Long Islander Skateboards Across the Country, Raises Awareness for Alcohol Addiction
On May 20, after 57 days and 3,000 miles, Long Island native Chad Caruso accomplished his dream of skateboarding across the United States.
On March 24, Caruso took off from Venice Beach, California, and began his skating journey to Virginia Beach. A dream that had been in the works for two years had finally become a reality for Caruso, and he couldn’t wait to start.
“I’ve been planning this for two years. The buildup has been crazy, planning everything and getting organized,” Caruso said moments before he departed from California. “I’m just psyched to start this thing, and it’s going to be an incredible journey,” he said.
Caruso documented every day of the trip on his YouTube channel to not only capture the seemingly insurmountable journey but to raise awareness for addiction.
Before his YouTube success, Caruso was fighting an ongoing battle with alcohol addiction. The situation escalated to the point where he begged friends and family for money. Caruso learned that his troubles had hurt those closest to him, and he realized that a lifestyle change was necessary.
“The thing that snapped me out of it was when it started leaking into other people’s lives, putting other people in debt because they had to lend me money to make sure I wouldn’t end up in jail,” Caruso said on day two of the trip. “Messing up people’s lives, that’s when I started to realize that I got to change something.”
For Caruso, that critical change was committing to skating. He developed a passion for teaching others how to skate through YouTube, which is ironic because Caruso used to despise YouTube.
“I actually hated YouTube and social media and all of that stuff when I was drinking. I put it down and talked badly about it. It turns out the thing you hate is what you secretly want to do,” Caruso said.
Caruso has now been sober for six years, and with his recent crusade across the country, he raised $45,000 in support of addiction awareness. A portion of the funds goes to Natural High, a drug prevention non-profit organization.
Caruso hopes his journey will inspire others battling addiction to quit and find their passion.
“Find something you love doing and do it as much as you can, and you’ll find more joy in that than drinking,” Caruso said.
