Here’s To Finishing In Style | Bariloche

Every year so far, I have noticed that I’m finishing the best year so far, in the last couple of days in December. While that might seem annoyingly overused, I’m pretty sure many of you can relate. This year, was by far most adventurous, crazy one. Once again. Kind of scared to think about what the next ones will bring. It’s like surfing. As surfers, we are always in the Search of the perfect wave, but the problem is that the perfect wave doesn’t exist. Impossible to rate something in constant movement to be perfect. Which sometimes leaves us feeling disappointed.

But this year has nothing to do with surfing. Even though it has everything to do with it, at the same time! I surfed more spots in 2018 than I ever did before… Starting at the end of January, when I was making my way back home and the convenience of a cheap flight combination, with long layovers, turned out in my favor. I think I paid less than 500 CAD for that flight, from Chile to Vancouver. Of course, I was on the road for 4 days.

I left Bariloche on January 22nd, on a very (surprisingly) windy morning.

It had been a great 2 months-long vacation in Argentina, with spending holiday time with my family, my uncle got married and making our trip to Rio Turbio. But it was time to return back to BC. So, I took a bus to Santiago, and since I was doing everything on the cheapest budget possible, that route split into two buses, making a stop in Puerto Montt in between. The next day I arrived in Santiago, and to be honest I don’t even remember how I got from the bus terminal to the airport. It had been a long, tiring route. I checked into my flight in the small airport of Santiago and left Chile listening to a podcast about some female entrepreneurs. My first stop was Lima, Peru. I had a 12-hour layover and naturally, I left all my shit at the airport and took the Lima Express to Miraflores. I surfed a really fun break under the cliff on which the city was built, with a beat-up rental board. After my quite successful session, I sat on the beach in my wetsuit, with some locals, eating ceviche and tasting a special drink from Peru, which I forgot the name of. As we slowly watched the sun go down, I remember I actually have a plane to catch, so I hoped on the bus and rushed to the airport. The next stop wasn’t that interesting. A couple hours of sleeping on the airport floor in Mexico City wasn’t very comfortable, but I was tired. The 6 am flight to San Francisco was better! Having my morning coffee with a view of Golden Gate Bridge? YES, please!

Surfing in San Francisco wasn’t planned either. All I wanted was to visit the famous red bridge, which I’ve seen in so many intros of the classic movies from the ’80s or ’90s. Just a picture. A little tourist walk and right back to the airport. Well, little did I know that the spot under the bridge, called Fort Point is a very well-known surfing spot. And to my luck, the timing was perfect. The swell had just picked up, and I happened to meet some of the nice local surfers that were just getting ready to surf the break. There is no rental shop nearby, they told me. But we have some extra gear you can use. We took turns, I rode some waves and then got out, to snap some shots of the locals. What a day, I thought. And it’s only 11 in the morning. We got some hot chocolate on our way back, to warm up and then they dropped me at the airport.

The next couple of months I spent snowboarding and ski touring around our coast mountains.

We had just moved in, into our beautiful new house with my friends and life was busy. Work, board, surf. I took a trip to Santa Cruz, my favorite town in California, at the beginning of May. Shot a new campaign for Buena Onda and surfed every day. Ate lots of tacos. Santa Cruz soon began to grow on me. The edgy people and angry surfers that you don’t want to mess with, in the water. Incredible sunsets and fun nightlife. I simply loved my time there, maybe sometime in the future, I will spend some more.

At that point sunny days started to become more frequent in Canada as well. BC, especially its coast is well known for the heavy rain, that can drag to couple weeks straight. We were extremely lucky, that we spend most of spring 2018, going to the river and lakes, skiing in our t-shirts, having bonfire parties in our backyard, and making trips to Tofino. Tofino is a small surf town, relatively far from Squamish, but it’s the closest spot (the only one) to surf in BC. It is also, where it all started for me. My trips to Tofino would be quite often, once or twice a month, whenever I could squeeze some days in. That summer, my family came over for a visit and I went first with my mom and then with my brother too. Grega was so stoked on his first surf session, that is safe to say that he’ll be back.

