JT Van Zandt
JT Van Zandt is one of the most sought after fly fishing guides on the Texas Gulf Coast. His journey there has been an interesting one. As he tells it, he barely made it out of high school and stocked groceries for a year before he turned it around and graduated from the University of Texas. He took his college degree to Colorado where he was a fly-fishing guide from 1993-1996 before returning to Texas, where he guided in the Texas Hill Country and worked in wood shops. He started his own cabinet business, which did well, but he didn’t appreciate the stress. So, in 2011, he went back to guiding fulltime on the Texas coast. Now living in Rockport, he has two sons with a woman he says is out of his league. Conservation is at the heart of his approach to guiding, and he serves on the Coastal Resource Advisory Committee for TPWD.
Photo by Dave Mead
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John Dunaway
A merchant mariner by trade, John Dunaway guides cargo ships through the Houston Ship Channel day in and day out. When not aboard ship, you will find him spending time outside with his family and trusty retriever Nixon. Come hunting season, they frequently wingshoot together which fulfills a passion for the outdoors and provides food for the table. His popular annual dove hunting gathering Paloma Blanco has grown from a festival of a friends to a donation arm to Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and the outdoors. Dunaway documents the often neglected or poorly depicted lifestyles of hunting and shipping though his Abstract Conformity website. Abstract Conformity is his approach to sharing stories with details that are often overlooked by the mainstream viewer, continuously adapting this voice as he learns and grows.
Photo by Jonathan Vail
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Jaz Robinson
“Just a sista who loves to fish” is how Jaz Robinson describes herself on her Instagram profile. Known as Castaway Jaz, the Dallas-area resident shares her passion for fishing with a growing audience. She’ll be the first to tell you she’s no expert, but she’s happiest when she’s sharing what she’s learned, especially with other women of color. Jaz’s reputation is growing and she has been featured in Southern Living, Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, D Magazine and WFAA-TV. She just bought her first boat and Joe Pool Lake at Cedar Hill State Park will be her home lake in 2023. She’s also been tapped by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to serve on the Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Committee.
Photo by Jonathan Vail
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Emily Newsom
Emily Newsom is a force of nature. A maestro of the piano and the pedal, the piano protégé turned cycling phenom has carved her own trail in the cycling world—and the grittier the trail, the better. According to Emily, one of the leading gravel cyclists in the country, “I cut my teeth on Texas gravel! It’s where I started my journey into offroad cycling.” And what a trailblazing journey it’s been. Bucking all trends, she went pro at 34, an age when most cyclists think about hanging up their cleats. She quickly rose through the ranks, being selected for the Tour de France Femmes in 2022, and donning the yellow jersey for a stage at the Tour de Pyrenees that same year. Though she has made a name for herself in the road racing circuit, she is in a class all her own when the gravel hits the ground, and she is going all in on gravel racing in 2023, where she feels most connected with the wild places of Texas.
Photo by Jeff Wilson
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Jesse Griffiths
Jesse Griffiths is the chef and co-owner of Dai Due, which was founded in 2006. The brick-and-mortar restaurant opened in 2014 and was named one of the best new restaurants in the country by Bon Appetit magazine in 2015. Since then, Dai Due has gone on to become an Austin mainstay, and is defined by its strict sourcing of Texan ingredients, constantly changing seasonal menu and focus on game meats. The moniker is inspired by an Italian proverb: “From the two kingdoms of nature, choose food with care.” Now Dai Due is connecting customers directly to food sources by offering hunting, fishing, and whole-hog butchery classes. In 2012, he published Afield, a lyrical guide to cooking wild game and fish, which was nominated for a James Beard award. His second book, The Hog Book, is dedicated to the topic of hunting and cooking feral pigs, won the James Beard award in 2022.
Photo by Jeff Wilson
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Alvin Dedeaux
Alvin Dedeaux has been fly fishing for nearly 50 years. For the last quarter-century he has been considered one of Texas’ premier fly-fishing guides. In the winter and spring months he spends his time chasing largemouth and Guadalupe bass on his home waters of the Colorado River. In the summer and fall he can be found chasing redfish in the shallow saltwater flats of the middle Texas coast. Alvin is a two-time finalist for the Orvis guide of the year and his guide service All Water Guides has been a finalist in the Orvis Outfitter of the year. Alvin is one of the cofounders of the highly successful LoCo Trash Bash, a yearly clean up on the Lower Colorado River downstream of Austin. To date the all-volunteer effort has helped remove over 45 tons of trash from the Lower Colorado River.
Photo by Jonathan Vail
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Xochitl Rodriguez
For El Paso native Xochitl Rodriguez, art is “about creating a moment in somebody’s life.” A multi-talented practitioner, she was Bhutan’s first-ever invited artist in residence. Since her daughter’s birth, Xochitl led the Caldo Collective and now partners with Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase to offer support for artists in the border region. In 2020, her first short documentary, Grown Without Water took international audiences on a journey with her and her daughter through their desert home at the zipper of two countries. She now enjoys a life driven by family, philanthropy, and a relentless desire to show her daughter just how big and breathtaking the world can be.
Photo by Dave Mead
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