Camera: Sony Alpha 850, shot at 16mm focal length with LEE Filters
What North Park resident Scott Murphy loved about this desert scene was its seclusion. “Font’s Point gives you a 360-degree view of the badlands and Salton Sea, but it’s so hidden that you have to know a local, or someone who goes to the desert riding motorcycles or off-roading,” says Murphy, a medical photographer by day and landscape photographer by night and weekends. Once he spotted the red blooms, he knew he wanted to spotlight them against the grandiose backdrop in the sun’s last hour of light. “[Font’s Point] is best viewed at sunset,” he says. “It’s so peaceful. Locals bring chairs. Some even picnic.”
We Hit the Trails with 6 of San Diego’s A-List Adventurers
From Lake Hodges to Mount Laguna, follow these top athletes as they push the limits of their soul-stirring pursuits
Todd Glaser
By Erica Nichols, Gillian Flynn
Jussi Oksanen, retired Finnish snowboarder-turned-cyclist, scouts locations by bike for commercial lifestyle photography campaigns.
Todd Glaser
They’ve explored the world through their lenses. One is a former pro snowboarder from Finland. The other has claimed his own title as Kelly Slater’s trusted photographer. Together for this issue, Jussi Oksanen and Todd Glaser set their cameras on each other at their respective playgrounds: Oksanen hits the bike trails at Lake Hodges while Glaser and his wife, Jenna Klein, maneuver a switchback at Black’s Beach. The photographer’s world in San Diego proves limitless.
Jussi Oksanen
San Diego Trails – Jussi Oksanen
Todd Glaser
Jussi Oksanen never runs out of locations. Ever. The retired Finnish snowboarder-turned-cyclist brings his off-piste adventure to his photography career, exploring San Diego’s untamed corners to shoot lifestyle campaigns for Specialized bikes, Volkswagen, Kashi, and Fat Tire. With a sixth sense for light and topography, he scouts locations by bike, breezing through Borrego, Mount Laguna, Mount Israel, and his nirvana, Lake Hodges.
“If someone would have told me I’d be wearing more spandex than normal clothes, I’d say no f—ing way,” laughs Oksanen.
An overhead shot of lush Mount Laguna
Jussi Oksanen
Cyclists pausing at a mountain pasture
Jussi Oksanen
The craggy cliffs of Anza-Borrego
Jussi Oksanen
After an 18-year snowboarding career that spanned the Olympics, X Games, and US Open, Oksanen cofounded Mizu, which makes insulated water bottles, back in 2008. Here in San Diego, he tapped into a long-standing love of photography to tell brand stories with a stirring sense of adventure and place.
San Diego Trails – Jussi at sunset
“There are areas here like Mount Laguna and Mount Cuyamaca where you feel like you are in the Sierra Mountains,” he says.
Iman Wilkerson
Runner Iman Wilkerson likes to wind down her runs with a listen to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s “In a Sentimental Mood.”
Jussi Oksanen
For Iman Wilkerson, every run starts on instinct and ends with Coltrane. As the early morning fog lifts, the marathon runner and Lululemon ambassador winds down at Mission Trails or Mount Laguna’s Noble Canyon Trail. Each time, “In a Sentimental Mood” soundtracks her transition from runner to community creator at The Run Down, the app she cofounded in 2019.
The Run Down builds a tight-knit band of runners across six major US cities (San Diego and LA were first) by linking them with nearby running groups, races, and resources. There are amateurs prepping for their first 5K and seasoned pros gearing up for their next marathon (Wilkerson has completed Boston and NYC twice). From her post in University Heights, Wilkerson is reshaping a sport of solitude into an amoeba of runners across all ages, genders, body types, and experience levels.
“The more we’re connected, the more collaboration—you see people running together that you never thought you’d see,” she says. “It’s really cool to be able to have that kind of synergy.”
And it all starts on a path—gravel, dirt, concrete, whatever’s in front of her—where she says moving one’s feet quickly turns into liberation in motion.
Shelby Stanger
Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast host Shelby Stanger on a barefoot beach run in La Jolla
Todd Glaser
Consider her the audio equivalent of a starter gun. When host Shelby Stanger takes to the mic on her Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast, listeners can’t help but foist themselves from their couches and step outside. We’re not talking triathlon training. Or even a hike up Iron Mountain.
