WHAT MAKES A MEMORY?
By Devon DeMint
I took these photos on a trip that involved two kids as they puked what appeared to be decomposed avocados into my hair, being awakened twice by spiders crawling on me in bed, showering willy nilly with a scorpion and slamming my neck on a concrete skate ramp.
This isn’t to say I’m not grateful for the experience, sometimes the beauty of certain moments just isn’t immediately obvious. It may take years for me to look back fondly on the fact that Isla almost fell down the airport escalator or that we called the hospital in San Jose because we were worried the barfing had gone on for too long.
One thing I know to be true: you have to earn memories. And sometimes that requires struggle (even spiders and puke).
After some mezcal one night, Scott said “We get so afraid to break patterns and see what’s possible. We start tweaking out and going down this rabbit hole of reasons ‘why not’ to do something”. Being an expert tweaker-outer, I had already catalogued my reasons for not doing a trip like this again until everyone understands not to open their mouths in the shower, but I knew what he meant.
This trip made me ask “Who are we without the comforts of home?” and I guess that’s a good question to answer (even if the answer is that I’m a little more delirious and wild-eyed). I’m closer to being the person 80 year old me will want to remember. Someone who believed in adventure enough to pack a bunch of toddlers onto an airplane and drive out into the desert for a swell.
The desert is a museum of sensory pleasures for children. The bottom of the ocean, resurfaced. Its many critters something your air-conditioned home could never sustain.
Baja, with its unpaved roads and rugged beauty reminded me of the freedom we all have just to be.
My point is, traveling with small kids is not a hopeless case. Someday these maniac babies will become travelers, with all the memories they made with their family as a catalyst for their own adventures.
Also in Bing Surfboards Blog
PURE STOKE
An Interview with Christian Marcher of Progressive Surf Academy
You’d be hard pressed to find someone more stoked on surfing than our friend and local ripper Christian Marcher. Big boards, small boards, soft tops, surf mats, hand planes, you name it and this guy rides them all at a very elite level. The best part about Christian is that he is always the nicest guy in the water and he pushes the boundaries of what you think is possible on a surfboard every time he paddles out.
With over 30 years of surfing experience, Christian has built Progressive Surf Academy into one of the most well-respected surf schools anywhere on the West Coast. He and his team use a very unique approach that dives deep into ocean safety, technique, and ethics in the lineup that you don’t see anywhere else. Christian delivers a premium surf experience for all ages and has been a part of the Bing family for a few years, so we sat down to chat and learn a bit more about the man and his love for the ocean.
THE PHYSICS OF NOSRIDING
AN INTERVIEW WITH PHOTOGRAPHER, VIDEOGRAPHER AND LIFE ENTHUSIAST, TOM TERRELL
- I started out shooting film photography in high school, and carried around a variety of 35mm cameras for a lot of years while touring as a musician. I despised digital cameras when they arrived, but eventually I met a fellow in Scotland who sold me a water housing and a Canon 60d and I discovered how much fun, and fruitful, swimming and shooting with a digital camera could be. About 2016 I started playing around with short surf films and realized really quick that I loved the medium. At the time I was a musician by trade so being able to combine rhythm, color, imagery and composition was a dream.