Summer was even better than spring. All we did was go around. In June, my housemates and I lost that house again, so we were practically homeless. Which was FINE. It is summer anyway, I thought, we’ll just camp. But I needed to find a place since my mom was coming for a visit and I couldn’t make her camp (even though she wouldn’t mind). Despite the crazy prices in Squamish housing, I had found myself a small flat. That little apartment was tiny, there was a bedroom, a cute little kitchen with everything I needed, and the hallway to the bathroom would serve as my closet storage. I would only be there for a couple of months, so I wouldn’t even worry about repacking everything from the boxes. Some prints on my walls, and a stick of Palo Santo next to the sage bundle with some of my favorite crystals on the nightstand, to make it cozy. My mom, which had previously seen the Rockies, took me on a road trip around. I showed her BC and she had shown me Alberta. We climbed the classic routes around Lake Luise and amongst the giants of Bugaboos.

I finished the summer with the event, called Crankworx. A professional mountain biking, and downhilling event in Whistler. My brother loved it! Our friends from Argentina had made their way over as well, for a month, so overall it was a very fun summer.

Thankfully, it was not over for me.

On September 4th, I boarded a flight to Australia, and then another one to Bali. Yes, I was back. And it felt great. The island remains every surfer’s dream. A dream which became too mainstream, even 20 years ago. Cheap, super affordable living, an amazing palette of different breaks along the southern coast and awesome parties! I lived on the Bukit peninsula. It is a quiet, empty place. Great one, if you only want to surf and have some peace from the touristy crowds. Months went by fast and my days had developed a really nice, stable routine by then. Waking up early, having a stretch and meditation on the beach would be the first thing in the morning. If the swell was a given, I surfed. It was always interesting for me, how many different spots break in Bukit. Every beach has a wave that isn’t like any other around, which leaves a surfer with a great variety of options. Balangan beach is where my longboarding sessions were held. When I arrived to Bali, in the beginning of September I had met up with a girl from Russia and bought that sweet single fin 9’2 log for less than 150$. It became my favorite one real fast (besides the 5’10 hypto crypto). Belangan is a crowded fast left that only works in high tide, breaking over the reef. I almost never surfed Dreamland. Despite it, being my favorite sunset spot, I was never a fan of beach breaks. Then Ulus beach is a classic, most famous spot in Bali, with up to 8ft big sets, it holds 7 or 8 different breaks. Always crowded, full of salty surfers who scream at each other and fight for waves. Kind of reminded me of a Santa Cruz vibe. Padang Padang (or the Bali Pipeline, as some refer to it) can be fun too. Sometimes, specially mid day, I would find myself surfing alone, which was awesome.

MY ONLINE STORE WHERE I SELL PRESETS AND PRINTS

Never surfed so much in my life, than in those couple months in Bali. In my opinion, the months of our fall (September through November) are the best months in Indonesia. Waves aren’t too big for me, as they would be in the summer and the place isn’t as crowded as it would be in the dry seasons of the year. After surfing, I would get some work done, usually at my favorite cafe, Drifter, while enjoying a smoothie bowl or something equally delicious.

I wrote an article about Bali, my very first one that got published; in a local BC magazine, that I’ve always looked up to. For me, it was a great honor.

https://www.mountainlifemedia.ca/2018/12/surfing-is-for-women-and-maybe-boys-too/?fbclid=IwAR2FIg2YW25thBwUjc8Awcxwti62Z8O2wsdGCNleqcByxd6dKDd1tqxud2c

At some point at the end of November, it was actually time to head back. I left with a satisfactory feeling of accomplishment. Those couple weeks in Canada went by even faster. I snowboarded a bunch and finished some business from the summer. Luckily, my friends had let me stay with them, so I bunked in the garage. The weather wasn’t the best, but it made me cherish the sunny days even more. Got a chance to see my dad too, before he left to Bella Coola. I am proud to say that my course on tropical photography has been going very good. If you know someone out there that would like to give it a try, or is soon traveling to a tropical place, send them over my FREE COURSE ON TROPICAL PHOTOGRAPHY.

On December 11th I left once again, this time to Argentina. The trip stumbled across some major complications – classic. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t board my flight, because I didn’t have a ticket, only a reservation they had told me. Thank you, FLIGHT HUB ;(

But in the end, I made it and there I was, back in the summer. Ah, the sun felt good on my cheeks. I was afraid that I had already been losing the tan from Bali. Two of my really good friends from BC had come over too! The last few weeks of 2018 had been awesome. Hiking, climbing, beach runs and lots of yummy food! Lots of food. Help me!

Can’t wait to see what the new year brings.

Happy new year 2019.

---

Shop the gear that I use on Amazon:

START EDITING

LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY