Davis Depiction

Sailing is a neighborhood sport for many coastal cities, and San Diego is no exception, being home to more than a dozen yacht clubs and host to international races like the Vallarta Race and Extreme Sailing Series. So, it should be no surprise that San Diego would also be home to sailing legends like Gerry Driscoll, Dennis Conner and Mark Reynolds, a four-time Olympian, and two-time gold medalist.
“It’s the sport I was raised on,” said Mark, who also holds six world championship medals. “If I’d grown up in Charlottesville, I’d probably be a racecar driver, but here in Point Loma, sailboats is what we do.”...

Between traveling around the earth at 5 miles a second, conducting DNA sequencing and combustion experiments, plus watching the sun rise and set 16 times a day, La Jolla marine biologist Jessica Meir made time to video chat with 150 middle school students from the international space station.

“It really means so much for me to be able to share my life up here with all of you,” said Meir at the beginning of her livestream call with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and San Diego’s Fulton Middle School and Memorial Preparatory for Scholars and Athletes — two schools supported by Birch Aquarium’s Price Philanthropies Ocean Science Education Fund...

Having showcased more than 700 films around the world in three decades, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) has made a point to highlight not only the value of transparent documentary filmmaking, but also provide an unapologetic and intimate perspective into territories of humanity that are hard to digest.

“Often we think of human rights issues as just facts, dates or statistics,” said Kevin Linde, manager of Adult and Digital Engagement at Balboa Park’s Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), where the HRWFF has taken place for the last 10 years. “The power of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is to provide an emotional window into first-person experiences of human rights abuse. Looking at the film’s local relevancies in San Diego is also a crucial component.”...

There are three things 66-year-old Loren Smith is an expert at: plucking the bass, strumming his guitar, and playing the best vacationing Santa on the West Coast. Smith, a long-time San Diego resident, has been Seaport Village’s white-bearded, Hawaiian shirt-wearing, board shorts-sporting “Surfin’ Santa” for the last 14 years, attracting thousands of people at a time to Holidays at Seaport Village each December.

“This is probably the hardest job that I do every year because of going up and down on a surfboard for 200 pictures,” said Smith, who has also played Santa for SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. “But making those kids smile is wonderful and the event itself is always remarkably successful and fun.”...

Exclamation points, parentheses, forward slashes, addition and subtraction symbols, with numbers and words mixed in somewhere with it all: The computer screen of a coder may look like an obscure, jumbled mess of commands, but every symbol serves a purpose and La Jolla’s new academic outlet, The Coder School, is teaching kids how to be passionate about that purpose.

“In every field of work, you have to talk to the computers,” said marketing professional Artur Lopes Pedrosa, who co-owns The Coder School in La Jolla with his wife Aline Pampalon. “Right now, we use technology for everything, so whether you want to be an architect or a doctor, you will need to know some type of programming or another. Coding is basic knowledge we’ll all need to know about in the future. Here, we can give kids a leg-up.”...

One day, six races and more than 2,700 participants. Padres Pedal the Cause is a hope-giving, cancer-research-funding event that’s taken place at San Diego’s Petco Park (100 Park Blvd.) every year since 2013. In the last six years, Padres Pedal has raised more than $10 million, with 100% being donated to local research centers like Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla, and children’s hospitals like Rady’s in Serra Mesa, all in an effort to end cancer once and for all.

In total, the event funds 53 local cancer research projects, five of which are clinical trials.

“We’ve had more and more participants join in each year and this year’s event will definitely be one of our biggest,” said Anne Marbarger, executive director of Padres Pedal...

For almost three decades, Surfrider Foundation San Diego has been dedicated to not only keeping Pacific Ocean waters clean but also making environmental activism fun. On Sunday, Oct. 6, Surfrider will hold its 28th annual Paddle for Clean Water event on Ocean Beach where hundreds of surfers, paddle boarders, and kayakers will paddle their way around the pier to show their dedication to keeping beaches in San Diego thriving...

It’s been 28 years since world-acclaimed children’s book author Theodor Seuss Geisel, or “Dr. Seuss,” passed away, leaving behind more than 50 beloved published works, from “The Cat in the Hat” to “Green Eggs and Ham.” Since 1995, six additional Seuss books have been completed and released posthumously by Random House and a seventh is now on its way.

“Horse Museum” is Dr. Seuss’ first nonfiction, non-rhyming children’s book and it’s set to hit bookstores across the U.S. on Sept. 3. There will be 250,000 copies released of the first printing...

Two book releases in the last month, an appearance on Animal Planet, and two advocacy awards show not only how quickly Hannah Shaw has been able to make a name for herself in the public eye, but also the ripple effect of her high-energy and hands-on approach regarding kitten advocacy, rescue and education.

“This has all happened much to my surprise and delight,” said Shaw, founder of the nonprofit Orphan Kitten Club, which provides lifesaving operations and the world’s first grant program specifically funding innovation in kitten welfare. “When people realize that these babies are all unique and so worthy of protection, I think that it gets a lot of people to go out and sign up to foster in their own communities.”...

