Every time I create a blog, join a forum, or get involved in any social media sort of thing, I always neglect to type up a post about myself; an introductory sort of thing. Without this, my writing lacks a face, and as a result I probably don't connect to readers in the same way a lot of other professional writer's or news figures do, which in turn ends up costing me a little readership I'll bet. So just who am I? A guy who's about share too much information with the internet for one thing.
My name is Kris Gunderson, I'm a male, a hardcore paintballer, a photographer, a blogger, single, middle classed, between the ages of 18 and 25, like video games, and like so many of you reading this, I'm quite intelligent but don't apply myself to school quite as hard as I ought to. Maybe I don't introduce myself to people thoroughly because I erroneously assume my readers know that I'm just like them. To be fair I'll break down all my listed points to make myself a little more unique.
Paintball is my passion. I often wonder why it is given that it costs so much money and inflicts so much damage to my body, but I love it all the same. I have been doing it for four years now, and have been working at the one and only paintball field in Kamloops B.C. as a referee and builder for 2 of them. I'm pretty good, some of the younger crew at the field would say I'm REALLY good, but that's probably because my camoflage top matches my camoflage pants, I look big and scary, and working at the field probably helps too. I suppose now is a good time to give a shameless plug to my other blog, Eight Pound Ops Scenario/Milsim Paintball Blog. It can be a fun read, there's about 45 pages of material on there and I've been writing for that one since creating it in December of 2010. You can definitely expect to hear more about that one as time wears on.
Photography is a new hobby I only developed a keen interest in during the summer of 2010. A great deal of my knowledge in the field was developed through experimentation, self teaching, and scouring the internet for assistance. In January of this year I took a course on the subject which greatly enhanced my grasp on all the goings-on inside of my camera and forced me to do more guided experimentation. Currently I'm doing a fair bit of charity shooting, my most recent 'gig' was a songs for Japan benefit concert at a local Buddhist temple, a month before that I was shooting another benefit concert for the local 'Y Women's Shelter'. I hope to some day make a small return off of this hobby and am currently in the process of setting up a more business like Facebook page as a means of marketing myself as a minimum wage photographer. One thing I've been dieing to do with my camera but haven't had much time to look into is shooting extreme sports other than paintball, mountain biking and skateboarding for example. Perhaps getting involved with the local longboard scene can assist with this?
Ah yes, the student part, I might as well share that here too. I just came out of four years of doing an undergraduate psychology major and still don't know what I'm planning to do with that or if it was even all that enjoyable. I haven't graduated yet, however, and it just so happens that all the requirements I need to graduate this coming year could be met by cramming a geography minor into one very full year. Taking upper level courses with lower level courses is a must in order to pull this off and it's made gaining approval from academic advisers more than a little hectic. This is going to make for a hellish course load as well, so posting here, and on my other pride and joy paintball blog, may become a little less frequent come September.
BUT! One thing I would never consider myself is a longboarder. At least not yet. So why am I starting a longboard blog? Because I can, because I'm a fast writer, just invested in an inexpensive form of transportation which I hoped would have a little more sex appeal than a bicycle, a form of transportation which could be easily stowed away in a closet or under a car seat, and because I wanted to try something new. I'm creating this blog, not to create a how-to, but to make a progress report for those interested in getting an idea of how quickly (or slowly) a person with no experience can pick up longboarding as a commuter. I can pass down to you what I learn from personal experience on my own board, what I find online and turns out to be super helpful, and what other people share with me via interviews with local boarders with more knowledge than myself and maybe even you! So many online tutorials are videos made by pros or people with an awful lot of experience, they make it look so easy but I know picking up a skill like this can be hard, more-so for some than others. So this blog is going to be about me, stepping on a longboard on day one, and ideally following through to when I can tackle some of the nasty hills in my town with a moderate degree of confidence. The blog might not end then however, for all I know I'll continue on in the same way I do with Eight Pound Ops, reviewing products and posting other kinds of articles too.
Secretly I'm a little terrified of doing this. Not creating the blog, I know I have the staying power to write “like a boss” because of how much content I've put on Eight Pound Ops, hell, read this post and you'll know text can just fly off my fingertips. It's actually keeping at practising on my coming longboard is what worries me. I'm a perfectionist, and often if I don't pick a skill up quickly, I get bored and forget about it. My fear here is that without much advance practice on a skateboard, surfboard, or snowboard, longboarding will prove to be too great a challenge for me and I will grow weary of trying. I don't need to do anything too crazy on it just yet, however, I only need it to get from A to B around Kamloops (more on the city itself later).
That is all I'm going to share about me for the time being. If you're new to my writing, you'll have to get a grasp of my personality through reading this and coming content. Right now I'm waiting on my board to arrive in the mail, I may throw an additional introductory/primer post up prior to it's arrival, and I'm not digging the current look of this blog so that might change too. I like the concrete picture for the background... and I sorta like the yellow header like the centre line of a road... but something feels off to me. Maybe it's just because my other blog feels more like home? I'll take suggestions regarding aesthetics if any comments follow the post. In the mean time, new readers, please check out the paintball blog: eightpoundops.blogspot.com, if you like one extreme sport, maybe you'll like another.
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