2025 Comox Valley Collective Spring
When I stop for a snack in Paradise Meadows, I hold my granola bar close. Within moments, a robin-sized bird bends the top of a nearby mountain hemlock, its dark-eyed […]
Words By Ryan StuartPhotos By Dan Strickland

GROWING APPLES AND MAKING CIDER
2024 Comox Valley Collective Fall
Not far from the tree Courtenay’s Old Orchard neighbourhood comes by its name honestly. In the 1890s, Joseph McPhee bought several strategic parcels of land around Courtenay, surveyed the future […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

SUSTAINING A 60-YEAR COMMERCIAL FISHING TRADITION
2024 Comox Valley Collective Summer
Some people stumble upon their calling. Others seem born to it. Both apply to the Veloso family’s ties to the Comox Valley’s fishing industry. Steve Veloso’s grandparents, Joe and Nilda […]
Words by Ryan StuartIllustrations by Lauren Spinner

MAKING CUMBERLAND TRAILS MORE INCLUSIVE
2024 Comox Valley Collective Spring
To the casual observer, Gene Wey is a glass-full-to-the-brim kind of person. When a doctor told him he would never walk again—three hours after crashing his mountain bike—he didn’t get […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Max McCulloch

FOUR WHEELS OF FORTUNE
2023 Comox Valley Collective Winter
Imagine two scenarios. The first is a quiet suburb of single-family homes—the Canadian dream—but with vans, campers, fifth wheels, and other RVs parked in your neighbours’ driveways and operating like […]
Words by Ryan StuartIllustration by Lauren Spinner

NOT A BIKE SHOP
Comox Valley Collective 2023 Summer
The vision for the Gravity MTB Garage sounds like a mountain biker’s dream. After a fun afternoon in the Cumberland forest, a group of riders pedals down the village’s main […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Luke Phillips

FRASER CAIN’S UNIVERSE
Comox Valley Collective 2023 Spring
Many people might be surprised to learn that one of the most successful astronomy news sites on the Internet is published from right here in the Comox Valley. Depending on […]
Words by Ryan StuartFeatured photo by Sara Kempner

BETTER BULLETINS
2022 Comox Valley Collective Winter
Colin Garritty has an enviable job. Four days a week, all winter long, he gets paid to ski and snowmobile the mountains of Vancouver Island. Somewhere different every day. Locations […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Colin Garritty

WHALE BREATH AND ANGEL WINGS
2022 Comox Valley Collective Fall
You don’t need to be an oyster farmer or sport fisherman for the daily ebb and flow of the ocean to impact your life. The tides influence everything from swimming […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Luke Phillips

T’AAM LAAN, STEERSMAN OF THE CANOE
2022 Comox Valley Collective Summer
In 2008, novice paddleboarder Norm Hann hatched a plan to travel by stand-up paddleboard (SUP), with boat support, along the proposed Northern Gateway tanker route from Kitimat, British Columbia, south […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Bruce Kirkby

WHY WE RISK
2022 Comox Valley Collective Spring
I don’t remember the summit of Mount Colonel Foster. I know I stood on it with my friends, Chris and Sean. I know we signed our names in the summit […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Sean Kerrigan

THE GIFT OF MOTION
2021 Comox Valley Collective Winter
Growing up in the Comox Valley, Mal Irvine, who uses they/them pronouns, often felt uncomfortable. They were assigned female at birth and curtsied to “societal pressure to just fit in […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Meredith Rose

ROCK BEATS WATER
2021 Comox Valley Collective Fall
Watching John Waters scramble up a rock face is like watching a monkey climb a tree. A moment ago, he stepped off the ledge at the bottom of Devil’s Ladder, […]
Words by Ryan StuartFeatured photo by Sara Kempner

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY
Comox Valley Collective 2021 Summer
What separates SOS Gear from other outdoor stores is not what it carries, but what it doesn’t. Like most gear shops, the store, located in a cul-de-sac across Cliffe Avenue […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Jenn Dykstra

PLANTING FARMERS
Comox Valley Collective 2021 Spring
Sarah Wilson always loved her veggies, even as a kid. She attributes the craving to growing up in Rivers Inlet, a remote, very rainy, and now mostly abandoned village on […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Sarah Wilson

