Holly states when recalling the story. “Little did I know, he was right. I took a screenshot of the text he sent me saying that.” Holly posted Jonathan’s wave photo on her Nantucket blACKbook Instagram, which then reached CBS Boston weatherman Eric fisher. Within minutes, Jonathan’s phone rang. It was Eric. “That was CBS!” Jonathan exclaimed after getting off the phone. “They want the photo for the 11 o’clock news! I think I should send them a couple — maybe they’ll show them all?”
It was nearly 10:40 pm, but Jonathan worked quickly to get the photos to Eric. Then we waited, cell phones in hand, ready to record our five seconds of fame on the local news. What we thought might be a flash of a single picture was actually the entire series Jonathan sent over, lingering on screen for maybe 10 seconds (but felt like an hour). After the segment was over, we screamed in delight and forwarded the video to everyone we knew. ‘Wow, that was fun,’ we thought. ‘Maybe Jonathan would even get some more followers on Instagram from it?’ Meanwhile, Holly’s Instagram post was also gaining momentum with more likes than normal. At the same time, Jonathan posted the photo on his own Instagram page. “I figured people might see it on the news and they’d go to my Instagram page looking for it.” That night, his Instagram followers started climbing. He laid in bed, unable to sleep, continually refreshing his feed to see the number continue to climb. And that is when things really started to take off. “I was getting about 100 emails per hour. The phone started to ring off the hook. ABC. New York Times. The Huffington Post. The Weather Channel. They all wanted the photo. Some even wanted to interview me. I was bombarded with requests. I was gaining 300 Instagram followers an hour. I had to create a folder in my email just for requests for print orders of the photos. I hadn’t even had the time to set up an online store for print sales. I worked as quickly as I could, supplying all the info I could to whoever needed it. I even did a phone interview while I shoveled snow. I did a phone interview while I ate dinner. My phone would beep with email alerts, Facebook notifications, texts, friend requests, and other in-
coming calls like it was going to explode.” Friends from all over the country were starting to take notice as well. “We saw you on ABC World News with David Muir!” “Your photo was on Good Morning America!” A friend in Brazil saw it posted on a Brazilian news station. It was everywhere. It was international. And it was crazy! Thursday night Jonathan hardly slept, too excited by the day’s events. He had doubled his Instagram following and was growing over 4,000 followers. Eric Fisher from that original local news airing on CBS said it was their most viewed story EVER on CBS Boston.com. The story of the “slurpee waves” was officially viral and trended as the fourth top story that day on the internet. It appeared in newsfeeds in Japan, Australia, and Costa Rica. The term “slurpee waves” was a bonafide Google search term that brought up results for Jonathan’s waves. Even Jonathan’s eight-yearold nephew in Philadelphia called to report he’d had a show-and-tell at school with pictures of the slurpee waves. He laughed and reported, “One kid asked, “Wait, do you know him?” and I said, “Yeah, he’s my uncle!” “You’re famous!” Friends teased. But many said the same endearing thing — that they felt it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Friday was more of the same craziness, with more press and even more requests for print sales. Jonathan was at his desk all day, working as quickly as he could to get the information out. In the late hours of the night leading into Saturday, he finally had time to create the online store. Collapsing into bed, he’d already gotten his first order. Saturday morning, the New York Times ran a half page color photo in their paper, telling Jonathan’s story about the slurpee waves. Jonathan had
to sit down to watch, over coffee that morning, his 9,999 Instagram followers turn into 10K. It was like New Year’s Eve. He literally had tears in his eyes. The day served as a day to attempt to catch up on emails and print requests. Some people had even written Jonathan just to say thank you for capturing such a beautiful scene. Some had long stories to tell about their memories of Nantucket Island — stories about family, the island, the beauty of it all. One email simply said, “I love you,” to which Jonathan wrote back, “I love you too!” Over a quick break for lunch, the food almost fell out of Jonathan’s mouth. Childhood hero of Jonathan’s, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, reposted Jonathan’s photo on Instagram. And started following him. “It was surreal. My hero. Posters all over my wall as a kid. He was following me on Instagram.” Jonathan worked the rest of the day handling print requests and remaining loose ends. Sunday was more of the same, with over 14,000 Instagram followers by the end of the day. One fan wrote to Jonathan over Facebook, “Can you tell me how one person can go from Joe Schmo to famous photographer? Any advice to help the rest of us out?” “I don’t know what to tell this guy!” Jonathan said. “I don’t even understand this myself!” As I’m writing this, the viral momentum has not quite ceased, and our hopes and dreams for our photography business are so much closer now. All I can say is to never, ever stop believing that things are possible. It may be cliché, but don’t be afraid to dream. Someone once said that luck is simply preparedness meets opportunity. Be prepared. And dream away.
