Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25122
A native of San Francisco Gianna Marino always knows where home is. But she is often elsewhere, off the beaten track, in countries very unlike her place of birth. "I love to remove myself from the everyday comforts of home and look at life from a complete- ly different perspective-even if it is sometimes hard to stomach." Her adventurous spir- it has led her through Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Mexico and, most recently, Africa (Dust under Skin: A Travel Journal, page 34). Miles Masterson is the editor of the popular South African surf/snow/sRate/culture magazine blunt. An avid surfer, skater, wake and snowboarder, Miles' job gives him an excuse to go boarding wherever and whenever he has the urge. Miles includes England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Australia and Indonesia on his Been There, Done That list. But every time he travels, Africa calls him back (Visions of Sand, page 32). Chuck Graham, no stranger to extreme surf in remote locations, f irst traveled to Jeffreys Bay in 1985 with the US national surf team. Since then, he's been back to Africa nine times (Where the Desert Turns to Sea, page 30). He has t raveled all over the south, east and west, climbing the mountains, rafting the rivers and photographing the people and wildlife. Chuck writes for Surfing and SURFER magazines. Photographer Jeff Barbee has camped, hitchhiked and 4x4'd across 15 African coun- tries.(Meeting the Beasts, The African Safari, page 42), His journeys, Africa's wide- open spaces, the sky, the people, the land, the sun and the moon are all the tools of his photographic palette. " In a way, I am interpreting the art of the earth for others to see. Freedom to me means the space to prac- tice my art." When not traveling to Tajikistan or photographing oil rigs off the coast of Angola, he can be found relaxing in the river valleys of Namibia, photographing desert elephants and looking for quartz crystals. He now makes ends meet working as a photographer for UNESCO and Mercy Corps International. His images have appeared in Human Rights Watch magazine, Le Monde Weekly and Out There magazine. After working for The Dallas Morning News for eight years, Shermakaye Bass quit to take a year-long trip around the world. "I couldn't exactly explain to my editor or my parents why I would quit a great job to wander-but now I can. The experience of backpacking and literally working my way from Japan to the Basque was peak." During the trip, she worked as a goat herder in France, a volunteer for a solar ener- gy company in Nepal, a cook at an ashram in Java, a bead-stringer in Bali and a contribut ing editor/writer for the Prague-based magazine Pozor. In this issue (Concrete Eden, page 68), Shermakaye wanders through the surreal world of Mexico's Las Pozas. Rob Reed is the former editor of BIKE magazine-which is how he gets away with saying what's best (Gear: Bikes, page 58)-and is currently surfing couches on a mountain bike tour of Arizona, California and Colorado.