Jacob has accepted a new job at Engine Yard in San Francisco, CA as a Senior Ruby on Rails Developer!  We will be driving across the country starting September 18th, arriving around September 24th and he will start his job on September 27th.

In July, Jacob mentioned he wanted to look for a new job and started looking in Boston and California. I fully supported him and the job adventure began.

He got three interviews in California and four interviews in Boston. We went out to San Diego together for his interview and caught some great surf. He went to San Francisco by himself for his interviews. We have been to San Francisco to surf, camp and hike a bunch of times and have always loved the area.

After the long interviewing process, he was offered jobs in Boston and San Francisco. After a lot of deliberation and weighing all the options, the best job offer for Jacob was at Engine Yard.

We have a couple of weeks to pack up everything and move out to California. His new job originally wanted him to start on September 20th, but it wouldn't have given us enough time to get everything together to move.

Both Jacob and I have always wanted to live in California for many reasons. We are excited and grateful that we have the opportunity to live there. While Jacob is starting his new job, I will be Spreading the Swell anywhere and everywhere, freelance designing, discovering the area, meeting new people and surfing.

We are both very excited to drive across country, discovering all the great things California has to offer, meeting new people, surfing a new coast, and all the adventures ahead. We have a lot to look forward too.

We will definitely be back to visit the east coast as all our family and friends are here. We will always be die hard New England surfers, but now we are going to discover a new coast, new waves, new mountains to snowboard, and meet new surfers on the west coast.

Spread the Swell,
J-Bird 

Jacob and I headed out to San Diego, CA last week. We went to surf and "Spread the Swell." 

We caught some really nice clean swell and visited a bunch of shops. We also visited with Jacob's cousin, Shiva. He lives in LA and came down to San Diego for a day and then we traveled to LA for a night and caught some good swell there too. We also visited with some old college friends that live out in San Diego. It was great catching up with family and friends. 

We also visited the Surf Museum in Oceanside, SD. The exhibit that was up was "Women on Wave" from 1700-2010. The exhibit was well organized and we learned a lot! I really recommend checking it out if you are in the area. It was a great learning experience and the museum is great.

You can check out pictures from our trip here and some pictures below:

Jacob and J-Bird in San Onofre

J-Bird catching a wave at Stairs in LA

Southern California Coast

J-Bird and Jacob

We hope to go back soon and enjoy the beauty of San Diego and California.

Spread the Swell,
J-Bird

I have been working on some new BirdSwell linoblock and digital prints this summer. All prints can be viewed and purchased in the new BirdSwell Etsy Shop.

These prints will are also available on the BirdSwell website too!

All of my prints are printed on high quality recycled paper.

Here are some of the new prints:

7x5 Digital Print: Eye of the Ocean
 

5x7 Linoblock Print: Blue Seaweed Gal
 

5x7Digital Print: Swirly Bird
 

Enjoy and Spread the Swell,
J-Bird

This past weekend we participated in a protest organized by, Hands Across the Sand against Offshored Drilling. This movement started in Florida by Dave Rauschkolb.

It is a simple statement:

STEP 1
Go to the beach at 11 AM in your time zone for one hour, rain or shine.

STEP 2
Join hands for 15 minutes at 12:00PM forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in our coastal waters.

STEP 3
Leave only your footprints.

You can view all the pictures here from Hampton, NH event.

 

 

This past Saturday, June 12, The Hive in Gloucester, MA held their Re(Opening) of their gallery. The Hive is "a non-traditional arts and culture collective based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Part art gang, part support system, part gallery."

BirdSwell is one of the artist that is represented in this awesome gallery among other really amazing artists.

If you are in Gloucester, you should definitely check out the great work in The Hive. It is open Monday - Friday 10-5 (and on weekends by chance)

Spread the Swell,
J-Bird