The Solana Beach–based journalist advocates that the smallest dose of adventure goes a long way. Her casual interview style—combined with her vulnerability in sharing her own struggles, triumphs, and even vitiligo—lends the show a convincingly fresh voice of courage. “I’m a pretty open book,” says Stanger, “which helps most guests cut through small talk to the stuff that matters most.”
Since 2016, Wild Ideas has evolved into a safe place where she’s interviewed accidental heroes alongside heavyweights like Wim “The Iceman” Hof, Wild’s Cheryl Strayed, and Free Solo rock climber Alex Honnold. It’s no wonder REI has her booked ad infinitum: This season, listen up for Erin Parisi, the first trans woman to attempt the Seven Summits; Eddie Taylor, part of the first all-Black team to attempt Everest later this year; and Rick Stanton, one of the cave divers who helped rescue the Thai soccer team in 2018. When she’s not recording, you might catch her moonlighting with her friends from Surf Diva, where she’s taught surfing since she was 16, consulting with brands to create their own podcasts, or barefoot beach running from Cardiff to La Jolla.
Lesford Duncan
Long-distance runner Lesford Duncan begins each adventure with the mantra, “It’s going to be a long day”
Eh Ler Tha
He took Mount Whitney first. Then Mount Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, the Tour du Mont Blanc. Lesford Duncan has seen the world from its most impressive peaks. This spring his eyes are set on the San Diego 100, a single-track mountain course spanning the Pacific Crest, Noble Canyon, and Lake Cuyamaca trails, with 26,000 feet of total elevation change and an average run time of 32 hours.
It’ll be the first 100-miler for Duncan, a 34-year-old ultramarathon runner and associate executive director of Outdoor Outreach, a nonprofit that connects San Diego youth to the transformative powers of the outdoors. For him, it’s a run-work balance. He averages 50–70 miles a week around central San Diego with groups like Black Men Run SD, or goes solo on his most-loved trails, like the Stonewall Peak loop in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.
“I want to make the outdoors more inclusive,” he says. “A part of that is expanding the outdoors beyond competitive feats—to be in this space just to enjoy it.”
It’s not a time game for Duncan so much as an act of personal resilience. He starts with his mantra—“It’s going to be a long day”—and slowly, steadily embraces that until he finds himself at the finish line. “Running long distance is both mental work and complete joy,” he says. “It’s knowing you can put your body through this and somehow feel more alive than you ever have before.”
Todd Glaser
Kelly Slater’s personal photographer Todd Glaser and his partner Jenna Klein, a competitive cyclist, before catching some waves.
Jussi Oksanen
“Kelly makes the waves look good,” says Todd Glaser. It’s an understatement, from the humblest photographer on the planet. It takes his wife and fellow adventurer, Jenna Klein, to brag on his behalf. For 15 years, the San Diego–born surfer and waterman has served as Kelly Slater’s personal shooter. “I’m super fortunate to see some of the best waves in the world on the best days,” he says.
San Diego Trails – Glaser cliffs
Jussi Oksanen
Guided by swells, Glaser’s itinerary is intense. In the last few weeks alone, he’s traveled to Tahiti and twice to Hawai‘i, including the Pipe Masters, where Slater won the title (at age 50, cementing his superhuman status). But his home turf in North County is where he adventures with his most trusted partner, Klein, a competitive cyclist. There’s camping in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, pilgrimages to Iron Mountain with headlamps, and wild bike trips through Catalina’s backcountry. “I try my absolute hardest to pass her,” he says with a smirk.
San Diego Trails – Epic surf
Glaser’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, and at the Smithsonian; he’s got a book under his belt and a second planned for the Slater oeuvre.
“I want to make images that define that feeling of surfing,” he says. “Their journeys reflect our journeys.”
We're on the hunt for the best summer outdoor photographs shot by our readers
By Laurie Nicoud
Calling all local photographers! We’re on the lookout for summer outdoor shots of San Diego to feature in the magazine’s “Picture Perfect” section. Have an epic shot of the Del Mar Fair? A landscape scene from Crystal Pier? A dramatic view from your Iron Mountain hike? We want to see them all! Email your stunners to [email protected].
