Patagonias Liz Clark: The Matador Interview

Writer, captain, surfer, Patagonia Ambassador, as well as all around badass Liz Clark has been roving given 2006 aboard her 40-foot sailboat, Swell.

Liz Clark, captain of Swell

LIZ CLARK sailed from California along a Pacific coast of Latin America, afterwards opposite a South Pacific to French Polynesia, surfing uncrowded waves, as well as traveling, as she says, during a gait not many faster than you can run.

I first review about her in an early emanate of Wend Magazine as well as felt a brew of envy / stoke about her global roller mission. In a years given Ive a single after another following her blog, her articles inThe Surfers Journal, as well as alternative magazines, as well as have come to unequivocally admire her prophesy for hold up lived during ground turn (or in her case, sea level). She writes:

Ive marked down my each day impact upon a earth. you live closer to nature. Solar as well as breeze appetite yield my electricity. you make use of less, need less, as well as want less, yet have never felt some-more fulfilled.

I exchanged a garland of emails with Liz whilst she was behind upon vacation family in San Diego over a past integrate weeks. Heres a tiny of a correspondence:

[DM] you saw where youre behind in a states until Oct to work upon your book project. How is it going?

[LC] Um, yes, a book projectThings have been a bit stalled for a moment. you took upon this plan a bit prior to you was ready to do it. you needed income to correct my boat, though right divided a turned in to a many bigger time commitment than you had expected. you was certainly nave to consider it could have been accomplished in a time support which you had creatively concluded upon. Ive been burning a candle during both ends ever given you started. you need a tiny time to get behind to my excursion as well as step divided fr! om it fo r a tiny whilewell see what happens

How does essay a book differ from your blog?

Liz foraging papayas

This book is conceptually a visible piecephotos, sketches, as well as scans, mixed with snippets of my writing, quotes, etc. you did a ton of modifying of my journals as well as blogs from a final 4 years to intersperse via a photos.

The greatest disproportion between essay a blog as well as a book is which blogs can stand alone. They have been simple, as well as only need me to complete, since when essay for a book, you have to consider of how any judgment is starting to figure as well as create a larger piece, as well as afterwards work behind as well as forth with an editor to get it only right.

What books have been you now reading? Whose essay styles have been you stoked on?

Liz repair leak

Im now reading The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. He was an intensely talented French sailor as well as writer. His essay character captures a feeling of being during sea improved than any alternative sea-going book you have ever read. If you want to know what it feels similar to out there, review this book.


After 4 years of sailing around a world, whats left? What places have been still upon your to-visit list.

Too many to name!!!! a Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, a Marshall Islands, Kiribati, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Indo, India, Africa, Brazil, a Caribbean

Whats it been similar to perplexing to bond with people youve met whilst youve been nomadic? Have any of a places youve visited impressed you sufficient which youve been tempted to call your excursion quits?

Liz, smooth cutback

Connecting with people in tiny places is easy. Everyone is some-more open as well as meddlesome in talking. Saying goodbye is regularly tough though. You regularly goal which youll see them again, though you unequivocally never know.

I could have built a tiny beach shed in a ton of a places Ive been. you consider a some-more about being ready to stop. Who knows!? Im not putting a ton of vigour upon myself to make it all a approach around a world. Its some-more about continuing to follow my heart.

Reading your blog, quite about a need to continuously correct / attend to Swell reminds me of a integrate people you know who have pursued lives based upon sustainable movement namely which whilst others competence suppose their lives as simple, in reality their lives have been constantly filled with work planting, harvesting, repair machines / systems, attending to animals, fire mitigation, splitting firewood, etc.

It seems however which even with all a work required, they (and you) still have approach some-more time to only enjoy being where they have been or to be beautiful than they would if vital a some-more convenient lifestyle. Can you speak a bit about how many hours you outlay operative any week to means yourself (making repairs, blogging, print shoots, interviewsanything which could be considered work) contra how many time you get to chill / roller / recreate?

Filling a propane tank

Great question. It patently differs from week to week, incident to situation, though truly, you outlay scarcely 90% of my waking time dedicated to progressing Swell, sustaining hold up aboard (filling water, getting food, fuel, gas for cooking, cleaning, as well as creation repairs). Then once which is accomplished there is additionally essay blogs, answ! ering em ails, corresponding with sponsors, fans, ordering parts, etc. If you dont explicitly make time for surfing, yoga, as well as relaxing, a effort can completely swallow me.

Then when you throw in essentially moving a vessel to meet someone somewhere, similar to operative with a filmmakers from Dear as well as Yonder or assembly up with a photographer here or therethese missions add a whole extra dimension to a workload.

Planning for these visits can even figure my whole year since of hurricane season in any region. But inside of all which work, you try to maintain a unequivocally benefaction attitude. If Im scraping algae off a bottom of a hull, afterwards you try to keep my mind there. If Im essay a blog, you totally immerse myself in it. If you was thinking about all you had to do each second, Id go mad!

The a single thing which keeps it all in viewpoint for me is a actuality that, notwithstanding being as busy as a New York stockbroker, you get to be surrounded by inlet a majority of a time. Nature is where you get my energy. Thats what makes it all seem inestimable to me. Plus, knowing which many of a time you have a freedom to say, Not today, a conditions have been perfect to check out which spot upon a north finish of a island, balances out a actuality which Im mostly a worker to a voyage. But you find which tough work is never as tough when you hold in it.


Was there a time when you felt similar to you were operative tough though not believing in it? What led you to aspire to a excursion of Swell?

Liz: Home is wherever Im with Swell.

Well, you all have to do pointless jobs which arent a hearts calling. you worked copiousness of those kind of jobs prior to you left upon this voyage: you filled scuba armoured column in a dive shop, sliced beef in a deli, taught kids how to surf, made espresso drinks, cleaned a! s well a s waxed boats, as well as worked each stage of grill jobs. you worked tough during all of them though cant unequivocally say you believed in them. you did hold which they wouldnt final forever, though!

When were young, you need to get out as well as feel a beat of a universe as well as workforce to know what sold role you competence fill. you consider a when you get a tiny older, as well as you sojourn longer than you know you should in a pursuit which you dont quite hold inthats when work can turn unequivocally hard. In my eyes, a not a tangible work or a highlight or a long hours which make a pursuit hard, a tough when low down you know which you have been not listening to your heart.

Obviously, you dont regularly have a luxury to precisely choose a work, though even to be looking beyond which pursuit as well as saying how it can lead you to a alternative a single (yet still appreciating a current a single for a place upon your Path)that kind of determination regularly seemed to make my not-so-dream jobs reduction hard.

Even now, when Im hauling 5-gallon jerry cans of H2O in midday tropical heat, or essay a blog during a finish of a long day, or operative during a top of a mast as well as comprehend which you have to reduce myself down to get a different distance screwdriver afterwards pull myself behind upyes, all of this is hard, though low down you hold in this lifestyle or pursuit as well as feel similar to you am being loyal to myself when it comes to my altogether mode of life upon this planet. It was my heart which led me to aspire to this voyage!

Community Connection

To sense some-more about Liz Clark, please visit her blog.


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