Inspired by numerous various surf movie masterpieces such as Cyruss Suttons “Stoked and broke” and Dan Malloys “Slow is Fast” “The Californians” and other surf classics like “One California Day”,  “The Present” and “the Drifter“… along with some other random epic flicks like “Slomo“, “We were never born” and “What if money was no object“…. In evolving my plans to surf and explore the west coast of America I decided to evolve my travel plans to do things a little differently.

Some additional inspiration came from reading books such as Michael Kew’s “Crossings” and Les Robinson “Changeology” I soon decided that for my trip the best way to get to where I wanted was possibly a bicycle.

 

The process of doing this trip under pedal power will force me to really strip back to basics and reflect on what I take, and what I really need…  I also hope it might help generate some inspiring interactions and conversations around the general theme of how can we aspire to live more simple and sustainable lives in the modern western world. (explained on a little further in my ramblings below).

I’m not sure exactly who I might meet along the way or even where I might end up having left my planning very much up in the air but some where between here and where ever get to…I will hopefully be able to seek out some interesting and inspiring stories to share in exploring different ways that people are living their lives in this part of the world.

I intend to try and peddle some of this on here as I go and perhaps use this as both a diary of the trip and also as a cornerstone to continue to share and evolve these ideas into the future.

As those of you who know me well I LOVE few things more than to talk and engage with people and put these taboo topics on the table. To challenge my own understandings of these things and try to work out how to spend my days passing through this place while I am fortunate enough to have the freedom to do so.

Some words that set the tone for my trip from Edward Abbey.

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards”

I look forward to sharing some stories on here as I head south.

Ben.

Painting by Alessandro Sanna