I thought I would take a couple of days after getting back to Boulder to reflect on all the experiences that accompanied biking from British Columbia to Baja to launch SWAE Sports before penning my magnum opus. It’s been an interesting couple of days as I’ve readjusted to civilian life. My initial realization was that most importantly, the 2-½ months on the road helped to solidify our team and define the direction of SWAE Sports.

After getting off the plane and driving back to my Rocky Mountain home, I immediately began to miss the other four guys that I’d spent just about every waking moment with since mid June. After feeding off one another’s excitement, sharing the hardships of the road, and waking every morning to the team immediately talking SWAE, life as it was began to seem, well, rather quiet.

When I separate myself from being a part of this whole expedition, it seems truly amazing that a group of five highly dedicated young men would undertake such an endeavor to launch a company.  As a consumer, it would hardly matter to me what it is SWAE was selling because if anyone was really that motivated, odds are that it was something I should be a part of.  I’d rep their shirt. It would get even crazier for me as I started to explore their website and realized that the reason those boys were so psyched was because they held in their hands a truly paradigm shifting business model for the adventure sports industry.  Of course they’d cycle 2,500 miles to spread the good news. It would all start to feel quite logical.

Whenever I return from a big trip it’s always a bit weird to think about the places I just was.  Sailing through the waters of the San Juan Islands, biking through the primordial Redwood forests of Northern California, and camping along the rim of Crater Lake begins to feel like a dream, or clips from a movie I watched before falling asleep. But they are my memories, my life experiences, the way I became a part of an organization that will undoubtedly shape the course of my life.

The greatest thing I’ll take from this trip is being witness to the fact that my actions along the West Coast will not only benefit my own life, but every outfitter, guide, and outdoor adventure school that sat down with us and subscribed to the dream that is SWAE.  I can only believe that they saw in our eyes the motivation to make our company’s principals a reality and that that kind of excitement was something they wanted to attach themselves to. When looking back over my notes, its almost ridiculous to see that the only companies we didn’t partner with after a meeting were those that didn’t want more business.  That’s crazy and yet it’s the truth.

The way people get outside is about to change, and I’m truly humbled to be a part of that shift. It’s happening because the team that comprises SWAE is actually our targeted customer. We live and breathe this lifestyle and we’ve somehow figured out a way to make a career out of doing the stuff we love. I don’t think I could be more stoked.

We had reviewed the weather for the day’s ride and decided to start in the afternoon on August 13, stop in Santa Ynez and cycle to Santa Barbara the next morning. There has been a drastic change in the terrain from Northern to Southern California. I was surprised to find how extremely flat the road was, which made riding with a tailwind amazingly simple.

Flat roads leading us to Santa Ynez

Although there were a few hills to climb, this type of riding is nothing like climbing a mountain pass or getting a rhythm of the rolling hills earlier on our trek. We pedaled and cruised at speeds upwards of 20 miles an hour. At one point, Dan and I hit 33 miles per hour on flat ground! Our group had a consistent view of a cloud of smoke caused by a raging fire farther inland, just over the ridges between SLO and Santa Barbara.

We stayed with some of Dan’s family friends in Santa Ynez, in a gorgeous house with a pool and a cozy bed to sleep. I would again like to thank our hosts for their generosity and kindness at letting five smelly guys sleep in their home. Thanks Cyndy!

We left Santa Ynez early, our stomachs full from a delicious breakfast in Cyndy’s house. Although we only had 30 miles to Santa Barbara, there was a mountain pass between us and our destination. It felt great to ride San Marcos Pass, which was a consistent incline for nearly 15 miles. Dan whipped me into shape early in this trip and I have since become a “monster” on the bike.

I arrived in Santa Barbara with some good news via a voicemail. Katherine Perry from the Santa Barbara Independent was going to meet with us in the afternoon to do an interview for the local paper. Elliott met and signed the Santa Barbara Surf School, Fly Above All Paragliding and Circling Hawk Paragliding.

Will met with Eagle Paragliding, Santa Barbara Adventure Company and Captain Jack’s Santa Barbara Tours and signed all three of the outfitters. We had quite a bit of success in SB and our living accommodations were out of this world.

Jane Gottlieb and David Obst house at the top of the Rivera neighborhood.

In the evening, we biked up Mission Drive, up a long winding hill to a ridge in the Riviera neighborhood and stopped in front of a purple fence. As the gate slid open, we were greeted by five barking dogs and a smiling couple. They stood on steps that led up to a house that looked like it had been painted by a pack of wild Easter bunnies. The garage was lime green and bright pink. The window frames were sunshine yellow while the rest of the house continued in the same motif. Colors from across the spectrum were symmetrically painted onto different parts of the structure. I could barely comprehend living in a home of such colors, but the longer I stared, the more I got used to the idea.

