Pro snowboarder and born-again grom Austen Smith is a handyman. We saw how he renovated a firetruck into a home and lived in the parking lot of Mt. Bachelor, OR, and he took on a similar project in Baja, Mexico. Along with Tyler Orton, Austin created the Baja Box, a box truck turned home-on-wheels fitted with solar panels, surfboard and dirtbike racks, and some other basic amenities. Totally tubular would be an understatement.

A word from Austin about the Baja Box: 

So Carson Schubert invited me to Mexico for his 30th birthday. Tickets were cheap and tacos were in season. Bought my flight for $150 and headed for the fiesta, but got dung with a $225 surfboard baggage fee along the way. It was an epic week of surfing, sunshine, chips and salsa. I started thinking about paying another $225 to fly the surfboard back home, but that meant $450 for a surfboard I never planned on paying a dollar for (I stole it from Curtis Ciszek).

I loved my week here. So I started thinking: What if I came more often? I didn’t want to spend $450 on surfboards each trip. What if I had a storage unit where we could all leave stuff? What if it was mobile? My buddy Carson’s dad keeps his Subaru at the airport packed full like a clown car… One quick search on Craigslist and I saw it. It was one of the only “trucks” listed and it was listed a dozen times — desperate seller. What would the DMV be like in Mexico? Do I need a special license? Insurance? Mmmeehhhh I’ll figure that out later, so I bought it for $4,000 and we were camping in it that night. It was a little hot in there, everything was melting. We were going to need insulation, a fancy cooler, a rooftop deck, lights, floors, beds, and a dirt bike. Definitely a dirt bike. I thought the build would take 3 days, but it took 2 weeks once Tyler put down the camera and picked up a hammer.

Just eight more trips the truck will pay for itself in baggage fees. #vanlife has obviously trended but you only see or hear about people in their $100k sprinters. This truck isn’t anything special and I’m not a great surfer and maybe that will resonate and inspire others.

Thanks,
Austin