Issue 6: Making Waves

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making waves

SISU Pronounced see’-soo. A Finnish term embodying the spirit of grit, guts, and perseverance. Sisu represents a human being’s ability to face any adventure riddled with hardship, hopelessness, and impossibility, yet they still choose to stay the course.

It’s not a temporary state of courage, it’s a way of life.

SISU MAGAZINE A collection of uninterrupted stories, brilliant photographs, and stunning art that evokes the indomitable human spirit that exists in all of us. An exploration into the experiences and perspectives about the outdoors, told by our contributing writers, photographers, and artists who represent a bold, insightful collective voice.

f r o n t a n d b ac k cov e r a r t w o r k b y L a u r e n B e ll o O k e r m a n

“It may take co nviction and ze al to brave all waters and we ather at surf bre aks around the world, but it ta kes a whole oth er kind of guts to wade into th e strong undert ow of gender expectations, sys temic sexism an d racism…”

CONTENTS

wad in g in to th e un de rtow

6 wading into the undertow Sexism in Surfing by Meghan O’Dea

10 The pitch

Inclusive Outdoor Clothing

with alder apparel

12 ask jenny

Like a Snowflake in the Sun by

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5 4 take a ride on the wild side Plus-Size Surfing with Kanoa Greene

56 An excerpt from antarctica becomes her An Expedition for Global Leadership by Melissa Haeffner, PhD

Jenny Bruso

14 an indoor girl on the outdoors Ride the Wave by Melanie Briggs

16 leading with empathy Katie Boué and the Collective Voice by India Alfonso

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polar plunge

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protecting our oceans

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Mobile Homemaking

baja bound

Tips, Tricks and Tacos by Jennifer Gurecki with Rachel Friedman Elberts

LA ATRACCIÓN DE LA PATAGONIA / THE PULL OF PATAGONIA Passion for Place by Carolina Iberra and Emily Hopcian

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Line and wave

Art by Lauren Bello Okerman

poetry in motion Turquoise & Brown by Olivia VanDamme

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Heal Thyself Tips for Self-Touch by Samantha Romanowski

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DIY

Make Your Own Zine with Seawitches by Margaret

Seelie

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marketplace

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eat, drink, + be merry

Shop It Paleo Nachos

by Vanessa Barajas

50 the risk of full potential The Razor’ s Edge of Risk by Cassidy Randall

How Not To travel to hawai’i Like A Basic Bitch Where Race and Travel Intersect by Kiona

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Eco and

Ocean Friendly by Erica Zazo

20 low-waste living on the road Van Life with Naomi and Dustin Grevemberg 26 What’s in our van

Take a Dip by Tiffini Eugene

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that’s what he said

Sisu Does Satire

by Andrew Pridgen

the ses to n o p e s al re and th m r , o

e l n p eo are to t, its p r getting in nxiety e a n d a l n p na ake ur side ressio g to o ment. Con ould, I’d m n i n “Dep e p c overn a hap y. If I traum wn of our g en’t alread o ar do brus break apy if you nny e j er ask talk th e do it.”

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STAFF follow @sisumagazine #gritandguts

SUBSCRIBE

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jennifer Gurecki CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lauren Bello Okerman COPY EDITOR Lacey England associate editor Charlotte Harris

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CONTACT For general inquiries, write to hello@sisumagazine.com

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letters to the editor

CONTRIBUTORS India Alfonso Vanessa Barajas Melanie Briggs Jenny Bruso Rachel Friedman Elberts Tiffini Eugene Melissa Haeffner, PhD Emily Hopcian Carolina Ibarra Kiona Meghan O’Dea Andrew Pridgen Cassidy Randall Samantha Romanowski Margaret Seelie Olivia VanDamme Erica Zazo

photography & art

Send your letters to editor@sisumagazine.com and snail mail or gifts to 3983 S. McCarran Blvd. #481 Reno, Nevada 89502

Timothy Dhalleine Latasha Dunston Lauren Bello Okerman

©2020 Sisu Magazine, All rights reserved. Printed on 100% recycled paper.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the editor, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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“Media, not just surf media, plays a huge role in promoting gender equality and making sure women’s voices are heard just as loudly and as clearly as men’s and that requires representation on a regular basis.”

Ashtyn Douglas-Rosa Managing Editor at SURFER Magazine

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FROM THE EDITOR

As I write this letter, we are in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic. By the time you read this, the world will be different than it is now and this rapid, disruptive change will likely be the new normal for months to come. It feels impossible to write this letter without addressing something that will have a profound effect on every single one of us.

While I am well aware of the immense challenges and suffering that the coronavirus has unleashed upon us, I find solace in contemplating what the future could hold if we choose to use this moment in time as a reset: a minimum basic income, universal heathcare, flexible and remote work, paid leave, an earth that can breathe again because we slowed everything down.

It’s fitting that the theme of this issue is Making Waves, as our way forward will be created by people who are willing to challenge the status quo. If it wasn’t obvious prior to this crisis, it certainly is now: the way in which we have chosen to exist is fundamentally flawed. We devalue human beings simply because of the size of their paychecks, we prioritize profits and a growing GDP over people, and the majority of us have been barely hanging on by a thread that has unraveled potentially to the point of no repair.

While we did not set out to curate an issue in response to COVID-19, this issue contains stories about the people who have always challenged taken-for-granted beliefs that have held us back in so many ways.

There is so much we can learn from them as we reimagine the future.

From Kanoa Greene who never saw a woman like herself on a surfboard, to Christina Lustenberger who has carved out her own place in big mountain skiing, to two friends who didn’t allow a border to stop them from creating a life-long bond with each other, this issue is dedicated to the individuals who push back. We’ve also featured more than a dozen businesses, including Karukinka, a fledgling outdoor brand out of Chile (who helped to make this issue possible), who have always challenged business as usual. The beauty in all of this is what emerges from their seemingly small acts of resistance.

Now that we have all been forced to slow down, there’s more time to absorb the words, photography, and art of our contributors. I hope that as you flip through the pages of Issue 6, you are inspired to think about how you can make waves during this historic time. It’s what is going to get us to the other side.

Jennifer Gurecki Editor In Chief

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FROM THE creative director My thoughts on the creative message of this issue have taken broad turns in these recent days of upheaval, crisis, and adjustment. Perhaps the message is even more important now that we are forced to face our everyday lives with less latitude and more creativity.

Making waves­­: This metaphor illustrates what we do when we introduce something new and impactful to stasis, a placid state of comfort and balance. In fact, making waves is a benchmark of artwork in particular, and creativity in general. Some would ask, if you aren’t making waves, what in fact, are you making? Many of our favorite works of art, music, writing, and performance made HUGE waves when they were introduced. These were new bellwethers in their respective fields—efforts of experimentation, nonconformist thinking, and signs of systemic change.

What I find so compelling about these artworks is that they are products of the artists themselves. Humans, who despite their contemporary circumstances, couldn’t help but push forward and make their work.

These were and are the wave makers, the disruptors, the fonts of progression and exploration.

In this issue of Sisu Magazine, I set forth to study the wave and its counterpoint, the line. The line represents stasis––predictable, relatable, formal, and geometric. The wave, on the other hand, is organic, has its own rules, and is really a function of its own energy. For inspiration, I turned to the water, both in subject and in medium. The cover of Issue 6 is painted on pieces of plastic flotsam (read: trash) cleaned from the beach, each churned, shaped, and deposited by waves. The studies on the interior pages are painted with watercolor, a medium ruled by the vagaries of water flow and interaction with the stroke and paper.

My vision was to juxtapose order and flow and let the results expose the tension between the two. With which do you relate?

There are many ways to embrace a wave in your ocean. Roll with it, let it shake your world. Capsize under it and come up for air when you are ready. Or just maybe you BE the wave––force indelible change on a complacent reality, shattering the notion of “what is” and forcing it to be “what used to be.”

Lauren Bello Okerman Creative Director

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Wading Into the Undertow How women descending into some of the coldest, wildest water on the planet are overcoming systemic sexism and racism Meghan O’Dea | @live.true.stories

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hose who brave all waters and weathers have a conviction and zeal most blank-eyed citizens of Leechfield lack.”

Mary Karr made that observation in her memoir Cherry, in which she describes an early 1970s adolescence spent huddled up on the Texas Gulf Coast near her hometown of Leechfield watching surfer boys hit the waves. Back then, it was standard for women to be observant beach bunnies, keeping an eye on the archetypal surfer boy (always a boy) who “paddles out, digging hard before an oncoming swell because he has to match its speed to drop in—catch it, have it pick him up like a hitchhiker.”

But Karr’s credo applies just as well to the stormy atmosphere currently gripping professional surfing.

Some of the toughest fights in the sport haven’t taken place between surfers and the pummeling waves they ride or even the reefs they occasionally crash into.

Instead, they’ve taken place behind the scenes as activists and athletes alike have pressed for women to have an equal opportunity to present their skill––and get paid fairly for it.

That ongoing battle has taken plenty of conviction and zeal, especially in the hyper-macho world of big wave competitions. While recreational surfing has never been more diverse, thanks to a population boom in Western coastal cities with proximity to curls, in the top echelons of professional surfing there’s plenty of the casual, even benevolent sexism that’s clung to the sport since Gidget was on the air.

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That’s especially true at Big Wave events like the now-canceled Mavericks, once run by now-bankrupt Cartel Management. While these events have always had a fairly spotty presence on the calendar of the World Surf League—the international governing body that oversees much of professional surfing—the demise of Mavericks was as much a matter of politics as weather, finances, and logistical hurdles.

“It’s really kind of sad that the men around here have essentially blocked the competition from happening,” Sabrina Brennan from the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing (CEWS), said of what happened to Mavericks. “If they feel like they’re not in control over it, and it doesn’t happen the way they want it to happen, then they’re going to prevent anybody else from having a competition if they possibly can.”

That might be surprising, given the recent headlines celebrating the arrival of pay parity for professional surfers. In September of 2018, the World Surf League announced that male and female surf athletes would be awarded equal prize money at events under the WSL umbrella starting in 2019. The WSL described the move, which they may or may not have been planning for some time, as “simply the right thing to do.”

At first blush, the ensuing press gave everyone something to feel good about. Sophie Goldschmidt, who was about a year into her tenure as the first female CEO of the WSL, got to usher in a new, long-overdue era of equality in surfing. As a result, the WSL got a fresh girl-power boost ahead of the upcoming Tokyo

Olympics, when surfing will debut at the Games for the first time. And many headlines pronounced a victory for women like Bianca Valenti and Keala Kennelly, surfers who had agitated for equal pay and equal opportunities to surf in big-wave competitions like Mavericks. The truth was, inevitably, more complicated.

Women have been riding the steep, multi-story break at Mavericks since 1999, the same year a contest called “Men Who Ride Mountains” put this beach at Half Moon Bay on the map. Sarah Gerhardt was the first person without a Y chromosome to take on the wave and was even included as an alternate a few years later on the exclusive, invite-only, single-sex line-up.

The gesture was more of a pat on the head than a professional opportunity though. Well over a decade after Gerhardt’s historic drop-in, women still weren’t being invited to compete at Mavericks, though women surfers were performing well at other events at Nelscott Reef, Ocean Beach, and Puerto Escondido. Big wave surfer Bianca Valenti attempted to approach the organizers of “Men Who Ride Mountains,” which had by then been renamed “Titans of Mavericks.”

But Cartel Management made it clear that women titans need not apply.

Women surfers and their allies pointed out that those claims were something of a self-fulfilling prophecy guaranteed by male organizers’ refusal to get out of the way. For years, men have typically been given first dibs on the best waves and prime conditions at surf competitions, while women’s heats have had to wait for the next best tides and times of the day.

That creates circumstances that seem to prove women simply can’t perform as well on a board and the belief that women’s surfing isn’t as interesting to audiences tuning in from the shore, on TV, or checking out surf videos on YouTube.

Not only that, surfing has never been as profitable for competitors of either sex as for, say, pro football players or even pro tennis players. While purses for male surfers look gigantic next to the ones women were competing for up until a year ago, most athletes in the sport also rely on other revenue streams like sponsorships to make a living. But it’s harder for women to get sponsorships than their male counterparts—and when they do, there’s a much-discussed gap in how they’re portrayed.

Yet again, women’s athletic proficiencies are sidelined, not because of their lack of talent,

Jeff Clark, the man who pioneered Mavericks long before it became the pinnacle of surfing it is today, played a big role in not only blocking Valenti’s requests to get a women’s heat at Mavericks but giving her the kind of cold shoulder even a Pacific-grade wetsuit can’t protect against.

but because it’s not part of a prescribed, deeply ingrained narrative.

Over the years, Clark has cited all sorts of reasons to keep women out of the Mavericks competition.

Most of his arguments have been familiar to women at beaches all over the world since the 1950s––the claim that women can’t surf safely, that they lack the physical characteristics and judgment needed to assess waves and ride them to completion, that they’re a danger to male surfers and rescue teams, and that they’re simply not as good.

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ven today, male surfers are likely to be photographed in a way highlighting their athletic prowess and the extremities of the sport, while women surfers are reduced to rippling lines and angles around which swimsuits and rashguards are temptingly wrapped near the sand. Yet again, women’s athletic proficiencies are sidelined, not because of their lack of talent, but because it’s not part of a prescribed, deeply ingrained narrative. That lack of representation keeps more women from seeing themselves as potential surfers and potential pro athletes, even before they have to face the kind of obstacles Gerhardt and Valenti have just to make a living in the sport at which they excel.

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Nazaré. Of those, only Jaws has a women’s heat. That limited offering can’t, however, be pinned on parity alone. Big Wave contests are inherently financially unstable; Cartel couldn’t sustain Mavericks even when it staunchly insisted on staying single-sex.

But the state of California ultimately didn’t care whether men felt they should be first in the lineup for waves at Half Moon Bay. When the Mavericks organizers went to renew their permit for the competition with the California Coastal Commission in 2015, San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner Sabrina Brennan noted that if an athletic competition was going to take place on state lands, that competition needed to treat male and female competitors equally. In 2016, Brennan teamed up with several female surfers who had bonded at an Oregon Big Wave event to form the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing to tackle issues like inclusion in Mavericks.

That kicked off a multi-year battle that culminated in Bill AB 467, more pithily known as “Equal Pay for Equal Play.” That fight involved not just Cartel Management, CEWS, and the Coastal Commission, but ultimately also the California State Lands Commission. After all, CEWS’s concerns about how Mavericks was excluding female surfers while using California state beaches for its contest had implications for other pro sports on state lands, like skiing and cycling.

When AB 467 finally passed in September of 2019, it put pressure on the World Surf League, which included Mavericks in its broader Big Wave tour alongside the Jaws Championship Pe’ahi in Maui and the Nazaré Challenge in Portugal. The WSL had long insisted that it simply didn’t have the money to offer equal prizes in the women’s heats on its calendar. But in 2017, the WSL had paid handsomely to take over the permits for Mavericks from Cartel, which was by then in bankruptcy.

The California decision effectively forced the WSL’s hand if they were going to keep Mavericks on the Big Wave World Tour. Within weeks of AB 467’s passage, the WSL announced it would offer equal prizes for men and women. But there was a critical loophole left in both California’s legislation and the WSL’s new policy. Just because men and women now have to be paid equally, doesn’t mean that contests have to include women.

This year, for example, there are just two Big Wave contests for men on the 2020 docket––Jaws and 8

There are too many variables of hard-to-predict marine conditions, international logistics, and local politics to have made it as stable a proposition as other surfing formats. This year, for example, the Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic website sadly announced that “Lincoln City officials have decided not to issue any permit for a big wave surfing event this season because of the ongoing violations of the other surfing event staged out of Canyon Park.”

