“I got sober nearly six years ago. I wear my recovery on my sleeve because it is 100% responsible for the life I have today. From my teenage years on, I softened every meaningful experience I had with alcohol, mainly because I never learned how to do most things without it. When I got sober, I had to learn how to do everything again; be intimate with my wife, watch sports, spend time and interact socially with other people, be vulnerable, find friends that liked the same stuff I did – the list goes on and on. One of my biggest fears was that the fun was over. That was the most terrifying part: the idea that I’ll have nothing left in common with the friends I have without the drink and that I’ll have to start all over. This isn’t an attack on drinking by any means. For an alcoholic, there just isn’t a choice. I think that’s why people go back to using and drinking so often when all they want to do is stop. They need that connection and the only one they might have is a polluted one, at least for the addict or alcoholic. Little did I know there was a world beyond my wildest dreams standing by. I was introduced to the SUNDAYS squad pretty early on in my recovery. A group of sober skateboarders? I was like, “no fucking way”. I honestly can’t remember how I came across it, but I remember how small it was when I got there. There couldn’t have been more than five or six people in the crew. I instantly loved it. It was intimate and not very threatening, they adopted me right away – and it was really fucking cool. There was no way I ever thought anything was going to be cool again once I got sober. I instantly related. See, skateboarders will take anyone in. Skaters have always been a group of “outsiders” but once you are one, you get to always feel like an insider. These were guys and girls just like I used to be, recovering from alcoholism. We would share stories every Sunday morning and then go skating. I really hadn’t skated seriously since my late teens and pretty much left it behind when I started drinking. Now I was fully back in the mix and it inspired me like nothing else. I felt alive again, and young. Sobriety was actually sort of fun with the whole skating aspect. The more I got to know the group the more fun I had. It wasn’t only fun as I started to care about these people and their lives. Over time, we’ve all grown together, had kids, got jobs, lost jobs, lost loved ones, experienced broken relationships, and dealt with relapse. Through all this we’ve had each other’s backs and continue to share our experiences, strengths, and hopes with one another. Some of these people have become my best friends and part of my family. For a lot of the folks in this group it’s the only family they have.”