And take a look at Picture Perfect favorites for inspiration:
Camera: Sony Alpha 850, shot at 16mm focal length with LEE Filters
What North Park resident Scott Murphy loved about this desert scene was its seclusion. “Font’s Point gives you a 360-degree view of the badlands and Salton Sea, but it’s so hidden that you have to know a local, or someone who goes to the desert riding motorcycles or off-roading,” says Murphy, a medical photographer by day and landscape photographer by night and weekends. Once he spotted the red blooms, he knew he wanted to spotlight them against the grandiose backdrop in the sun’s last hour of light. “[Font’s Point] is best viewed at sunset,” he says. “It’s so peaceful. Locals bring chairs. Some even picnic.”
Entrepreneurs typically launch businesses because they’re passionate about a product or service, not because they want to manage its finances. While working to carve out a niche in their respective industries and drive their companies forward, many business owners find themselves bogged down by day-to-day accounting. Their existing accounting tools don’t provide the necessary visibility or insight, and they don’t have the time or resources to hire additional staff or a chief financial officer. That’s where NOW CFO comes in.
For more than 20 years, NOW CFO has been pairing businesses across the country with experienced accounting and finance professionals. Its outsourced model allows clients to customize solutions that match their individual needs, size, and financial challenges, whether that’s fractional or interim support, project-based services, or full-time placement.
NOW CFO’s clients range from startups preparing for rapid growth to established companies that need additional financial leadership without the commitment or expense of building an in-house team. However, many of these companies don’t fully understand their needs until they experience a “trigger” event: preparing for an acquisition or capital raise, navigating a first-time audit, or another period of transition. With a team of over 300 consultants nationwide, NOW CFO can start quickly and match the right expert to the right business.
“It’s important for companies to have financial visibility, and we can help them avoid a lot of the potholes that companies often run into,” says Mariah Block, a partner at NOW CFO’s San Diego branch. “Roughly half of our clients have an in-house finance person or department, and we’re resourced for more bandwidth when they need an extra set of hands at the staff or senior accountant level, or the controller or CFO level. Some clients use this a few hours a month and others use multiple people close to full-time. Our model is solution-based and customizable. We’re like a faucet you can turn on and off.”
With NOW CFO, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Solutions are based on the client’s individual goals, challenges, needs, and budget, meaning a client never pays for more than they need. Whether it’s a few hours of executive-level guidance or a full accounting team to support daily operations, NOW CFO meets businesses where they are and grows alongside them.
“We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the right resources at the right rate and being able to evolve as their needs evolve,” says Block.
And clients appreciate on-demand access to cost-effective support designed to improve performance and profitability.
Luxury car storage service Auto Concierge has partnered with NOW CFO to support growth over the past year. The arrangement began with a staff accountant who covered a leave of absence, but as the client’s needs changed, they also added a controller role. This allowed Auto Concierge to put effective processes in place and navigate operational challenges. Lori Church, Auto Concierge’s chief operating officer, says NOW CFO has been an “outstanding resource” and a “true strategic partner.”
“From the controller to the bookkeeper, every professional they’ve placed has brought a high level of expertise, responsiveness, and professionalism to our organization. Their team took the time to understand our business of high-profile clients and needs, adapted quickly to our fast-paced environment, and became a trusted extension of our team,” she says. “As Auto Concierge continues to grow, having a reliable financial partner like NOW CFO has allowed us to strengthen our financial and business operations while remaining focused on delivering exceptional service to our clients.”
Location: Downtown looking north at Petco Park from the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge
Camera: Nikon D600, shot at focal length 14 with a 14mm wide-angle lens
Evgeny Yorobe, a healthcare IT professional and fine art/wedding photographer from Tierrasanta, was drawn to the movement, lines, and lights of this downtown scene. “I knew I wanted the bridge and Petco Park in a photograph, and all the movement and activity around the bridge made me decide on a nighttime long-exposure shot,” says Yorobe, a devoted Padres fan. The time of the day mandated a tripod, but he realized that a wall blocked the composition. In a pinch, Yorobe shortened the length of one tripod leg to lean it and the camera to the very edge. The result was a view of the city’s after-hours buzz—traffic, twinkling lamps, and light trails from the planes, trains, and automobiles.
