"Perfection is a Direction"

Lloyd Kahn in his in San Francisco and his home.

The Dolphin Club was closed, so Lloyd and I changed into our swim trunks on the beach, tucked up against the southern pier of Aquatic Park. After a few minutes of standing in the sun, I waded into the placid water after Lloyd. With my calves covered, I looked north-east towards Alcatraz and imagined what that swim would be like, recounting a childhood favorite movie, The Rock. 

"It just makes me feel so alive," Lloyd explained. "Last time I stayed in for 9 minutes, and when I got out, this guy in his 50s came up to me and said he'd been in for 3 hours. I feel so good  after." 

The water, somewhere in the 50s, slapped at my mid-thighs. The thought of spending 3 hours swimming laps in the protected cove felt about as feasible as passing the California Bar Exam with an hour of prep reading up on Reddit. I followed Lloyd's lead, diving in. The water stung my eardrums and contracted my stomach. 

I first met Lloyd Kahn in the fall of 2013. I had just finished up my contract at Patagonia, opted not to renew, and was heading up the coast to see my family in the Columbia River Gorge. I grew up with Lloyd’s books around the house; Shelter, Homework, and Builders of the Pacific Coast were staples in my mom's living room and inspired the spaces my family lived in. Traditional blogs were still a thing 10 years ago, and while living on the road, I kept tabs on Lloyd that way and sent him an email asking about linking up. On a chilly day in October, I stopped by Bolinas, saw Lloyd's house, the Shelter HQ, and showed Lloyd my recently completed Toyota and FWC camper. After a few hours, I headed north, inspired and determined to build something of my own. 

Over the years, Lloyd and I have kept in touch and see each other once a year or so. He's visited the tree houses a few times and hung out at Movie Mountain. Mostly, I like to head down 12 hours south and spend time with Lloyd at his home or up the coast at his late best friend Louie's. Lloyd is 53 years older than me, the same exact age as my grandfather, and has lived through drastic changes in the area around his native San Francisco. 

In the 1950s, he went to Stanford before having his first career and life as an insurance salesman in Santa Cruz. Realizing that life wasn't for him, he divorced his wife, left the corporate world, and moved to Big Sur to build a house in the mid-sixties. Next, he moved back north to the Santa Cruz Mountains and got heavily involved with the Geodesic Dome movement, publishing a successful book on the topic. Despite being very efficient from a material perspective, the domes were not suited for modification or expanding on the original shape, and after a few years, he recounted his sins and embraced traditional building. He built a house on a half-acre lot on the Mesa in Bolinas, and over the next 50 years the property grew to house the Shelter Publication HQ, multiple additions to the original house, a slew of outbuildings, as well as a large, producing garden. 

In April, I made the drive down to see Lloyd and hunt turkeys with Mike Idell. I spent 4 nights in Lloyd's driveway, having coffee with him each morning in his kitchen, talking about the state of digital media, Baja, the ideal camper setup, Lloyd's loss of loved ones, and things to do in San Francisco. I encouraged Lloyd to start a YouTube channel and write on Substack.  We shared meals with friends, eating mostly halibut and turkey from the hunt and vegetables from Lloyd's garden. We made plans for this year: hunting in September and hotsprings running to Nevada. 

Lloyd demonstrating his latest clamming tool.

Amongst a slew of other things, Lloyd was the Shelter Editor of the Whole Earth Catalog.

Lloyd’s trap to catch doves.

We dried off in the sun, standing on the hard part of the sand. Lloyd talked to a woman in her 40s, encouraging her to ditch the run and swim some laps in the bay. Convinced by Lloyd's enthusiasm, she agreed, but after her meeting in an hour, 

Dusting off the sand, Lloyd urged that we keep the momentum going and we walked up the street to have an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe.  I obliged and as tourists talked, Lloyd and I enjoyed an Irish Coffee.   Lloyd described growing up in San Francisco during the war and the rabid changes over the next few decades culminating with the hippie exodus in the early 70s to points unknown up the coast and into the mountains.   

For the rest of the day, we drove around Lloyd's old Mercedes, stopping by Lloyd's favorite shops, having lunch with Jay Nelson, and looking at architecture that inspires him. Before traffic overwhelmed the 101, we headed north over Goldengate before stopping at Muir Beach to hike up the bluffs overlooking the mouth of the bay.  Lloyd's fitness and boundless energy baffled me. 

One year away from his 90s, Lloyd kept up with me and Tim as we marched up the stairs to an overlook. One of the paradoxes of life is that perspective is usually lost on youth, but they are the only ones with the energy to make change. Lloyd defies this, possessing wisdom and perspective native to his age but with the energy and enthusiasm usually reserved for a teanager. Spending time with him relieves some of the franticness that I live with every day, the drive to make the best things I can, but at the same time, it inspires me to think longer-term. He often says, "Perfection is a direction." To me, this highlights the importance of not being too precious with individual creations and instead focusing on making improvements along the way. 

Lloyd is on Substack these days, and this fall I plan to make a film about him hunting his first deer.