Hi! My name is Brianna, but my friends call me Breezy. I’m going to tell you a quick, short story about a monumental moment in my life:
I was at an annual family gathering to celebrate my step-father’s birthday, along with the rest of the country celebrating the independence of our nation. The whole family was hanging out at a picnic pavilion at a park in Maryland, the same one as every year prior, picking each other’s brains while the young ones were scattered about playing. The year was 2002. I was 10. A dear friend of the family, the “cool uncle” type-of-dude, put me on a longboard skateboard of his own creation, asked my parents if it was ok that I tried it out, gained approval with something along the lines of “Sure, if she wants to…” and sent me speeding down a hill.
Longboarding has been a prominent fixture in my world ever since.
I’ve carved my way through the happily carefree, free-spirited memories, aggressively skated out angst, anger and sadness when life seemed too difficult to face and have thrown myself at the sport to prove that I could skate just as hard as the boys could – with time, dedication and perseverance – maybe even with a style that was distinctly my own. I rode his custom longboards, commissioned by my parents, throughout my pre-teen tomboy years and the exciting life as an adventurous teenager. I kept riding them into the scary throes of college and adulthood, smack dab into the person I have become today.
As the years went by skating continued to plant its wheels firmly in my heart. It was a unique, memorable and characterizing element of my life. I cherished it as a proud daughter of really cool parents who fostered their kid’s interest in a badass, although injury-prone, hobby, but also as something that I was able to dedicate myself towards pushing physical, mental and creative boundaries. I established connections, developed friendships and exposed other people to the intensity of my love for the versatility of longboarding – cruising, dancing, sliding, old-school tricks and the thrill of speeding downhill – but most importantly longboarding had been both a personal escape from reality as well as a very real way for me to tap into it.
My parents always thought I should start a longboard business but all I was concerned with was my devotion to skating.
And then college came along. Kind of fell into my lap, really. I worked hard to be have a well-rounded, fully packed schedule senior year of high school, tested well and applied to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. I was accepted and offered a full-tuition scholarship at the only school I applied for.
This was basically screaming at me to take full advantage of the opportunity, to collect a degree and acquire the most applicable, transferable skills that I could to broaden my mind, since that’s what education is supposed to do anyway, right? I happened to stumble into the degree for an outgoing, personable, curious, driven and detail-oriented breed of students, where I felt in tune with the knowledge I was absorbing and the students that I had surrounded myself with. The journalism and mass communications program fit like a broken-in slide glove, perfectly functional.
The only discontent was my lack of knowledge and exposure to basic business concepts – branding, marketing, formalities, legalities, internal development, etc. – which led me to the idea of experimenting with the newly-founded entrepreneurship program. I quickly decided on the addition of an entrepreneurship minor for non-business majors.
As I took it all in it just began to make sense. I always felt compelled to share my love of longboarding with the world and my education was building itself up to prepare me to do just that. It allowed me to expound on my ideas and helped me to shape the foundation for a venture I felt destined to create: Breezy Boards.
With all of the factors that led to me deciding to build, develop and launch my own business, the most prevalent was the personal connection I felt towards the boards I had skated throughout my life, which fueled a devoted sense of pride towards my boards.
I want to give this same sense of pride back to the people who support me, my vision and my passion. My goal is to give people a four-wheeled companion that they never want to leave behind at home, an inanimate object that gives them the freedom to go whichever way the pavement is smooth, the courage to go flying down the intense hill, the inspiration to land that crazy trick. I want to project a brand of longboards that inspire people to skate instead of drive. I need people to skate with passion. I need people to ride Breezy Boards. I want everyone to be a part of the Breezy experience.