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‘The Cold Is for Me’: This Surfer Is a ‘Happy Recluse’ on Vancouver Island Coast

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In a fast-paced world of constant floods of content and hurried pursuits of adventure, two surfers have found happiness in their reclusive nature on the cold ocean.

Experiencing the outdoors isn’t about a daily Instagram post, constant blog updates, or even using apps to help get outside. For surfers Pete Devries and Jeremy Koreski, it’s about being in the cold waves, taking it all in, and processing their time on the water.

Devries and Koreski are longtime surf partners — they’ve been riding waves together for 20 years — in their home of Vancouver Island. The cold ocean is their refuge. In “Happy Recluse,” Koreski does the shooting while Devries surfs the waves.

In the film, Devries refers to himself as a “happy recluse,” saying, “The cold is hard for a lot of people — it’s raw, it’s stormy, the conditions rarely align. No one’s going to tell you where these good waves are. You really have to put in your time … The cold is not for everyone, but it’s for me.”

Watch this short film by Arc’teryx and catch an awesome glimpse at their photography and footage of their hometown surf sessions.

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