Even in the best of times, the WSL only ever has a handful of Big Wave contests on the roster. That makes each one all the more crucial for athletes hoping to not only prove themselves but make a living. But male athletes are afraid that giving women a larger place— and larger prizes—in surfing will cut into their profits and prime waves times, rather than expanding the sport for everyone.

The result has been, unfortunately, that women are finding fewer inroads than ever. You can’t get paid (equally or otherwise) for a job that you’re not able to do. That loophole doesn’t only affect surfing, but other sports, too. Kathryn Bertine, a former professional cyclist who founded the Homestretch Foundation to help female athletes overcome the pay gap in sports, explained to Cycling News in 2019 the necessity for and problems with AB 467: “If a men’s event is seven days and a women’s is only three, then the women are not being paid equally because they are not allowed to work equally.”

That’s why Sabrina Brennan advocated for AB 467 to include a provision requiring athletic competitions on state lands to have divisions for both men and women, not just the portion about equal pay. “They didn’t want the requirement for gender categories because they don’t believe in it,” she said. “They fundamentally don’t believe in it.”

Instead, many proponents of equal pay think that men and women should have separate competitions–– like the divisions between men’s and women’s basketball—rather than gender-divided heats under one umbrella—like Wimbledon. But the gender divided approach creates divisions that hurt women surfers and don’t resolve the barriers they currently face (not to mention it does not take into account non-binary competitors).

As Brennan put it, “The few women-only competitions do not nearly make up for all the competitions that women are excluded from. We’re still losing big time on the amount of opportunity for young people and athletes to get into surfing or any other sport, really, if you do it that way.”

Single-sex competitions don’t resolve, for example, the vast problem of geography that already presents a huge financial and logistical hurdle for surfers hoping to break into the professional echelons of the sport.

If you’re a young surfing hopeful who lives, say, near Half Moon Bay and grew up tackling surf up and down the U.S. west coast, it might be logical to start entering contests near home. Unless, of course, you’re a woman and none of the contests in your area allow you to enter.

Many surfers, even top athletes like Valenti, have side gigs and day jobs at restaurants and surf shops, whatever it takes to pay the bills and leave time to practice. Young surfers still supported by their families face different financial constraints. If you grow up in California or Maui but have to fly to Australia just to find a women’s competition, it’s an enormous barrier that locks all but a privileged few out of the sport.

When competitions like Mavericks—already rare and which don’t take place every year—bar women from entering, it creates a barrier that is devastating for women trying to build their careers. That’s one of the paradoxes of the WSL’s pay parity decision, especially if it was motivated by the fine details aligning with the regulations of the upcoming summer Olympics in Tokyo. Just when the sport is about to be more visible and, theoretically, more aspirational than ever, women are struggling to not just get a foot in the door, but even find the entrance.

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t’s not all doom and gloom, however. There are a few bright spots on the horizon that have women surfers and their supporters excited. Two women, Justine Dupont of France and Maya Gabeira of Brazil, recently tackled huge surf at this year’s Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge in Portugal. The Jacks Surfboards Pro in Huntington Beach has, for the first time ever,

made space for female competitors this March 16-29, 2020. As co-owner Jamal Abdelmuti put it, “The level of competition in women’s pro surfing is so high right now. To showcase that in our event and to provide women with the same opportunity to earn QS points [qualifying series scores that contribute to overall WSL rankings] was an easy decision.”

Meanwhile, girls are breaking into the sport even in communities where religious and cultural barriers, as well as systemic racism, have kept young people from trying to get up on waves. As Reuters reported in November of 2019, surfers like Kailani Johnson are making strides on the WSL Women’s Championship Tour even in deeply conservative countries where women historically haven’t even been able to get swimming lessons, like Indonesia. There, religious and cultural barriers discourage women from wearing form-fitting swimsuits, promote beauty standards like pale skin, and pressure women to prioritize housework over athletic pursuits like surfing.

In the United States, systematic racism has discouraged generations of Black Americans from learning to swim. But many Black communities are seeing a sea change as more People of Color give surfing a try through organizations like Black Girls Surf and The Black Surfers Collective in Los Angeles.

Not only will 2021 be the first time surfing debuts at the Olympic games, but it will also be one of the first occasions when surfers like Khadjou Sambe of Senegal can really show the wider world of sport just what Brown women can do on the waves.

Indeed, it was in October of 2019 that Brown Girls Surf announced that its Sister Summer Camp for young girls of color was a big success on no other beach than Half Moon Bay. While Mavericks was for decades synonymous with men riding mountains, these days the same beach (if not the same break) is where a new generation of young women are honing their skills, even going so far as to carpool up from Oakland.

It may take conviction and zeal to brave all waters and weather at surf breaks around the world, but it takes a whole other kind of guts to wade into the strong undertow of gender expectations, systemic sexism and racism, and assumptions about women’s athleticism, bodies, and professional merit, all while trying to climb on top of a surfboard to descend into some of the coldest, wildest water on the planet.

For women who feel the call of the waves as both a challenge and an answer, there’s little alternative. It’s all for the love of the sport.

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THE PITCH

alder Apparel

alder’s modern take on outdoor recreation apparel for women and inclusive sizing will make anyone An interview with: want to take a hike Mikayla Wujec and Naomi Blackman

of alder apparel | @alderapparel

What inspired you to start alder?

Mikayla: The idea of alder first came to me when I was traveling abroad as a National Geographic Explorer doing marine conservation research. I met countless other female colleagues and travelers that shared my frustrations with existing options for outdoor clothing.

It seemed like we were forced to choose between hyper-performance driven options that were not necessarily flattering or comfortable or comfortable options that lacked functional elements. I mean, sometimes we don’t want to wear leggings. When I returned to Canada, I brought the idea up with alder co-founder Naomi Blackman. As a hiker herself and with a strong background in marketing and public relations for top fashion brands like Hudson’s Bay Company, WINNERS, Topshop and Joe Fresh, we decided that together, we could solve this problem and launched alder.

Why did you turn to crowdfunding to launch your first product line?

Naomi: We turned to crowdfunding as both a source of capital to fund our first production run and to market test our brand and products. As a brand new startup, access to capital can be tricky and inventory is expensive, so without platforms like Kickstarter and 10

Indiegogo, we wouldn’t have the funds to be able to start our first production run!

What makes your apparel special?

Mikayla: We know we’re biased, but we think alder is special for a number of reasons. First of all, our products are designed based on listening to our customers and potential customers. Prior to launching our first pair of pants, we surveyed over 600 women to ask them what challenges they have with outdoor apparel and what they were looking for in outdoor gear. We infuse that insight with our own vision to develop products that are well-made and designed to fit into our customers’ wardrobes. While you can’t homogenize all women’s bodies into one fit, we do our best to design for as many body types as possible. Our design process includes fitting and testing by many women across all of our sizes from XS to 4X to check our design against multiple body shapes and sizes.

What’s been the hardest part about launching alder?

Naomi: It’s been a wonderful experience so far (knock on wood)! The hardest part has probably been our own impatience. We have ambitions and plans for alder

that take time and capital that we don’t necessarily have readily available as we bootstrap the company.

Everything takes longer than we anticipate as well!

And what’s been the most exciting?

Naomi: The tangible things have been the most exciting for us. Prior to launching our crowdfunding campaign, we received a small order of our product in a variety of sizes so that we could have women test and photograph our product in use. The day that order arrived and we could touch and feel our finished product was amazing. Then seeing all different types of women using and loving our pants has been truly exhilarating. We cannot wait to receive our full production order and have even more women wearing our product in the wild!

What can we expect to see next?

Mikayla: We’re working on a few new products for release in 2020. We can share our first two, a t-shirt and a pair of outdoor shorts. These pieces are created for both outdoor adventures and everyday wear, meaning they have technical elements like sweat-wicking, anti-odor, and four-way stretch but are also crafted with flattering design elements so you feel free when getting outside to #RECreate and have fun. You’ll have to stay tuned for even more new products!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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ASK JENNY bruso Questions and answers about life, the outdoors, and whatever from the creator of “Unlikely Hikers,” an online community for the underrepresented outdoorsperson JENNY BRUSO | @jennybruso

Dear Jenny Bruso,

Dear Melting,

Surviving another election year feels impossible. I’ve never felt this hopeless about our current political climate and all it could mean for the future of everything: people, land, the environment, the entire world. In 2016, when it became clear to me and more than half of the rest of the country that Trump’s candidacy wasn’t some ridiculous joke, I began speaking out to whoever would listen about what this could mean for all of us. It was also the same year I attempted my first hike of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail).

As a cis, straight, white-passing, upper-middle-class woman, I started my hike feeling few concerns about my ability to undertake this adventure, but I actually got off the trail after 900+ miles because of the number of conservative a-holes I encountered who made me feel unsafe.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, I want you to know you aren’t being dramatic. That’s internalized misogyny talking and it’s exactly how conservatives want you to feel: confused, guilty, and dramatic. There are so many people who act like speaking out on these issues add to the divide in our political climate. It tricks us into thinking we are wrong to have bad feelings about other people’s beliefs and that is a crock.

I know I’m supposed to respect the democratic process. I know I’m supposed to respect everyone’s beliefs, but I can barely speak to my dad, Abuelo, and other men in my family who voted for Trump, especially because I know they are going to again. I know my family drama doesn’t compare to the shrinking of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, or the rise of white supremacists—all massive concerns of mine—but my mental health is tanking and my ability to speak out for the lands and people I love is draining. I’m not someone who stays silent and complicit, but my own survival feels like it’s running out.

And here we are, on the crest of possibly four more years of this. How? HOW are we going to get through this? I feel so insecure about how dramatic this sounds, please set me right if I’m missing the point.

––Melting Snowflake

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Want to know what’s divisive? Misogyny, racism, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, capitalism, exploiting our planet for resources––I could go on. Not having bad feelings about these things is the real problem and it’s toxic and creepy AF that people pretend otherwise.

Disagreeing with someone’s political beliefs when they are rooted in oppression is necessary. Respectability be damned.

As you said, to be silent is to be complicit. We all have a responsibility to talk to our loved ones about the election and what our vote means. I commend you for speaking out about your beliefs to the men in your family, but don’t let changing them be your goal.

I’m not saying stop, but you can’t change them.

You can’t keep up the fight when you’re a shell of yourself and you are so needed in this. Here are some things that may help: •

It’s normal to feel like you aren’t doing enough and it’s impossible to do everything. Figure out what works for you in consideration of your big, multifaceted life. We all have so much going on in this living thing. Too much compromise, letting go of responsibilities, and not enough rest leads to burnout.

“Disagreeing with someone’s political beliefs when they are rooted in oppression is necessary. Respectability be damned.”

•

Create boundaries for how you consume your news. Don’t read it all day, every day. Set aside specific times. Morning is probably not the best if your entire day may be sidetracked.

•

You didn’t mention social media, but I imagine it’s a key player. It is for me and everyone I know.

If you can resist, don’t rush to social media to express anguish over something as soon as you hear about it. Personally, I think “fuck Trump” posts and the like are totally appropriate, but they may also be seen as inflammatory, which means you’ll have to deal with consequences. Read multiple sources––always prioritizing the voices of Indigenous people, people of color, queer and trans people––and include actionable information like numbers to call, fundraisers to donate to, organizations to follow, etc.

•

Unplug. Take time off of social media. It’s a dumping ground for too much information and our individual and collective pain. This serves a necessary purpose but obviously has adverse effects.

•

Find community ASAP. You didn’t mention if you belong to any activist groups. Your solitary voice matters, but you will feel so much more useful within communities of people in action. You need people around you who can share the load and also share coping and survival mechanisms. Divest the faith you have in our government coming through for us or changing loved one’s beliefs–– to a point––and put it into your communities and those you wish to serve.

•

You can’t make sense out of nonsense. The link between being conservative and outdoor culture is prevalent. If the lily-white politeness of outdoorsy media is any indication, I’d go so far as to say it’s the norm. Folks are either completely silent (complicit) or they’re leaning all the way right. You don’t get to vote for only the things you like about a presidential candidate, you vote for their entire platform. If you love the outdoors, how can you vote for candidates who support oil pipelines, displacing native people from their lands and sacred sites, shrinking our National Parks and Monuments, fracking and the consequent pollution of our bodies of water? If your presidential choice supports these atrocities along with travel bans, transphobic laws, and chucking abortion rights, you are too. There is no distinction. Fiscal conservatism is a lie.

Those who have the most social privilege need to decenter themselves and vote with those who don’t in mind. They need to vote with the entire planet in mind, not just the white picket-fenced microscopic dot where they stand.

Love, Jenny Bruso

Do you have questions for Jenny? Hit her up on Instagram at @jennybruso for a chance to have your questions answered.

Depression and anxiety are normal responses to the trauma happening to our planet, its people, and the breakdown of our government. Consider getting into talk therapy if you aren’t already. If I could, I’d make everyone do it.

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an indoor girl on the outdoors MELANIE BRIGGS

Ri

d e The

Wave

Believe me when I tell you I will take your eye out. At the very least, you are at risk of being waterboarded.

By my vagina.

Haters—in this case, a group that is made up almost entirely of male medical doctors—will tell you that female ejaculation is a myth. This is the same group of people who couldn’t figure out that women suffered from fainting spells because their corsets were literally suffocating them, so I’m going to need them to take several seats for this conversation.

Any man who has ever had his face anywhere near my vagina will tell you it is the realest thing since climate change (any man who has ever gained access to my vagina most definitely believed the science of climate change—actually, “Cl!mateCh@ngeIsReal1234” is the password to my vagina).

There was the young sweet boy who was 13 years my junior, still in his 20s (this is me taking a bow for that one), and had never experienced female ejaculation before until he actually jumped back a little bit when it came straight at his eye. Bless him. He took it in stride. I like to think I prepared him to take on the world.

There was the only man I have been with in the last five years that was older than me (taking another bow)

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who actually had a separate mattress on hand for when I came over. Because sometimes there just aren’t enough towels.

However, if his house had ever caught on fire while I was there, I would have come in handy.

But this is not intended as a testimony to my squirting prowess. Had the porn industry not started featuring it, and thereby started normalizing—if not fetishizing it—at the same time, I wouldn’t be telling a soul.

Or having sex. Because the shame and embarrassment would have been too much. It’s already a lot. Before any encounter, I have to have a talk that starts out with, “So… are you familiar with female ejaculation?” Every man will tell you he is. But I’ve discovered that isn’t always the case.

As a result, I always show up with my own towels.

Every man will also assume that female ejaculation is synonymous with orgasm. Why wouldn’t it be? That’s how it works with men.

(Have another seat, boy doctors.)

Every man will also assume that every woman can ejaculate. If they aren’t, it’s obviously because they haven’t been with the right man, and they are the heroes for the job. All of those things are incorrect.

And every man will assume you’re just peeing on him. Because female ejaculate comes from the urethra, just like pee. And if it comes out of the same place as pee, it

must be pee. Think about that one for a minute, boy doctors.

We’ll wait.

None of those things are true. Female ejaculation is synonymous with arousal, but not with orgasm. As far as anyone knows, not all women ejaculate when they are aroused (so no matter how many times you tell a woman to cum, it might not be a thing that she does, or needs to do, so calm down).

And it’s not pee. It’s produced by our prostate, which, much like the G-spot, does indeed exist.

And every man will assume you’re just peeing on him. Because female ejaculate comes from the urethra, just like pee. And if it comes out of the same place as pee, it must be pee.

