My story goes something like this:
Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada. I got into surfing my first summer out of High school. With the water getting colder I went off to Australia right after my 18th birthday where I spent most of the year working random jobs and trying to surf every day. On my way home from Oz I stopped in the Philippines for a couple months. That trip was an eyeopener. It was my first time outside of a first world country. I went home to Canada to spend a month surfing hurricane swells, and spending time with friends and family.
Still not ready to go down any conventional path, I went to Costa Rica instead. There I did a two month course in outdoor leadership. That led to an internship, then a job as a surf guide/instructor. That year (2007) I came to Nicaragua for my first time on a visa run. After my first trip to Nicaragua I knew it was a place worth spending some time. I went back to Canada to work in a restaurant for a few months. I figured out it was possible to get a loan, so i got thinking…With a loan I could buy some land in Nicaragua. With land in Nicaragua I could have mango trees and surf good waves every day…So with that mindset I came back to Central America, guiding the occasional trip, but more so exploring, looking for waves I hadn’t heard about before. I stumbled upon a spot that seemed pretty cool, and has really challenging waves. Eight months later I was owner of a property in that area.
After another stretch of hurricane surf and cooking steak and potatoes, I set off back to my place to build a house and learn to surf the wave there. I built what some would call a treehouse under a mango tree, and spent months straight just surfing, reading, planting trees raising chickens, and fixing boards. Towards the end of that year my friend Phil offered me a job as a volcano boarding guide for a couple weeks. I wasn’t so sure about the idea of having a job, but I did it anyways. Surprisingly a little bit of work here and there actually made things more interesting. After a couple more years of living in my treehouse, working on and off as a volcano boarding guide, running a surf school, and guiding trips I was ready to go travel. I went away for a year to work and travel in New Zealand and Indonesia. After a year I realized how good things were here in Nicaragua so I came back. Since I got back I’ve been working as a surf Instructor/Guide with Rise up, building a more proper house on my land, and planning my next adventures.
