Wood can be found anywhere in the world. For a good part of my life, including now, I have never known where I would eventually end up. Because life changes constantly. As soon as I feel like I get to a point in life where I am content with where life is going or how it is in that current moment, life moves like the tides. With that I developed the mindset that what ever it is i like to do, I have to be able to take care of myself, whether its make my favorite drink, fix the plumbing, heating, or electrical, build myself house, fix my own vehicles, or most importantly, supply myself with the tools that feed my soul. One of those things, which may be the most important is surfboards for surfing. 

One of the biggest things I have learned, many times over in life, is patience. When I get stoked on something, I usually just want it done, I want to achieve an accomplishment, climb what ever route, surf what ever wave, build the new board that will allow me to push my own limits in one way or another. But the biggest thing to remember, just like catching a wave, if its meant to be your wave, you will have that moment, to take a breathe, you wont miss a wave that is meant for you, the more patience I put into a board, and I don't mean slowly building, by patience I mean taking a moment to breathe, when my stoke is running high, to make sure I can see the whole picture. When I consciously am able to take those moments, I am able to push my craftsmanship deeper. I have less flaws in work, and I am able to be more proud and attentive the whole time, to the things that actually matter. That is a lesson which applies to all of life, but I am reminded the most, when I am building boards.

Surfing has given my life an opportunity for balance. And the truth is, it was not surfing that started the balance of my soul, but simply paddling. When I first started surfing, I wasn't good at it. Or even okay at it, I sucked. I grew up living on mountains, snowboarding, skateboarding behind Safeway's and curbs and a few hand rails, but surfing, I couldn't seem to figure it out for the life of me. That irked me. I lived in sunny places for quite a while, including Maui for 5 years. But I was shy to surf, because I sucked. So I spent my time instead free diving, working on boats, hiking and cliff jumping. It was not until I moved to Washington in 2014 that I actually began what would eventually become the pursuit of balance of my soul, surfing. I was driving up and down the coast, exploring, board (:p  Bored :P) and trying to find something to excite my soul, and to feel a little less lonely, and a place that felt like home. I drove through West Port, a little fishing town, and passed a surf shop, I thought, What? surfing in Washington, that must be a joke. I stopped in the store, and there was older dude that I talked to for a while who owned the store. He told me his son shaped a fair amount of the boards in the shop, as well as where i could go watch some people surf. I noticed a board in the shop, nose broke off so it was reshaped to a blunt tip. I left the store, and went to groins, and to the jetti, and watched as people moved along the faces of the waves. From there I proceeded down the coast, into Oregon, Going to Oswald State Park West (also known as Short Sands), which would be the farthest south I had yet explored on the mainland since living in Washington. That beach changed who I was going to become. The raw energy of life, that came from everything around, the beautiful trail full of older growth, to the protected sandy cove, the little waterfall on the far side, streams leading into the ocean. I felt like I found home. I watched as many people surfed in the water that day, people played volleyball on the beach,  had fires into the sunset, and people actually spent time with each other. I decided I would give surfing another shot. I drove back up the coast that night, to the surf shop in West Port, slept in my car and waited for the shop to open. The next morning, I asked to buy the board, with the broken nose. for some reason it just felt like the board I was supposed to have. $250 bucks later, I had just bought my new adventure buddy.

I remember the hardest part of surfing for me, was paddling, getting through the break to a safe place to rest, and I couldn't duck dive for shit, so I decided to start practicing, I would paddle. I took that board everywhere, it lived in my passenger seat for many years. I began paddling every Tuesday and Thursday on lake Stevens, rain or shine, snow or lightning storm. I preferred paddling in the dark, because less people would ask me what waves I was planning on catching. But that wasn't the only lake. I would adventure to find other lakes to paddle on. I would hike my board up to mountain lakes like Lake Angeles, or Heather Lake, even Lake Isabel to paddle. I paddled lakes all over Washington, Oregon and California. ya see I started paddling to become strong enough to make it past the break, but in all of the different weather days, the lakes held a different beauty, a different magic. when it was sunset or sunrise, every little ripple reflected the light in different colors, in different shades of gold, and I fell in love with the light that came through the water. It became the place where my soul got to see another form of magic that exists. It became a place I could work through my thoughts, moving meditation. I would paddle until I was able to work through all of my thoughts, Then I would breathe, I would breathe through all of my chakras and clear my mind of my thoughts, then I would be. Watch the light as it danced through the waves, small waves, wind waves. Or I would watch the rain, because rain on water doesn't look like its falling into water, rather the opposite, it appears as though it falls from the water towards the skies. I would watch lightning reflect off the battered surface of the water, or paddle out through the frozen edges of the lake and enjoy the silence of the cold peacefulness. Sometimes I would lay on my back and watch the stars and the moon, and just dream. I fell in love with the water, paddling on my surfboard I found freedom for my soul, I had found magic. 

This is where my surfing truly began.