AFTER HOURS

WHEN THE WORKDAY IS OVER

Inspired by Tradition

Surfing and bagpipes are not customarily mentioned in the same sentence. But Ryan MacDonald, who lives in the Edna Valley just outside the city limits of San Luis Obispo, rolls those two words from his tongue just as smoothly as he dons his custom-made kilt.

When MacDonald was growing up in the tiny 4,000-person mountain town of Sonora, which is near Yosemite, he took his

Scottish heritage as seriously as he did the high jumping event for his high school track team. When his grandfather passed away during his junior year, he was overcome by the idea of learning to play the bagpipes. “I set a goal for myself,” recalls

MacDonald. “I would return to my grandfather’s gravesite one year later to play a tribute to him.”

The bagpipes are a notoriously difficult instrument to learn, and up to that point the high schooler had no musical background of any sort. In addition to their technical challenges, the bagpipes require a tremendous level of physical strength, which makes the instrument’s learning curve that much more daunting. But MacDonald was committed—spending his free time learning the unorthodox instrument as well as studying everything he could about his family’s history.

At the one-year mark, his sister gifted him with a custommade Scottish “clan kilt” with their particular branch of the

MacDonald family’s tartan (or pattern) woven into the wool.

He played his heart out at his grandfather’s gravesite and then came down out of the Sierras to attend Cuesta College where he would continue his high-jumping exploits.

One day his friends asked him if he would like to join them surfing, and the young bagpiper was hooked immediately. “I don’t know what happened exactly,” he shares through his flowing facial hair, “but I said to myself right then and there,

‘I want to work at a surf shop at all costs.’” After seven years at

Pancho’s Surf Shop in Pismo Beach, the twenty-seven-year-old

MacDonald is now the manager. He regularly shows up early to hit the surf next to the pier and has been known to wander around the boardwalk jamming on his bagpipes where he reveals, “people are usually tripping out” at the music.

As part of the musical group known as Central Coast Pipes & Drums, MacDonald and his bagpipes are in high demand.

“People come up to me after I play and often become very emotional and tear up as they share their connection to the bagpipes. They’ll say, ‘Wow, that reminded me of my grandfather or my mom.’” Pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts he then adds, “For me, it’s about carrying on that tradition.” SLO LIFE [ GETTING IN TUNE MacDonald warms up for a nearby gig after his shift ends at the surf shop. ]