Looking north at Petco Park from the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge
By Elisse Miller | Photo courtesy of the San Diego HIstorical Society
San Diego Cycle and Arms Co. in 1904
Vintage San Diego: Free Wheelers
The biking scene is nothing new to San Diego. More than 100 years ago, San Diegans who were passionate about their two-wheeled wonders formed the San Diego Wheel Club. When they weren’t riding, cyclists could pursue their hobby at the San Diego Cycle and Arms Co. (pictured). Originally located at the southeast corner of Fourth and E, the store was much more than a bike shop. The SD Cycle and Arms Co. sold cutlery, fishing tackle, ammunition, sporting goods for games such as baseball, golf, and tennis, and, as the name implies, guns and bicycles (notice the taxidermy on the left-hand wall). It also offered a range of bicycle and gun repair services. The store’s owners, Stanley Andrews, Archie Aldridge, and Max Toews, stood proudly in their establishment in 1904.
By The Numbers
2,000
Riders participating in the Campagnolo Gran Fondo, taking off in Little Italy on April 6. The longest course is 105 miles.
2013
San Diego held its first CicloSDias event
20
Bike racks that will soon be installed throughout Balboa Park
1,800
Bikes that will be available through San Diego’s bike share program starting this summer
$312 million
Cost of new plan that’ll add 595 miles of bike paths in San Diego by 2030
If you’re anything like us, it can be easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else, that your own needs get lost in the ether. But while this may be a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true: You can’t give your best self to other people unless you’re taking care of yourself.
Sometimes, that looks like stopping in for your regular acupuncture or chiropractic appointment. Other days, it means giving your body the fresh, organic fuel it needs to truly feel and function at its best. And some other times still, it involves leaving your responsibilities behind for a weekend to pamper yourself at an incredible resort and spa.
Only you can decide what your truly need. We’re just here to help you find the best ways to get it.
Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Island living meets desert luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. When you step onto the 11-acre property, you’ll be surrounded by sweeping view of the Santa Rosa Mountains with olive trees and fragrant citrus groves decorating the grounds. In other words, everything about this relaxed but refined resort is primed to help you let go of the stress from home and enjoy easy sun-soaked days and gorgeous starry nights.
The rooms blend calming, woven textures with Tommy Bahama’s signature tropical prints and feature private lanais, making it easy unwind the moment you walk in the door. If you book one of the four Villa Suites, you’ll be treated to exclusive Tommy Bahama furniture and unique personal touches to further that feeling of instant ease.
At the award-winning Spa Rosa, the expert team will help reset and recharge your body and mind using methods and rituals inspired by the desert. The 12,000-square-foot retreat includes outdoor soaking pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and outdoor cabanas, as well as massages, facials, and body masks—all aimed at creating a day dedicated to you. We’re particularly partial to the Day Long Escape, an indulgent all-day affair of CDBs soaks, renewing scrubs, life changing massages, and transformative facials.
Following your treatment, continue the experience with a meal on the patio at Grapefruit Basil. We love the Hamachi Crudo, a light, citrus-forward dish featuring premium yellowtail, house-made ponzu, creamy avocado, and fresh seasonal garnishes.
Whether you’re strolling the gardens, relaxing beside its saltwater pools, or indulging in a restorative treatment, you’ll be able to escape in style and relax in luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa.
Healcove Chiropractic
There’s no shortage of ways to stay active in San Diego—but if you really want to enjoy everything the city has to offer, you’ve got to make sure you’re giving your body its tune-ups. Enter: Healcove Chiropractic. The board-certified chiropractors and wellness professionals at Healcove are experts at addressing that stage where you’re not injured, exactly, but you’re not at 100%, either. Maybe you’re feeling a bit tense or stressed out. Or it could be that you’re not quite moving the way you want to. Sometimes, it’s just that the accumulation of days, weeks, or even years of daily strain is starting to take a toll. No matter what stage you find yourself at, the Healcove Chiropractic team can provide integrated, preventative care centered on long-term, science-backed approaches that ensure you can always stay active and live the life you want to live pain-free.
