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News

Let’s Be-Pals

Stay Wild

Two Magazines Mushrooming Together

Words by Scrappers

Photos by Taro Otake

 

Did you know that Stay Wild has a Japanese sister magazine? Maybe you did know, but I just found out. The magazine is called Be-Pal. They have been publishing monthly for over 35 years. Dang! That’s a long time. We’ve only been at it for 3 years. 

Be-Pal editor Sana wrote us about visiting Portland. He wanted to interview our magazine about Portland’s outdoorsy nature culture. We thought the best way to talk about that story would be on a drive to the coast together.

Our magazine is actually a family business. Amy “The Mommy” handles the responsible paperwork stuff, Camper “The Kid” keeps the wild alive, and me “The Scrappers” helps serve the story. The visiting Be-Pal crew was two writers Sana & Sako, the photographer Taro, and Rika translating our conversations. 

Together we had seven people and our beat-up little car wasn’t going to fit everyone. We needed an Adventure Wagon!

Adventure Wagon is a new sort of van rental company based in Portland. They get Sprinters and build them out to be super handy for road trips. These vans are like a tool box for your adventures! Everything is adjustable, so if you need a bike-centric, camp-centric, surf-centric or seating-centric set up it can happen. Plus, they’re insulated, so you can sleep in them without freezing your buns off.

We went with the seating-centric set up and headed west. As we drove we talked about the cross over between our two magazines.

I asked Sana, what he thought Be-Pal and Stay Wild had in common?

“Be-Pal and Stay Wild both focus on a mix of many type of activities. The concept of Stay Wild is to be like a camp fire bringing people together right? That sounds similar to Be-Pal’s style. For 35 years we’ve covered many kind of activities; camping, hiking, trekking, kayaking, horse-riding, climbing, bonfiring, bush crafting, SUPing, glamping, travel, etc…”

Yeah, we like those things too, but are more interested in motorcycling & skateboarding than SUPing & glamping. Bonfires are awesome though! We totally have that in common.

The names of our magazines have a lot in common too. Be-Pal means “Be pals with Nature.” Stay Wild means “Keep true to your nature.” We’re both nature lovers!

I asked Sana what stories they were looking for while visiting Portland. He said, ”Urban outdoor lives of Portlanders.” Specifically, “How local people enjoy outdoor life and what their favorite goods and activities are.” They were also interested in “unique garage brands” like The Original Nomad, Hand-Eye Supply, and Breadwinner Cycles.

I wondered if there is a region of Japan that is similar to Portland? “Yes, Kamakura, Itoshima, Higashikawa etc... these are very small towns where artists and creative outsiders live. There are similar shops, brands, and mountains and beaches, so people who love surfing and snow sports live there.” Cool! I want to go see Japan’s Portland. 

On the drive to the coast we stop to wander the woods. We tripped out on the shrooms off the trail and it sends us on a mushroom hunt. We all get our boots muddy. I find some tiny chanterelles. It's pretty late in the season, but we find the last two red huckleberries and eat them right away. They're still kind of sweet!

It's fun. It’s cold, raining, foggy, and super nice to have a big dry van to retreat to. The cup holder holds my mushrooms. Our Nau rain coats are drenched.

When we get to the coast the weather hasn’t changed much, but we’re here, so we pile out of the van and hike to Shorts Sands beach. I want to impress the crew with my fire building skills. I want to boil water over a campfire and make everyone coffee, but everything is wet and the best I can make is a smoke bomb. Good thing I brought a BioLite stove in my Alite Designs backpack and some dry sticks! Within minutes the water I got from the cold creek is boiling. I use a Stanley french press. It's tough and super compact. We drink together and flip through the pages of each other’s magazines under the loose cover of an evergreen. The rain kisses the pages.

Our magazines are from different places, but we’re all about the same thing. We love getting outside with our friends.

Learn more about Be-Pal >>>

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Urban Caving

Stay Wild

Exploring Underground Drains and Abandoned Mines

Story by Trevor Mottram

Photo by Trevor Mottram

When I moved to San Diego in 2012, I founded Southern California Exploration & Adventure (SoCalX) as a means of meeting people who wanted to explore places that were a little more interesting than the walking and bike paths at the local park. I was getting into exploring with my neighbor at the time, using websites to find places around San Diego to visit. After my first walk-in mine tunnel, I was hooked on the underground. It was a relatively small mine, about 200 feet deep, and contained old timbering and fallen air ducts, as well as the first mining relic I ever came across: a 1950s Montgomery Ward tool box, sitting on a wooden shelf. Three years later, we’re rappelling into vertical mine shafts, going deeper underground than ever! While SoCalX hosts a variety of events, from snorkeling to peak bagging, our main interests lie underground. 

Drain Photos by Bernie Freidin

Some of our members are extremely into storm drains. One member has mapped hundreds of miles of tunnels all over San Diego and Los Angeles, and has done everything from crawling on hand and knee through 24-inch diameter pipes to passing through 15 foot-high underground flood channels! He uses proper surveying gear and overlays his maps onto Google Earth—mainly for his own personal gratification, but he loves to share his photography and stories. Draining is a relatively safe hobby, but there are things to watch out for, namely animals, bums, punk kids, and all manner of random shit that’s found its way underground. Of course there’s the very remote possibility of a flash flood. 

