How did you first discover fingerboarding, and how long has it been?
When I was really little, both my brother and my favorite toys were Tech Deck Dudes. We had a half pipe and would spend hours playing with it. We collected as many as we could and that led into collecting tech decks. I don’t remember exactly when I made the switch to actually using them to fingerboard. In highschool I bought a black river complete off of a friend and my brother bought a black river ledge. I was never without it and probably pissed off everyone in my classrooms, at restaurants and even on planes. I lost that board and in the following years I struggled with teen homelessness, an accident that landed me in the ICU for a week and heavy substance abuse. I could never justify buying a good fingerboard at the time though I was always looking at them and leaving stuff in a cart on the BR website. 2 years ago I got sober. With the support of my partner, I started getting back into my hobbies and enjoying life again. The thing that was missing was a fingerboard though.
So I asked my brother where to get a decent cheap one and he has pointed me to Amazon. That worked for quite about a year. But as I got more into the hobby again, I wanted to make things. I had started using a makers space in my area and woodworking obstacles and decks. It has been an amazing creative outlet. I think sobriety has really given me the energy to dive so deeply into my favorite hobby. My girlfriend is sweet enough to let me take up am entire table for working on my first full size park. Fingerboarding keeps me sane and keeps me out of trouble, I don’t forsee it leaving my life anytime soon.