Still Sideways: Riding the Edge Again after Losing My Sight - Hardcover

Raney, Devon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1938340892 ISBN 13: 9781938340895

Verlag: Patagonia, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

Before a surfing accident caused thirty-three-year-old Devon Raney to lose all but 15 percent of his vision, he had already lived an extraordinary life. Time and again he’d gone against the grain to maximize time for his passions―surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding―bringing him into the direct path of colorful characters, unexpected adventures, and even the occasional brush with death. Through it all, Devon’s commitment to outdoor adventure never wavered. If anything, he learned to approach the other commitments he would make in life―as a husband and as a father―with the same passion and dedication he’d applied to board sports.

So when facing a devastating mid-life challenge, Devon once again went against the grain -- sideways. Instead of retreating into a life made smaller by the things he could no longer do―drive, build houses, read to his young daughter―Devon resolved to keep his commitments to the same passions that had defined and sustained him. Using his remaining peripheral vision, he developed a style of tandem snowboarding, figured out how to read the waves, and carried himself through his daily life in such a way that few people other than his close friends and family were aware of his vision loss.

Still Sideways makes the case for the sustaining power of nature for a new generation of outdoor enthusiasts: the late Gen X / early millennial generation that has one foot firmly in adulthood and the other foot buckled into a binding. Readers will relate to Devon’s stubborn refusal to organize his life around convention and will be inspired by how his dogged devotion to shredding brings him salvation, not comeuppance, when it all hits the fan. A must-read for any mid-life adventurer, Still Sideways intersperses a gripping narrative of Devon’s incredible decade and flashbacks of formative experiences from his youth and young adulthood with humor, candor, and authenticity.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Working-class American adventurer Devon Raney was born in Goleta, California, and currently lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with his wife Rebecca and daughter Madrona. Devon fell in love with surfing and skateboarding at an early age and went on to spend most of his life riding a board of some kind. Devon has spent countless hours searching for good waves, smooth snow, and flowing skate parks.

He spent a decade as a construction project manager before starting his own homebuilding company in 2007. A year later, in September 2008, Devon hit his head on the hard sand bottom while surfing in Northern Oregon. He lost 85 percent of his eyesight as a result of a genetic disorder triggered by the head trauma. Devon and Rebecca are the owners of YES Please! Coffee and have been successful business owners for nearly twenty years.

Devon navigates his visually impaired world in a way that makes it hard to recognize his disability. He remains active in the passions he has known since childhood although he takes a very different approach these days and often has help from a friend. Still Sideways is his memoir and second book.

Tom Burt is a legendary snowboarder and board designer, owner of Winterstick Snowboards. He lives North Lake Tahoe.

Jeff Hawe is a photographer, writer, traveler, adventurer and board rider. He accompanied Devon on his Seattle to Baja bike ride. He lives in Seattle and Hawaii.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Prologue: This is How I’ve Always Seen It

“Kneel down, keep your equipment beneath you and both hands on your snowboard,” our guide shouted. I felt the rotor wash, followed by a whirlwind of snow on my face, and then listened to the change in pitch the engine made as the helicopter pulled away from the peak.

I stood up and watched the chopper descend into the valley on the east side of the Cascade Mountain Range, and then tried to eye my own way down. The steep gullies were calling my name and their walls were begging to be slashed. Little pillow lines stood out like partially submerged boulders in a swift creek. I turned my back to the valley and began stomping down the snow to create a flat section in the pitch where I was standing. Then I lay my board down on the level bed and strapped into my binders. It was February 2006, and I was about to take my first heli-boarding run.

Ron Hendrickson, his brother Gary Hendrickson, and his son David stood nearby hooting with excitement and buckling their bindings as well. I looked at David, and said, “Are you ready?” He was smiling ear to ear. A senior in high school, the kid was a ripping snowboarder, and I knew he would be right beside me all the way down. I wiggled my board into position, listened to the instructions from our guide Ken from North Cascade Heli Skiing, and prepared to drop after giving Ken a few seconds head start.

Almost immediately, I passed our guide. The snow was smooth, bottomless, and with enough moisture to keep it stable throughout the steep sections. When I found a snow panel with significant pitch I was able to make carving surf turns without the snow blowing out beneath my contact edge. The snow held, compacted nicely in my turns, and was still cold enough to keep me moving fast in the flat sections. It was perfection.

I rode through the trees and into the valley. I spotted the helicopter sleeping peacefully in the open snowfield and kept my board running flat on its base to maintain my speed as I rode through the valley floor. I took my board off and waited beneath the rotor blades as I looked back up at my line. David was right behind me and he was riding in my track with speed and coming right at me. He threw up a little snow as he stopped and yelled, “That was awesome!” still smiling ear to ear.

