There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over a space full of people listening to a good story. Last Tuesday night, we got to feel it firsthand.
We opened up our backyard at the InR Garage and turned the space over to something we care about just as much as denim and leather: storytelling. Our good friend Roger W. Thompson came through to celebrate the release of his new book, The Wisdom of Rivers: Family, Friendship, and the Fly-Fishing Life - and more than 150 of you showed up to be part of it.
An Evening on Dry Land: Roger Thompson Brings “The Wisdom of Rivers” Home to the Garage
We’ve known Roger for some time now, and if you’ve spent any time around him, you know fly fishing was never really the point for him. It’s the excuse. It’s what gets you standing in cold water at six in the morning next to your kid, or your old man, or an old friend, with nothing to do but wait and talk and be there. That’s the whole book, really — and it’s the whole reason it felt right to host it at the Garage. We’ve built this place on the idea that the outdoors isn’t a backdrop, it’s where the real conversations happen.
Roger talked for a while about how it all started — picking up a rod as a kid trying to find a way to connect with his father — and then he read a chapter to the room. You could’ve heard a pin drop. A room full of Ventura locals, longtime customers, riders, makers, and friends, all leaning in for a story about grief and grace and rivers in the West. That’s the kind of night that reminds you why we do any of this.
None of it happens without the people who show up to make a night like this feel like a night, and we’ve got a couple of thank-yous that need saying out loud.
To Ventura Coast Brewery — thank you for keeping everyone’s glass full and for bringing beers that felt exactly right for the room. You always show up for us, and Tuesday was no exception.
And to everyone who came out, bought a book, asked Roger a question, or just stood around after with a beer in hand talking about the last time you were on a river with someone you love — thank you. This is exactly what we hope this space is for.
We still have a few signed copies of Roger’s book in the shop, so come grab one before they’re gone. And the next time we throw the doors open for something like this, come find us. There’s always room for one more story.