Sunday Reads: Tim Ward’s famous stickers; quitting work for a surfing, hiking adventure

Icons of Santa Cruz: From mermaids to otters to VW vans, Life At Sea stickers create a graphic illustration of the California life

In the latest installment of his Icons of Santa Cruz series, Wallace Baine traces the evolution of the Life At Sea stickers that began with Tim Ward drawing a shark in 2003 and which has bloomed into a many-tentacled operation extending from water to land and from Santa Cruz to Hawaii and Florida. Read his Sunday column here.

I quit my job to surf and hike across the world; you can do it, too

(Via Evan Quarnstrom)

Santa Cruz native Evan Quarnstrom quit his job with the International Surfing Association to travel the world. He’s been to Brazil, Colombia, Chile and right now, he’s in Bali, “where fast, powerful, waves that break over shallow coral reefs have been quite the contrast from the more mellow, sloping point breaks that I learned to surf on at home in Santa Cruz.” He’s also taken time to grieve his late father, Dean Quarnstrom, to come to terms with his famous local family and consider what sort of life he wants to lead. He reminds us that, with a bit of courage, we, too, could pick up and change our lives. Read his op-ed here.