Fourteen thousand miles separate the sleepy coastal town of Coos Bay, Oregon, from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Twelve countries. Two continents. One dream.

And a lot of dirty beaches.

In April, Eric Sharman, BA ’19 (marine biology), set off alone on his Suzuki motorcycle, with only a stove, tent, sleeping bag, two changes of clothes, and his surfboard. He estimates that the trip from his hometown in Oregon to the tip of South America and back will take two years. During that time, he’ll clean up the beaches he sleeps on, raising awareness for the garbage that pollutes our oceans.

“Growing up on the coast set the direction of my life almost completely,” Sharman said.

From an early age, he cultivated a strong relationship with the beach. He spent his time fishing, crabbing, and exploring the tide pools that decorate the Oregon coast. At 13 he learned to surf, and as he began to travel for surfing, he became familiar with Latin America and the Spanish language.

At 16, Sharman drove to Baja California with the man who taught him to surf. On the way, his mentor told him stories of his surf trips around the world. Sharman remembered a photo hanging in his mentor’s bathroom of a motorcyclist crossing a suspension bridge in Costa Rica, and had an idea. When his mentor asked if he wanted to go on any trips of his own, Sharman knew the answer: 14,000 miles from Coos Bay to Tierra del Fuego and back.

Eric and "Cooper" in Coos Bay before departing on the trip.

At the University of Oregon, Sharman triple-majored in marine biology, Spanish, and human physiology. As a marine biology major, he spent a lot of time in Coos Bay at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. Throughout college, the idea of conservation became more fundamental to the trip as he learned about the threats faced by our oceans.

Due to littering and improper disposal, garbage such as cigarette butts, plastic bags, and Styrofoam boxes end up hundreds of mile off shore. The swirling currents of the ocean, or gyres, cause the trash to congregate into enormous piles.

The most famous of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is roughly the size of Texas and floats halfway between California and Hawaii. Five such garbage patches exist, the result of the 12 million metric tons of plastic dumped into our oceans each year. Though often referred to as a “trash island,” this term is misleading. In reality, the garbage patch is more akin to a soup. The trash permeates the surface to the ocean floor, often small enough to be invisible to the human eye.

But for marine life, the difference between a jellyfish and a shopping bag can be null, and as a result they can unwittingly gorge themselves on plastic. The plastic filling their stomachs tricks their brains into repressing hunger signals, causing them to unwittingly starve to death. In April, a dead sperm whale washed up on the shores of Porto Cervo, Italy. When researchers cut open her stomach, they were horrified to find nearly 50 pounds of plastic, and a dead fetus. It was a gruesome reminder of the cost of plastic waste.

During his sophomore year, Sharman sold his beloved ’75 CB750 café racer to buy a Suzuki for the trip. It’s reliable, and its parts are easy to come by—a necessity for the vagabond life. Once he graduated, he began to tweak the design to better suit his needs. He began by adding a rack to support his surfboards, and then weighted the right pannier to balance the rack. He and friend Patrick Chapman, BA ’18 (art), also produced a short film about the trip, and they showed it throughout the state before Eric hit the road for Argentina.

As for planning the exact route, Sharman says he’s leaving himself open to improvisation. While the surf is good, he’ll stick to the beach, but he’s also interested in exploring inland.

In April, Sharman set out down the coast of California and crossed the border into Baja. From La Paz he took a ferry to Mazatlán, where he spent the night on a thin mattress beside his bike, surrounded by running motors.

“[It] wasn’t my favorite night’s sleep,” he captioned the photo on Instagram.

Sharman on the ferry to Mazatlán.

After he reaches Panama, he will take a sailboat from San Blas to Cartagena, Colombia to cross the Darién Gap. From there, he will return to the Pacific Coast and continue south. Once he reaches Chile, he will cross the Andes into Argentina. After visiting Tierra del Fuego, he’ll return to Chile for surf season—and all the while, he will be cleaning the beaches as he goes and documenting the journey on his Instagram feed, where his bio reads simply, “Coos Bay, Oregon -> Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Picking up plastics the whole way”.

“For me the things I remember most about trips are the connections I've made,” Sharman said. “It seems that most experiences I remember are linked to a person I met. Sharing the experience, for me, is what makes it special.”

As for after the trip, Sharman is also open-minded. Though he plans to move back to Oregon, he is unsure whether he wants to pursue nursing school, bartending, or a master’s in marine biology.

“Knowing that this trip will change me a lot, I wanted to leave my plans open,” Sharman said.

So, for now, he'll go where the surf takes him.

- by Abby Keep, UO student

- photos courtesy Eric Sharman