J O N 🔹 R O S E

Just coming out of the “Anjali House Project” in Nepal and thought today, being #worldwaterday, would be the perfect time to share the connection that water played in her story. For those of you who followed along the journey with us over the past week, this will add some further context/backstory. Anjali’s story was a personal, multi-faceted, quest, that took me 9-years to complete… but it all started with water.

For much of my life, boots-on-the-ground work came first. I’ve spent more than 15 years working in disaster and conflict zones, where leadership, resilience, and service have real consequences. Over the years, I’ve been invited into rooms to speak about what it costs to keep showing up, and what it takes to do that sustainably. I’ve finally put this work in one place. If this feels relevant — for you, or for someone you know — the site is live. Link in bio. (Big thanks to @erichroepke for helping me put the site together)

EMOTION = BAD?? Society teaches us (especially Men), from a very young age, that: emotion = bad. Even if this isn’t told to us directly, the general consensus is if you are feeling emotion something is wrong. What a crock of shit! I have learned that when I feel emotion it is not only a good thing, but an essential piece of my wholeness. I would go as far as to say there is no greater doorway into myself than through emotion. If I welcome them when they arise, sit with them, and listen to what they are saying, there is always magic for me on the other side. You know the saying, “The light at the end of the tunnel”? Well, the way I see it, emotion is the tunnel that can get you from the challenge, to the light. It is not a shortcut, it a wonderfully designed part of us, that we’ve been taught to suppress. All this said, I will never pretend to know all the answers, or say that I’ve “figured it all out”, because I most certainly have not. My aim is simply to share these experiences and how they’ve shaped me. Nothing I’m saying is new, it’s all been shared in other ways, shapes, and forms, throughout history. But these realizations have been, and still are, profound for me… and my hope is that by sharing them in my own way, they may land for some of you too. 🤘🏼😎 Link to the entire conversation is in my bio. #EmotionalHealing #emotionalawareness #emotionalintelligence #wholeness #thehumanexperience #adventureinward #theinnerodyssey

I went from the front lines of a war zone to the front lines of fashion in under 24 hours. I was working with the US Army in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor. Within a day of leaving the field, I was standing on the corner of Broadway and Prince, in SoHo, surrounded by thousands of people shopping. The whiplash of those two extremes cracked something open. I felt so detached I walked up to a stranger and, deadpan, asked her if she could see me. Textbook dissociation. But what surfaced wasn’t about Afghanistan — it was years of first responder work catching up. Haiti. Every disaster zone thereafter. Afghanistan was just the contrast sharp enough to let it through. I knew something was off. But it took me years to act on that first flag. The gap — between knowing you’re not okay and doing something about it — is the real crux. This month @mentalhealthcoalition is asking people to take mental health personally. This is what personal looks like for me — telling a story I sat on for years. If you’re in your own version of that gap: the flag is real. Don’t wait as long as I did. 🎙Audio clip: from my recent appearance on The New Man Podcast w/ @tripplanier . 📸 Image: from my time working in Afghanistan. #TakeItPersonally #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth

Almost three years ago this month, I had an experience that changed everything. The metaphor above is one of the ways I’ve articulated just how big it was. It has been said that certain psychedelic therapies and/or plant medicines can promote neuroplasticity; in other words, rewire your brain. I’m not a neuroscientist, and I won’t pretend to understand how this works, but as a subject of these experiences, I am my own case study. The best way I can put it is I went into this particular experience as one person and came out of it another. I’d been drinking since my teens. It was woven into the fabric of who I was; my identity, my personality, and frankly, it wasn’t something I wasn’t even slightly considering addressing. I was high-functioning. All was good on that front, or so I thought. But the medicine had its own plan; one aimed at helping me remove THE thing that was truly limiting me — my relationship with alcohol. I went into that session with a 30-year pathological behavior, something that felt as much a part of my DNA as my blue eyes. And in one session, completely turned that switch off. How does a behavior that ingrained just evaporate overnight? It’s still baffling to me! The only conclusion I have is the rewiring theory. My wires are in a new terminal now, one that has no desire to drink. I have zero judgment around it. If I want to have a drink, I will. I simply don’t want it.

