Kristine Tompkins gets it.

Kristine Tompkins gave me my first kayak rolling lesson in a pool in Ventura California.

It was a clinic offered to Patagonia employees, and I was visiting the company. I might have been applying for a job. I can’t really remember because this was 1989? Kristine Tomkins, who was then Kristine McDivitt, was Patagonia’s CEO. 

I had recently been in Boise Idaho with my good friend Nell Newman. Nell was there for a board meeting of The Peregrine Fund, and Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, was also on the board. After a few days of meetings and bad fishing on the Snake River (the fishing was good, I was just bad at it) Yvon got to know me a bit. I was working at The North Face at the time, and Yvon said, “if you ever want to come work at a real company, give me a call”.

I did. And I got a kayak lesson out of the deal. But no job.

In fairness, Patagonia did offer me a job, but it took them weeks for the offer to churn through their bureaucracy, and by that time I took a job somewhere else. Kris, meeting me months later said “you’re the one that got away”.  Apparently, Patagonia was pretty cocky in their hiring and I was the subject of some self-reflection. 

I’m not disillusioned here. It wasn’t really ME they wanted. I wasn’t that important. But Yvon knew that if they hired me (a reasonable hire) they could also get Nell Newman, my then-girlfriend, to join the company. But not getting me, they lost the prospect of getting Nell.

Gotta keep your eye on the prize. 

A recent Departure article features a wonderful re-cap of Kris’ work in Patagonia the place, not the company, and her relentless pursuit of conservation. What an amazing individual. High on my hero list. I like to pretend I’m following her lead with my work in Iceland. At least this much is true; conserving land and providing habitat in perpetuity is literally and figuratively the most lasting thing we can do as modern humans. Kris is now trying to cement her work and legacy. I’ll try and do the same, and keep on rolling that proverbial kayak. 

Thanks, Kris.