Small business owner Danielle Wiebe is working hard to help women, in a nutshell, run the world one community at a time. 

“I wanted to create a safe place for women to ask questions and learn about the world of business and also network without feeling like they had to put up a front of being wildly successful,” said Wiebe, founder of Business Babes Collective. “I wanted this space to be open to all women, no matter where they were at in their business.”...

With 20 live theatre venues, 12 acting schools and 10 comedy clubs, San Diego is not a bad launch pad for those trying to catch a break in the entertainment industry. From The Old Globe to The American Comedy Co., the city is enriched by theatre and is particularly welcoming to those who are willing to bear their amateur skills on the live stage. 
Two of those brave souls are Jules Chanel Hoberg and Ava Bunn, both looking to tap into the world of comedy, one through stand-up and the other through acting...

It had been four years since Danyelle Wolf, Pacific Beach’s three-time national championship fighter, had been in a boxing ring. That is, until this past January, when her boxing coach, Basheer Abdullah at Arena MMA gave her some news: Wolf’s weight class had been added to the 2020 Olympics. It was time to get back in the ring...

The “Puppy Stork” may be the name Pacific Beach resident Alex Noelle gave herself “just for fun,” but it effectively sums up her mission: to safely bring stray dogs across the Mexico border into the loving arms of San Diego families...

For three years, Julia Freifeld was a crisis counselor for survivors of sexual violence. She worked with her clients while also pursuing her own education at California Polytechnic State University. Feeling, as she described, “emotionally burnt out,” Freifeld looked for another way she could invest in the victims she cared for while still maintaining “my own inner peace.”...

Every spring for the last 24 years, Point Loma Nazarene University has hosted reporters like George Plimpton, authors like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, poets like Nikki Giovani and screenwriters such as Destin Daniel Cretton for their annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea Monday, Feb. 18 to Thursday, Feb. 21. Moderated by journalism professor and symposium founder Dr. Dean Nelson, discussions of the intimate inspiration behind the writer’s renowned stories has always been a part of past panels.

But this year, the idea of “Restorative Narrative” seems to be a common driving force for the speakers set to attend this year’s symposium, not just in their work but in their career choices as well...

Before now, La Jolla biochemist Dr. Sharon Wampler never spoke publicly about the controversy that plagued her father’s battle with Lyme Disease. Sharon’s father, Whitfield (W.E.) Wampler, was age 92 when he passed away August of 2016. While it’s unknown exactly how long W.E. lived with Lyme, his more severe symptoms—including joint failure and loss of hearing and eyesight—spanned over ten years.
“I remember him looking at me while in the hospital and saying, ‘I don’t understand. Why can’t the doctors help me?’” said Sharon, who has worked many years in the Biotechnology industry and who also lives with Lyme. “I had to explain to him that there’s not a drug that they can just say, ‘Here, take this and you’re fixed.’ There’s so much more to it.”...

It took almost six months of planning, but Brandon Means and Melissa Clark were finally able to achieve one of their humanitarian dreams – building a mini skate ramp for orphans in Tijuana. 
“Fundraising and getting the word out definitely takes its time, but it was crazy how fast everything was able to come together within that one day of us bringing the ramp down and seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces and how stoked they were once it was all built,” said Means, a resident of Ocean Beach and full-time freelance photographer. “They really had no idea it was coming.”...

Off the shore of Bathsheba, Barbados, three junior pros sat on their surfboards in the Atlantic Ocean, foreheads freckled from sun and salt, as they waited for the Soup Bowl swell they each hoped would carry them to first place. Samantha Sibley, Ava McGowan and Tiare Thompson were on high alert as the last two minutes of the finals heat ticked away at the World Surf League’s Live Like Zander Junior Pro surf competition. Thirty seconds later, Thompson saw her chance...

What started out as high school graduation gifts, eventually became the business that won Mission Beach resident Bea Doheny the “Entrepreneur of the Year 2018” award. She may have moved to San Diego only five months ago, but the reputation of Doheny’s Astronobeads bracelets proceeded her, having distributed more than 9,500 jewelry products across the globe in the past two years.
“The cool thing about astronomy and space is there’s so many things to be inspired by,” said Doheny, who continues to receive orders from Australia, Israel, Romania, and Budapest, along with local requests across the U.S. “We’re discovering new stuff every day and it’s fun creating jewelry that embodies that.”...

While La Jolla’s new art exhibition is officially titled, “The Quest for Rhythm,” San Diego native Michael Carini unofficially calls this show his “quest for balance,” or “my rhythm of stability.” Carini’s artistic journey may not have been as smooth as his paintbrushes—suffering loss, addiction and assault and battery, but the triumphs have been works of art, literally...“Group shows are fun because they offer a wide variety in terms of how the artist might perceive the concept in a different way,” said Carini. “My work is very much about construction and deconstruction and, as an artist and individual, what I’m often trying to find in life is some sort of stability, some kind of balance.”...

