An outdoors collective of the creative
& adventure-curious focused on connection, Inspiration & caring together.
MISSioN
To craft moving experiences in natural settings that create connection, inspiration & community. We bring people together— and encourage them to care together. Much of our programming utilizes arts & sciences to foster connection.
VISION
The world feels fractured. Our vision is to connect positive, creative people from a variety of backgrounds through immersive outdoors experiences, hands-on education, and innovative projects to spark inspiration and create community.
Our Story
I was staring at the hull of our wooden ship through the dive mask, fumbling along the slimy planks with my fingers to find the source of the leak.
Our boat, a WWII-era behemoth weighing in at 225,000 pounds, was leaking. We could tell generally where the water was coming in, but after a long day ripping up the floorboards and removing hundreds of pounds of internal ballast we still hadn’t been able to pinpoint the source from the inside.
Thus the dive gear. Thus the jug of milk.
Ah the milk. Supposedly it was a trick the old timers used to find leaks. Since our boat is majestically, cantankerously rounding out her first century of life, much of the wisdom comes from the old timers, and much of that delivered in a tone between jest and dare. The idea is that milk doesn’t mix with saltwater readily. You dive under the boat roughly where you suspect the leak, open the jug underwater, follow the wisps like X-Ray contrast as it seeps into the boat. Easy.
The marina water was murky so I pressed my face close to the hull, squinting through bubbles from my regulator. I opened the milk. I was instantly blind. Subsumed in dairy, positively wallowing in it. It was a Tuesday. We had a trip to the island coming up, guests arriving soon.
What’s Onward all about? It’s a good question, one I had front of mind while pulling myself dripping into the dinghy for a rest and a reset. The simple answer is that Onward is a 501(c)3 nonprofit started by a group of creative, kind people with strong connections to Southern California who love doing things outdoors. Many of us work in professions that are creative or entrepreneurial and we instinctively understand that the outdoors nurtures caring and connection.
Outdoors is a pretty buzzy word these days, what with the ‘Gram and the pricey vanagons, but here’s our slice: When you do inspiring things in beautiful places with people that light you up, a palpable sense of possibility sneaks in. It’s like a crack in the walls of the maze we navigate in daily life. When you’re in a beautiful place, when the walls vanish, priorities rearrange themselves, reality seems clearer. On a mountain top or at sea under a quilt of stars, buzzing with connection and giddy from a day of play or purpose, you’re pretty tuned in. You get to talking with a new friend. Ideas pour out. Enthusiasm bubbles up. A new reality takes shape. That’s a powerful state.
Onward is about setting the table for those experiences, and also about enabling the next step. We take creative and curious peeps outside by land and sea for objectively awesome breaks from the daily hustle–retreats, performances, immersive education, expeditions.
We also have the tools, connections, and optimism to put momentum behind those connections. Nothing lights us up like new friendships or hairbrained schemes. We do everything we can to help them grow. It all starts in the gap, that space created from a perfect recipe of natural beauty, shared fun, and deep connection.
The old timers were wrong about the milk, or maybe they just got me on that one. Possibly I didn’t get the right kind of milk? We eventually found the leak anyway, poking and prodding underwater, laughing at the improbability of it all, solving the problem at hand with a healthy dollop of humor. Patched up, good as new, the boat welcomed a new group of overnight guests. Time for the next adventure, the next gap, new friendships, a more caring reality.
ONWARD,
Greg Nichols
Executive Director
THE CREW
Barry is an instigator and a facilitator who uses his tools it get it, whatever "it" is ... done. A lifelong sailor with a rare ability to goad his collaborators and think outside the box for novel solutions, he’s Onward’s master builder, outreach coordinator & community liaison … also guiding animal spirit.
Torrey is a boss who leads teams and routinely handles complex org conundrums with grace, style, and aplomb. Just don’t look in her car. You’d think a logistical mastermind would have a clean backseat. You’d be wrong. She’s Onward’s head of operations, everything coordinator, and go to for a mean charcuterie board.
NINA ANTHONY
Bradley Riley
For the most part, Nina keeps it together. Two kids, adoring husband, impressive career. You squint, it all works. Sure, the kids are feral, husband bought a wooden boat (moron), and she’s an unspeakable beast on the soccer pitch…can’t let her colleagues see that. She works on family events & education for Onward and she’s passionate about pepperoni.
Bradley is a thalassophile and creative activist focusing on empathy-driven content. Born in Rome, but not that Rome, lives by "when in Rome…” A lifelong musician with a passion for nurturing and growing successful nonprofits, he’s Onward’s fundraising genius, events mastermind, and DJ extraordinaire.
Ryan Finstad
After a year of cruising the Caribbean on his sailboat, Ryan felt the urge to put down roots. So with a characteristically frenetic approach, he went all-in on an urban farming project in his hometown of San Diego. When he's not tending avocado trees or warding off coyotes, Ryan is a serial entrepreneur with his hands in several business projects. He’s Onward’s operations and business advisor, sailing consultant, mixologist & general rabble-rouser.
TORREY NICHOLS
BARRY LENEMAN
GREG NICHOLS
Mu SUN
Greg lives on a wooden boat with his quasi-civilized family and sometimes leads raids on unsuspecting neighbors. It’s not personal, it’s just the kids get antsy and we occasionally run out of Pirate’s Booty. He’s a writer, USCG 100-ton master and co-founder of media company Truly*Adventurous. He loves the outdoors, and has a tenuous grip on authority as Exec Director of this boisterous circus.
Mu is a multi-hyphenate: traveler-filmmaker-astrophile who daydreams about aviating to far flung islands and social critique of totalitarian societies from the comfort of his Portland, Oregon, abode and wherever United Airlines can take him. He’s Onward’s master of narrative media, planner of land-based retreats (because, ugh … boats), and travel logistics guru.