Flow Point's video: FlowPoint TV S4 E7: PATAGONIA Part 2 - An Uncommon Adventure

Drive a Ford Econoline Van from Ventura California, to the southern tip of South America - Patagonia, over 10,000 miles. The year was 1968, and the objective seemed insane, partly because Patagonia was a huge unknown at the time. The players in this story?…Yvon Chouinard and Douglas Tompkins. 2 names most people have never heard, but they are probably two of the most disruptive people on the planet….in a good way. Yvon Chouinard started a climbing gear company that eventually became Patagonia, a brand most people would recognize. Douglas Tompkins co-founded The North Face, with his wife, and after continued success, decided to move to Patagonia and take up the objective of conservation. They ended up purchasing and conserving over 2,000,000 acres of land in Chile and Argentina…an area equivalent to almost 3 Yosemite National Parks. In 2010, a good friend of mine recommended a Documentary: “180 Degrees South" It follows a guy named Jeff Johnson in his effort to retrace or relive the original 1968 adventure, and attempt to climb a Volcano (Corcovado) in one of Doug Tompkins’ National Parks. The soundtrack for the movie is still my favorite. The scenery was like nothing I’d ever seen before. And the theme was infectious: didn’t matter if it was Yvon and Douglas in 1968, or Jeff Johnson in 2008,….the people on an adventure traveling south to this place called Patagonia were always changed through the act of adventuring. Through the act of overcoming….and simply continuing to show up. So, from that day 7 years ago, I was determined to make the trek south to Patagonia. Somehow, someway. What I never imagined was that I’d get to see Patagonia through the lens of my favorite sport: water skiing. Douglas Tompkins passed away in a Kayaking accident on Lago General Carrera almost exactly 2 years ago. The General is a massive lake, the biggest in Chile (4 times the size of Lake Tahoe), and is almost 2,000 ft deep. It is iconic because of its many marble caves and rock formations along its edges….features etched into stone by wave action on the million year old lake. But the lake can be unforgiving… It was the last stop on a 2,000 km road trip for us, starting in Santiago. Having even just a chance to ski the General in Patagonia was reason enough to make the trip. What we didn’t know was that we’d make so many new lifelong friends and memories along the way. Hard to beat that FlowPoint life. Unlike other episodes, this here is a full-blown Documentary of our 2+ weeks of travel in Patagonia, at the bottom of the World!! http://www.HOSports.com http://www.TheFlowPoint.com And if you wanna read more about Doug, from Yvon's point of view, here's one of the last things he wrote: https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/rebel-with-a-cause-yvon-chouinard-on-the-passing-of-his-lifelong-friend-doug-tompkins-20160106/