The Butter.  It’s a phrase used throughout board riding sports, and one that always takes me back to my wakeboarding days.  It is used to physically describe a scenario with perfectly smooth water, but emotionally, it describes the epic aura of being somewhere with the skills, the time and the friends to ride with on a surface that melts underneath your edge.  It IS like riding a knife through warm butter.

            It creates a feeling that cannot be described and sharing in it with your friends is very special.

            Last Saturday, I found myself in “The Butter” at sunset with a camera in hand.  I can’t even describe what I saw as I know it is a secret stash around here and I want to respect that.  All I can say is that it was beautiful, and seeing grown men kiteboarding and laughing like children will attest to that.

            As the sun set, the wind changed directions and everyone had to book it out of there in order to get across the river.  Within minutes, everyone was gone and I was standing in a rising tide without a way back to the beach (I was brought over by a jet ski).  I was already coming up with a plan for handling the situation when I saw a small zodiac in the bay.  I walked right out into the water directly between the boat and the setting sun so they could see my silhouette and I got really lucky.  They came over, picked me up and took me all the way back to my van on the beach.  Thanks again, I REALLY appreciate it.

            As the weekend morphed into the work-week, I faced a few new challenges, and though it was more about keeping my head down and grinding through than shooting or planning, that is still a major part of it all, so I am okay with it.

            That being said, my favorite challenge of the week was not about grinding through at all.  It was about feeling.  It was about intuition.  It was about ripping across the Columbia River behind a kite, and it was incredible.  I finally put down the camera for a solid week and spent that time honing in on some new kiteboarding skills.  I have a long way to go, but one solo sunset session in good wind was enough to let me know that I am hooked.

            Unfortunately, that same solo sunset session ended abruptly when I caught a little too much power in the kite while jibing (turning down wind) back toward the beach.  I boosted straight out of the binding straps and landed in the water about 40 feet away from the board.  I have had this happen before and it normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but this time was different.  This time the wind was coming from a new direction, creating a wind shadow that threatened the very flying spirit of my kite.  That is again something that is very manageable, but not this time.  This time I was sitting in the middle of a shipping lane with a barge bearing down on my location.  I made one attempt to tack upwind and grab the board, but the current was carrying it too quickly.  Suddenly, that same decision-simplifying question I mentioned in one of my first blog posts struck me (“at what cost am I willing to pursue my endeavors?”) and it became clear.  I needed to get out of there, even if it meant losing borrowed gear.

            I kept the kite in the air and body dragged myself back to the beach where relieved onlookers were waiting.There was no time for storytelling, I had a board to go find.  I grabbed my creekboat (whitewater kayak) and started the long battle against wind, waves and a really strong current.  The light was fading and I searched every wave and ripple for as long as it made sense to be alone, in a kayak, without a light or radio in oncoming darkness.  We even thought that a newly anchored Coast Guard ship had found it, but a quick paddle reassured us that they had not seen the missing board.

            Talkabout a 180.  Life was stellar, then moments later it was in jeopardy.  That seems to be par for the course in the types of activities I participate in, but that is why you always need to know the dangers, have a backup plan and be ready.  Thanks to good instruction, I knew what to look out for, when to bail and how to rescue myself.  Eli, I owe you a board, but I really owe you so much more.  Thanks for making me very aware from the very beginning.

            On a complete side note, Sportsmobile integrated El Guapo (the van) and myself into their website this week.  I’m glad they feel we are worthy of showcasing their brand.

            “Nothing worth having comes easy.”

            It’s a pretty funny place to pull a quote like this, but I actually got it from Dr. Bob Kelso on the TV show Scrubs.  We won’t go into how hilarious I think that show is, but ole’ Dr. Kelso is right.  If you want something badly enough, there is no amount of struggle or discomfort you will not endure in order to get it.

            I was thinking about that earlier this week as I was spending 10-12 Red Bull induced hours a day cooped up in the van editing images.  In my opinion, that is not a bad problem to have, but when you live to be outside, it can be the less appealing end of the whole process.

            There is always work to do, and I LOVE that.  My brain and body have a really hard time being idle, and I should probably get that checked out because sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea, causing me to scramble and document it before it is lost.  I create more To Do’s than any one person could ever get through, and then brainstorm for more. I even have a “Must Do” list to distinguish gradations of importance.  What I am describing may seem a bit obsessive, but it makes the good really good, the bad still manageable and the sweet all that much sweeter.