This starts by providing truly individualized care. Every patient can expect a thorough 60-minute consultation session that includes a posture and movement screening. This allows the team to develop a completely personalized plan. That plan might include chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage therapy, as well as functional fitness training, vibration and sound therapy, and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, a clinical rehabilitation method that retrains the body’s stabilization systems. Whatever the team recommends, you can be sure that it’s tailored to meeting your body’s needs today and the future.
There’s a reason that San Diego Magazine named Healcove the “Best Chiropractor in San Diego”—don’t wait until you’re struggling with an injury to find out why. Book an appointment today for holistic, integrated care that helps ground and heal your body before it reaches a crisis point.
Juice Holler
West Coast wellness culture meets the community feel of Southern Appalachia at Juice Holler. Juice Holler’s menu consists of made-to-order smoothies and smoothie bowls, as well as grab-and-go cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, salads, and more. It operates from the blissfully simple premise that fueling up with food and drink that’s guilt-free and good your body should be simple, accessible, and, above all else, delicious. And if you haven’t yet made it out to the Encinitas café, which opened just this year, let us be the first to tell you: Juice Holler delivers on each and every of these fronts.
We love the Supercharger smoothie, a mood-lifting and body-fueling option made with banana, almond butter, blue spirulina, maca, grass-fed whey protein, raw cacao nibs, medjool dates, and coconut milk. We’re also partial to the Thrive Alive smoothie bowl, where avocado, mango, sea moss, spirulina, mint, coconut milk, and agave are mixed and topped with coconut, chia seeds, strawberry, mango, and chocolate drizzle. The wellness shots include the Detoxifier, a cleansing blend of kale, cucumber, lemon and spirulina, plus a shot specially designed to fight inflammation (named, fittingly, Anti-Inflammation). Probiotic overnight oats, lemon turmeric bars, and strawberry shortcake chia pudding are other standouts on the grab-and-go menu.
Much of the vibe feels beachy North County chic—think green tile with orange and pink accents, grounded with greenery and natural wood—but Juice Holler founder Kelly Sergott, a longtime Encinitas local, has also enfused the space with her Kentucky roots. In Appalachia, a holler is small valley between hills and mountains, where nature reigns, community is king, and nourishment comes right from the land. At Juice Holler, Sergott has created a holler for the busy modern times, using local ingredients to create a spot for people to come together and enjoy fresh, fast, feel-good fuel for their day.
Everwell Acupuncture
We’ve all had that experience with a medical professional where we’ve felt rushed, ignored, or misunderstood—and ultimately, like we didn’t get the answers that we needed. But at Everwell, the holistic acupuncture practice located in Solana Beach, the care team wants to transform your understanding of what healthcare can look like.
Patients at Everwell experience care rooted in intentional listening and radical empathy—and trust us, those aren’t just corporate buzzwords. This place actually puts those ideas into practice. You will always be given the time you need to tell your story— initial in-take appointments are two hours long—and you can rest assured that your story will be believed. Every single question and concern will be addressed by a dedicated practitioner who wants to find the specific solutions that work best for you, and you’ll receive care that’s aimed at healing the body, mind, and spirit.
Everwell’s highly trained, doctorate-level practitioners blend evidence-based acupuncture with the practice of classical Chinese medicine. (If you’ve never tried acupuncture before or aren’t sure if the team will be a fit, we’d highly recommended Everwell’s complimentary 20-minute consultations.) Research shows that by stimulating specific points on the body, acupuncture activates a natural healing response in the body, helping to restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and improve overall wellbeing. This allows the practice to address an incredibly wide range of conditions from chronic pain and autoimmune disorders to digestive issues, from stress and burnout to headaches migraines, fertility and postpartum struggles, hormonal imbalances, sleep concerns and more.
At Everwell, you can expect to feel heard, trusted, respected, and cared for. This is a space that doesn’t want to be just another healthcare provider you visit; it wants to provide patients with dedicated partner who will be there for their entire health journey.
