Sometimes (despite what newbie’s might say) climbing takes a backseat to regular life. And that means, SURF trip. Last weekend, it was starting to get hot in Squamish, and while most climbers pulled up their pants, and sent their projects before dawn, Lydia and I cashed in our chips, packed up the MPV (Most Powerful Vehicle) and headed WESTBOUND, to Tofino. We jumped in the ocean and surfed like the gumbies we truly are, hiked the rain-forest trails with authority, we dodged an angry black bear (not cool) and Lydia did back-bends while I took a picture. It was awesome.
The surf was “mushy”, as they say. We missed the epic swell by three whole days, but really, who gives, the ocean rules!
This is Cathedral Grove, think the land of Avatar.
To finish it off, we climbed at the shady limestone cliffs of Horne Lake for an afternoon. I tried ADATO, the latest 14b addition by Mike Doyle. It was SPECTACULAR. I can’t wait to go back and clip the chains, I give it fifteen stars. Also, a funny thing happened over the weekend, we saw Pamela Anderson in the coffee shop. She really doesn’t appear comfortable walking around in public, I sort of felt bad for her in her big poofy hat staring at the ground. It’s not like she had any fans or groupies crowding her business, she’s just a regular bird, but she just happens to take semi-descent-semi-nude photographs for money and apparently feels more comfortable doing that, than buying a cup of coffee in a tiny surf town. Weird. The truth is, she seemed really nice, she’s originally from Vancouver Island, so it made sense to see her their with her mom and her 10 year old son. But still, she doesn’t look much like her magazine self in real time, except she’s got that unmistakable rack, but otherwise she looks like a very wealthy, slightly tired, very hard working mother in her 40’s. And that deserves respect.
I, on the other hand, (like many) really don’t enjoy having my picture taken, and I certainly don’t feel comfortable on film either. At the end of the day, I’m just a rock climber, not an actor. Nope. Never will be. Film me climbing if you like, just PLEASE, PLEASE don’t ask me to act. I’m worse than Steven Seagal. I really just want to climb rocks and have fun. I sometimes wish I had the skills of Leo Houlding, who films commercials for the Audi Car Company and probably earns more money than some professional golfers. But I don’t, I’m not. I’m just simple ‘ol me. HA!
So now that I got you all fired up – check out this new video posted most recently. The Nor’Easter event released a quick clip of me cragging in the Gunks with the legend himself, Russ Clune. What a rad man, and what a rad crew. Thanks for the good times y’all, the sweet videos remind me of how much fun we had, and makes me want to climb and travel even more. Which is what life is really about anyway. Road-trips. Right?
The Road to the Nor’easter with Sonnie Trotter & Russ Clune from NE2C on Vimeo.
