The California Coastal Mission

We are students at Stanford from California, Michigan and the Marshall Islands who were first united by our love for surfing and great bodies of water.  We are taking that love down the Californian coast from Monterey to San Diego to find what awaits along the way.

We are trying to listen to the song of California’s coast through our kayaks, scientific findings, and our interviews as we kayak from Monterey to Mexico—the geographical lower-half of California.  We want to show ourselves and others that adventure can be had in the backyards of millions, though few ever realize the possibility.  Throughout this time, we will keep an open eye to an environment in distress by comparing observed marine life and human impediments to natural marine life cycles from to region to region.  By sharing our images, interviews, writings, research, and travels we hope to convey the adventure that awaits outside of our back doors and prove that the adventurous spirit of the West is still alive.

We will leave in mid- to late-June from Monterey, and will spend most of the following 8 weeks at sea.  If you live between Monterey and San Diego and have any interest in what we are doing, we would love to hear from you and hopefully meet up (we will paddle right up to your beach).  This journey is a dream come true for us, and we hope to share it with all of you.

We would love to thank Stanford University, the Bill Lane Center for the American West, the Montgomerys, Pam Matson and Meg Caldwell for all of their help.

Love,

Lane Hartman, Ian Montgomery, Michael Taylor