Well-known Sunshine Coaster ‘Captain’ Quinn Barabash has landed a show on the World Fishing Network (WFN).
Cast Northwest grew out of Barabash’s popular YouTube video series, where he combines humour, fishing, friends, and a strong environmental message. It will premiere on WFN in April.
Barabash lives in the Terrace area these days, but it was during his time on the Sunshine Coast that his love of outdoor fun first combined with his passion for documenting his experiences on video.
He’s built up a YouTube following of more than 23,000 subscribers and took a big step toward turning that into a TV show when he got funding from Telus Optik to produce the first season of Cast Northwest.
“It’s been something I’ve been working at for a long time,” Barabash said. “I think everyone can relate to having a goal, an idea, a dream and saying it out loud for the first time. It’s very far away from where you ultimately want to end up in terms of the steps in between. Realistically, I didn’t even know what those steps were or how to take them – I just focused on the fun aspect of it and that drove me to learn.”
Barabash said that while Cast Northwest is a fishing show, the core message is the same one that’s been behind all of his projects: “It follows a common theme, and that is to showcase the connection between happiness and a healthy environment. I love to get outside and I love fishing and hunting; my happiness depends on healthy, functioning natural systems … If there’s no fish to catch, then I wouldn’t get to go develop relationships with my friends and other people and the environment.”
Although he’s got years of experience filming his outdoor adventures, Barabash said producing a show for TV has been a challenge. “Post production, principal photography, that kind of stuff, is just a language that doesn’t really exist in a fun YouTuber’s vocabulary, but the minute you start doing it professionally for broadcast standards, then you have to learn that new language and you have to learn the industry … It’s exciting, but it’s overwhelming as well.”
Barabash said he’d like to come back to the Coast to film an episode of Cast Northwest, but it’s too early to say when that might be possible.
In the meantime, local fans can catch the complete first season on Barabash’s YouTube channel, the website captainquinn.com, or through Telus Optik.