These are all things that will become obvious once there are more women doctors in the world and as we become more open about what happens between the sheets.

(Or towels. Or mattresses.) There should be no shame in how we cum and don’t cum.

But for now, be prepared with a face mask and a squeegee. Because you could lose an eye.

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Leading With Empathy How one woman is creating a new platform to raise the collective voices for outdoor good India Alfonso | @indiaalfonso How do you get dozens of people actively marching in a climate strike past the security guards at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver? If you’re Katie Boué, the founder of the Outdoor Advocacy Project, you ask nicely and you compromise.

While this isn’t an approach that everyone agrees with, nor would it work for everyone, Boué has found success with her own style that reflects her values. She doesn’t agree with cancel culture, and despite her tens of thousands of Instagram followers, she recognizes that social media isn’t the end all be all of change-making.

“We’ve forgotten how to think, to be thoughtful,” she said. “I want people to activate their critical thinking skills, to be smarter about our tactics and tools.”

She began cultivating these beliefs when she worked at the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). It was through OIA that she learned about the administrative side of public lands, and while she loved posting to the ‘gram, she knew it wasn’t what she was meant to be doing. Boué was serving the corporate side of

Photos courtesy of Katie Boué

the industry but her passions were with the communities, people, and wild places themselves. During this time she also noticed a need within the outdoor community—a need for unification.

Boué wholeheartedly believes that consumers are able to enact change, so when she left OIA, she set out to create something that would speak directly to individuals, rather than corporations and government officials.

She wanted to build a one-stop-shop for everything advocacy-related, with a focus on climate change, so that people had the resources they needed to become champions for the outdoors. “We have all these things we want to see changed in the industry and in our community, and we can make it happen without waiting on companies to step up. We are the voters, we have the power, and we should have a lot of voice,” she said.

Her calling has manifested itself as the Outdoor Advocacy Project. The OAP is a place where people can learn about the solutions to environmental issues; it’s a digital community where outdoor advocacy isn’t reserved for policymakers, but rather lies in the hands of the

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people. Hopefully, as a result of being educated and inspired, people will feel empowered to contribute to the larger political narrative by advocating and voting for public lands.

As someone who has made it her life’s work to advocate for public lands, Boué is aware that the resources to get involved already exist on the Internet—the problem for the average individual is knowing where to find them. By placing all of the tools for activism in one easy to access spot, she wants to eliminate excuses and encourage people to take action, which, at the end of the day, is her main goal.

Whether it’s information regarding proper leave no trace principles, what advocacy events or volunteer opportunities are going on in your community (think #climatestrike), how to contact local and federal representatives, or what permits are needed for your next camping trip, the OAP is the go-to resource for everything you need to know to get outside responsibly. It’s also a place to convene with people who may or may not agree on every single point of an issue, but who are committed to a collective approach to enact real change in the outdoor industry.

“We can pat ourselves on the back with symbolic gestures but we need to hold the [outdoor] industry accountable and capable,” she said.

Boué doesn’t just want some people to take action, however. She wants everyone to. With every new person who hits the trail, that’s one “new voice to advocate for protecting the outdoors and strengthening our community.” The lack of diversity within the outdoor industry is in part what she wants to address with the project, so she’s committed to making intersectionality a priority and the backbone of this

project. “Building an intersectional movement within the outdoor community is about amplifying, representing, and compensating voices of different genders, races, cultures, geographic perspectives, political identities,” she said. By creating a digital space where a variety of perspectives can exist together as valid truths she’ll help make the outdoors more inclusive.

“Everyone who is involved with it should feel a sense of ownership with this, and feel like this is their project too,” Boué states. People from all over are volunteering their time, their eagerness, and their expertise, all for the sake of making the outdoor community better. And by doing so, they already have.

If you’re interested in joining the conversation, you can visit OutdoorAdvocacy.com to learn more or follow @outdooradvocacy on Instagram.

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climate change activists to follow Isra Hirsi @israhirsi Irsa Hirsa, the daughter of Congresswoman Illhan Omar, is advocating for a healthier planet through climate strikes and climate policy. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the US Youth Climate Strike.

Jamie Margolin @jamie_s_margolin Jamie Margolin is the founder of Zero Hour, an international youth climate justice movement. Her identity as a Latina Jewish Lesbian motivates her to fight for the oppressed and marginalized.

Vic Barrett @vicbarrett_ Vic Barrett, 20, is an Garifuna-American plaintiff suing the U.S. government over inaction towards climate change. Barrett has marched in environmental marches, organized local campaigns, and represented young people as a speaker at the United Nations.

Xiye Bastida @xiyebeara Xiye Bastida, 18, grew up in the town of San Pedro Tultepec in Mexico and experienced the effects of climate change firsthand before her family moved to New York City. She is now one of the strongest and most effective voices in the youth climate movement.

Autumn Peltier @autumn.peltier Autumn Peltier, a Canadian Indigenous activist, is an internationally recognized advocate for clean water. She is an Anishinaabe member of the Wikwemikong First Nation.

Artemisa Xakriaba @artemisa_xakriaba Artemisa Xakriaba is an Indigenous activist, from the Xakriabรก tribe of Brazil, whose aim to protect the Amazon rainforest and greater Brazil. She is a representative of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities for Indigenous communities.

Vanessa Nakate @vanessanakate1 Vanessa Nakate is an Ugandan climate activist who began a solitary strike against the inaction on the environmental crisis in her country. She started the Rise Up Movement, a program working to amplify the voices of climate activists from Africa.

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Low-Waste Living on the road Q&A with Naomi and Dustin Grevemberg of the Vanlife App | @irietoaurora

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Photography courtesy of @irietoaurora

Take us back to the very beginning—how and why did you choose to live on the road?

Dustin: Before life on the road we were living in New Orleans with 9-to-5 career jobs. If we had a moment off, or a long weekend, we’d drive eight hours to find the mountains or wilderness. That became more and more frequent and we started realizing that our lives weren’t very fulfilling, like we weren’t living our own lives but instead someone else’s ideas of happiness. We were focused too much on consuming and not living. We both came home from work one day and said to each other, “Now’s the time to do this.”

Naomi: The life we were living wasn’t turning out like what we imagined. We had this dream of buying a van and visiting all of the national parks. It was the best decision we ever made. It was one of those things that was now or never. I knew that if we hadn’t done it then, we probably wouldn’t have done it.

What inspired you to start living a zero-waste lifestyle?

Naomi: Living in the van pushed us to be extreme and realize that we had to do more.

We were forced into being minimalists even if it wasn’t what we aspired to be. Living in wilderness areas, for instance, or even in the front country, we saw a lot of trash.

We also saw it in the deep backcountry.

Just experiencing this in the places we love and live shifted our perspective and made us reevaluate what it really means to be environmentally conscious and environmentalists. Living in the outdoors is where zero-waste became a goal for us.

"If someone is living paycheck to paycheck, you can’t talk to them about zero-waste; everyone is trying to survive."

Dustin: Life on the road inspired us. We were a year and a half into southeast Asia. That was the icing on the cake as we saw the impact of our plastic waste on the rest of the world. It was an awakening for us.

Naomi: Mass tourism is a dirty and very scary thing. When we came back, we committed ourselves to living a zerowaste lifestyle. It’s been almost two years now.

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What does zero-waste mean to you?

Naomi: Honestly over the past year I’ve been going back and forth on the word zero-waste.

It’s not possible to be zero-waste. I look at it as a goal. I’ve been using the title low-waste because it just seems more realistic to how we live, although we are more extreme than most people we know. We do make a lot of sacrifices to make this possible.

Dustin: The way we shop has really helped us. If we are going to have waste, we try to buy things that are recyclable. We reuse as much as we can. If we can’t repurpose it, we find someone else who can. It has become really fun. In the beginning, it seemed really daunting, but now we challenge each other and it’s really fun to come up with ways to minimize waste.

What low-waste habits have you cultivated on the road?

Naomi: One of the most difficult ones would be composting. That’s been a really big challenge and we’ve definitely created a system that works for us. It takes a lot of sacrifices but it works. We also shop in bulk a lot and have the opportunity to do that a lot on the road because we visit a lot of cities.

Naomi: We try to not have any food waste. We reuse a lot of food scraps to cook with, like stems and leaves. We never waste anything. We have a small freezer in the van and we freeze food scraps to reuse. Food waste is a big pet peeve of mine. I grew up really poor so food waste was not tolerated in my household and that came along with me into my adult life.

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You recently wrote about the privilege associated with zerowaste lifestyles. What’s your take on whether or not zerowaste is possible for everyone?

Dustin: Zero-waste or low-waste is very much dependent upon accessibility. For example, one way to reduce waste is to shop in bulk. But not everyone has access to bulk food stores. When we’re on the road we can seek out these stores. There are a lot of people in this world and in this country who can’t make that trip and don’t have these options available to them.

on access. I’m from Trinidad and my family lives in the country. It’s a plastic village and everyone is so dependent on plastic. Zero-waste is not an option. If someone is living paycheck to paycheck, you can’t talk to them about zero-waste; everyone is trying to survive.

Naomi: In food deserts, you don’t find these options. Living in New Orleans, we know it’s really difficult in certain neighborhoods. Not everyone has a vehicle to get to a store that sells food in bulk. It’s highly dependent

Naomi: We can demand it from manufacturers and not burden the family down the road. It’s really difficult for me to promote a lowwaste lifestyle without talking about the privilege associated with it. I feel

Dustin: We have an obligation to be those leaders and come up with ways for better opportunities. Plastic and styrofoam are cheap. If someone is on a shoestring budget, they are trying to survive. We have to step up and provide them with better alternatives.

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really fortunate to be able to choose. My family does not have the options that we do. They live in Trinidad and are very poor. I try to maintain connections to my roots.

What’s the #1 thing that’s helped you to reduce waste?

Dustin: The way we shop in general—we primarily eat a plant-based diet and that helps us to avoid buying food in packaging.

Naomi: That’s probably the number one way, the way that we eat. I also make my own products. That was a learning curve. Our deodorant, skincare, soaps, hair products... I make it all in my van and that’s one of the biggest ways that we reduce. I haven’t bought products off a shelf in two years.

"It’s about putting our ego aside and normalizing these things."

Dustin: Everything is reusable. We bring our reusables everywhere. If we go to a food truck we bring a bowl, fork, and cloth napkins. This is a fun way to reduce our waste.

Naomi: There’s no shame. I’m all about normalizing this. I went to the grocery store and brought a stainless steel bowl for a roasted chicken. They thought it was really weird but it started a lot of really interesting conversations. It’s about putting our ego aside and normalizing these things.

How does slow travel factor into your low-waste lifestyle?

Naomi: We do try to minimize our carbon footprint and do that by practicing slow travel. That’s really important integrating into the lifestyle as a whole.

We have reduced our footprint significantly.

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Dustin: The biggest criticism we get when we talk about living lowwaste is how can you talk about environmental responsibility when you’re literally traveling and burning fossil fuels. We went from two vehicles and driving to the office every day to one vehicle that is solar-powered. We drive far less than most drivers in a given year because we do it at a slow pace and stop and sit still for a while. We live low-waste in order to reduce our footprint and even though we live in a 35-year-old fossil fuel-burning vehicle, we still reduce our waste. Our 1985 van has been through several owners and we do everything we can to keep it on the road rather than buying a new car.

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what's in

our van

essential items for low-waste living on the road Final Straw

We’ve been in New Orleans for the winter and this is like straw city. There are amazing dive bars and we bring our straws to all of them.

stasher bags

These reusable zip bags are so durable. I don’t think I’m going to have to buy another one for the rest of my life.

Cotton Bulk Bags

We have these from various different brands. We use them to put our bulk foods into, everything from beans to flour.

Mason Jars

We use these for food storage and take them into the grocery store.

Hydroflask

Their reusable cups are essential for the van. Coffee cup, water bottle, wine glasses...they are our main go-to for anything liquid.

Bamboo Utensils

Bamboo is sustainable choice for a lot of reasons: it grows quickly, it can be harvested without deforestation because it does not die after harvesting, and it will degrade naturally.

Khala & Co Beeswax Wraps

This is an eco-friendly food storage solution that helps reduce food waste by extending freshness up to seven days longer than plastic storage. And when you’re done using them, all you have to do is hand-wash in cool water and hang dry.

Naomi and Dustin are part of the founding team of The Vanlife App. April marks the one-year anniversary of the app being live. The mission is to facilitate community, bring awareness to nomad lifestyles, and foster stewardship. You can get more info about the app at TheVanlifeApp.com.

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“Not long ago, f‘ eminist’ was a dirty word that people didn’ t want to be associated with.”

— The Baila Capucha, A Chilean Feminist Collective

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Baja Bound

Tips and tricks for exploring

Todos Santos, Mexico 28

Photography and Words by:

JENNIFER GURECKI with contributions by Rachel Friedman Elberts | @yogurecki

and @rachshredgnar

When the Spaniards arrived in Baja California in 1539, they believed they had reached a mythical island of women warriors governed by Queen Calafia. If this had been true, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so quick to colonize the land cared for by the Cochimí, Guaycura, and Pericú.

Today people flock to Baja California to bask on easy-to-find secluded beaches, sip mezcal, and devour the local cuisine. If you’re looking to get away for a few days or a few weeks, get to Todos Santos sooner than later. It’s becoming an Instagram influencer’s paradise with the swanky hotels and craft cocktails. But for the rest of us who are looking for something that’s a bit off the beaten path, you can put your phones away and indulge in everything Todos Santos has to offer.

Getting There & Away Cabo San Lucas is the closest airport, but once you arrive, get out fast. Rent a car so you can be nimble and drive the 1.5 hours north along the coast to different beaches and towns. It gives you the ability to slow down, be on your own schedule, and explore more.

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First Stop

Playa Los Cerritos Playa Los Cerritos is one of the only beaches near Todos Santos where you can actually get in the water to swim and surf. The water and waves are so friendly and have something to offer for the beginner to advanced surfer. You want to be careful where you dip your toes in the water in this part of Baja because the beaches might be beautiful along the coast, but the currents are strong and deadly.

Mario’s Surf School is the place to take surf lessons. This may be one of the only times in my life where I have wanted to be told what to do. The only reason why I learned how to surf on this trip is that I had an instructor push my board at the right time and tell me when to stand up (bless his heart) and a big ol’ foam board with markers for where to put my hands. All of this, plus the rental shorty wetsuit, was well worth it.

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Stay

Cerritos Surftown

Surfing was Rachel’s main priority for this trip, so based on a handful of friends’ recommendations, she chose Playa Cerritos to base her Todos Santos adventures for the week. This beach is one of the more easily accessed surfing and swimming beaches.

Secluded down a dirt road, you’ll find Cerritos Surftown. These beachfront bungalows and the open-air restaurant face the break for an easy morning surf check and were the perfect spot to spend a couple of days attempting to surf, drinking margaritas (pro tip: order the frozen strawberry marg not on the menu), relaxing in hammocks, and falling asleep to the sounds of the waves.

La Bohemia Per the usual, I wanted to do it all. So after a few days of staying in Playa Los Cerritos, I made my way 15 minutes north to Todos Santos proper. I’m all about walkability and sampling food and drink like you haven’t eaten for days. La Bohemia is a carefully curated eight-room hotel nestled on a side street just a few minutes from the bustling artist’s mecca in town. Their daily homecooked breakfasts and access to the Faro Beach Club were perks I wasn’t going to say no to.