SEE SLURPEE WAVES AND MORE AT JDNPHOTOGRAPHY.COM // @JDNPHOTOGRAPHY
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MY HANDS ARE COARSE, MY PALMS BLISTERED, AND MY EGO ROCKED.
I just spent an hour on one knee with a stick between my palms, drilling a hole into a flat, rectangular piece of cedar wood. When I started, my pride swelled at the scent of thick, woody smoke produced by friction: I was about to make a fire from scratch. But after an hour of vigorously rubbing back and forth, abusing muscles in my forearms I never knew existed, I failed to feel the heat of a man-made fire. Bummer.
I AM CURRENTLY IN THE WILDS OF THE SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST
working at the Element YMCA Skate Camp as a skateboard instructor. Despite failing to start a fire on my own, so far the most enriching experience has been attending an Elemental Awareness session. Elemental Awareness is a non-profit organization that connects kids to nature by teaching primitive survival skills, and focuses specifically on educating youth from inner cities and underprivileged backgrounds. Even if you don’t master these primitive techniques, the simple act of rubbing two sticks together offers a therapeutic escape, whether you’re from downtown Los Angeles or the rural hills of New England. Tasks like this remove all frivolity from our lives; they give campers something practical to do with our hands, and provide us with a break from scrolling listlessly through virtual newsfeeds. Outside of camp, our worlds burst with clutter, but by engaging in forgotten skills—whether it’s starting a fire, learning how to hunt small game, or building a weather-proof shelter with sticks and pine needles—we slowly strip down the clutter, piece by piece.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU PUSHES US FURTHER: “OUR LIFE IS FRITTERED AWAY BY DETAIL,”
he writes. “Simplify, simplify.” I watch campers successfully convert their energy into delicate flames, and the word “simplify” pulses through my veins and into my dirty hands. I get back to drilling, but notice my blisters are leaking. At this point I finally give up, my arms raw and shaking. I notice two other instructors smiling. They’ve probably seen something like this before, but they know—I know—I’ll be back.
AUGIE JOHANSEN APE HANGER
GET INVOLVED WITH ELEMENTAL AWARENESS ELEMENTALAWARENESS.ORG @ELEMENTALAWARENESS
COMING
RO
UP
OSES RYAN JACOB SMITH is an artist. His work has a timeless artifact quality to it, like paintings on stained, brittle old paper found a generation or two after being made by your scientific, artsy great uncle (the uncle with an eye patch). Ryan has shown in galleries like Upper Playground (San Francisco), Giant Robot (Los Angeles), Land (Portland), the Belfry (Seattle), and Cinders (New York). He has successfully navigated the commercial art world without becoming a tool. So I was surprised and excited to find out he started doing tattoos. Heck, I wanted one!
I’ve seen artists over the years get out of the feast-or-famine lifestyle with normal steady-paying jobs, like a musician giving up their music to become a tax accountant. But that’s not the case with Ryan. As a tattooer, his hands are constantly busy creating art. This isn’t a departure from making art—it’s his art growing in a new direction. Ryan’s tattoos are inspired by traditional tattoo folk art (hat tip to George Burchett, Amund Dietzel, and Bert Grimm), mixed with modern
PHOTOS BY ALIN DRAGULIN // ALINDRAGULIN.COM // @ALINDRAGULINDOTCOM
urban folk art (chin up to Wes Lang, Margaret Kilgallen, and Barry McGee). His tattoos are all black. This style keeps the design simple and works on all shades of skin. It’s all about strong line work, solid shading, and classic artwork that will age well with your body. Ryan tattoos moths, leaves, skulls, hands, roses, and other organic things. “You could draw a rose a hundred different ways and it’s still a rose.”
WORDS BY JUSTIN “SCRAPPERS” MORRISON // SCRAPPERSTOWN.COM
SEE MORE TATTOOS AND ARTWORK AT RYANJACOBSMITH.COM // @RYANJACOBSMITH
The County thejamesbrand.com
TATTOO BY RYAN JACOB SMITH // RYANJACOBSMITH.COM // @RYANJACOBSMITH PHOTO BY ALIN DRAGULIN // ALINDRAGULIN.COM // @ALINDRAGULINDOTCOM