CURRENT MISSION

Explore Canada through photography, climbing, hiking and of course the awesome people of CS!

ABOUT ME

I'm a relaxed, open and curious person who loves outdoors adventures. I like to hear peoples stories and talk about ideas. My passion for photography is driving me to explore landscapes I never would have know existed.

For a break down of my year so far (including photo slide show!!! yeah! like a picture book sort of!) check out my "Amazing Thing Done/Seen" section.
(Click images to view larger and full set)

PHILOSOPHY

I feel I have covered personal philsophy in other areas so here are some quotes!

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Sagan

"Pikachu!"
- Pikachu

“Chaos is what we've lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existance is defined in terms of control.”
- Terence McKenna

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
- Carl Sagan

"I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to a book."
- Stephen Fry

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Currently I am new to couch surfing so hopefully I will be able to surf through Canada before settling down and hosting.

Look at this bad-ass no hands rest! vvvvvvvv

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I tried once but the dam thing wouldn't float!...........
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Yea I find lame jokes funny, or should I say PUNNY!!
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Interests

Photography has been a passion of mine for a few years now (never payed). I started out doing studio style shoots of models before moving towards more travel and landscape type work. I love combining climbing, hiking and travelling to snap a landscape. The more off the beaten track the better!

Rock climbing and Bouldering is a new interest for me but it feels like I have been at it for years. The sport just fits my lifestyle and I like the constant challenge behind it.

Hiking is another fairly recent love, but I have found it esensial to both my photography and climbing, it has taken me to some very beautiful and unique places while teaching me some important life lessons.

Rollerblading is something that I have been doing for as long as I can remember, having never been trained I just learned to skate with my friends on the street. Exploring different suburbs and trying to not get hurt while bombing the biggest hills we can find. Now days I like to strap on the skates in towns that I stop at when I'm on the road, they allow me to cover a huge distance and see lots of things. I have also recently taken on longboarding in the hope of building up some snowboard balance for my upcoming Canada trip, I really enjoy it for unwinding.

Geocaching; I couldn't believe this existed when I heard about it for the first time. If you don't know what it is a google search will sort you out. The adventures I have had caching in just my local suburbs in the middle of the night with friends are easily equal to those I have had overseas.

I enjoy listening to the Joe Rogan experience podcast while driving or just relaxing, strangly enough I think this single podcast has changed me for the better after countless hours of listening. I do also enjoy music of many different types but I do trend towards more chill genres at the moment.

Lately I have not been watching many movies instead opting for docos on anything and everything with anything to do with space being my favourite.

Though my currently lifestyle doesn't allow it much I do have a soft spot video games, mainly anything Halo or DDR; I defiantly don't mind having a play to get my nostalgia on.

Judo is a sport that I trained in for 10 years going to various large competitions including nationals, travelling has caused me to stop training recently and the fear of picking up injuries that will stop be from hiking and climbing has re-enforced that; never the less it is still an interest of mine and something that has shaped the way I am today.

• writing
• books
• photography
• fitness
• movies
• video games
• traveling
• bouldering
• music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• surfing
• snowboarding
• sports
• rock climbing
• track and field
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I do like dubstep but I discovered 8tracks.com now I listen to anything depending on what I'm doing and what mood I'm in.

Movies: Again I like all types of movies, maybe I'm just easily please. A few favourites are: Fight Club, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Godfather, Waking Life, Kaboom, The Fountain, The Man from Earth, Iron Man and Super Troopers.

Books: I haven't got into a book since the Harry Potter days, maybe books aren't for me (or the right one hasn't come along)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I did write the following in Personal Description before I realised that it was not a personal description :P. So here is the story of my year so far.

Prompted by a two week trip to LA, Vegas and Ottawa, I quit my Job as an electrician to Travel and photograph. Though I didn't know it at the time this was my first encounter with the CS lifestyle. When I landed in Ottawa I met two awesome chicks that my mate knew from his previous adventures who took us onto their couches for the week. What a fun week full of memories I had; at this point what I wanted to do with my time away from work was clear.

LA:

Vegas:
Ottawa:
Montreal:

At the time I was training in Judo and was heavily into fitness.

The first adventure I embarked on was a 4 day trip in a hire van with my best mate to Mardigrass (a marijuana prohibition rally) in Nimbin NSW. This trip introduced me to the backpacker lifestyle and the people that followed it, the stories that I have from the trip are now treasured memories.

Mardigrass:

Immediately after getting back from Nimbin I started researching campervans so I could hit the road ASAP! Long story short I made a bad call and bought a dead set lemon of a Van causing a massive loss of money and time, but thats ok! My Grandma came to the rescue gifting me her old Station wagon so she could get a easier to park car; Thanks Grandma! I chucked a mattress in and headed to North QLD to visit a old friend.

Around this time I discovered rock climbing and before long I found my self climbing a few days a week as well as doing day hikes. I needed to start building skills to get unique landscape photos.

Queenstown NZ was next on the to do list with two mates. Here I started to learn a bit more about snow sports, experienced a variety of adventure sports and met many different people.

Queenstown:

Straight out of the Queenstown trip I jumped into a mates 4wd and headed West towards a little town called Birdsville on the edge of the Simpson desert, learning more and more about travel along the way. At this point I was addicted to chasing the best sunrise and sunset photos I could find.

Birdsville:

At this stage I am climbing indoors and out as much as the skin on my hands will allow.

I am fortunate enough to have some family members living in VIC who are knowledgeable in hiking and other adventure sports, so I was back in the wagon heading South towards the remaining snow AUS has to offer for the year. I was lucky enough to experience snow shoeing, mountain biking and various hikes.

Wodonga trip:

Finally a trip comes up where I don't have to drive alone (not that I mind) my best mate and his girl friend head to North QLD in the wagon with me camping in random places along the way. Once we made the drive up we climbed QLDs highest mountain, rock climbed everything we could and snorkled at various beaches.

Photos from this trip are yet to be released as I arrived home the night before writing this :D

Teach, Learn, Share

Unfortunatly being a qualified electrician does not help me outside of QLD, BUT! I love teaching people about photography, whether it be simple exposure control, light modifiers or post production.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, New Zealand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia

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