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Food

Los Consuelos This is one of the newer restaurants in Todos Santos, started by a warm and gracious husband and wife team who recently relocated from La Paz. They transformed what was an abandoned home owned by the family into a quaint establishment that features live music, open-air seating, and quite possibly the best authentic Mexican food I’ve ever eaten. We went back two nights in a row and I’m still not sorry about that decision.

Mariscos “El Compa Chava” This is the spot for ceviche and a local favorite. It’s a bit off the beaten path (read: hidden gem), which is always a good sign. The seafood is FRESH and Rachel had some of the best shrimp ceviche she’s ever had in her life. It was flavorful, citrus-y, and served with a bag of chips, salsa, and a dark sauce that was oh so spicy! She also ordered octopus, scallop, and shrimp tostadas based on the chef’s suggestion of what was fresh that day. The portions are abundant and tasty. Also, it’s BYOB if you want to wash down your meal with some cervezas.

El Refugio There’s no dearth of authentic Mexican food restaurants in Todos Santos, but El Refugio made the list because of their nightly specials, mezcal tasting, and exceptional service. Bonus points that they serve crickets and are in the process of publishing their own cookbook, The Native Mexican Kitchen.

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Shop

Gabo Art Gallery and Studio This is a beautiful art gallery and studio with some really unique paintings. Rachel’s lone souvenir was purchased here and created by a local artist: a hand-carved wooden pendant necklace with a pearl.

Mixtica Can anyone say vintage? You could spend hours sorting through this eclectic mix of apparel, accessories, and jewelry. Make time to chat with the owner, who has a style that you wish you could pull off.

El Tocolote I’m a big fan of bookstores (obvious obsession with print) and was on the hunt for a local cookbook. El Tocolote had just what I was looking for: No Food For Old Men, A Mexican Culinary Adventure. The owner also carries local authors and she’s a wealth of knowledge about local events and places to eat.

La Sonrisa Muerte This art gallery specializes in printmaking by local artists and has something for everyone, even if you’re on a budget.

If you have 2 more days...

Rachel highly suggests making your way over to the La Paz side of the peninsula to explore the Sea of Cortez. She spent two nights glamping in a tent on Isla del Espiritu Santo, a remote island, designated as a national park in the Sea of Cortez. The trip was booked through Roots Adventures and she a magical time relaxing and exploring one of the best marine life viewing destinations in the world. The island itself is stunning, with magnificent towering cliffs, spectacular sandy bays, and amazing lava rock formations. The experience itself was not something she usually treats herself to, with professionally cooked meals, and king-sized beds on a deserted beach, but it was well worth it for this trip.

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La atracción de la Patagonia Como el amor y la pasión por un lugar nos llevan a regresar Carolina Ibarra + Emily Hopcian

@pancito_cn_palta

@emilyhopcian

The Pull of Patagonia How Love & Passion for Place Compel Us to Return Photography by:

TIMOTHY Dhalleine | @timothydhalleine

U

O

Aunque Carolina y yo apenas nos conocimos ayer, nuestra amistad crece de manera rápida y natural.

Para ambas, esta es nuestra tercera vez en Torres del Paine. No se puede negar el atractivo de este parque y el sur de la Patagonia en su conjunto, y nos une este amor que compartimos por esos lugares.

While Carolina and I only just met yesterday, our friendship comes quickly and naturally. For each of us, this marks our third time in Torres del Paine. There’s no denying the pull of this park and southern Patagonia as a whole, and we bond over a shared love of both.

n martes de marzo por la noche, bajo un manto de estrellas que se elevan desde el oscuro contorno de las montañas a mi alrededor, camino desde el baño en el Campamento Dickson en el Parque Nacional Torres del Paine de Chile hasta mi carpa. Carolina, una periodista y fotógrafa de Santiago de Chile, camina a mi lado.

En esta noche patagónica inusualmente tranquila y pacífica, hablamos de la magia de esta región, hablamos de nuestras aventuras anteriores en Torres del Paine, y lo más sorprendente para mí, cómo el sur de la Patagonia nos sigue llamando para que volvamos.

Perdidas entre la conversación y la belleza natural que nos rodea, nos detuvimos en el sendero cerca de nuestras carpas. Antes de despedirnos, Carolina compartió un dicho que no voy a olvidar: “El que come calafate, siempre vuelve.”

La verdad de estas palabras me llegan de inmediato a lo más profundo. Mi mente evoca los momentos vividos en el sur de la Patagonia, los cuales me han llevado a este momento y a la conexión con Carolina.

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n a Tuesday night in March, under a quilt of stars that rise from the dark outline of the mountains all around me, I walk from the bathroom at Campamento Dickson in Chile’s Parque Nacional Torres del Paine to my tent. Carolina, a journalist and photographer from Santiago, Chile, treads alongside me.

On this unusually calm and peaceful Patagonian night, we talk about the magic of this region, our previous adventures within Torres del Paine, and most strikingly for me, how southern Patagonia continues to call us back.

Lost in conversation and the natural beauty that surrounds us, we pause on the footpath near our tents. Before we say goodnight, Carolina shares a saying I won’t soon forget: “El que come calafate siempre vuelve por más.” In English, the saying goes, “One who eats a calafate [a purple berry native to southern Patagonia and found in Torres del Paine] always returns for more.”

The truth of these words washes over and within me immediately. My mind plays back my moments

Cuando nos despedimos y emprendemos el camino de vuelta a nuestras carpas, Carolina también se pierde en el sendero de sus pensamientos patagónicos.

in southern Patagonia, which have led to this moment and connection with Carolina. As we say goodnight and venture off to our tents, Carolina too is lost in her own trail of Patagonian thoughts.

Carolina: Cierro mi carpa y me meto en mi saco de dormir. Después de una conversación con Emily, pienso en lo que más me gusta de viajar. Para mí es sencillo: Las conexiones, las hermosas conexiones con los lugares que visito, su cultura y las personas que conozco en el camino.

Carolina: I zip up my tent and climb into my sleeping bag. Following a conversation with Emily, I think about what I like most about traveling. For me, it’s simple: the connections. The beautiful connections with the places I visit, their cultures, and the people I get to know along the way.

En esta tercera visita relativamente imprevista e improvisada a Torres del Paine—esta vez como voluntaria con Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, una organización sin fines de lucro que trabaja para garantizar un futuro sostenible para el parque y sus comunidades circundantes—las conexiones son importantes y bellas, y siempre están presentes.

On this relatively unplanned and spur-of-the-moment third visit to Torres del Paine—this time as a volunteer with the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, a nonprofit organization working to ensure a sustainable future for the park and its surrounding communities— the connections are rich, as they always are here.

Sea con lluvia o con sol, no se puede negar que Torres del Paine contiene un poco de magia y antes de dormir pienso en la leyenda del calafate.

Aunque la historia tiene varios orígenes, la versión más contada es sobre una joven llamada Calafate, hija de un jefe tribal Aonikenk. Calafate era hermosa con un tono dorado en sus ojos. Su padre estaba orgulloso de ella y también era su protector.

Un día mientras caminaba, Calafate se encontró con un joven Selk’nam, una tribu rival de los Aonikenk. Calafate y el joven se enamoraron. Sabiendo que sus tribus nunca les permitirían su unión, idearon un plan para escapar juntos.

El padre de Calafate se enteró del plan de amor de la joven pareja. Él no podía entender el amor de su hija por un Selk’nam y concluyó que un espíritu maligno la había poseído. El jefe consultó a un chamán

This story was made possible by Karukinka, the Chilean slow fashion brand whose handcrafted & beautiful apparel is featured in the photographs on the following pages. Learn more about this unique outdoor brand at Karukinka.com.

Rain or shine, there’s no denying Torres del Paine contains a bit of magic, and before falling asleep, I think of the legend of the calafate berry.

Though the tale has several origins, the most commonly told version is about a young woman named Calafate, the daughter of an Aonikenk chief. Calafate was beautiful, with a golden hue to her eyes. Her father was proud of her and also protective of her.

On a walk one day, Calafate encountered a young Selk’nam, a rival tribe of the Aonikenk. Calafate and the young man fell in love. Knowing their tribes would never allow their union, they devised a plan to run away together.

Calafate’s father caught wind of the young couple’s plan. He couldn’t understand his daughter’s love for a Selk’nam and decided an evil spirit must have possessed her. The chief consulted a shaman to prevent Calafate from running away, and the shaman turned

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para evitar la fuga de Calafate, y el chamán convirtió a la joven en un arbusto con flores amarillas del color de sus ojos dorados y espinosa para que solo pudiera ser vista pero nunca tocada.

El joven Selk’nam buscó Calafate, y finalmente encontró el arbusto en el que ella había sido convertida. Con el corazón roto, pereció. El chamán, lamentando el destino de los jóvenes amantes, convirtió las flores amarillas en bayas moradas para representar el corazón del joven Selk’nam, lo que permitió que ambos permanecieran juntos.

Así que la leyenda dice que cualquiera que coma calafate, a manos de la pasión y el amor de Calafate y el joven Selk’nam, quedará hechizado por los jóvenes amantes y se verá obligado a volver.

Emily: Mi primer viaje al sur de la Patagonia, en diciembre de 2017, me tomó por sorpresa de la mejor manera. Después de seis meses en Bariloche, Argentina, mi base de hogar, viajé con una amiga al sur, a Puerto Natales y Torres del Paine, en Chile, y luego a El Calafate y El Chaltén, en Argentina. Emprendí el viaje sin expectativas, pero terminé con una visión clara, un corazón pleno y un fuerte deseo de regresar al sur de la Patagonia.

Casualmente, o tal vez no, es la primera vez que recuerdo haber comido un calafate. No sé si fue por el calafate, la gente con la que estaba, los paisajes que atravesamos, las aventuras y conversaciones que compartimos, mi reflexión personal o todas las anteriores, pero la región dejó una marca indeleble en mi alma y en mi corazón. Sin duda, sabía que volvería.

Lo único que no sabía era cuándo.

Carolina: Visité Torres del Paine por primera vez en 2015 con una amiga. No disponíamos de mucho tiempo, caminamos hasta la base de Las Torres, exploramos Lago Grey y disfrutamos de las vistas de Los Cuernos. Me maravillé con los majestuosos paisajes y sentí un fuerte impulso de regresar y pasar más tiempo en el parque. Familiarizada con el dicho sobre el calafate, que el o la que come un calafate siempre volverá a la Patagonia por más, comí algunos calafates durante ese viaje y regresé a Torres del Paine el año 2017.

Esta vez viajé con tres amigas. Juntas, celebramos la Navidad y recibimos el 2018 mientras hacíamos senderismo en el circuito Macizo Paine, más comúnmente conocido como el circuito “O.” Cada día explorábamos una nueva parte del camino, veíamos nuevos paisajes y teníamos nuevas historias que contar. Una vez más me conecté profundamente con los espacios naturales y las personas que me rodeaban, 36

the young woman into a bush, with yellow flowers the shade of her golden eyes and spiky thorns so that she could only be looked at but never touched.

The young Selk’nam searched for Calafate, eventually encountering the bush she’d been turned into.

Heartbroken, he perished. The shaman, regretting what had become of the young lovers, turned the yellow flowers into purple berries to represent the Selk’nam’s heart—thus allowing the two to stay together.

So the legend goes that anyone who eats a calafate berry, at the hands of the passion and love of Calafate and the young Selk’nam, will come under the spell of the young lovers and be compelled to return.

Emily: My first trip to southern Patagonia in December 2017 caught me off guard in the best ways. With six months in Bariloche, Argentina, my current home base, under my belt, I traveled south to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine in Chile and then El Calafate and El Chaltén in Argentina with a friend. I went into the trip with no expectations and came out with clear eyes, a full heart, and a strong desire to return to southern Patagonia.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, it’s the first time I recall eating a calafate berry. Be it the berry, the people I was with, the landscapes we traversed, the adventures and conversations we shared, my own personal reflection, or all of the above, the region left an indelible mark on my heart and soul. I knew without a doubt I would return; I just didn’t know how soon.

Carolina: I first visited Torres del Paine in 2015 with a friend. Short on time, we hiked to the base of Las Torres, explored Lago Grey, and took in views of Los Cuernos.

I marveled at the majestic landscapes and felt a strong pull to return and spend more time in the park. Familiar with the saying about the calafate, that she (or he)

who eats a calafate will always return to Patagonia for more, I ate some calafates during that trip—and returned to Torres del Paine in 2017.

This time, I traveled with three friends. Together, we celebrated Christmas and rang in 2018 while hiking the Macizo Paine Circuit, more commonly known as the “O.” Every day, we explored a new section of trail, took in new landscapes and wrote new stories. I once again connected deeply with the natural spaces and people around me and said, “I want to return.

But this time, I want to return and leave a legacy in this place.” y dije: “Quiero regresar. Pero esta vez, quiero regresar y dejar un legado en este lugar.”

Emily: Después de mi primer viaje el sur de la Patagonia seguía bajo mi piel, gracias a la aventura que había tenido, los poderosos paisajes y el clima intenso de Torres del Paine, que me hicieron sentir fuerte, real y viva; y las profundas conexiones que había creado con las personas con las que estuve. Poco más de dos meses después, regresé a Torres del Paine con Legacy Fund. Durante una semana me uní a la organización y a un grupo de voluntarios en un proyecto de senderos entre dos de los campamentos del parque.

Una vez más me maravillé con los paisajes constantes pero siempre cambiantes de la Patagonia.

Disfruté de la oportunidad de conectarme con gente nueva y no podía creer que estuviese acá por segunda vez para conocer el parque de una manera muy diferente. Esta vez encontré energía al aprender y contribuir con el presente y el futuro del parque de una manera más significativa.

Aprendí que durante todo el verano los senderos icónicos de Torres del Paine pueden recibir más de 15.000 pases por mes. Ese uso intenso combinado con el clima implacable y duro del parque, además de los recursos humanos y financieros desproporcionados, acelera el deterioro de los senderos y sus consecuentes efectos negativos en la experiencia recreativa, así como en la flora y fauna adyacentes.

En conversaciones con empleados y voluntarios de Legacy Fund, aprendí cómo Legacy Fund está colaborando con CONAF, el encargado de administrar los bosques y parques nacionales de Chile, y cómo colabora con otros para garantizar un futuro más sostenible para Torres del Paine a través de la reforestación, restauración de senderos, iniciativas con las comunidades circundantes del parque, y más.

Carolina: No importa cuántas veces vengan a conocer el lugar, siempre hay algo nuevo por descubrir. Veo

Emily: Following my first trip south—at the hands of the adventure I’d had; the way Torres del Paine’s mighty landscapes and intense weather made me feel raw, real and alive; and the deep connections I’d formed with the people I was with—Patagonia was under my skin. A little more than two months later, I was back in Torres del Paine with the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund. For a week, I joined the organization and a group of volunteers on a trail project between two of the park’s campgrounds.

I once again marveled at Patagonia’s constant-yetever-changing landscapes, savored the opportunity to connect with new people, and couldn’t believe I was here a second time coming to know the park in a far different way. This time, I found energy in learning about and contributing to the park’s present and future in a more meaningful way.

I learned that throughout the summer, Torres del Paine’s iconic trails can receive more than 15,000 passes per month. That intense use combined with the park’s relentless, harsh weather and disproportionate human and financial resources accelerates trail deterioration and its consequent negative effects on the recreational experience and adjacent flora and fauna.

In conversations with Legacy Fund employees and volunteers, I learned how the Legacy Fund is collaborating with CONAF, Chile’s national forest and parks administrator, and others to ensure a more sustainable future for Torres del Paine through reforestation, trail restoration, initiatives with the park’s surrounding communities, and more.

