The Guide Who Arrived
at the Wrong Destination.

I followed the course. I did everything right. I arrived — and realized I had been using the wrong chart the whole time. This was not my destination. This was not my life. And I hated myself for not seeing it sooner.

I grew up in Prince Rupert, on the ocean. Commercial fished in our village territory with family. Came to Vancouver, worked hospitality, competed in beach volleyball at a national level, travelled, sold things I was good at selling — all the way up to a job that came with every season ticket, every expense account, and all the beer a man could want. I had everything the system promises. And I was miserable.

So I sold everything and went to Victoria to get my helicopter license — a childhood dream I had never let go of. I flew over the most spectacular sailing grounds in the world and didn’t know yet I was looking down at my future. When that door closed I found my way onto a sailboat. The ocean I had always belonged to just had a different vessel waiting for me.

That was 2017. Since then I have sailed and taught in Greece, Croatia, Thailand, the BVI, the Bahamas, Mexico, and up and down this BC coast I love. I take one group a month. I was named ASA Instructor of the Year — not something I chased, just something that confirmed I was finally on the right course. I am a member of the Killer Whale Clan of the Gitga’at First Nation — born into it, and honoured by what that means more deeply with every year I spend on the water. The values were always part of me. The ocean just helped me understand them. Respect for nature. Moving with it, not against it. Taking only what you need. My friends are out there right now — their own boats, their own oceans, living a life they didn’t know was available to them. That is the most rewarding feeling I have ever had. And I never take a single day of it for granted.