Meet The Blogger: Bobby Swift

Born and raised in Newport Beach California, the ocean has always been a major part of my life. At an early age I started fishing from the public dock down the street from my house and shortly after my dad taught me how to surf and skim board. I soon broadened my horizons to bodyboarding, bodysurfing and deep sea fishing. Pretty much anything I could to get out on the water!

My childhood home was one block away from the famous big wave surf spot, the Wedge, so my interest in big wave surfing started as early as I can remember. At around 8 or 9 years old my parents bought a video tape recorder and my friends and I almost immediately started making videos of our surfing and skateboarding in our neighborhood.

As I got older though, we started getting into more and more trouble. Slowly but surely I stopped doing all of the things that made me happy to focus on partying and illegal activities. I didn’t realize at the time but the ocean has always kept my anxiety and depression at bay, and without it I stopped going to work or school almost completely. At this point my parents were forced to take action. They decided on a boarding school in Utah and away I went. I lived there for almost a year, where I had time to work on myself and ended up gaining a whole new perspective.

When I returned I knew I had to make a change, so I started fishing or going to the beach any chance that I could. As my friends and I improved at fishing, so did the fish we were catching! We would bring home all sorts of things from lobster to halibut, even tuna, but had no clue how to prepare and cook it. With help from all of our parents and the internet, we started to get the hang of it. Now I can make almost any dish you can think of, from smoked Tri-Tip to fresh sushi rolls, and many others. My hope is that by sharing my experiences with others, I can make a difference in someone else’s life, no matter how small that may be, and in the process work on my own issues and challenge myself by pushing my own limits in the kitchen as well as outdoors!

I moved north to Pacific Grove about 5 years ago, and it has been quite the culture shock. I went from riding my bike to the beach in board shorts, to taking 4 wheel drive trucks to the top of a mountain to backcountry snowboard. When I moved here I left everything that I knew and was comfortable with, and had to start over. I couldn’t be more grateful that I did. I have evolved as a person soo much.

I've made an awesome new group of friends and they have taught me a lot. On any given day you can find me and my buddies taking the boat out for local fish or crab, looking for mushrooms or jade, or surfing a few undisclosed locations haha. No matter what we get into, I always find a way to get home, make myself dinner and watch reruns of "The Office" before bed. On particularly cold nights, I always make a fire, and on warm summer nights, I will invite friends and family over to barbecue. I do not claim to be an expert in anything that I do, and I definitely do not claim to be a writer of any sort. I struggle with my own issues from drugs and alcohol to anxiety and depression, but I’m just a normal kid trying to figure it out. I have good days and bad days just like anyone else, but I am trying to better myself just a little everyday, and to me that is what’s important. Life is all about the people you love and the places you go, but it’s okay if you take a different path than most, God knows I did. I can't wait to start this journey and look forward to sharing with everyone. Keep your head up and keep moving forward.

—Bobby Swift