Passion

Passion is magical.

Find it.
Feel it.
Foster it.

It manifests itself in many forms. It is so easy on the river.

I saw it a few different ways this weekend. First, I take my cousin down the river for the first time. My cousin has been a sea kayaking guide in the Monterey Bay for a few years, so he is primed and ready for a great day of class III.

He is beat down in the Chili Bar hole, styles troublemaker, gets rejected from eddies, catches eddies, runs into every rock and hole we can find, and hits first combat roll, celebrates success and suffers failure; all the things you expect in your first day in a kayak.

He smiles his way down the river, through it all. Just eats it up.

Passion.

That evening, the river rose in to an atypical 2,000 cfs and I rouse my energy for a session at barking dog, a fun play wave. To my surprise there are only 3 people there. Finally a young man floats down bareback at 8:30, as dusk was settling in. It happened to be one of my old students.

"Barebacking it huh Drew?"

"I heard the river was still up so I threw on my stuff as quickly as possible to get down here" he says to me as he smiles and paddles back into the wave for the final surf of the night, well past the sunset.

Passion.

It is what we are driven by, it is what we seek, it is what we know. It can happen on your first day, or your 1000th day, it doesn't matter, but it is what we live for.