Carolina: No matter how many times you come to know a place, there’s always something new to discover. I see clouds with different shapes, birds I have not yet seen, mountains that are now covered in snow, and glaciers that are retreating. Between seasons and years, the details change, always revealing something new.

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nubes con diferentes formas, pájaros que nunca había visto, montañas que ahora están cubiertas de nieve y glaciares en retroceso. Entre temporadas y años, los paisajes cambian, revelando siempre algo nuevo.

Esta vez, después de un largo día, durante una comida vegetariana en una mesa improvisada a lo largo de una ventana desgastada en el refugio de guardaparques, mi amistad con Emily despega sin esfuerzo mientras hablamos de dónde somos, hablamos de nuestros viajes, de nuestro trabajo, de un estilo de vida que compartimos y hablamos de nuestro amor por Torres del Paine.

Con el estómago lleno y los ojos cansados, caminamos hacia nuestras carpas bajo un dosel de estrellas y seguimos hablando de este lugar mágico, donde nos desconectamos de la mayor parte del mundo y nos conectamos profundamente con las personas y los paisajes que nos rodean.

Comparto lo que el parque enciende dentro de mí y le cuento a Emily sobre los lugares que han capturado mi corazón en la Patagonia. Le cuento sobre la Carretera Austral, una ruta que comienza en Puerto Montt y viaja hacia el sur hasta Puerto Williams, en la Patagonia chilena. Recorrí una parte importante de esa ruta en 2016 y tengo una gran cantidad de recuerdos especiales: Un día lluvioso en el Parque Pumalín; acampar en bosques llenos de alerces; pasar tiempo en Caleta Tortel, un pueblo construido con escaleras de madera, puentes y casas sobre el agua; y, por supuesto, explorar Torres del Paine, sus paisajes, historia, y cultura indígena.

Le comento a Emily que este viaje en particular fue bastante fortuito y que de una forma u otra siempre vuelvo a la Patagonia todos los años. Y entonces recuerdo la frase sobre el calafate. Lo comparto con Emily, y a ella le encantó la frase de inmediato. Le digo que, por superstición, siempre como el calafate cuando estoy en la Patagonia—por lo tanto, siempre vuelvo.

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This time around, following a long day, over a vegetarian meal on a makeshift table along a weathered window in the park rangers’ refugio, my friendship with Emily effortlessly takes flight as we talk about where we are from, our travels, our work, a shared lifestyle, and our love for Torres del Paine.

With full stomachs and tired eyes, we walk to our tents under a canopy of stars and continue talking about this magical place, where we are disconnected from most of the world and deeply connected with the people and landscapes around us.

I share what the park ignites within me and tell Emily about the places that have captured my heart in Patagonia. I tell her about the Carretera Austral, a route that starts in Puerto Montt and travels south to Puerto Williams, in Chilean Patagonia. I traveled a significant part of that route in 2016 and have a plethora of special memories from it: a rainy day in Parque Pumalín; camping in forests full of alerces; spending time in Caleta Tortel, a pueblo constructed with wooden stairs, bridges, and houses over the water; and, of course, exploring Torres del Paine, its landscapes, history, and native culture.

I tell Emily that this particular trip had been rather fortuitous and that in some way or another I always return to Patagonia every year. And then I remember the phrase about the calafate. I share it with Emily and she loves it immediately. I tell her that, by superstition, I always eat the berry when I’m in Patagonia—and then, I always return.

Lingering on the edge of sleep, I listen as Patagonia’s uncharacteristically gentle wind ripples down the mountains and through the valley. I think about the connections Torres del Paine has gifted me. What better example than my friendship with Emily? We may not come from the same country or culture or speak the same first language, but Patagonia has brought us together and provided the base for a unique friendship.

Ya estando al borde del sueño, escucho cómo el viento inusualmente suave de la Patagonia ondea las montañas y atraviesa el valle. Pienso en las conexiones que Torres del Paine me ha regalado. ¿Qué mejor ejemplo que mi amistad con Emily? Quizá no provenimos del mismo país o cultura, ni hablemos el mismo idioma, pero la Patagonia nos ha juntado y nos ha proporcionado las bases para una amistad única.

Somos mujeres viajeras que aman el estilo de vida al aire libre y se maravillan con una noche estrellada, con el agua que fluye de un río, con las montañas nevadas, el canto de un pájaro o el sonido del aire besando los árboles. Con un amor común por la Patagonia y la pasión por contar historias, nos hemos convertido en buenas amigas.

Emily: En la Patagonia todo parece tener sentido, incluso cuando no lo tiene. Cada vez que estoy acá, siento una fuerte conexión conmigo misma, con las personas que me rodean y con el ambiente en el que me encuentro.

La Patagonia me sacude y me calma. A veces esta región suscita momentos desafiantes, preguntas, conversaciones y emociones. Al mismo tiempo, acá afuera, me invita a respirar profundamente, a dejarme llevar y a escuchar, tanto interna como externamente. Me siento descubierta, no hay nada oculto en mi ser.

Estos momentos, conversaciones y aventuras me traen de vuelta a mí misma, y no importa cuántas veces vuelva para conocer esta región, siempre me quedo con ganas de más. Más aventuras, momentos, conversaciones entre sus paisajes conocidos y desconocidos tanto con viejos como con nuevos amigos.

Es esa atracción, la atracción de la Patagonia, y quizás la magia del calafate, es lo que finalmente nos unió a Carolina y a mí, y seguramente continuará atrayéndonos más.

Emily Hopcian y Carolina Ibarra se conocieron y son amigas de Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, una organización sin fines de lucro comprometida a garantizar un futuro sostenible para el Parque Nacional Torres del Paine y sus comunidades circundantes. Para obtener más información sobre Legacy Fund, sus proyectos y hacer una donación a la organización, visite SupportTDP.org.

We are traveling women, who love the outdoor lifestyle and marvel at a starry night—with the water that flows from a river, the snowy mountains, the singing of a bird, or the sound of the air kissing the trees. With a common love for Patagonia and a passion for storytelling, we’ve become good friends.

Emily: In Patagonia, everything seems to make sense, even when it doesn’t. Whenever I’m here, I feel a strong connection to myself, the people around me, and the environments in which I find myself.

Patagonia altogether rattles and calms me.

At times, this region stirs up challenging moments, questions, conversations, and emotions.

At the same time, out here, I’m reminded to breathe deep, let go, and listen—both inwardly and outwardly. I become unearthed; there’s no hiding who I am.

These moments, conversations, and adventures bring me back to me, and no matter how many times I come to know this region, I’m always left wanting more. More adventures, moments, conversations among its known and unknown landscapes with friends both old and new.

It’s that pull, the pull of Patagonia, and perhaps the magic of the calafate, that ultimately brought Carolina and me together—and will surely continue calling us back for more.

Emily Hopcian and Carolina Ibarra met through and are friends of the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund, a nonprofit committed to ensuring a sustainable future for Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and its surrounding communities. To learn more about the Legacy Fund and its projects, and to make a donation to the organization, visit SupportTDP.org.

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Watercolor studies by LAUREN BELLO OKERMAN |

@folklaurstudio

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Khadija “Khadjou” Sambe, ~ Tokyo 2021 Olympics Hopeful and founder of Black Girls Surf 23 Years Old

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mountain biking 101, 201, + 301

the risk of full potential

'Cause we all got to start somewhere Lindsey Richter | @ladiesallride Founder of Liv Ladies AllRide Mountain Bike Skills Camps: Powered by SRAM

Cassidy Randall | @_cassidyrandall

E

ver since she can remember, Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger has been dreaming about the Himalaya.

Her parents used to read her The Mountains of Tibet when she was a little girl, a children’s book about a Tibetan woodcutter who’s given the choice of living another life as anything he wants, anywhere in the world—a book that not only imprinted the dream of the world’s biggest peaks onto her psyche but also the potential of all life’s choices and possibilities.

The Canadian pro skier has shaped her life around reaching her own full, considerable potential.

She’s an Olympic ski racer who 50

expanded her sphere to big mountain skiing and has since earned a reputation as a humanpowered phenom and a place on the professional roster of The North Face, which is known for maintaining the most elite cadre of mountain athletes in the world. In this winter season’s disappointingly male-dominated slew of ski movies, Lusti was one of the few women disrupting the pattern, starring in both an A-list film from ski media veterans Teton Gravity Research, as well as a revolutionary new indie film called Dream Job that exploded onto the scene to rave reviews.

All this and she’s certain she’s barely tapped into her potential.

But last October, as she headed to Nepal to explore those longed-for Himalaya for the first time in pursuit of her rapidly expanding limits, she found herself considering the risk of full potential.

It’s a concept we all know well. Often, the risk involved with reaching our full potential is what holds us back from pursuing it.

We’re in an unhealthy relationship, but the risk of a broken heart or the terrifying specter of loneliness holds us back from finding a love that could make us happier. We have entrepreneurial ideas, but the financial risk is paralyzing. We want to create art, but the risk of vulnerability is too frightening.

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“Often, the risk involved with reaching our full potential is what holds us back from pursuing it.”

ust a month before, her friend and fellow professional athlete MarcAndre LeClerc and his climbing partner Ryan Johnson had disappeared on the descent after establishing a new route on Alaska’s Mendenhall Towers, presumed dead after their gear was found in a crevasse.

“He was so strong and dialed in the mountains,” she said of LeClerc. “Reaching the summit of that unclimbed peak that he’d wanted for so long—that was him reaching his full potential.

But something happened on that fine line he was dancing on that crumpled for him that day.”

She skied Wildcat cleanly, but it unleashed a new weight on her consideration of risks. Since then, she’s also been submerged in the loss doled out by mountains, helping close friends through the death of partners and losing good friends herself, many of whom were considered some of the best alpinists and skiers in the world. “You expose yourself to a lot of risk over time because you’re going to be driving that line more frequently,” she said quietly, as we posted up by the fire after her successful Wildcat run. “When you’re exposing yourself that much, that often, to that extreme of a line… no matter how good you are, it becomes a luck thing.”

PC: Colleen Gentemann

But few of us can see and understand our full potential the way Lusti can. And for her, the risk to reach it is mortal, and the path is a dangerously fine line.

Imagine still having the guts to go for it.

The concept of the risk of full potential began flitting through her thoughts in April 2018. She stood alone on top of the remote summit of Wildcat Peak in British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains, about to drop in for an impossibly steep and terrifyingly consequential first ski descent of its hanging face. Across the ridge, cameras focused in on her to film for the environmental ski film Children of the Columbia, increasing the pressure.

Lusti prefers not to leave things to luck. After retiring from ski racing and discovering her obsession with ski mountaineering, she became an Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) certified ski guide to equip herself with the knowledge of conditions, skills, and techniques necessary for getting into and managing big mountain alpine ski lines. She takes on guiding work every winter, in addition to evolving her own skiing, to keep those skills up. She’s deeply pragmatic about when and how to take on potentially dangerous objectives and she never hesitates to back down when conditions don’t line up.

All that work, training, and experience over the course of more than a decade laid the foundation for this Nepal trip with Nemjung Peak, a 23,000-foot conical beauty deep in the Himalaya, as the testing ground for her capabilities. Her small expedition team— mountain guide and alpinist Mike Arnold, professional big mountain skier Griffin Post, and Lusti—planned to spend over two weeks at altitude climbing, skiing, and drawing the heady lines of first descents on Nemjung and its two neighboring mountains.

On the eve of her departure for Kathmandu, as we soaked in the barely warm fall light on the patio of the Modern Café in her home town of Revelstoke, she told me she felt certainty in her path and an uplifting in her spirit, galvanized by the unknown ahead. Her biggest fear in such an immense environment, she said, was that a single misjudgment could have a catastrophic, devastating 51

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impact—whether making the mistake for herself and not returning or watching someone else die.

But misjudgments could happen at any moment in anyone’s life, she pointed out. “You have all the knowledge and all the intuition to make your own decisions,” she said. “You have to remember those will always be with you if you’re following your judgment—all the things you’ve worked so hard for lead you to the right decisions and to coming home safely.”

“You have to remember those will always be with you if you’re following your judgment—all the things you’ve worked so hard for lead you to the right decisions and to coming home safely.”

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n Nepal, after two days of driving roads with washed-out turns devolving into steep mountainside oblivion and three days of walking, Nemjung finally loomed into view. The scale and beauty of its snow-clad face rose so much greater, and more intimidating, than photos or imagination.

This was so many levels above even the storied Canadian Rockies of Lusti’s roots; it was the throne of the world.

At base camp, the skiers left their porters behind to attempt the face without support. The three carried a series of crushing loads of gear and food through boulder-strewn moraine, impassable to the unpracticed eye, to advanced camp, and repeated the process to high camp. Moving at altitude through complex terrain is slow, exhausting work, compounded by the volatile environment of wind and extreme cold. These mountains exploit weaknesses.

Lusti found herself slower than the men, a feeling she isn’t used to sitting with.

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She found herself working through her own ego as much as the unforgiving moraine, already determined that next time, she would be stronger.

The team spent three nights at high camp at 5,800 meters, crammed into tiny tents to survive the long frigid nights and wait for a weather window to climb to the summit at 7,100 meters.

On summit day, the fierce wind refused to die as predicted. Instead, it shifted from the north, blasting the team with -40℃ chill and incessant spindrift that clouded their view above. At 6,400 meters, dotted on the mammoth face with waterfalls of sugar snow sloughing down on top of her position fastened to the wall with an ice axe, skis swaying in a pyramid on her back, Lusti wasn’t afraid. She knows she still had some try in her. But the team made the call to turn back.

They down-climbed back to high camp, packed their gear, and skied, rappelled, and hiked back to base camp all in one push. Just like that, in a matter of hours, Lusti’s full potential retreated from her grasp.

“It’s a heavy decision. It’s always this fine line of pushing and being smart. Realizing it wasn’t going to happen for us… it’s a weird place to be, on that face trying to make sense of it all, the days and days we put into getting there, how hard I wanted to push, was it too risky, and listening to the group as a whole.

And then once you’re down, the regrets, should we have…” She trailed off. We’re back in the bustling coffee shop in Revelstoke, an ocean away from the throne of the world, but the Himalaya is reflected in her thousand-foot-stare out the window. She shakes herself and returns to this moment and her characteristic pragmatism.

“We all wanted to learn about the mountains on that expedition, and we did,” she said definitively. “It didn’t feel like a failure, it felt like one step forward.

I’m really inspired by that style of skiing. It challenges me so much, gives me purpose. It justified all the work I’ve been doing, and it’s really nice to feel that. I want to go back and try that face again. Why wouldn’t you, if you’ve unlocked some of the mysteries about it?”

For Lusti, this is a rhetorical question. Because once she’s seen the beckoning shape of her full potential, she’s willing to take the steps to meet it— calculated ones—on a fine line that seems to stretch forever into boundlessness.

“

I feel like there’s no man or woman in me, it’s just power.” ~ Perla Maalouli Lebanese Filmmaker and Protester 27 Years Old

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take a ride on

the wild side @kanoagreene Creator of Plus-Size Retreats | @plussizeretreats An interview with: kanoa greene |

Photos by: Carlos Palacios

for 124 West

Kanoa Greene is a fitness junkie, surfer, and soonto-be snowboarder who is turning her passion for adventure into Plus-Size Retreats for women who are wild at heart. We sat down with her to find out how she’s creating safe spaces for women of size.

Tell us about you—what is your calling?

My calling is absolutely to encourage women to believe that they can do anything, just as I found out about myself when starting my fitness journey. For me, I always felt like I was an adventurous person inside, but I was always the fat kid at school and in my family. I always held myself back because you think “Am I too heavy?” or “Am I going to fit in things?”