HEALING DIRT
Comox Valley Collective 2020 Winter
One day, the Itatsoo Lake Trail will connect the community of Hitacu, near Ucluelet, to the lake hidden in the rainforest nearby. It will be a place for members of […]
Words by Ryan StuartFeatured photo by Scott Horley

GREY TURNED GREEN
Comox Valley Collective 2020 Fall
The last in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now. It’s hard to believe that Comox was once considered a creaking retirement destination. […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Luke Phillips

COURTENAY AFTER COVID
Comox Valley Collective 2020 Fall
The third in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now. How quickly we can adapt. That’s the underlying message inside historian Kristen Cohen’s […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Jenn Dykstra

TURNING DOWN THE TEMPERATURE
Comox Valley Collective Spring
The second in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now. MAY 2, 2040 At exactly 10:24 p.m. on May 1, Mother […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Jenn Dykstra

HOME IN THE HILLS
Comox Valley Collective 2020 Spring
I’m inching along the narrow ridge leading to 5040 Peak, a ski on either side of the crest, mushy spring snow in between, and an ugly consequence in both directions. […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Alex Mackay

YOU’LL BE GLAD TO HEAR: UNION BAY 2040
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Winter
This year, we’ll be exploring possible futures for the communities of the Comox Valley based on current community planning processes, local and global trends, and conversations with community leaders. Our […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Alexandre Crouzet

ABOVE AND BEYOND
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Fall
If you know what to look for, the signs of the Comox District Mountaineering Club (CDMC) are everywhere. A new log bridge near Indianhead Mountain. Brush cutting along the trail […]
Words by Ryan StuartFeatured photo by Ryan Stuart

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Summer
Jessica likes to eat her pot. Preferably in a gummy. But it could be years before she can buy them legally at a store in the Comox Valley. Jessica may […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Ultimate Grow

MARKINGS OF THE MIND
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Summer
Ian McKenzie sees things. These hallucinations started when he was a kid. He would hear voices while sitting in a room alone—sounds that weren’t quite English, so he called it […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Ian Mckenzie

ABANDON SHIP
Comox Valley Collective 2019 Spring
At one time she was probably a sporty trimaran, moored inside Comox Harbour. Then, during a fall wind storm her buoy lines broke. She ghosted across the water and ran […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Sara Kempner

SMOOTH MOVES
Comox Valley Collective 2018 Winter
Around 11am on a sunny Monday, Dan Espeseth, Sean Manara, and Chris Hancock show up for work. Instead of riding to their usual job at Dodge City Cycles (DCC), they […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Jenn Dykstra

ON A SWELL AND A PRAYER
Comox Valley Collective 2017 Winter
What a difference a year makes. I’m watching a small train of two-foot waves roll through a pack of paddlers at the start line of the 2017 MOMAR. One of these […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Dave Prothero

COMPASS ADVENTURE
Comox Valley Collective 2017 Summer
On the water, the fastest way between two points is rarely a straight line. Sailing, surfing, paddling, it’s all about understanding and anticipating the rhythm and pulse of the wind, […]
Words by Ryan Stuart

LET IT RAIN
Comox Valley Collective 2016 Winter
The rain patters the roof. Again. It feels like every morning for the last week started this way. Me lying in bed, my senses slowly coming into focus: warmth, darkness, […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhoto by Dave Prothero

NOT JUST FOR KIDS
Comox Valley Collective 2016 Summer
The leap of faith challenges just about anyone. Standing at the top of a telephone pole, at the Tribune Bay Outdoor Education Centre, you literally leap into space. Jump far […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Dave Prothero

FINDING FORBIDDEN
Comox Valley Collective 2015 Winter
There may be no finer view in the Comox Valley than the one from the top of Mount Becher in mid-winter. On a perfect blue bird day I trek up […]
Words by Ryan StuartIllustration by Ian Adams

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
Comox Valley Collective 2015 Spring
On a summer afternoon with life jacket-less tubers bobbing by, teenagers jumping off cliffs and dogs fetching sticks, it’s hard to believe the Puntledge River is famous among whitewater paddlers. […]
Words by Ryan StuartPhotos by Dave Prothero
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