Chris Naugle

I went from skateboarding.

I was introduced to snowboarding in my garage by my best friend, and I'm like, I want to be a pro snowboarder.

And that's where it all began.

I've always been kind of a dreamer.

Even as a young kid, I just never really had boundaries in terms of what I thought was possible.

So I would just dream these things.

But every single person I would tell my goal to would say, no, you can't do that.

You live in Buffalo.

You'd have to move.

And you had all these people knocking your dreams down, because they want you to conform

to their way of thinking, their failed dreams is what I always call it.

And I almost never made it to that point, but there was a pivotal event that happened.

And I say this because it's very important for everybody listening to this.

There was one person that showed me that it was possible, and his name was Blair Russ.

And he was a pro Burton rider from Buffalo, moved to California, but came back to Buffalo when I was in this point where I wanted to be a pro but didn't know the path.

And I heard he was gonna be riding and filming at this local resort, so I made sure I was there.

I took off school and I'm riding, following these guys through the park, trying to stay far enough behind, because I was nervous, I was just a young kid, nervous that I'm gonna get in their way of filming.

And Blair stops me and he says, hey, I've seen you riding, do you wanna ride with us?

It was like the greatest day ever, but one thing that happened that very day is,

It made me understand that it was possible because if Blair and this guy Shane had done it and they came from Buffalo, then I could do it too.