For our first installment of Attitude’s breeder profile series, we are connecting with one of the pivotal figures responsible for spreading the magic of OG Kush to the masses, Swerve of The Cali Connection.
At its core, the tale of The Cali Connection is the story of a patient determined to provide his peers with access to the best genetics possible—the very genetics that brought Swerve himself relief. This journey began in the late 1990s in the San Fernando Valley, just a few years after Proposition 215 legalized medical cannabis in California.
Despite the progress in medical cannabis, participating in the then “movement” movement before the industry existed was still a daunting prospect.
“I think there were eight or nine shops when I first got my medical card,” Swerve told Attitude, explaining that he obtained the card due to being legally half-blind. “I have five eye diseases. I’ve had more eye surgeries than most people could even imagine.”
Swerve knew he could leverage his eye problems to create a safety net as an authentic patient while he ventured into the local medical cannabis market. As he observed the increasing number of clubs opening up locally, he began to wonder where all the cannabis was coming from.
The Old School Cannabis Message Boards
Curious and eager to find out, he eventually bought some seeds after joining a Canadian website called Closet King due to a lack of answers on local sourcing.
“I made some solid friends there,” Swerve said.
His time on the forum led him to purchase what he recalled as some Pot of Gold seeds, marking the beginning of his growing journey. He also learned techniques such as deep water culture growing. Additionally, Swerve noticed that people were trading clones, which felt like he had entered an entirely new world. However, he realized that merely chatting with people online and trading cuts would only take him so far. Eventually, he acquired his first set of clones, which he believed were Northern Lights #5 x OG.
But he had a higher bar in mind.
Swerve set his sights on the real OG Kush, knowing it wouldn’t be readily available on the forums. Nevertheless, he remained active on the forums, eventually joining IC Mag around 2004, a platform that attracted many significant figures who have stood the test of time over the past two decades.
The IC Mag Movement
He believes that the period when everyone who mattered converged on IC Mag marked a pivotal moment for the cannabis community.
“I started trading on IC Mag, and I think Dabney Blueberry was one of the first that I started to like to do multiple runs of all six plants,” Swerve said.
Swerve had a small group of trusted individuals with whom he frequently traded. Through these relationships, he acquired the mythical Alaskan Thunderfuck.
“This ATF that I got was way different than anything else that I had ever experienced in terms of the plant growth, the way that the leaves were, the feeling of the plant,” Swerve said. “But the Dabney Blueberry from Cedar Berry Farm was probably the first real main grow that I ever did.”
Providing Access to Elite Cuts Before The Cali Connection
Despite rapidly cycling through different strains, Swerve was ready to help meet the growing demand for clones in Los Angeles. He recalls that everything seemed to happen at once in 2004 when he met an old-school grower named Ungresitered, who provided him with his first real OG cut. From there, he obtained the Bubba, and eventually, Motorbreath breeder Jimmy Nitz introduced him to the world of the best Chemdog phenos with outstanding fuel notes.
In 2007, Chemdog himself came to California, allowing Swerve to experience some of his best work, including the Chem D.
“It thumped me,” Swerve said. “I was smoking OG with him, and that was how that blossomed. So then he gave Jimmy the thumbs up to send me all the chem, and I ended up getting all the chem family.”
While Swerve always found the Chem D to be the standout, he also enjoyed other strains like Double Dog and Dog Days, the latter being the best all-around Chemdog spinoff in his opinion.
However, not all trading experiences were positive. At one point, some cuts Swerve helped source ended up in the hands of a breeder who turned police informant. Although Swerve had a degree of separation from the situation, he still felt the repercussions.
Starting The Cali Connection
In 2008, Swerve officially established The Cali Connection as a real company in California, focusing on seed production. He believed that as long as he followed the rules set by California Attorney General Jerry Brown in 2008, he would be in good shape.
“So we had the nonprofit, we did all that, and it was going pretty solid,” Swerve said. “We started to do some work throughout the dispensaries. And then we went overseas in 2010 to our first Cannabis Cup.”
Although the seeds didn’t make it to Europe, they learned a lot. Swerve joked about his empty booth across from some of the biggest names in the game at the time as they looked over and tried to figure out who he was. However, the trip was not in vain, as Cali Connection’s SFV Bx1 was an ingredient in Karma’s White OG, which took third place.
Joining Attitude Seedbank
That trip was also the first time The Cali Connection and Swerve encountered Attitude in person. Connecting with Attitude for the first time in Europe would prove to be a major inspiration for him.
“And I’m not going to lie, that’s where I took a little bit of my premise and ideas towards my cannabis cup booths here in America,” Swerve said. “If you went to the San Francisco ones at the Craneway Pavilion when we were the big sponsors, and we had our banners, and we threw out a couple thousand joints off stage, Attitude was where I learned it from.”
The awards have continued to roll in over the years. As we celebrate 14 years of The Cali Connection, we currently have over 50 offerings in stock from Swerve including the latest releases like Italian Ice Line or Strawberry Line.