But I was very spontaneous and wild heart. At 315 pounds I discovered this strength in my body that allowed me to do the things that I wanted to do.

I want to encourage other women to find strength in their bodies and know that we can do anything.

This is what propels me and gives me the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and inspire girls and women that they can live their wildest dreams.

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What was the impetus behind starting Plus-Size Surf Retreats?

It was completely by mistake. What had happened is I had this incredible opportunity to model for the launch of an exclusive surfwear line from 124 West, a brand making more inclusive sizes before it became a thing. I hadn’t surfed, and I had shared my story of wanting to surf and building my fitness to be able to do it. They brought me on board to be a model and sent me to Costa Rica where I took surf lessons.

I shared that experience, and women of different shapes and sizes saw me surfing. I started getting a lot of questions about where they could surf too.

I looked online for inclusive retreats and couldn’t find anything. I texted a friend and asked her if she thought I could start my own, she said yes, and so the next day I did it! In June 2021, we will hold our first surf camp for all sizes. It’s open to all sizes but as a plus-size person and someone who doesn’t look like your average surfer, I know we need a space that will support women who have questions like “Am I going to be too heavy for the board?” or “Will the instructor be able to help me navigate my body?”

We have you covered—the board, the instructor, the clothing, everything.

Why do you think surfing has been so slow to evolve in the areas of equal pay and representation?

We all know that female surfers get paid less and are featured less in the media. Sometimes you get caught in the “it’s always been done that way” and that adversity to change can be an issue. They’ve been sold in this cycle of the men’s club, and while the shift has been slow, the conversations are happening and change is starting to snowball.

What sort of sustained action is needed in order to change the landscape of surfing?

It’s exactly what you’re doing and what we’re doing—having the conversations and exposing it to the larger world. I took the leap of faith after not having seen another body out there that looked like me. It’s us constantly talking about it and sharing the stories and being honest and open about it. Then we can encourage and inspire others to do what they’ve been thinking about doing but have never seen someone like themselves do it. They get a little bit of permission. Being a fat girl isn’t always sunshine and unicorns. If we’re brave enough to be vulnerable, to talk about it, and to share it, there is an unlimited amount of opportunity to change the industry.

“I took the leap of faith after not having seen another body out there that looked like me.”

What has surprised you the most since sharing your story on Instagram and starting Plus-Size Retreats?

What’s been surprising is the overwhelming amount of support from the surf community as a whole. For so many years there wasn’t any representation and they weren’t making clothes for me and you don’t know what to expect when you take that first leap into the unknown. I can honestly say there has not been one negative thing spoken, only absolutely support with people standing behind me and taking the responsibility to help push the needle. They are taking the steps with me to make change happen. Two many women have been wanting to do this for so long and they weren’t allowed to, and now they see people who have their back. It’s been the most amazing thing about this journey.

What does the future hold for you and how can people support you in making your vision a reality?

Never in a billion years did I imagine that I would be at a place where I’m launching a surf retreat.

That seems out of body. But that’s allowed me to dream even bigger. I have an idea of expanding that into other outdoor adventures—maybe snowboarding or skiing or scuba diving—so that all of these other opportunities for women to adventure in a safe space exist. People can support me by learning more about my trips at @plussizeretreats and checking out my fitness app @kanoafitness that comes out this spring.

There aren’t a lot of fitness apps for women of size that show you that you can be strong and athletic in a body that doesn’t have a six-pack.

I’m changing that.

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A n e xc e r p t f r o m

Antarctica Becomes Her A newly published book by Melissa Haeffner, Ph.D. that tells the story of 76 women who traveLlED to Antarctica in the name of global change

In 2016, a women-only expedition traveled to Antarctica. Seventy-six women, most research scientists, embarked on this journey. We were selected by a leadership development program called Homeward Bound, whose mission is to ‘heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape our planet.’ The intent was a year-long leadership development program and a three-week expedition in order to build a global network of women leaders. We visited two operating research stations (Carlini, Argentina and Palmer Station, United States) as well as the abandoned Argentine/Spanish research base built on a Norwegian whaling station on Deception Island and the Port Lockroy (United Kingdom) post office. We saw penguins and icebergs, seals and seafarers. But more importantly, we saw women who are making a tremendous impact on science. This is the story about how we became a part of Antarctica and how Antarctica became a part of us.

Most glaciological research has a history of excluding women. Take, for example, this early 1900s letter from three women to Ernest Shackleton who asked to join his expedition: “We are three strong healthy girls, and also gay and bright, and willing to undergo any hardships, that you yourself undergo.

If our feminine garb is inconvenient, we should just love to don masculine attire. We have been reading all books and articles that have been written on

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dangerous expeditions by brave men to the Polar regions, and we do not see why men should have the glory, and women none, especially when there are women just as brave and capable as there are men.” Alas, Shackelton did not take the female applicants. Nor did the British Antarctic Expedition when 1,300 women applied to join in 1937.

However, women have been valuable in Antarctic discoveries. Indeed, women’s bodies have been instrumental. Literally, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to have the first “native Antarctican” in an attempt to make a claim for Argentine ownership.

Fast forward to 2016 when nearly a third of South Pole researchers were women. Despite the great strides in including women scientists in polar sciences in general, both poles must wrestle with their historical images as the White Ladies of the Pole, Waiting to be Won (Punch, 1875 quoted in Blackadder, 2015). Specific work on Antarctica and feminist glaciology have shown that data collection is highly gendered, where credit is awarded to those who show qualities associated with men in contemporary Western cultures, like, risk, conquest, strength, self-sufficiency, and exploration. In this book, I forefront women, agreeing with Shackleton’s applicants that there are women just as brave and capable as there are men.

When people ask about my travels, I inevitably tell them about the women I meet. In this book, you

will find some of the most impressive women I met during my travels in Antarctica. To be sure, you will see penguins and icebergs too. But I want to showcase women because women weren’t always welcome in Antarctica. I guess I’m fascinated by women’s life stories because I only get one life, but I get a window into other paths I could have taken through theirs. In producing this book, I hope to inspire young girls to do the same—to “try on” the life of a scientist in Antarctica. Could you see yourself as a scientist in Antarctica? This is not my first book. I went to Ghana when I was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My engineering professor designed a personal water filtration system to sell in Ghana. But to my professor’s credit, she noticed what others might not have—that young ladies were already selling filtered water on the street. She wondered if her product would interfere with these women’s livelihoods. So she asked me to go to Ghana with her to find out what I could about these young ladies’ lives. I ended up talking to 100 water sellers. Some showed me their houses and introduced me to their families.

They were amazing. They were selling water on the streets to pay for high school. Their parents were proud. They were often the only ones in their families who could read and write and speak English. They told me they sold water because they didn’t want to sit around watching television. They wanted to be soccer players and doctors when they grew up. Yes, they lived in some of the most impoverished and economically exploited places, but they had hope. They let me take their portraits. I wanted to show people so they could be inspired like I was.

So, when I got to Antarctica, and I saw the bursting pride and life of the women participants, I took out my camera once again. Pictures are powerful because I don’t want to tell their stories. I don’t need to tell their stories. Because I took the photos, they are, of course, my gaze of how I see them.

After all, we had been on a ship for several weeks.

Without all the stuff, the make-up and hairspray, covered in the same jacket day-to-day so it didn’t matter what you wore (because you were likely wearing your entire wardrobe to keep warm!), you only see the raw beauty. The ambitiousness shows through. That’s why I wanted to include a picture of each scientist—so the reader could see what I

see. We need to see women as a part of Antarctica. We each experienced the place differently, I think, based on who we left behind. There was one phone that cost $10 per minute. So, some people would call family and kids. There was a computer, but we had to pay $10 per half-hour for the Internet. Unfortunately, the connection was so slow, we couldn’t send pictures, audio, or video.

We did not have the communication we were used to. Even so, each of us was constantly doing things for people back home. Several women brought stuffed animals or flags and took pictures with them for their folks back home. It was like we were traveling for more than just ourselves. So, I also wanted to create this book to share the journey with others, because that is ultimately what we were all trying to do.

Life is about the journey as much as it is about the destination.

Melissa Haeffner, Ph.D., is the author of the book Antarctica Becomes Her, which is available on-line at Powells.com. She an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science and Management department at Portland State University. Portland State is located on the traditional homelands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya, and many other Indigenous nations of the Columbia River. She acknowledges the ancestors of this place and understand that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. Her research unifies several research domains that contribute to the knowledge of local politics in watersheds and how they shape urban water infrastructure development in the past, in the present, and under future predictions. Her ongoing research and teaching commitments investigate water insecurity and justice within municipal water systems and the links between multi-scale policies, infrastructural and environmental conditions, and household behavior. Her work focuses on “just water” and how social, political, and biophysical factors structure access to water, using the concept of environmental justice to draw attention to issues of fairness and equality in the ways different social groups gain access to natural resources.

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...I had to talk myself into following my instincts and persisting. I had to believe in myself that I am a Woman in STEMM with a voice and I have the potential to make an impact in shaping our planet.

I had to channel my inner warrior self to go into an unknown space, effectively the equivalent of seeking an experience or opportunity of a lifetime.

choose courage over comfort 58

Photos courtesy of Tiffini Eugene

polar plunge

Tiffini Eugene

“Really?” was a response I received from so many when I shared news about my upcoming expedition to Antarctica. The responses came from a variety of sentiments: excitement, shock, surprise, disbelief, and concern to name a few. After all, who does that? Who goes to Antarctica?

Frankly, I too felt a gamut of emotions about my planned expedition. Aside from the fact that the Homeward Bound Project is a groundbreaking global leadership initiative for Women in STEMM to impact the sustainability of our global society, I had my reservations. From my initial introduction to the program to the culminating Polar Plunge experience, I had to refrain from limiting myself. Instead of talking myself out of pursuing this extraordinary opportunity, which I was sincerely interested in, I had to talk myself into following my instincts and persisting. I had to believe in myself that I am a Woman in STEMM with a voice and I have the potential to make an impact in shaping our planet.

Instead of giving in to my fears, I took The Plunge.

Yes, literally a Polar Plunge into the sunken caldera of an active volcano with water temperatures just above freezing at 2°C. This was a major feat for a number of personal reasons. As a southerner, I am accustomed to only entering a pool of water in full sunlight when temperatures average over 100°C. This was a huge leap out of my comfort zone. I had to channel my inner warrior self to go into an unknown space, effectively the equivalent of seeking an experience or opportunity of a lifetime. Certainly, the historical precedence and mission of being a participant of the then-largest all-female expedition to Antarctica were not lost on me. The year-long leadership development aimed at broadening participation, increasing retention, and creating opportunities for contribution to the STEMM fields was paramount. All of these attributes contributed to my personal, academic, and professional goals. Yet, with a lingering dichotomy of persisting and resisting, goals were accomplished.

One of the lessons I learned during this year-long adventure was to choose courage over comfort.

Whether doing a Polar Plunge, presenting in public, or trying something for the first time, you have to get out of your comfort zone. It is within this realm that growth, development, and change occurs. In the end, I realized the water was not very cold after all. I wasn’t truly uncomfortable in that space after all. Upon accomplishing the Polar Plunge, I have further resolved that I can do anything I set my mind to.

As a doctoral candidate in Sustainability Education, Tiffini Eugene has evolved as a Chemist to Sustainability Consultant and Educator. She is currently a Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability at Kennesaw State University. The intersection of ecology, women, and STEMM provides her personal, professional, and academic inspiration. As a STEMM advocate, Tiffini wishes to engage more women in STEMM toward our global sustainable future. She participated in Homeward Bound 2019, a year-long leadership development project which culminated in an expedition to Antarctica with 79 other female STEMM leaders (Melissa’s book featured on the previous pages is about the 2016 expedition), studying climate change in efforts to bring awareness to increasing diversity in the science and technology fields.

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Protecting O u r Oce an s

5 eco-friendly brands focused on ocean conservation and sustainability It’s probably no secret to you that plastic pollution, carbon emissions, and toxic chemicals threaten the health of our oceans every day. You’re also likely aware that a healthier ocean means a healthier global climate.

While we could pummel you with shocking and depressing stats (like the fact that eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year, which is the equivalent of emptying a garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute), we’d rather share a roundup of brands committed to reducing their waste, producing eco-friendly products, and giving their money, time, and energy to ocean conservation efforts.

ERICA ZAZO | @onecurioustrvlr

wanted to produce less wasteful and more sustainable apparel with her eco-conscious brand.

Amelia uses eco-friendly material for her active apparel line. Mana Threads clothing is made of biodegradable nylon that’s super soft, super durable, and breaks down within just five years of hitting the landfill. Mana Threads also partners with 1% for the Planet to give back a portion of company revenues to nonprofits supporting ocean conservation.

That way, you can make a conscious effort to buy from and support brands that prioritize protecting our oceans and global waterways. Or as some like to say, you can put your money where your mouth is.

MANDA MandaNaturals.com 14,000 tons of sunscreen, and the environment-harming chemicals inside (like oxybenzone and octinoxate), pollute the ocean annually. The environmental cost: warmer water, degraded marine ecosystem health, and ultimately, coral reef deaths.

Mana Threads ManaThreads.com Every piece of clothing, from production to shipping to the end of its usable life, impacts the environment.

Ten percent of the Earth’s carbon emissions come from clothes manufacturing and it can take anywhere from 20 to 200 years for a piece of non-biodegradable clothing to decompose in a landfill.

To combat this stat, Amelia Leme launched Mana Threads to make a few positive changes in the athletic apparel market. First, she wanted to weave her Brazilian roots into Mana Threads’ patterns, offering louder, more colorful prints that make a bold statement. Second, she wanted to design a legging that performed well beyond the gym that could withstand any outdoor adventure. Third, and arguably most important, she 60

MANDA, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional sunscreens, has found a way to make safer skin products for humans and the environment. MANDA removes harmful chemicals from their cremes and instead uses natural ingredients (like organic coconut and almond oil, cocoa butter, and beeswax) that still protect your skin.

MANDA sunscreen and cremes are also petroleum-free (aka give off fewer carbon emissions in production), fully organic, and food-grade quality. MANDA packages their sun creme and paw paw salve in tubes made from plant-based bioplastics produced from sugar cane, opts for eco-friendly containers made of bamboo for its sun paste, and ships all products in 100% recyclable packaging.

It’s important to note MANDA products don’t completely rub into your skin. Instead, the salves and sun

Sensi Graves Bikinis SensiGravesBikinis.com Professional kiteboarder Sensi Graves has made it her mission to build a better bikini, both for the environment and the people who wear them. When she launched Sensi Graves Bikinis, she was conflicted because she wasn’t sure if she wanted to put another swimsuit on the market. She went for it because she knew she could make a more eco-friendly bikini that also performed better than any other suit out there.

cremes sit on top of your skin to protect you from UV rays. That’s helpful because toxins and chemicals don’t seep into your body and there’s also no guessing whether you’re protected or not from the sun’s rays.

Frustrated with bikinis constantly falling off while training and competing, Sensi not only wanted to make a suit that could withstand her sport but one that also checked a number of environmentally-friendly boxes.

Her bikinis come in recycled packaging, use compostable poly bags and hygienic liners, and incorporate recycled fabrics to make the finished product. The brand is also a 1% for the Planet member and donates 1% of company sales to environmental causes that benefit ocean conservation. Sensi pays for carbon offsets equivalent to the amount of carbon emissions required to make each swimsuit.

Sensi Graves Bikinis is committed to women’s empowerment. Sensi firmly believes that the more people feel confident in their bodies and get in the water, the more in tune they’ll be with nature and the more dedicated they’ll be to protecting the places we play.

