This past weekend I attended the Camelbak Pursuit Series with my partner CLIF BAR. I met up with some old friends and made some new ones as well, and after the short little trip to San Jose California I learned a few things about the importance of community.
I’ve been traveling non-stop for the last two years now, and I can promise you I have learnt a lot about myself and happiness. I find people, including myself, are always on the pursuit of happiness and for me I found the answer is quite simple. Community.
So what is community? To me it is belonging to a group of like minded individuals who share similar values to yours. Being apart of something bigger than yourself. Not only do you support your community, but they support you.
This weekend I had the greatest experience hanging out with my community and making new friends within. I finally got to meet up with some of the CLIF family, four amazing women who all get it. They all had this glowing happiness of being apart of a bigger cause. Helping people get outside, importance of health, respecting our outdoor spaces, making this one life full of experiences and working on protecting the outdoors for future generations. Now this may not be what everyone is passionate about, but this is what I value and that’s why I feel happy to be involved.
It wasn’t only the CLIF team that made the weekend so fulfilling, it was old friends who happened to be out there as well. Christian, a friend from Instagram for a few years now, is apart of the CLIF team as well and I was so happy to be able to share the weekend experiences with her too. Both of us are traveling photographers so it is always a treat when we see each other every six or so months.
Weekend Adventures:
We surfed, hiked, paddle boarded, kayaked, did yoga and so much more in these two long days at the Pursuit Series but I would have to say the surfing was my favorite, mostly because it was a funny experience for Christian and I.
We started out the morning waking at 5am to catch the shuttle for Santa cruz. With my usual pull for coffee that early I knew we wouldn’t be stopping so I was mentally preparing myself. As we walked down to the shuttle a headlamp darted around at the coffee booth, which we immediately walked over to investigate. Just another coffee hungry patron snooping around for a cold brew. The pots were all full on the propane burners and the pour overs were sitting in a box so naturally we started making our own coffee in the closed down booth. Pretty soon we served half the shuttle with coffee before heading out, my kind of community!
Surfing was amazing, mostly because I actually stood up and surfed for the first time ever, with the help of a massive sturdy foam board, the gentlest most adorable waves ever and a team of instructors. It was an excellent experience for a beginner like me, I can see why so many individuals are crazy about the peace out on the water.
We surfed for about an hour until the chills hit Christian and we decided to get out, warm up and shoot some photos of our friends surfing. As we carried our board on our heads down the beach we popped them on the sand and headed up to the shuttle. Our shuttle driver said he wouldn’t leave so we went back to his parking spot we were surprised to see no van. Christian was really starting to get the chills as we wandered around looking for the van. Only in Cali two blondies would be walking down the city streets barefoot and in wetsuits. After an hour we gave up, cursing the driver and went into a cafe to see if we could score a free hot drink. As I started to explain our situation, two men behind me said our van went to the upper lot. The only place we didn’t wander to. Happiness is: finding the sprinter van. It wasn’t even the driver’s fault as we felt guilty for cursing him, he had a great view of us surfing and the previous spot was a no-parking zone. At least we had a good laugh!
This weekend was pretty memorable, from the incredible individuals involved in the event to the lovely new CLIF family Christian and I seemed to be adopted into. The little silly stories are the ones I always remember. I was happy to make some new memories this weekend with my community.
New Family!