Most of my favourite childhood moments took place outdoors—paddling cedar and canvas canoes, shredding my ski mitts on the Mount Seymour rope tow, standing on the dunes to watch the winter waves at Wickaninnish Beach.
After finishing high school and enrolling at the University of Victoria, I fell in love with surfing and surf culture. Before long, I’d abandoned aspirations of grad school and moved to Tofino, one of the few places in Canada that had rideable waves every day of the year. I guided sea kayak trips, parked cars at a pricey hotel, wrote stories for action sports and travel publications, and surfed as much as I possibly could. In 2006, I was hired as the founding editor of SBC Surf, Canada’s newsstand surf magazine, which I led until 2013.
I’d also started writing stories and marketing content for Patagonia, and moved to California in 2015 for a managing editor role at one of the outdoor industry’s most influential companies. As a member of Patagonia’s creative team, I worked on a wide range of sport, environmental and brand campaigns, and reported on big wave surfing in Hawai’i, factory work in Sri Lanka, rubber farming in Guatemala, river restoration in the Pacific Northwest and more. I was the lead editor for the launch of Patagonia Workwear, and also worked closely with partner organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council, the Surfrider Foundation and Fair Trade USA.
Since returning to Canada, I’ve continued to write about outdoor, environmental and cultural issues for a number of publications, and worked on global messaging for Rivian and Enphase in the EV and renewable energy sectors. Now, as a freelancer based in northern British Columbia, I’m mostly focused on the power of connection between people and nature—and how we can keep our shared planet healthy and resilient for generations to come.