Ethan Stewart

The Friendship Paddle 2016

Born and raised on Cape Cod, Ethan Stewart has been calling Santa Barbara home since that great El Nino winter of 1998. On his way to being Editor-at-Large of The Independent, Stewart has worked as a bellhop, a carpenter, a surf shop lackey, an overnight security guard on a sprawling Gaviota ranch, a delivery truck driver, a medical marijuana grower, a school teacher, and a landscaper. A passionate explorer of Mother Nature's more open and wild places, Stewart reckons Boston Red Sox baseball is the closest thing he has to religion, considers the ocean to be a mandatory daily activity and has been sleeping with sand in his bed for as long as he can remember. He has won both national and state awards for his environmental journalism and health writing. His work has appeared in everything from the Surfers Journal and National Geographic to Time Magazine and ESPN. He has a dog named Danger, a wife from Montana named Anna, and a sweet baby girl named Sawyer.

Three years ago Ethan was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. He has challenged it head on with his friends and family at his side.

In Ethan's own words, "it has been a challenging few weeks for us here in the Stewart Clan as the doctors at Stanford have discovered that my cancer is back. or, more accurately, it likely never left. 3 years ago, this disease came scary close to taking me out but, thanks to my friends and my family and my doctors, I pulled through and got spit out into the channel only to find this pure package of smiling bald joy waiting for me...this time around, the situation is heavy for sure but not nearly as gnarly. i have options and i have my secret weapons, this little girl and her mom. I wonder what rewards await after this go 'round...stay tuned, the adventure continues...#FuckCancer".

On September 24th, The Friendship Paddle, along with Ethan's friends and family, will paddle across the Santa Barbara Channel honoring Ethan and his family.