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Todd Larson and Elemental Awareness
In the summer of 2001, Element Skateboards founder Johnny Schillereff stumbled on a new addition to a YMCA skate camp in Northern California: a nature survival-skills program. Over the course of one week on remote Sequoia Lake, instructors Todd Larson and Mike Kershnar brought confidence-building survival strategies to the urban attitudes of the kids.
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Moved by this experience, Schillereff snagged Larson as soon as he graduated from UC Santa Cruz. "Before we met Johnny and Element," a grateful Larson explains, "we were just a couple of guys doing this program on our own. But Johnny saw the reaction of the kids—how they were really learning about nature—and that’s Element’s whole vibe."
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