There is also an infinite amount of graffiti, some of which is absolutely stunning while some looks like a chimp did it. Art is in the eye of the beholder, but crap art is crap art. While I don’t condone vandalism and tagging shit above ground, storm drains and tunnels are a perfect canvas, below the prying eye of society. Take note, kids: Go under the street, where people who actually want to see it can. Don’t doodle on buildings, especially if you’re one of these guys who wants to paint a wizard riding a unicorn, but only manages a stick figure holding what is supposed to be a gun, with “fuck you” scrawled above it.

While draining is pretty safe and has its own virtues, on the other end of the spectrum are abandoned mines. The very real fact is that old mines can be deadly. We often rappel down vertical shafts in the desert, where the ground at the bottom is littered with the skeletons and remains of rabbits, lizards, and rats. Haven’t found a dead guy yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Even worse than the possibility of falling to your death is blowing yourself up by stepping on a stick of dynamite or blasting cap. We explored a mine recently where we found a pile of 60 sticks! The older nitroglycerin gets, the more unstable it can become, even reacting to mere touch. Climbing over piles of rubble is a sketchy undertaking if you think you could be stepping on explosives. Scary stuff. Finding items left behind by miners decades ago is really fun, and the only time trash is remotely interesting.

Photo by Trevor Mottram

Now your interest is piqued and you’re thinking about getting underground, right? Start small with easy stuff and grow from there. Go find a storm drain and explore it. But don’t go straight to rappelling into mines if you know nothing about what you’re getting into. I suggest learning about mining history and techniques, and how the workings were dug. 

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Surf Portland

Stay Wild

Three New Surf Shops Open 80 Miles from the Coast

Photo & Words by Justin “Scrappers” Morrison

 

I’m in Portland, Oregon, the coast is 80 miles away. It’s a two-hour drive beyond the city, the suburbs, the farms, and the forest. Portland is not at the beach, but it has a surf culture all its own. 

Something is growing organically here, beyond the reach of the mainstream scene. It’s in our art (the paint is still wet), our fashion (think wool and waxed canvas), our food & drink (smoke salmon stout), and even in our music (listen to Guantanamo Baywatch). Our DIY/maker/design culture has a surfy side, too! We have great surfboard shapers living and working here, like Mike Hall of Blackfern, the guys at FRESTcoast, and Dan Murdey, who learned to glass in Bend, Oregon with Hawaiian legend Gerry Lopez. The most “Portland” thing of all might be Pushfins making surfboard fins out of old, busted skateboard decks.

We have a surf scene here, so it’s no surprise three surf shops are opening at the same time. Leeward, Cosube, and Up North Surf Club are all about our Northwest culture. All three shops are a vital voice in the conversation defining this pioneer surf scene.

Why are you opening in Portland now? The beach didn’t get any closer. Has a cultural tide changed?

“Folks are coming here all the time. Portland is growing. A lot of these folks are moving here from coastal cities, and they surf. It only takes a few trips out to the Oregon coast to realize there is some fun surf to be had if you can get past the 5mm suits, booties, and ice cream headaches.

Outdoor culture at large is really having a peak moment as well it seems, especially in Portland and the Northwest. I believe the Portland community has a deep desire to connect with the outdoors, which is one of the things that makes this place so great.” 

-Lyndsey Lee Faulkner of Leeward

 

“When I started surfing in the ‘90s the surfing community was so small that the coastal shops and a couple sporting goods stores were enough to satisfy the demand. Over the last five years, with the growth of Portland and advancement in technology, specifically in wetsuits, surfing as a sport and hobby has expanded tremendously.” 

-Alex Morris of Cosube

 

“It came down to creating a job for myself that I enjoy. Karen, my fiancé, had always wanted to open a store, and I thought, ‘Let’s give this a shot while we can.’ Hopefully it evolves into a place that has a good vibe.” 

-Martin Schoeneborn of Up North Surf Club

What is your shop’s vibe?

“The space itself will be influenced by Northwest coastal architecture and mid-century design principles. Well-designed and thoughtful, with a dose of homegrown Northwest character. We’ll probably have too many plants and tapestries.”

-Lyndsey Lee Faulkner of Leeward

 

“The shop will have early morning hours, offering equipment rentals and locally roasted Coava coffee to surfers heading to the coast before work and other early risers. In the afternoons and evenings, Cosube’s tap list will feature local craft beers while two beer cases will feature ice-cold bottles from the world’s top surfing destinations. We will offer an assortment of apparel, accessories, and lifestyle goods that define a cold-water surf culture.” 

-Kelsie Morrow of Cosube

 

“We want to keep the formula pretty simple. Surfing is pretty simple at the core. If you can get your hands on a board and a wetsuit, you can go surf as much as you want…. We’d like it to be inviting to surfers and non-surfers alike, a neighborhood place where people can come hang out. A bunch of friends are helping with the design and buildout, so I think their contributions will dictate the vibe just as much as any ideas Karen and I have.”

-Martin Schoeneborn of Up North Surf Club

Portland is growing. I’ve seen community gardens and forested parks cleared away to make room for more condos. It’s getting crowded, but by California or Hawai’i standards the water is not crowded. Yet. 

You’ll see more wool and hiking boots on the beach than aloha shirts and bikinis. It’s not very sexy. Yet. We are a hairy bunch of outsiders living in the pioneer culture of a new surf scene. No business, brand, or company has claimed ownership. Yet. 

The waves are not getting any closer to Portland. Yet! 

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