In a minute we heard Ron, then Gary, and then Ken punched through the tree line and all three of them rode up to where David and I stood grinning. “You were supposed to stay behind me,” Ken scolded.

“I am sorry man, but this is a once in a lifetime deal for me. I just can’t slow down.”

Ken initially looked bummed, but he seemed to understand my enthusiasm and softened. “OK, maybe we can move over to another area where I can safely see you guys from top to bottom.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “I really appreciate it. I don’t want to be a pain, but it’s just too good out there to stop midway down. Let’s just meet up at the bottom instead.”

Two days later I walked through my front door in time for dinner and put my bags down on the hardwood floor of our living room. My ten-month-old daughter, Madrona, was crawling around in front of the fireplace. When she realized someone new had entered the room, she turned her head sideways and upwards, then smiled and giggled. My wife, Rebecca, sat cross-legged on the floor next to her, glowing, and said “hey,” as soon as I entered.

Leaving my bags where they fell, I took a seat on the couch near Rebecca and soon Madrona began pulling herself up my shin and holding my knee for stability as she stood smiling at me. I felt like I was the most important man alive, absolutely sure of myself, and with a confidence that can only come from being responsible for the well-being of others.

Sitting on the couch, radiating with happiness, I looked at Rebecca and just smiled. She nodded and returned her gaze to Madrona, and I knew she understood how stoked I was. It had been a dream of mine since I began snowboarding twelve years earlier to be dropped off at the top of mountain peaks by a helicopter and then snowboard the untouched powder below. It was expensive. I was thirty-one years old, I had the money, and I finally rode in a helicopter for the first time. For two days I enjoyed perfect, smooth, untracked powder while being shuttled up and down by a flying machine I had mostly seen in war movies.

Time stood still in that moment and I said to myself, “This is it, Devon. This is how you have always seen it.”

I looked down at Madrona again, then around our living room. Our house was an old Tudor built in 1890, nestled on a safe, dead-end street in the historic district of Tacoma, Washington. In that moment, with my eyes on my baby girl, I said to myself, “This house is worth a good chunk of change and it’s the only debt you have.” Still lost in my own prideful thoughts, I looked out the window at my truck, a new Chevy Silverado. It was parked next to Rebecca’s freshly acquired silver Volkswagen Eurovan. My ego grew even bigger as I said to myself, “Those are paid for,” and then laughed.

Rebecca probably assumed I was silently enjoying the gratification of fatherhood as Madrona played at our feet, and she would have laughed at me in a big way if she knew how swollen my head was becoming over material things. Still, despite my shallow vanity, I had the most profound realization of my life on that couch. I realized, as I looked at it all, that for the first time ever I was completely happy, and one hundred percent content. I could not think of anything more I wanted in that moment, or any part of my life I would change.

My brain shifted gears and I started looking at my life as a whole and the decisions I had made that put me in that happy place. I realized that many of the character traits I had been scolded for as a youth were now considered strengths as an adult. As far back as memory allowed I could recall being labeled stubborn, defiant, energetic, and persistent.

I started examining specific decisions that had put me into my career and built my lifestyle. I dropped out of college after only a year to work in construction. It was a disappointing move to almost everyone around me, but I wanted to work outside, and I wanted to eventually own my own company. I wanted to feel tired at the end of the day and see tangible results from my labor. So I worked in as many of the trades as I could with the intent of becoming a homebuilder.

I roofed houses. Framed houses. Laid hardwood floors. I repaired plaster walls, installed interior trim, and put up exterior siding. My favorite work was always as a carpenter, and most of my time was spent in some aspect of that trade. My enthusiasm for building houses was recognized by Ron Hendrickson when we met for the first time in the spring of 2000 when I was twenty-four years old. He was a successful, second-generation builder and he would go on to mentor me for the next ten years.

Sitting on that couch in 2006, I reflected on how much I loved being a project manager for him. I also knew my time to branch out on my own was coming soon. I was ready, and I sat poised to start my own company in less than a year.

I continued to examine the decisions I made in my youth that seemed to disappoint so many people yet I knew had been the right moves for me. The sports I had given up, soccer and baseball, so I could ride my skateboard whenever I wanted and surf when the waves were good. Not many people understood why I had quit those team sports, but it was the right call for me, and I began to recount all the days I had spent surfing that year and all the evenings I went to the skate park on my way home from work. Recognizing that my life had been built around my passions, I smiled as I reminded myself of the main reason I started in the trades. Nodding quietly, I said to myself, “It’s the freedom, Devon. You build houses for the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Patagonia
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1938340892
• ISBN 13: 9781938340895
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Patagonia; eu.patagonia.com; ; Jollemanhof 11; Amsterdam; 1019; Niederlande