With decorative hues as vibrantly varied as their flavors of batter, Ohana Cupcakes takes on the feel of an old-fashioned ice cream shop, or perhaps even the candy store on Main Street in Disneyland. While their flagship store is located off Vista Way in Oceanside, the cupcake shop recently expanded to the UTC Westfield Mall in La Jolla and is having their grand opening in July...“Normally, when you walk into a bakery, it’s pretty small and all you have is the pastry case to pick from,” said Megan Wilson, head chef at Ohana Cupcakes. “But at Ohana, there’s this huge floor with all these bright colors and different decorating stations…it’s honestly like walking into a Willy Wonka store.”...

After 20 years, there will once again be a reigning Miss Russian in San Diego. Partnering with Gorozhanka, San Diego’s leading Russian Women’s magazine, Olga Solovyeva has worked hard to revive the nonprofit organization, Miss Russian San Diego, since its premier in 1998...“We want to show the world that Russian women are not ‘mail-order-brides,’” said Solovyeva, who serves as this year’s project organizer for the pageant. “Russian women are beautiful and educated. We want to bring peace and resolve conflict between all countries in the world. We are like everyone else. We are not a danger.”...

Most music enthusiasts can remember, at some point during those awkward teenage years, owning an abnormally large poster of their favorite band, whether it be a David Bowie red and blue lightning bolt, a psychedelic graphic of Jimi Hendrix or the dripping tongue of The Rolling Stones. At Alex Pierson’s brewery, Amplified Backstage (4150 Mission Boulevard, Suite 105), their poster shrine of choice is a 12-by-30-foot mural of Nirvana, located on the interior wall of the tasting room...

Belmont Park’s Giant Dipper may not be the smoothest roller coaster ride – the twists and turns likening to the feeling of a level five earthquake – but for San Diego natives, like Timothy Cole, it’s certainly one of the most nostalgic. 
“It just captured me,” said Cole, who joined the Save the Coaster Committee back in the ’80s after the ride was shut down for the second time in 1976. “There was like a spirit about it or something.”...

With the words, “As a girl, I hope to have as many rights as a gun someday,” written on a hot pink sign, which she held high above her head, Chloe Pardo marched alongside thousands of other protesters on March 24. 
Chloe, a cheerleader at Mission Bay High, went with her parents and brother to support the March for Our Lives rally in downtown San Diego.
“I felt like there was a lot more than the 6,000 people they were all saying were there,” Chloe said. “It must have been more like 7,000 or 8,000. It was really cool to see everybody there for the same reason and bringing their own ideas forward with the signs.”...

Before he was a famous comedian and actor, starring on shows like MADtv, and appearing in feature films like “Argo” and “The Pyramid,” Amir Kamyab (Amir K.) worked in real estate appraisals. Before that, he studied law at UCLA. Several years prior to UCLA, he was a child witness to tragedy during the Iran-Iraq war.
“The old building that we lived in, our landlord’s building, a bomb actually got dropped on there and they lost a kid,” said Kamyab. “That’s one of my earliest memories actually, seeing the women wailing over the loss of this child. I think that was the final thing that made my dad say, ‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’”...

Built in 1942, Liberty Station’s North Chapel stands out like a pearl on the corner of Roosevelt and Truxtun. With white stucco walls, stain glass windows and elaborate tile art over large archways, this sanctuary has served as a place of worship for Naval service members, recruits and their families for more than 75 years.  Today, the chapel is also rented out for weddings, funerals and special events throughout the year, but that could change in a matter of months...

While she identifies first and foremost as a mother, others see Carrie Miller as a one-of-a-kind philanthropist. Seven years ago, in honor of her oldest daughter Evelyn’s first birthday, Miller and her husband Scott made a donation to Promises2Kids, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the needs of abused children in foster care. But this wasn’t Miller’s first introduction to the nonprofit...

Steve Farguson is, as he describes, a “cradle Catholic” who has always loved beer. “I just love the flavor profiles, it’s always been my go-to consumption,” said Farguson. “My dad would buy a quart bottle of Coors when I was a kid and have a glass when he came home from work. Later, I’d sneak out with the rest of the bottle.” Farguson, who lives in Coronado with his wife Cissy, is the founder of Absolution Brewing Co., which has now taken the place of the former La Jolla Brewing Co. The cradle Catholic came up with the business name by flipping through the pages of the Bible...

More than a hundred San Diegans were standing eagerly in line with friends and family outside Point Loma’s new Café Rio to get a Mexican grill lunch on Jan. 17. Parents with babies strapped to their chest, teens in their slippers, and kids with scooters slung over their shoulders had all woken up early to be the first of 300 guests to get a free meal at the restaurant’s grand opening...