Outdoor Diva Tina Sorenson
... is a co-worker, friend, inspiration, and partner in sublime. A year ago she started work at my store: A coast to coast outdoor gear co-op. Location: Berkeley, California. We were opposed from the start. Me: A journeyman, greasy, gear-head, east-coast bike mechanic. Her: An all-enveloping, life-affirming, customer service rep. (by day), Santa Rosa-store transplant. We spoke little. It took time, Tahoe, and two or three passions-in-common to awaken a connection.
As mutually-southbound, weather-irrelevant bike commuters, we began pedaling home together. On these dark, windswept rides I began to appreciate Tina's limitless love of the outdoors, and its never-ending potential for discovery. But, being a mountain biker, I wasn't too interested when Tina organized a store road-ride to circle Lake Tahoe. It was her contagious sense of adventure, that got me out there. In the end, she, I, and several coworkers completed the longest ride most of us had ever done. The longest, until she rallied a group for the Napa century, a few weeks later.
Maybe more than anything, snowboarding with Tina has shown me the truest sense of her spirit and soul in nature. Riding faster than most, she uses the mountain for more than a trip from A to B. We share the sense of infinite possibility on snow, a knowledge that no two runs will ever be the same. At the lift, her face beams a joy that couldn't exist indoors.
During a solo hike of the entire John Muir Trail this summer, Tina's exquisite photography revealed an appreciation for beauty in even nature's smallest details. As a student, she balances work and play. Also finding time to support my hockey and softball teams. Tina Sorenson lives it to love it.
Nominated by Jeffrey Connelly.
