Photos: Friendship Paddle
For those who live for ocean adventure, there’s no place that represents that ethos more than the Channel Islands, the surprisingly isolated chain off the California coast. Camping trips. Mistimed surf missions, military secrecy, stories of forgotten Native American tribes, the Channel Islands have it all.
And since 2003, a group of Santa Barbara paddlers have used the 30-mile paddling adventure from Santa Cruz Island to Santa Barbara as a way to raise money for people in their community–most of whom love adventure, too. The annual paddle–known as The Friendship Paddle–has operated under the radar, with sponsors who care little if a logo shows up on a banner. Teams and individuals use the open ocean crossing to raise money for someone in the community who needs help. And this year (this weekend, actually), that community member is Ethan Stewart, an Inertia contributor, surf writer and longtime editor-at-large to the local Santa Barbara news piece, The Independent. Around 100 people will start at dawn Saturday from the island and arrive on the mainland sometime in the afternoon.
Stewart, whose stories have appeared in ESPN and The Surfer’s Journal, is naturally skeptical of fundraising. “But (the Friendship Paddle) doesn’t bother me because it’s just pure,” he said. “It’s a purely organic, community-based thing and the organizers are never interested in headlines or publicity. I’ve been watching it change my friends participating and paddling for me. It’s wild and alive out there in the channel so it puts a lot of people in an uncomfortable position akin to the position my family and I have been in. There’s uncertainly, fear and endless challenge.”
Most of the recipients of the event’s fundraising efforts have suffered form cancer or other debilitating diseases. Some are no longer with us. But it’s exactly that inescapable mix of human frailty and soul-charging adventure that makes the event so special.
It’ll be a huge journey for Stewart, who’ll paddle a Bark prone paddleboard back from the island. But the writer, who grew up in Cape Cod, Mass. before moving to Santa Barbara, Calif. more than a decade ago, has already had a hell of a ride. He’s battled Neuroendocrine Pancreatic Cancer for four years, the same cancer Steve Jobs suffered from. Stewart had several close calls, even once flatlining on a doctor’s table. But instead of going strictly down the mainstream treatment route, he’s used a mix of lifestyle change and Eastern Medicine while consulting doctors at Stanford. And it seems to be working.
Stewart is overwhelmingly appreciative of the community support. But he’s especially happy that the adventure paddle represents one of the most important ideologies in his life: “We all know we have to have a shit-ton of fun along the way,” he said. “Or you’re already dead.”
