My name is Toby Hardin. I’m from Texas, but my father is a colonel in the Air Force, so we move around a lot. We’ve been living in Germany for the last six years. I had just made the starting lineup on my soccer team when “The Colonel” dropped a bomb on me: we were moving to Florida. Once we got there, I found out that skateboarding was king. The sport is the opposite of everything I’d been taught–and everything I believed.

I’m definitely an outsider in this town, where “locals rule.” Before long, though, I learned to skate, and I soon realized that the sport is an extension of me. I love the thrill of nailing a difficult trick and flying through the air. The Colonel would hate it if he found out I was skating, or that my best friend has started drinking. I’ve got some tough decisions to make–but will I ever be thought of as a local?