Smoke on the Water

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What, pray tell, would I buy? There is nothing out here that is not free for the asking. Can you buy a sunrise? Is there a price to the exhilaration we feel from the thunderstorm that rages outside? Nature is the truest democracy, and not the richest man in the world is served a grander sunset than the beggar.

Michael Furtman


Buenas dias todos!

As some of you might now, I'm still in Baja. It's a tough life. My seminar went great. I learned quite a bit. I am now a very comfortable kayaker in 90%!o(MISSING)f doable conditions, and I have the basics of both surfing and rolling. It was pretty dang fun too. One of my instructors was a guy named Matt who used to be a NOLS instructor but for the past several years has been running a sea kayak shop (called The Sea Kayak Shop) out of Anacortez Washington. He brought all sorts of info on what was going on with sea kayaking outside of NOLS. Things like BCU and ACA and how to get involved. I thought that part especially was invaluable. My other instructor was Oscar. Oscar lives in La Paz and is very involved with NOLS... and an amazing paddler. He was actually this year's "NOLS Instructor of the Year" and I can totally see why. I learned an incredible ammount from both of them.

My schedule and my skills must have worked for them as well because I was offered work before the seminar even ended. Two contracts actually. The first was the last week of a BAJ (3 weeks of sea kayaking) and the second which followed immediately was (is) the last month of a semester course (the first month was hiking and the second was sailing). Currently, I am between the two courses, at least as far as in-town days go. I'm on my last day of in-town briefing right now.

When it came to accepting those contracts, it for all intents and purposes came down to whether I could convince Ash to fly to Mexico for the week and a half between seminar and first contract. Obviously, as I'm still here, I must have suceeded. To be fair though, it wasn't a particularly hard sell. She was still working on her job search so all I had to do was send her some pictures of where I had been living. That week and a half was fantastic. It felt like the first vacation that I had had in a while. Even though I spent some time in British Columbia in August, to some extent that still felt like work. During this week and a half with Ash in paradise, I was able to completely just be Chris, not Soarpheat or Instructor-Chris to any extent at all. It was great, and overdue.

Ash had flown down here but took the bus back up. She left on the 5th. On the sixth, I went into the field. It's odd going in partially through a course, especially when that course is more or less done. To be honest, one of the main reasons I accepted that course was that the CL is the same CL who will be with me on the month long semester course. I figured I'd get to know him a bit better. His name is Josh and he seems very similar to my friend Eric (whom some of you undoubtedly know) if Eric had decided to guide instead of engineer. Almost like an alternate dimension or something. Needless to say, we get along famously. My next course is going to be a hoot I think.

So that's all I have with updates. As far as future plans, I'm here until December 13th, at which point I catch a 20 hour bus up to San Diego, find both my car and my little brother (my brother will have just gotten there that day, but my car has been there for a while), and have a relaxing night after a long ride. After that, Dan (my brother) and I will begin the long drive back to Louisville for the holidays. I'm definatly psyched that he's coming and I'm sure that particular adventure will lend itself to a very interesting blog entry. I'll be kicking around Louisville until at least sometime around New Year's, then I go back to being a vagabond until March. Then I'm coming down here again for a kayak course. Following that, it's back east for me to ultimately end up at an AustraLearn (my study abroad group from 2 years ago) reunion in the Outer Banks. Why am I frontloading so much info? Simply because for definately plans I need lots of foreward-notice. I hope to see everybody I can, this is my basic schedule, and I'll have my cell phone again when I get back to the states. Love you all, and Happy Trails!

Chris (aka Soarpheat)

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Comments

[Mom]

So glad for some detail
I love the detail I don't get from a few sentences on AIM. So glad you posted a note. I love you. Be safe. Mom

[Eric]

lesson for me
Just wanted to let you know that it was my turn to learn a little english lesson from your last blog. I always thought the saying was "for all intensive purposes" and reading in your blog "for all intents and purposes" made so much more sense and I found the history on wikipedia. I'll say it again, I love a good paradigm shift where you thought something to be one way your whole life only to find you were wrong. It was great to hear you found an alternate me in the world. Glad to hear you're thinking of me out there on your great adventure. Maybe we'll get the chance to connect over the holidays. I found out that I'm going to the Lexington office and starting after the new year. Was it not that long ago that I shared in your first view of the ocean in LA? And now you live in BAJA?!?! Keep living the dream! Fill your back pocket with sand. When we meet again, I want a story for every grain! Peace Bro, ~E