David Obst and Jane Gottlieb had been living in Santa Barbara for years. They each have had successful careers in writing and photography respectively. Jane’s inspiration for the house came from her art, which was displayed throughout the inside of the house. Photos of lawnbowlers and vintage cars, splashed with hues of green, yellow and blue. She had spent years traveling around the world, and growing up in Berkley in the Sixties, was inspired by the age of love, peace and revolution.

Dave is a writer and journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his work in the Pentagon Papers investigation. He is also the producer of the movie “Revenge of the Nerds,” and helped with the movie on Woodward and Bernstein. Amazing people, amazing experiences and just as hospitable as all of our hosts throughout this trip.

We had stepped into another world of bright colors, trippy sculptures and a scenic view of the ocean.

The Santa Barbara Mission.

Brendan Mulholland, Dan’s childhood friend, joined us in Monterey for the final leg of our trip to Mexico. He had just finished Alaska fishing season and was preparing to disappear in South America for an extended period of time. Needless to say, I finally had a photography buddy to explore Santa Barbara.

Our first full day in town we spent the afternoon at the famous Mission and rose gardens in Santa Barbara. The afternoon sunlight was a golden-orange, which was absolutely gorgeous to shoot in. The rows of different colored roses outside the mission glowed brightly and the mission’s spires cast some interesting shadows all around.

Brendan and I then made a trip to El Presidio, an old fort in the middle of Santa Barbara and then explored Stearn’s Wharf. I enjoyed blending in the a crowd and having hayday with my camera. Check out all the photos in our “Rad Photos” section.

In order to justify the first sentence of this post I’d like to turn to a make believe story. There is a level of true sustainability if a project / company / organization can offer an absolutely no risk guarantee. I know that that sounds boring, but please, let me explain. Let’s look at a made up solar panel company as a prime example. We will call the company “Sun Power.” Sun Power is deciding how they can sell solar panels and turn a profit while doing good. All and all, this sounds great. They sell their solar panels at a few thousand dollars for installation and the parts. They are making money while doing good. But there is an incredible opportunity cost with these type of business models and I think that the paradigm MUST change. The issue here is that by pricing the solar panels at such a high cost (even if you can use credit or monthly payments) they are not able to sell to the majority of the people (middle class and lower economic classes). In doing so, they are not able to reach their purpose nearly as well, promoting clean energy, and they are only able to seize a fraction of the market. Now, Sun Power does have another option.

What if they make it a no brainer? Rather than charging anything up front, they have their customers simply pay for the installation and materials over time by comparing old energy bills with your new (solar energy) bills, and deducting the difference. They would then take that difference so you, as a home owner, would just be paying the same monthly bill that you would have been paying were the solar panels not installed (of course, they could charge a small interest on this too). Over a few years the solar panels would be paid for and at that point, not only has the customer raised the worth of their house and is saving lots of money every month on energy bills, but they are also doing a great thing running a house off of clean energy. With a model like this (obviously this is completely made up), a solar panel company could seize the entire market share because at the end of the day, it would be silly for the customer not to sign up. (I’ve often thought about starting this company if anyone wants to join =).

Now, back to SWAE. At SWAE the only way we make any revenue is if we are getting our partners revenue. We never charge up front, monthly, exit fees, or advertising fees. We only get business if we are getting our partners more business and in turn, our success is based in making them successful. This sink or swim mentality is beautiful and I believe it is the only way it should be and it is the reason we will be successful. With that said, at SWAE we also give outfitters the ability to make bookings and sell vouchers on their own website. The industry normally charges 10% for this type of service on every booking, so we decided to cut the standard and take a 5% commission. But this was still bothering me because we were charging outfitters for business that was already coming to their website. Although we were greatly enhancing the likely hood of a customer booking once they got to their website, the customer was already coming to their website and I was uncomfortable to profit from that as a partnering company. After much deliberate thought and consideration, we now charge our partners 0% commission on all bookings or voucher purchases made on their websites so long as they offer their trips on our website. In doing so, we are able to do what “Sun Power” could do with the industry. We are able to sign all of the very best local outfitters (no matter their budgets) because they would be silly not to sign with us. It never costs them anything and we only take a small cut if we are getting them customers they would not have normally gotten to their front door. In doing so, we are now able to be very selective as to who we want to partner with. Only human powered or environmentally friendly adventure sports (more in next blog) and only the best outfitters in the area. Oh, and the best part, it is now officially impossible to undercut out rates =).