By day, Sam Eitel ’10 works in business administration for Beltway International Trucks. By night (and weekend, and every other spare moment he can find), Eitel indulges his true passion: dreaming up and making his own line of longboard skateboards.

Though Sam has only been out of college a few years, it’s clear from the moment you meet him that he is passionate about his labor of love: Roots Board Company. After a childhood spent body surfing and longboarding during family trips to Ocean City, in fall of 2009, Eitel found himself wondering just how hard it would be to make his own board. He combined his own experiences as a rider with some guidance from his uncle on the finer points of woodworking, and voila: his own hand-made long board.

“I just tried making one,” says Sam. “My friends loved it.” And since that first board, Eitel hasn’t looked back. He’s been refining the process ever since, experimenting with different types of wood, painting styles, and hardware. He started making boards for friends, and in the last two years, he’s made more than 70 custom longboards.

When asked how he finds the time outside of his career and family obligations, Eitel explains that his passion for the work inspires him to make the time for it.

“I like to be on the go constantly and I delegate time to it, especially on the weekends,” he says. “If the sun is up, I’m out there [in the woodshop] cutting, sealing, and shaping boards.”

Right now, Eitel makes most of his boards for custom orders, but he’d love to branch out into local shops and to even establish his own storefront in the next 5-7 years. In part, Eitel says, this dream is the direct result of his education at UMBC.

“I’d always been infatuated with business and how to run one, but I never thought about how to start my own company,” admits Sam. “UMBC pushed me in that direction.”

“I really enjoy this,” says Eitel. “I can see myself doing this [making longboards] as long as I can ride them.”

Learn more about Roots Board Company.

Photo Courtesy of Roots Board Company

By day, Sam Eitel ’10 works in business administration for Beltway International Trucks. By night (and weekend, and every other spare moment he can find), Eitel indulges his true passion: dreaming up and making his own line of longboard skateboards.

Though Sam has only been out of college a few years, it’s clear from the moment you meet him that he is passionate about his labor of love: Roots Board Company. After a childhood spent body surfing and longboarding during family trips to Ocean City, in fall of 2009, Eitel found himself wondering just how hard it would be to make his own board. He combined his own experiences as a rider with some guidance from his uncle on the finer points of woodworking, and voila: his own hand-made long board.

“I just tried making one,” says Sam. “My friends loved it.” And since that first board, Eitel hasn’t looked back. He’s been refining the process ever since, experimenting with different types of wood, painting styles, and hardware. He started making boards for friends, and in the last two years, he’s made more than 70 custom longboards.

When asked how he finds the time outside of his career and family obligations, Eitel explains that his passion for the work inspires him to make the time for it.

“I like to be on the go constantly and I delegate time to it, especially on the weekends,” he says. “If the sun is up, I’m out there [in the woodshop] cutting, sealing, and shaping boards.”

Right now, Eitel makes most of his boards for custom orders, but he’d love to branch out into local shops and to even establish his own storefront in the next 5-7 years. In part, Eitel says, this dream is the direct result of his education at UMBC.

“I’d always been infatuated with business and how to run one, but I never thought about how to start my own company,” admits Sam. “UMBC pushed me in that direction.”

“I really enjoy this,” says Eitel. “I can see myself doing this [making longboards] as long as I can ride them.”

Learn more about Roots Board Company.

Are you confused about the Stop Online Piracy Act ? Join the club.

The issue first caught our eye the last Wednesday when sights like Wikipedia went dark for a day.

The bill seems to have it’s heart in the right place. Piracy and copyright infringement on the web is a legitimate problem.

However, there is more to SOPA that meets the eye. We have found an informational video we think sums up the pros and cons nicely. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Image courtesy of New York Times.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait. It’s definitely a bird. A lot of birds, to be precise.

Bird-watchers across the country are recording an unusually high number of snowy owl sightings. There appears to be both an increase in population as well as an increase in the territory the birds have been seen in.

While they are normally rare in Kansas and Missouri, they have been sighted as far south as Hawaii. The birds, which live in the Arctic for most of the year are traveling south in an infrequent irruption.  That’s irruption, not eruption. The owls, colored blinding white with yellow eyes, are the same species as Hedwig, the fictional companion of Harry Potter.

Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute, was not clear on what, exactly, caused the rise in numbers.

“We do know they had a really good breeding year, and there was plenty of food last year. Instead of no chicks, or one or two, a single nest will produce five, six, seven or more fledglings in a good breeding year.”

We’re not sure where all the owls are coming from, but would like to helpfully reiterate that we are still waiting on our Hogwarts letters.