F I E L D L O G 0 0 2 SPC/LST: JON ROSE LOCATION: NEVADA DESERT XX.XXXXX, -XXX.XXXXX 07:26

I’ve been on bikes for decades now. Dirt first, then street, then dual-sport, then whatever I could get my hands on in whatever country I was working in. Sixteen years of international humanitarian work, forty-seven disasters, dozens of surf trips — somewhere in the middle of all of that, being on two wheels became the through line. So when @spc.lst asked me to come on as an equity partner / ambassador, it was an easy yes. First brand in my life I actually own a piece of, and it’s built around the exact lifestyle I’ve been living since I was a kid. Two days ripping around the desert with my buddies Paul and Neil. So pumped I get to call this work now. All images @neildacosta !

Ten years ago I was in a small chopper heading toward a coastline that had just been leveled. A 7.8 earthquake had just rocked Pedernales, Ecuador. What I found on the ground was exactly what you’d expect. Rubble where neighborhoods used to be. “PELIGRO” spray-painted on walls still standing. People moving through it all with shell-shocked gazes on their faces, that I can still see if I close my eyes. We got to work. Water filters. Water depots. Food & supplies distribution. Logistics. The relentless, unglamorous, necessary grind of disaster response. And somewhere in the middle of all of it — I met Diego and Rodrigo. What bonds people in those environments is quite simple… shared energy (shared burden, shared success, shared compassion, all of it). Just showing up, together, in a place where showing up matters. Day after day. Until the beers at the end of the night feel earned in a way that’s hard to replicate anywhere else. That last photo is us. Ten years later, we’re still brothers. I got married on Rodrigo’s property. We’ve gone back to Ecuador more times than I can count. The quake took so much from so many people. It also gave me two of the most important friendships of my life. @rodrigopacheco_bocavaldivia @dayrareyes.l @diegoriba @paulaniemeyer — love you all.

This image was taken at a stage in my life not too dissimilar to the one I am experiencing now. Transition. I was 29, fresh out of my tenure as a professional surfer, and in the midst of a serious identity crisis. Lost, trying to understand who I was outside of surfing. A fire and wind event was ripping through San Diego and Northern Baja — the kind of Santa Ana conditions that turn the sky orange and make everything feel slightly apocalyptic. There happened to be a solid ground swell hitting at the same time. That combo made for a day-of-days at the beach breaks I used to frequent in Northern Baja. Double overhead, offshore, and spitting a-frame tubes in every direction. I remember how much surfing that day meant to me. The wildfires on the land and the anxiety of an unsettled future in my head, had me spinning — but for those few hours, in the sanctity of the Pacific, I felt completely present and at peace. My old pal and master lensman @jeffflindt happened to be in the water and caught this one. It ended up running as a spread in Surfing Magazine — a beautiful moment to have, post-retirement. But, it’s not the photo that stands out upon reflection. It’s the feeling of that day.

Walking The Dad — 07 What’s the thing you are most proud of? #walkingthedad

Walking the Dad — 06 What’s the best thing your parents ever did for you? #walkingthedad #advice

I’ve worked with brands since I was 14 years old—first as a professional athlete, then as a humanitarian ambassador. In more than 30 years of doing that work, I had never owned a piece of the brands I represented. That has now changed. At this stage of my career, it feels important to be part of something I can help build and truly stand behind. I’ve joined SPC/LST (@spc.lst ) as an equity partner, brought on to help shape and steward the brand as it grows. The conversation began last summer on a climbing trip with my longtime friend @jeffjohnson_beyondandback , who is also an equity partner and ambassador. When I found out another old friend, Tyson White @godsandmonsters , was behind it, everything felt kismet. Jeff and I have spent more than two decades moving through the world in our own ways—often parallel, sometimes intersecting. This is the first time we’re doing it from the inside of something we actually own and get to shape together. Getting into real environments, putting the gear to use, and letting the stories emerge from lived experience feels like a long-overdue convergence. I’ll share more as the work unfolds. Images by @neildacosta , featuring jacket from current SPC/LST collection.