Stepping out into the Elements

Perception, concept, a dream with much preparation comes reward once you step out into the elements of the great outdoors.

Concept coming together with good friends with a plan, thoughts of Suping down a beautiful river system, linking mountains, river’s and then exploring out into the vast ocean in search of surf. A place where it all can happen, our idea and plan, takes our crew to the Wild West coast of British Columbia where our dreams become reality with a little hard work and soul, passion to step out and get after it.

With any big trip or expedition, a lot of the work is the prep at home before leaving. Work, family, time off and then logistics. Mapping out the route, gear, weather, tides you name it this expedition had it all and wow did we need a lot of shish. Multi-sport adventure 101 not sure where you can get educated in that other than getting out and getting experience. Our crew of 5 together have been exploring our whole lives and this was an extension of who we are and our love for adventure and being out in the world of Nature and the raw elements.

Our team, Jon Burrak, Chris Christie, Dennis Flett, J.F Plouffe and myself Jimmy Martinello set out on our journey departing on the Anarco River in Bella Coola. After a 15 hour drive from Squamish with the biggest fleet of gear I’ve ever seen packed into one pickup truck. Skis, river gear, ocean gear, surf boards, sup boards, food, beer, gear, gear, gear. Yeahhh to Johnny’s kick ass truck and his driving, we persevered and were all of a sudden heading down the river. Unloaded, to loading gear onto our Red Paddle Co Explorer boards for a quest taken us over 230km of waterways to the majestic Calvert Island for some of the most memorable surf seasons and beauty we could of ever dream of. Dreams becoming a reality for us all and all the years of experience we share pay off to have a safe passage through the heart of the oh so beautiful wilderness of the BC coast line.

From the Anarco to the Bella Coola River out into the untamed waters of the Pacific Ocean with days of paddling through the night, rain or shine. Our goals are set getting in tune with our surrounding environment, releasing the everyday stress and getting fully immersed in Nature. On coarse following our path out into the Dean Channel, working with the winds paddling with the tides we break new ground on our inflatable S.U.P explorer boards, Calvert Island here we come.

Words never express the true beauty of it all, it takes stepping out into the Elements. Calvert Island I could write a book on, and the skiing part of this expedition well it never happen this time round. The mountains where shedding their winter coat, avalanches where pouring down and way to high temps to tip toe around. So we listened and changed our course and had a magical time cherishing the waterways and having the mountains tower above us as the dreams became reality.

In the next months to come stay tune for a collaboration of imagery and video of this expedition going more into what we saw and some of the experiences we hope to share from our journey.

Jimmy Martinello