So uh, yeah, hi folks.
I thought I'd share something that happened to me today:
I was shooting a story for the university paper today - our school has taken in some students from jesuit universities that were affected by hurricane Katrina, about 20 of them or so, and on top of giving them a free ride, they decided to give them all skateboards today. I'm not really sure why, but I suppose it's to add to the california experience, or something like that. We all skate on campus here, but apparently they don't skate over there -louisiana -, they tell me the roads aren't good enough. Anyway, it was the alumni office specifically who bought the boards for the kids, and let me tell you, the alumni office at Santa Clara University has lots of extra money, with one of the top business schools in the country, we've spit out some successful people. So they bought a few boards as a sampling (a bunch of really nice longboards), and gave those ones away, but since they didn't have enough for everyone, the others people got to order boards. It worked better that way though, because everyone got to order the model that they wanted. After they were taught skateboarding rules and etiquette (sp?), they were taken outside to practice on the new boards, and get some pointers. Well I was technically just there to take pictures, but I've been skating for a while, so after getting some good shots I took some time and taught a few of the less confident girls how to ride (the skateboard, that is). I had some decent success actually, and it was pretty cool to see these people progress so quickly. It started to get time for everyone to leave though, so I started to pack up my camera, and started saying goodbye to all the people I'd met. I said goodbye to the guy from the alumni office responsible for all of this, and made a joke about how if there are any extra boards, he knows where to find me. His reply was "Well, are you serious?" I wasn't really, and I told him that, It didn't really feel right since the boards were for the Katrina students - even though a friend of mine, who is one of those students, told me that most of them will never ride them. Still, the guy told me that of the various models of longboards they had bought, there was one left over. It was a model that no one else happened to want, since the students all ordered what they wanted if there wasn't one there. The funny thing is, i love really long longboards, and that was their longest model. The guy said I could have it, since the other students all got what they wanted, and no one was going to take this one. I was hesitant, but he really seemed to think it was fine, and he was the one in charge, so without too much fuss, I accepted. I suppose it was in some way really really good karma for helping those girls get going on their boards, or at least, that's how I'm looking at it. The specific model in question is this 47" longboard from Gravity Skateboards: which you can see here.. Boards like these normally cost around $150, in case you didn't know. Lets just say I'm pretty lucky...
-Taylor
I thought I'd share something that happened to me today:
I was shooting a story for the university paper today - our school has taken in some students from jesuit universities that were affected by hurricane Katrina, about 20 of them or so, and on top of giving them a free ride, they decided to give them all skateboards today. I'm not really sure why, but I suppose it's to add to the california experience, or something like that. We all skate on campus here, but apparently they don't skate over there -louisiana -, they tell me the roads aren't good enough. Anyway, it was the alumni office specifically who bought the boards for the kids, and let me tell you, the alumni office at Santa Clara University has lots of extra money, with one of the top business schools in the country, we've spit out some successful people. So they bought a few boards as a sampling (a bunch of really nice longboards), and gave those ones away, but since they didn't have enough for everyone, the others people got to order boards. It worked better that way though, because everyone got to order the model that they wanted. After they were taught skateboarding rules and etiquette (sp?), they were taken outside to practice on the new boards, and get some pointers. Well I was technically just there to take pictures, but I've been skating for a while, so after getting some good shots I took some time and taught a few of the less confident girls how to ride (the skateboard, that is). I had some decent success actually, and it was pretty cool to see these people progress so quickly. It started to get time for everyone to leave though, so I started to pack up my camera, and started saying goodbye to all the people I'd met. I said goodbye to the guy from the alumni office responsible for all of this, and made a joke about how if there are any extra boards, he knows where to find me. His reply was "Well, are you serious?" I wasn't really, and I told him that, It didn't really feel right since the boards were for the Katrina students - even though a friend of mine, who is one of those students, told me that most of them will never ride them. Still, the guy told me that of the various models of longboards they had bought, there was one left over. It was a model that no one else happened to want, since the students all ordered what they wanted if there wasn't one there. The funny thing is, i love really long longboards, and that was their longest model. The guy said I could have it, since the other students all got what they wanted, and no one was going to take this one. I was hesitant, but he really seemed to think it was fine, and he was the one in charge, so without too much fuss, I accepted. I suppose it was in some way really really good karma for helping those girls get going on their boards, or at least, that's how I'm looking at it. The specific model in question is this 47" longboard from Gravity Skateboards: which you can see here.. Boards like these normally cost around $150, in case you didn't know. Lets just say I'm pretty lucky...
-Taylor
ohmygato:
Skateboarding rules and etiquitte? Sweet.