This is an idea that has captured me and I’ve been mulling it over for a few months now. Ride a board (skateboard, snowboard, surfboard, etc.) every day for a year. 365 consecutive days of boarding!
The Motivation
“You can do it, you can follow your dreams!” Sounds like such a cheesy cliché, but in reality its just plain true. There are a ton of people doing exactly that, and two that I really look up to are Ben Gravy and Casey Willax.
People say that if you’re passionate about something, make it important. Your life is a reflection of your actions, and your actions are an indication of what is important to you.
A little over a month ago, I was talking with my brother about the two inspirational dudes above. We decided we want to let their love of life rub off on us. I started to realize that what I want (more board riding, experience writing) and what I’ve made important (my desk job) were not the same things.
The Push
Without underscoring the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, I do see the social isolation measures taken as a blessing in disguise. On St. Patrick’s day, I arrived at the office wondering what the heck I was doing there at all with this virus spreading around. One of the guys in middle-management stopped by my desk, and with a confused look said, “Uh, not sure if you’ve been told, but they’re sending everyone home to clean the office, apparently someone here has symptoms”
So I grabbed the stuff from my desk, went home, and prepared for this to be the new norm for 14 days. Around the end of those 14 days, when “quarantine challenges” were still novel, the “social distance” protocols were looking to be much longer. I decided to give my self a quarantine challenge. Dust off my skateboard and ollie over something.
After a couple weeks of YouTube tutorials and practicing what I once was able to do as a kid, I got it! It could’ve been cleaner, could’ve been higher, yea… but I cleared an old Vans hi-top.
When I landed that I was SO HAPPY! Something clicked, too. I stopped longing for things to go “back to normal” like I had been for the previous few weeks. When this pandemic passes and things start to open back up, I don’t want the old normal back. I want THIS to be my new normal. I want things to go “back to the new normal.” The norm being: me riding a board every day.
The Goal
Ride a board for at least 15 minutes a day, every day for a year. Realistically that will mostly be skating since that’s what’s most accessible to me. Then, keep a journal of it here. Two things I enjoy: boarding and writing.
So, this is what making what I want important looks like. Right now my company has us working from home until May 20th, following Connecticut State guidelines. I plan to take advantage of this and build momentum so that when things “go back to normal” this will be my new norm. Let’s see where this goes!
MikeFundaro.com 