HOME ON WHEELS

Pack up, get rid of your shit, and hit the road for a new life.

By Crispin Cannon and Priscilla Levac

Crispin Cannon photos.

We’ve been living in a 33-foot Fifth Wheel trailer with our two Huskies for more than a year now. We wanted to make surfing a part of our daily life. The idea of letting go of everything and moving into an RV sounded so liberating to us. Last spring we got the trailer, Priscilla registered for Raw Food School in California for the summer and we started our surf road trip.

It was a pretty big commitment at first, especially with two big dogs. We ended up with a used Fifth Wheel that felt livable and mobile enough. It’s too big to get to secluded spots, but allows us to be in different places longer term, which is the goal. RV life has been one of the coolest experiences. Letting go and getting rid of all our stuff was the start of a new lifestyle that made us realize what’s really important, and that less can definitely be more.

We want sun and surf in our daily routine, so a house on wheels is perfect. At first it felt like we were living in a trailer, but now it’s our home. It’s pretty cool to be driving somewhere and you can just pull over and have your home with you. When we moved out of our conventional house in B.C., we went to Indonesia for a month. It was a sick way to start our life in the RV. We went on a trip and came back to a house on wheels to take anywhere.

Priscilla`s school was in Fort Bragg, California in July. We camped wherever we felt like. The whole thing felt surreal. Crispin spent his time around Fort Bragg searching the coast for surf spots. It’s a weird little town of red necks and hippies with a big meth problem. The summer is super windy and the swell is usually shit, but he would get out a few times a week in the choppy, sharky water.

We continued south and parked in Santa Cruz for two months, where we surfed and launched Priscilla`s new raw food business: therawlivestyle.com. The surf was really good in Santa Cruz. Because the coastline is so jagged, there’s always a spot picking up waves so you can surf everyday. The crowds are pretty bad there when swell comes in, though.

The water and weather started to get cold in the fall, so we drove down to Encinitas. The views from the back window of the RV in the state parks down there were some of the best in California. We didn’t want to leave. Good surf, sunshine everyday, and great food.

We ended up staying in a paved park in Oceanside. It felt like a movie set of plastic grass and manicured palm trees planted between the concrete pads. You’d expect plastic flamingos, but it was getting close to Christmas so all the other RVs had holiday decorations. It was great people watching.

After Christmas we surfed and drove back up to Canada. It had been six months since we left our previous home in Squamish, B.C. The long rainy winter in Squamish has made us dream about the comforts of a conventional house, but it would be hard to give up the ability to spontaneously move to a new place whenever you feel like it.