This week was sweet.  This week I was honored as Trevor Clark Photography was featured on Patagonia’s blog, The Cleanest Line (www.thecleanestline.com).

It put all of the hours of eye-crossing editing, lost sleep and miles of To Do’s into perspective and helped me look back for a moment.  A lot has happened since this journey began, and I am happy and proud to call this my life.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement Patagonia, and thank you my fictional TV friend, Dr. Bob Kelso, for a phrase that embodies my perspective.

            Another week on the Oregon coast and I am STILL psyched!  I have had solo morning kayak surf sessions in the fog, beatdowns while shooting in the surf at sunset, lens changes in a paraglider at 4,000 feet, a fire writing experience on the beach at night (tough one to explain), unseasonably good kiteboarding conditions, landboarding lessons, random kitebuggy images, an hour long paramotoring flight, time for creative flexibility and again, great company.

            In my life, I have learned to savor every moment because you will never get them back.  There will always be a time of transition, a lull in the action, a period of unknown outcomes, loss, loneliness or simply downtime.  We all deal with it.  And it is during those instances that I reflect on the lasting moments like the ones I had this week. 

A flying husky, kayak surfing, paragliding over the Oregon coast, a technical camera revelation, an entire day on the beach, fresh seafood and great new people.  And that was just Saturday.

Since then there has been more paragliding, swimming / shooting under boosting kiteboarders and, of course, giving it a try myself.

I have been oogling over kiteboarding for about 10 years and I have never had the time, opportunity and location access to jump in, but all of that is changing.  In case you haven’t read the second to last blog update, I grew up wakeboarding.  I spent every possible minute on the water.  I dreamt about landing the next big move or that perfectly glass calm morning session, carving through the water on a hard edge that would never give.  I lived for the days when it was too good to hold anything back.

My love for riding kept me thumbing through Wakeboarding Magazine, always looking for something new, and it was during one of those page tearing initial flip throughs that I first laid eyes on a man, a board and a kite in the same picture 50 feet above the water.  It was powerful.

On my own quest to shoot more kiting sports and become a part of them as well, I have been lucky enough to get connected with Eli Anderson of Ozone Kites (www.flyozone.com).  He’s been giving me the tour and taking me to all of the local spots, introducing me to his crowd of flying and riding buddies and even showing me a thing or two.

Thirty minutes into my first kiteboarding lesson, I found myself clinging to a sports car of a kite while screaming on a heavy cut across the Columbia River.  I was all smiles.  Coming back was a bit less graceful (or “in control” might be a better way to put it), but I handled it, and now I think I am hooked.  Wakeboarding without a boat is too cool.

I also tried my hand at battling against the 10-12 knot current of the Columbia River while shooting with my water housing.  I was pretty weary about what the kiters’ reactions might be, but I found out really quickly that I was completely welcome.  As soon as I got to the sweet spot, I had kiters gunning for my lens, launching over me left and right, and making me realize I need a brighter helmet.  It was AWESOME!  I found the rhythm of approach patterns and was able to judge my timing by the second pass (The current goes one direction while the wind blows the other.  I naturally went with the current and would run up the beach for the next round.).

The day went on and the sun dropped lower, lending to some of the nicest light I have seen in a while.  I had already been swimming and running up the beach for about two hours, but it was just too good, so I kept going until there were no more options.  By the end of the day, I had been swimming against the current for over three hours, and I was still smiling.  I don’t think that will ever get old.

I also mentioned paragliding.  The whole week started with Eli setting me up with Brad Hill and Maren Ludwig of Discover Paragliding (www.discoverparagliding.com) on a tandem paragliding flight over the Oregon Coast.  It was surreal, and really got the brain working through some image ideas.  After landing, we got a little crafty and the idea actually turned into a reality.  I’m afraid I can’t go into more detail than that, or show any of those images, but hopefully you will see some of them in a publication soon.

Other than that, I took my playboat out into the surf for a nice solo session in the waves and had a blast.  I have always wanted to do that, but never had the chance.  It was one more first in a week of firsts.

I can’t wait to see what this next week has in store.