Sealand Gear SealandGear.com Sealand Gear focuses on upcycling materials to protect Mother Nature and uplift its community through innovative design and creativity. The brand turns discarded vinyl advertising billboards, truck toppers, and yacht sails into handcrafted bags, backpacks, and duffles, all handsewn by local community members. To date, Sealand Gear has intercepted roughly 80,000 pounds (40 tons) of material that would’ve otherwise landed in the landfill.

Sandwiched between the foothills of the mountains and the shoreline of the ocean, the Cape Town, South Africa-based company combines its love for ocean conservation with its focus on functional, high-quality, and beautifully-designed gear. Sealand’s co-founders also serve on the board of directors for The Beach Co-op, a research group that conducts rigorous quantitative and qualitative studies to better understand stats around beach and marine litter. Organizations and businesses across the world look to The Beach Co-op’s data to stay informed and motivated to push national campaigns forward, including beach cleanups and recycling projects.

United by Blue UnitedByBlue.com For every product United by Blue sells, they remove one pound of trash from the Earth’s oceans and waterways.

Over the last ten years, United by Blue has removed 2.2 million pounds of trash from the water—most commonly plastic straws, utensils, bottles, caps, and single-use packaging. Inspired by offsetting the amount of single-use plastics thrown into waterways, United

by Blue launched its EveryDay Reusables collection— drink, meal, and utensil kits that include stainless steel reusables wrapped in recycled ripstop bags.

United by Blue has organized more than 250 beach cleanups around the US. One of the most notable included a record-breaking cleanup at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia along Schuylkill River where 313 volunteers removed 9,529 pounds of trash in just one day.

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How Not To Travel To Hawai’i Like A Basic Bitch from the creator of “how not to travel like a basic bitch: where race and travel intersect”

Kiona | @hownottotravellikeabasicbitch

Hawai’i is the world’s favorite vacation playground with nearly 10 million tourists a year. And for good reason. Hawai’i is a tropical paradise where the locals are friendly, the skies are blue, the palm trees sway, and the water is sparkling. It is truly a paradise on earth, full of aloha spirit.

But a paradise to whom?

What many tourists don’t know about Hawai’i is that this paradise has historically the highest homeless rates in the United States. They also don’t realize the military has exploded enough atomic bombs to crack the water table and drain all the freshwater off of one of the islands, making it completely habitable. Finally, tourists don’t think about how this island has been illegally occupied for over 200 years without consent from individuals of the Indigenous monarchy, who were deposed by the United States on January 14, 1893. Let’s take a look at how tourism affects these issues and how tourists can help alleviate this.

History of Colonization Of Hawai’i Before Hawai’i was a state of the United States, it was its own kingdom with a long history of language, laws, customs, and royalty. Hawaiians had it going on and its monarchy was still operating well into the 19th century. However, upon European contact, the islands of Hawai’i suffered from huge drops in population due to disease brought by dirty ass Europeans and Americans who docked on the island and squatted on land that was not given, sold, or awarded to them. Not only did they squat, but they turned land into plantations, changing the ecosystem and economy of Hawai’i forever. As civilized people, the Hawaiian monarchy constantly made an effort to live peacefully all together. However, that ended when, as absolute barbarians and fuccbois, a group of White plantation owners decided to hold 62

the Queen of Hawai’i at gunpoint, surrounding her palace with guards and threatening to murder not only her but all of her people. And so White Supremacy and the patriarchy have been ruling Hawai’i ever since.

Current Colonization Of Hawai’i I wish we could stop there and let that be the end of the pain and suffering of the Hawaiian people. But nope. White people gotta White and colonization continues today.

Colonization in Hawai’i looks like displacement via vacation rentals. Seventy percent of vacation rentals are owned by people who do not live in Hawai’i.

That means almost anything that you stay in as a tourist is contributing to the displacement of Hawaiian People.

Or there are the White colonizers like Mark Zuckerburg who buy up oceanfront property and then attempt to kick Hawaiians off the beach that borders their home. Joke’s on them because the ocean is not private and all beaches are public lands. Hawaiians tore down the wall he was trying to build. (I’m not sure what kind of border he was even trying to establish.)

Then there are those colonizers who not only take up land space but actually pretend to be Hawaiian.

Yes, imagine hating a people so much that you kill them off and overthrow their monarchy, but then use their imagery, their gods, and their language to advertise your goods. Do you think those shops you’re buying from are owned by actual Hawaiians?

Nope. Cultural appropriation at its finest.

But what is most pressing right now is the colonization of Mauna Kea.

And now that they’re in wintertime, the world is forgetting that there are still people up there who have quit their jobs and are fighting every day to protect the water of Hawai’i.

Protect Mauna Kea Mauna Kea is the largest mountain in the world, measured from its base, and it boasts one of the darkest skies in the world. It is not only a sacred place for the Indigenous Peoples of Hawai’i but also a water source for freshwater that comes down the mountain and feeds into lakes and rivers.

Currently atop the mountain are 13 telescopes that leak hydraulic fluid. And right now there is an ongoing attempt to build a fourteenth, one larger and bigger than them all. And the Indigenous Peoples of Hawai’i are not having it.

Staging active resistance since the 1960s, the most recent occurrence happened in June 2019 where Hawaiians literally laid down their bodies to stop the construction of this Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). A call was made on top of the mountain and the people came by the thousands. Now with all of the access to social media, people are coming from all over the world to camp out in front of the road to the mountain. From celebrities to everyday people moved by the movement, they are coming to support Native Hawaiians who are saying NO, we are STILL fucking here, and no one needs to taint any more fucking water. Water is a life source, Mauna Kea is a sacred life source, and Hawaiians will protect the mountain at all costs.

Going up to the mountain myself in January 2020, you can still see the resistance. The protectors of Mauna Kea host workshops, teach classes and offer unity as they always have done. But these protectors are living in the harshest conditions. With high-speed winds, their tents are blowing away and it’s hard to stay warm in the winter. In the summer, being surrounded by black lava rock and so close to the sun, the heat cooks them. Yet, they are still standing there.

It not only takes time to stay up on the mountain but money as well. The protection camp feeds and houses all of its protectors, costing tens of thousands of dollars a month. And now that they’re in wintertime, the world is forgetting that there are still people up there who have quit their jobs and are fighting every day to protect the water of Hawai’i. It has been eight months since their Stand To Protect Mauna Kea began and

Native Hawaiians are still fucking here, continuing to make waves since the first act of colonization in the 1800s. You are witnessing 200 years of resistance.

What You Can Do To Help Mauna Kea Ironically, tourists can help the movement. The Facebook or Instagram page: Pu’u Huluhulu posts supplies, from medical to food, needed on the mountain.

Visitors also are encouraged to visit the movement.

The more people that know about it, the better for the movement. There are ceremonies three times a day at 8 am, 12 pm, and 5 pm for people to participate in.

The protectors are incredibly welcoming to people who are willing to educate themselves and help stand in the fight as allies. Even if it’s for a day. Tourists passing by Mauna Kea can also offer their hotel rooms to give protectors a night off and allow them to shower and buy them food. Tourists can also take down laundry to be washed and clear out the trash on the mountain. Small acts of service can help this community and movement greatly (especially if you’re a tourist, frolicking in their paradise, while they suffer for the water you’re drinking).

Not planning on going to Hawai’i, but maybe you’ve already been? I can’t count the number of people who have told me that Hawai’i gave them their honeymoon, a previous family vacation, or the time of their life. Pay up for your unwittingly colonizing behavior.

You owe them.

You can contribute directly to the main organizer Pua Case, who has been using her own money to run the camp and has brought the case into the courthouse and paid the legal fees. Anytime anyone gets arrested on the mountain, she’s the person that manages that.

She also needs money just to feed herself. Her Paypal is paypal.me/puacase.

And remember, if you do go up to the mountain, listen to Native Hawaiians. There’s a check-in desk at the camp with all of the rules. Follow them. And don’t visit like a basic bitch.

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poetry in motion Olivia VanDamme | @olivialomasi

Turquoise & Brown Poppies & Lupines Hawks & Pelicans Palm trees & Coconuts Burros & Nopales Turquoise & Brown Tracking dreams where desert landscapes meet ocean point breaks California to Mexico and back Visiting memories through the smell of copal A Frida embellished candle burning reminds me that her art has transcended time and place Just like the cold California Coastal Current upwells nutrients for thousands of miles And humpback whales majestic melodies travel great distances knowing no borders Complex tidal rhythms Barnacles mark high-tide zones Seaweed as a clue to sheltered coves Turquoise & Brown brown body brown skin brown woman BROWN like the otter, like the plumage of the pelican, like kelp that protects & provides like La Sirena in Loteria, like the soil mi bisabuelo worked with in the fields, like a refreshing licuado de plรกtano con chocolate Who I am does not solely exist in the familiar or comfortable Conditioned to believe surfing was out of reach for a brown woman like me Pushing against these beliefs I pursued what began as a dream All five of my fingers cooperate as they form a perfect cup Entering the water in unison and pulling it back - left hand Entering the water in unison and pulling it back - right hand Entering the water in unison and pulling it back - left hand With each stroke another layer of tension and doubt is released my beautiful hips rest easy on the center of the board my chest raised proud and shoulders back Where turquoise and brown patterns flow Seagulls give us clues to a falling tide Lichens help determine south facing rocky shores

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Olivia VanDamme is a Latina, mixed-race woman who is dedicated to helping others build reciprocity with the more than human world, especially with the ocean. As a surfer and rock climber she has advocated to help create more equity and representation in these sports and amplify narratives that are underrepresented in media.

Through her art, poetry, and music she illuminates her experiences at the intersections of her identities, passions, and connection to nature. Her most recent publication was a poem in Seawitches Magazine. She also collaborated with the Outside Voices podcast through creating the podcast theme song. Olivia graduated from CSU Chico with a BA in Geography and works for the California Academy of Sciences in Expanded Learning & Youth Programs, increasing STEAM learning for middle school youth nationwide.

Through environmental justice policy work and advocacy, she hopes to continue to make the California coast more accessible to ALL Californians.

Black / Orange / Grey A sacred space with Deep Powerful

Connections

I replicate and improve my practice in the sea I too can evolve to thrive on a sea salt shore, like the golden wildflowers growing galore. the ocean gives me space to connect to its ebb & flow to work on my style, my dance, my expression with my body & board on the surface learning to measure time with the sun, moon, tides and wind centering and humbling respect and persistence patience with my healing A new dream appears where I see women in the water celebrating each other Actively choosing to diversify the place we love Respecting the numerous ways to be part of a place Allowing our identities to be our strength and honoring our past connections to the ocean Forging a future of togetherness, belonging, community I will continue to pursue what began as a dream.

Where turquoise and brown patterns flow.

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heal thyself Tips for self-touch

SAMANTHA ROMANOWSKI | @smilingsamantha Want to know why self-care is a term that I no longer use? Because taking care of yourself isn’t about treating yourself to a pedicure or spa treatment where someone else does something to or for you. Self-care is actually healthcare. It’s about creating a habit that helps you feel better, which can mean feeling less pain, sleeping better, or managing your stress so you don’t wear yourself out. There are plenty of ways that you already take care of yourself: eating vegetables, drinking water, having fun, spending time with loved ones, or maybe you foam roll or journal.

As a bodyworker, I believe that touch is essential to our well-being and health. As a Chinese Medicine practitioner, I’ve learned that there are specific energetic points on the body that, when activated, can help us feel better.

Enter Acupressure! Acupressure is a form of massage that you can perform on yourself by applying pressure to certain parts of the body.

This pressure encourages the energy, or Qi, to flow harmoniously through our energetic channels, restoring the body to its natural balanced state. It’s super easy and you can do it as many times throughout the day as you’d like.

Here’s how it works: 1. Apply gentle pressure to the point for a few seconds, then increase to moderate pressure for about a minute. Then release.

2. Take slow, deep breaths as you activate the point and focus your intention on what you’re trying to alleviate.

Full disclosure: Some of these points might feel painful when you first press them, or you might get a zing, or you might not feel much sensation at all. These are all normal experiences!

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Here’s a list of points that you can do daily: LI4, aka Adjoining Valley: located on the back of the hand at the highest point of the muscle when the index and thumb are brought together. This point can be used for headaches, toothaches, hand pain, jaw pain, constipation, and hangovers. (Pregnant people should not use this point.)

CV17, aka Central Altar: located in the center of the chest in between the nipples, you’ll feel a slight depression. This point influences and builds the Qi of the body. It’s also used for relaxation and encouraging emotional healing and balance.

ST36, aka Foot Three Miles: located four finger widths down from the base of the kneecap just to the outside of the shinbone.

This point has many uses! Try it for gastrointestinal challenges like diarrhea, bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, or vomiting. It’s also helpful for knee and leg pain. The reason I love this point is that it boosts the immune system.

If you were only going to do one point daily, start with this one.

KI1, aka Bubbling Spring: located on the bottom of the foot, 1/3 of the distance between the base of your toes and heel, in between the second and third bones of your foot. This point builds and nourishes your energy and can be used to alleviate anxiety and worry. It reduces agitation and is grounding.

LIV3, aka Great Rushing: located on the top of the foot in between the first and second foot bones. This calming point is used for headaches, irritability, PMS, depression, anxiety, and anger.

It helps regulate menstruation and reduces swelling and pain in the eyes.

Samantha studied Amma Therapy at The Wellspring School for Healing Arts. She shares her practice of Chinese Medicine, Amma Therapy, and holistic nutritional consulting to those seeking alternative and complementary healthcare. You can learn more about her work at UnionHolisticHealthOc.com

let’s get to the point ...

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Illustration by:

Latasha dunston | @jitterbug_art

CV17

KI1

ST36

Disclaimer: Acupressure is not meant to replace any kind of medical care or treatment. It is meant to be complementary to the healthcare you already receive.

LIV3

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Make Your Own Zine with

Seawitches

A DIY project by:

Margaret Seelie | @seawitches.zine | @margaretseelie Have you ever wanted to make something in the world that doesn’t exist yet? Are you inspired by something already out there and want to make it different, better, or unique? Or maybe you just like to write, doodle, or sketch and it would be cool to see your work bound into a book?

If you said yes to any of these questions, then a zine might be the perfect project for you. One of the best things about zines is that they are totally free and open; there are no rules, investors, or people telling you what to do, which means they’re a great place to be honest and have fun.

We started Seawitches in 2017 because we were bored with what the mainstream surf media was offering and we wanted to hear stories from diverse perspectives. In the last three years, we’ve learned a lot and attempted things that did and did not work. But we keep trying, and in December 2019 our fourth issue came out and we really love it. With each issue, our process gets better and more concise. We believe the key to a great zine is to have fun!

pC: @_bethorourke

We want to share what we’ve learned in this do-it-yourself (DIY) guide to making your own zine.

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materials

PC: James Thom

for a 5.5 x 8.5-inch zine: 11 x 8.5-inch sheets of paper (letter size), stapler with staples. Optional materials: paints, markers, pens, a typewriter, magazines, scissors, glue, copy machine, bone folder, etc.

process Pick Your Passion The word “zine” is short for fanzine, which means your zine should be about something you’re passionate about.

We love water, so Seawitches is a zine for water people. Within the water theme, we publish fun artwork, talk about menstruation, mental health, environmental issues, and so much more.

When choosing your theme, it’s important to pick something specific but not too specific. So, what do you want your zine to be about?

Consider Your Content When you’re thinking about what you want to go inside your zine, the two main topics to consider are who and what medium.

