180 South and stuff

Hi there. You should watch this movie. It was there lurking on the Netflix splash page for, like, ever, and last night I finally clicked, “Play.” And was fairly transfixed.

It’s about Yvon Chouinard, and a little 10,000-mile road trip he took to from Ventura to the Southern tip of South America back in 1968. That was before he founded a little company called Patagonia. Maybe you’ve heard of it? I dunno. Anyway. It’s also about a younger dude, the one making the movie, and a similar journey he made recently to the lands of Patagonia—although his was by boat.

Yep certain rad people are still brave enough to split from their workaday lives and just, like, adventure. Lots of sweeping footage of Patagonia’s rugged coastline. And lots of talk about how easy it was to be a mountaineering/surf bum in 1968. "You could buy a car for 15 bucks and just live out of it ... " et cetera et cetera.

I think it's supposed to be an "environmentalist" movie, but what I took away from it is that whole idea about the journey being the thing, not the destination. And how adventures usually achieve their true awesome nature when things go wrong.

Like I said, worth watching and thinking about the world beyond yer computer. Ya know.