A look inside the unique shelters of three Flylow athletes, from cabins to converted busses.
Home is wherever you make it, and some Flylow athletes take that philosophy to the next level. We got a behind-the-scenes home tour from some of our favorite Flylow athletes for a peek inside their unique shelters. Snowboarder Megs Matheson lives in a 1920s Forest Service cabin in Glacier, Washington; snowboarder and guide Eddie Degitis lives in a converted shuttle bus, called the Honey Bus; and nomad and skier Cole Shaffer calls a 1998 Ford E350 bus home. Here’s a look inside their homes.
The Honey Bus
Eddie Degitis has been living the bus life since 2017. He once lived in a converted school bus, but these days, he and his girlfriend, Molly, live full time in a 24-foot converted shuttle bus called the Honey Bus. “When we bought it, it was a functioning bus with all the bus seats and a handicap lift inside,” Degitis says. “Molly and I ripped everything out and fully converted it ourselves.” It took them a year to build out, with some basic contracting knowledge, and YouTube to help finish off the build, electricity, and plumbing.
“A lot of the build was inspired by mountain huts,” Degitis says. There’s a wood burning stove, a queen bed, electricity from solar, running water, a bathroom with toilet and shower, two closets, various storage, a kitchen with butcher block counter, a two-burner stove, a sink, and a fridge.
In the summer and fall, their home base is Durango, Colorado, where they own a mountain bike guide company called Durango Biking Adventures and a coffee shop called First Tracks Coffee and Snacks. And in the spring, Degitis works as a heli-ski guide in Haines, Alaska. The rest of the time? They’re on the road. They’ve driven the bus all over the Western U.S. and beyond, as far as Baja and Alaska.
The Forest Service Cabin
Located off the Mount Baker Highway in Glacier, Washington, this 1920s Forest Service cabin is home to snowboarder and guide Megs Matheson. The cabin is stocked with all the essentials, plus a handful of charming oddities. The heat source is an old wood stove. The single-pane windows don’t hold warmth well, but they flood the space with natural light and frame mossy forest views.
“What we’re living without is convenience and that’s kind of the point. Life off the beaten path moves slower." —Megs Matheson
The shower is outside and open to the elements, brisk at times, but undeniably refreshing. Meals are cooked on a vintage two-burner stove, and late-night cookie cravings are handled by their trusty toaster oven. There’s no cell service, but they do have some spotty Wi-Fi. A five-gallon gas tank lives outside for powder days when they’re running low, and they make a trip to buy groceries in bulk every couple of weeks.
“What we’re living without is convenience and that’s kind of the point,” Matheson says. “Life off the beaten path moves slower. Days are for riding. Evenings are filled with books, cards, and crafts. It’s a simpler way of living, centered around what we love, and one that makes it easy to feel fully present.”
The place has been a haven for skiers and snowboarders over the years, each leaving their own mark behind: the shower was an afterthought, the sliding door brought privacy to a bathroom that once consisted of an open toilet in the corner. “I hear from people who lived here before us all the time,” Matheson adds. “They also spent their days on the mountain and their nights feeding the fire. The guest book tells it all—page after page of entries, proof of a cabin that has been deeply lived in and deeply loved.”
The Ford Bus
When Cole Shaffer first bought his 1998 Ford E350 bus, it was in pretty rough shape both inside and out. “I had to do all sorts of body work and patching on the outside and stripped down the inside to bare minimum and started from scratch.” At first, he converted it into a mobile ski repair shop, with a repurposed wood ceiling and a wood floor, plus a tuning bench with all of his tools.
Photo by Tyler Struss
After skiing for the day, he would park at the bottom of Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon and people would pull over for a quick wax or base weld. I had a nice little futon in there so a lot of people would just kick it and have a beer while I finished their skis up.”
But eventually, he transformed the van into a home: He pulled the tuning bench and couch out and started building a simple setup on the inside that would allow him to go from San Diego to Whistler, BC, over the course of the summer. He built a bed, kitchen counter with a sink and some chairs that he screwed into the floor.
“Since that road trip, I have been consistently building and adding to the rig trying to make it as ideal for my lifestyle as possible,” he says. He has solar panels on the roof and two massive batteries inside powered by an electric setup. That powers his fridge, his wintertime heater, roof fans, laptop, and whatever else he needs.
He cooks on a two-burner propane camp stove and the bolted-in chairs have been replaced with a cushioned bench and swing-around table. He’s been living in the bus on and off for about four years now, spending winters mostly skiing in Utah and summers surfing in southern California and elsewhere.