The first question to consider is, whose creations or ideas do you want in your zine? Do you want to collaborate with other artists and writers, or would you rather go solo and create a zine of your own stuff?

Next, what do you want to put in your zine? More specifically, do you want your zine to be full of photos, drawings, sketches, stories, poems, etc.? Or a mix of different mediums?

At Seawitches, we take submissions from artists, activists, and writers from all over the world. We publish all kinds of content from articles and interviews to paintings and poems.

Make Covers ( optional) This step is listed as optional because you can add it to the design step if you wish to print the covers the same way you print the interior of the zine. The Seawitches cover design process is super fun but requires a lot of time and effort.

A quick overview of our cover making process: 1. Create a dye from plant matter. In this photo, you can see covers dyed with ink from avocado pits (pink), eucalyptus bark (grey), indigo (blue), and oxalis flowers (yellow). (We’ll be sharing our secret recipe for making avocado pit ink in another issue of Sisu Magazine, so stay tuned!)

2. Hand-dye sheets of recycled, non-synthetic paper 3. Letterpress print the cover art 4. Foil stamp Seawitches Your covers can be digitally printed, collage, handdrawn, or anything you like!

These covers are dyed with inks made from indigo plants, oxalis flowers, eucalyptus bark, and avocado pits. Each cover is designed by a different Artist in Residence.

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Design This is another fun step where you get to be super creative!

Some of our favorite zines are drawings, collages made from cut-up magazines, cartoons, or graphic novels. Some fun things to try are choosing a color palette for your zine, like three or four of your favorite colors. Or some funky layouts that flip words upside down or layer images. Let your creativity run wild.

Our process is a bit traditional. Leah Koransky, our layout designer, takes all of the content for the issue—articles, photos, artwork—and puts them into Adobe InDesign. Our zine is about 40-48 pages, so she puts as much content into those pages as she can. Then we send these digital files to our printer and have them professionally printed.

Historically, zines have been hand-made without a computer. Usually, one zine is drawn or made and then copied at a office supply store or on a printer at home. You can make two zines or 200!

Bind

The best DIY binding is a saddle stitch, which is basically a fancy way of saying stapling.

How to saddle stitch: 1) Stack your pages in order with the cover on the outside.

2) Fold them down the middle. If you have a bone folder, we recommend using that to score the pages before folding them.

3) Staple on the fold at least two times—three staples are recommended so the pages don’t slip or move.

4) Trim to remove the ragged edges with an Exacto knife and ruler (optional).

5) Press the zines under something heavy. Again if you have a bone folder, use it to flatten the fold more (optional).

If you have more than 40 pages, you could pay a printer to perfect bind your zine, which means the pages will be glued together. Then your cover will be wrapped around the glued pages to create a spine, like a book.

It looks great but can be expensive.

Party !

Get your friends together and have a reading, art show, or ritual to celebrate your zine!

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Photos courtesy of Seawitches

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Marketplace Burley Burley.com Helping create memories for over 40 years, Burley is a family-owned company committed to building the future generation of riders, adventurers, and explorers. Created with passion, and thoughtfully designed, Burley’s trailers make it possible for you to easily pack what you want for the life you imagine. Get ready for a Burly-inspired adventure in our summer issue. Follow them on Instagram at @burleydesign.

Karukinka Karukinka.com Karukinka isn’t your average outdoor brand.

Based in Chile, Karukinka is creating sophisticated, elegant, and functional urban outerwear.

Inspired by, and incorporating the ethos of the slow fashion movement, every piece of Karukinka apparel is made for the outdoors and that night out on the town. They proudly design and handcraft their goods in Tierra del Fuego, working side-by-side with local wool suppliers and a spinning mill, as well as a co-op of women knitters who are reviving a lost craft. Check out a sampling of their apparel in the story “The Pull of Patagonia” and get to know them more on Instagram at @karukinkaoutdoor.

She Fly SheFlyApparel.com Have you ever had to bare your ass in order to “answer nature’s call” and pee outside? Not anymore! SheFly Apparel’s patent-pending zipper fly design lets all people pee without pulling their pants down, no matter what kind of plumbing you have between your legs. SheFly pants are made using sustainable fabrics that are water-resistant and designed for tough adventures, and the pants are available in sizes 00-20. With five pockets that are actually big enough to hold the shit you need, you’ll be ready to Pee The Change with SheFly. Follow them on Instagram at @sheflyapparel.

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Clay Tits ClayTits.com Clay Tits is run by queer feminist illustrator and ceramicist Michaela MacPherson in Brooklyn, New York. These functional pieces of art aim to empower all kinds of breasts on all types of bodies.

Everything is about boobs, and everything is handmade to order. Follow them on Instagram at @claytits.

Em & El Organics EmAndElOrganics.com Inspired by a love of sailing and wooden boatbuilding, Em & El Organics is a line of organic skin care products designed to heal and protect your skin, no matter where your adventures take you. Their products are tough enough for sailors, and made for the everyday. Handcrafted in New York City of the finest organic ingredients, they integrate into busy, active lives with ease, make your skin look and feel great, and are environmentally and travel friendly. They’re designed for outdoorsy women who’d rather find an adventure than stand in front of a mirror, but still want to look fabulous. Follow them on Instagram at @emandelorganics.

handful Handful.com

Handful is about more than bras, more than the “girls” inside the bra. They’re about Us, the bigger, plural, life-is-better-together Us. About women.

Unique and wonderful as individuals. Unstoppable together. Learn more about their women-owned small business and their line of chafe-free, quick dry bras at their website and follow them on Instagram at @handful.

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eat, drink, + be merry

Paleo

Nachos VANESSA BARAJAS | @vanessabarajas Do you want to know what my favorite joke of all time is? Of course you do.

Q: “What do you call cheese that’s not yours?” A: Nacho Cheese. Best. Joke. Ever.

I made a Paleo version for you because I make you a Paleo version of everything.

Q: What do you call cheese that’s not yours? A: Paleo. Get it? Get it? Cause you can’t have cheese on a strict Paleo diet, get it?! Good thing I’m not too strict because I did allow two less-than-strict paleo food items into this recipe and one of them is a cheese. They are both completely omittable and definitely won’t change the recipe much. If the Paleo Police come to arrest me so be it.

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients nachos 1 pound of ground grass-fed beef

1 jalapéno, chopped

½ teaspoon of cumin

1 tomato diced

½ teaspoon of chili powder

¼ of a white onion, diced

½ teaspoon of paprika

1 tablespoon of crème fraîche (optional)

½ teaspoon of garlic powder

1 tablespoon of fresh salsa

½ teaspoon of onion powder dash of sea salt dash of pepper 4 cups of plantain chips

black olives (optional) cilantro for garnish sliced jalapéno for garnish guacamole (recipe next page) nacho cheese sauce (recipe next page)

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guacamole

GUACAMOLE

6 ripe avocados

1. Cut your produce. Then cut the avocados in half and remove the pits and skin.

1 small tomato, diced

½ bunch of cilantro, chopped

¼ of a red onion, diced 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic salt

Nacho Cheese Sauce 1 cup of cashews (soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours) 6 tablespoons of coconut water (I use Zico for cooking; I find it’s not as sweet) 1/4 cup goat cheese (optional) 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1 jalapéno, chopped 1 teaspoon of chili powder

½ teaspoon of paprika a few shakes of garlic salt a few shakes of sea salt a few shakes of onion powder

Directions nachos

1. In a large pan, cook the grass-fed beef over medium-high heat. While the meat is cooking add the 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Continue to stir and crumble with a spatula until the meat is cooked through, taste test and add more spices as needed to personal preference.

2. In a large pan, cook the grass-fed beef over medium-high heat. While the meat is cooking add the 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Continue to stir and crumble with a spatula until the meat is cooked through, taste test and add more spices as needed to personal preference.

2. In a large bowl combine the avocados, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and garlic salt. Use a large metal utensil of your choice (I use a stainless steel pasta stirrer) to mash and stir the avocado and ingredients together until well combined.

3. Depending on how much you use on your nachos, you will have quite a bit of guacamole left over. When has left over guacamole ever been a bad thing?

nacho cheese sauce 1. In a high powered blender combine all the ingredients and blend until creamy. You can also use a food processor for this but I find a blender works best. I did blend for about seven minutes to get the creamy consistency I wanted. If it’s too thick, try adding another tablespoon of coconut water. If you aren’t using goat cheese, you could try a coconut milk sub to make the cheese sauce creamy. I would start with 2 tablespoons and taste test from there.

Maybe even try some adobo sauce or serrano chilies; feel free to make it your own!

2. When you are ready to use, heat the nacho sauce in the microwave or on the stove in a sauce pan over low heat until warm.

Notes

As I mentioned above, to make these nachos true Paleo and for those with dairy limitations please omit the goat cheese and crème fraîche if so desired. According to Wikipedia, Crème fraîche is a sourced cream containing 30-45% butterfat. It is also sourced with bacterial culture and is slightly less sour than American sour cream. It’s available in most health food stores and is a great sub for sour cream because most American sour cream has a handful of not so great ingredients like Modified Food Starch, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Caarrageenan, Dextrose, Potassium Sorbate, and Sodium Citrate. The only ingredient in crème fraîche is, you guessed it, cream. It goes really good with desserts and strawberries. Just saying. #sorryimnotsorry 75

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thaT's what he said

Honest Job Descriptions for C-Suite Bros ANDREW PRIDGEN | @andrewjpridgen

VP Marketing RakerLily

Qualifications & Experience:

RakerLily is making subletting your apartment by the • hour to people looking to not pay hotel prices and making weekday trysts and discrete don’t-ask-don’ttell encounters as easy as one, two, #do-me! #yesbro To do it we’ve assembled an amazing team and a group of top-tier investors. We’re searching for short (under 5’9” without your lifts), white, Birch Box/Dollar Shave Club/Warby Parker-subscribing, political animals in their late -30s/early -40s who appear to be excited about the work but really want to wall themselves off with the help of an extraordinary team of sycophants and sociopaths that they will build and curate!

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Ideally, we need someone who is really good at the growth-stage of a company, meaning, we need to get a SHIT TON of money from foreign investors before they catch on to what we’re about (nothing!). This product isn’t going to work and even if it does, it’s a lawsuit city, so it’s probably better financially if it doesn’t.

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Pretend you have experience in product marketing, brand marketing, content marketing, communications, PR strategy, which basically means you can find freelancers online that you won’t have to pay shit to. Also, that network of freelancers (see: Upwork and Fiverr) should be used to threaten salaried workers: “Look at what this person from Belarus did for this campaign, and it took them 18 minutes and cost us 13 rubles.”

Responsibilities: •

Be physically present but absent in all other manners of being.

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Stare at your phone at every meeting, but do it in a way where it looks like you’re actually building a case of intel against someone via their social media.

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Create a fear-based culture, interrupting work frequently with impromptu closed-door meetings with subordinates, especially while they’re on deadline. (Hint: You MUST be able to deliver the lines, “Can I see you for a minute?” and “Close the door” convincingly and often.)

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Stalk female subordinates on dating sites using Tinder and Bumble burner accounts.

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Let women, and POC especially, know you’re stalking them by telling them something back about what they’ve recently posted during 1:1s.

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Make everyone so scared of you they set their accounts to private.

Minimum 10+ years experience running a multichannel consumer marketing organization as a VP of Marketing or CMO. Note: If you’re lying about this experience on your resume or LinkedIn (you are) please do enough research to make sure the schools you said you went to and companies you said you worked for aren’t ones any of the existing executive team or recruiting department went to. Actually, scratch that, it doesn’t matter, we never check anyway.

Perks: We’re going to give you ridiculous budgets, and we don’t really care what you do with them as long as you can show up in your best jeans/blazer combo and doublespeak your way through a PowerPoint while being mildly tweaked from the night before at the client conference. All we ask is you keep a datingshow-ready neck shave and limit your conversations about your Allbirds and Tesla on order to 13 hours/ week. After you’re done presenting, make sure your last slide says, “Now who’s ready to go blow it out at Nobu!”

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#lifegoals Brand Marketing GURU at ALBAtroz.io

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Be a dick the ENTIRE week, then invite everyone to 3 p.m. beers on Friday. Don’t make it mandatory but say something like, “I think it would really be good of you to show a little face at happy hour today.”

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Make sure ALL off sites are microbreweries. We need someone who can sit outside under a heat lamp with their Maui Jims on telling everyone about the beer they’re drinking as if they’re reading it right from the chalkboard menu.

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Have a different Patagonia fleece for each one of your #workmoods.

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Enjoy planning vacations to places where white people tread often (Belize, Bali, Cancun, Nepal, Thailand, Cairo) and talk about it every chance you get in the lead up spitting everything you’ve been googling like you’ve already been there.

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When another company, preferably a competitor, comes out with an ad spewing this and that about corporate feminism, or diversity, or inclusion— something that really amounts to tokenism and virtue signaling—shove it in front of your team’s faces by drawing a target on the whiteboard and then saying something like, “THIS is where we need to go.” (And draw big pen circles around it for emphasis.) Then draw a dramatic line to the opposite side of the board and say, “THIS is where we are now.”

Then go sit down and say nothing the rest of the meeting.

Who is Albatroz?

At Albatroz, we believe in using business as a force for good and we believe every material is reusable to the point of exhaustion. We’re a global apparel brand with roots in Australia and our headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Since 2018, we’ve been on a mission to prove that sustainability doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice comfort, style, or design.

Our commitment to creating better neckerchiefs in a better way is fueled by a belief that the garment industry needs to focus less on frivolity and more on thoughtfulness.

As a certified B Corp, we’re dedicated to making the most sustainable products we can using materials found discarded in public spaces by the people you step over and ignore while wearing our products (7-11 cups, syringes, old space blankets).

Where do we need help?

We have all the trimmings of a juggernaut brand—but now we need a GURU to head our Global Marketing Department to bring the message to the masses. We need a creative marketer, a master gaslighter, and a bold, customer-centric Svengali to convince everyone in the place he always knows what he’s talking about, even if (especially if) it means yelling over subordinates.

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Responsibilities: •

•

•

•

What are we looking for?

Lead the strategy and oversee the execution of breakthrough integrated marketing programs that build brand awareness, by simply telling your subordinates over and over and over in as many ways as you can think of that “this shit just isn’t good • enough, it’s not on-brand.” But then keep moving where exactly the brand goalposts are. all

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Borrow (or steal) or make up metrics to report to directors and above. This is easy because they’re just thinking about lunch anyway.

Discard team members’ ideas to the point of making them consistently miss a deadline. You don’t want to put them on any kind of performance review because that’s a pain in the ass, but make them feel uneasy and like they’re about a week from being marched out (because they are).

Come in on Mondays spitting platitudes like, “Hey guys, let’s not let great stand in the way of getting good done.”

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12+ years of brand management experience in the outdoor, fashion, lifestyle, or culture space or maybe seven months as an assistant manager at a Chili’s. It really doesn’t matter. Any asshole can do this job. Preferably you have a goatee or are still rocking a flavor saver as a power move.

The ability to come across to the CEO as highly strategic, creatively minded, and results-oriented, which means watch some shitty TEDx talks and spit some new age garbage like, “The universe provides, all you have to do is TELL IT what you want.”

Have a nice backswing and a confident credit card signature. golf!!!

Show exceptional leadership and collaboration skills, and the ability to use things like 360 reviews to really fucking nail people who dress funny or microwave fish in the kitchen.

Show the ability to extract insights from multiple data sources, which means you better have someone on deck in India to spit out some numbers the night before the all-hands. Oh, bar graphs preferred.

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