Christian Schaffer

The one question everyone seems to ask, and I never know how to answer…

Where are you from? I've packed up my life and moved on countless occasions, and changed my mailing address, officially, 34 times. I've traveled to 38 countries, and I've lived in 5. No, I’m not a military brat. Just a restless transplant. I was born in Arkansas, grew up in Wisconsin, and then decided to leave the Midwest and everything I knew for Hawaii. I sold all but four boxes of my belongings and flew to Oahu alone, where I didn't know anyone. It felt like home.

Over the next four years, I worked my way through college and graduated with a degree in Business and Spanish from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I began building a career with Abercrombie & Fitch by managing stores in Hawaii, California, Colorado, and the Midwest. At 25, I was promoted to Europe and relocated to Milan & then London to learn Italian and train as an International General Manager. Then, after 13 wild months of full immersion in Campania, South Italy (after which I still and forever will drive like an Italian), I decided to leave my corporate position to pursue photography and long-term travel.

My passion is and always has been travel and the outdoors. The moment I was free of a corporate contract, I took stock of my savings and decided I would make it stretch. I shipped my few belongings to a storage unit, and traded my apartment in South Italy for a backpack and nowhere to call home.

For 11 months, I traveled through 5 continents and 19 countries. I traveled alone, and met up with friends along the way, some old and some new. I went snowboarding in New Zealand, bungee jumping in Costa Rica, clubbing in Dubai, brunching in Bahrain, camping in Oman and sand surfing in Jordan. I nearly died of food poisoning in Thailand, got lost in Sri Lanka, misplaced my wallet in Australia and just barely escaped interrogation in Israel. I stayed in 21 hostels, 15 hotels, 14 homes, 2 tents, and 1 treehouse. It was 11 months of absolute freedom and reckless travel. And after that, I just couldn't go back.

I spent the next few years on the west coast. I immersed myself in wild places; trekking for 24 days along the John Muir Trail and road tripping for weeks at a time through national parks. I discovered that for me, few things in life compare to a night spent camping beneath stars; surrounded by mountain peaks, trees and good people.

For the past nine years, I’ve been fortunate to work as a full-time creative while based on the west coast & also overseas. In May 2018, I decided once again to chase after my craving for life on the road. For fourteen months, I lived out of my 4x4 Nissan Xterra (you can read about it here). During that time, I saved up every last penny until I could afford to buy a new van and hire a team to build my dream home on wheels. I currently travel and create full-time; seeking out wild spaces in my van or boarding planes to far off places. Maybe one day I'll see you out on that open road.