Meredith Faggart
As he casually walks beside Alexander Hall with his coffee in one hand and his scuffed-up skateboard in the other, one can tell that Diego Fernandez is not a novice when it comes to skateboarding.
He puts in his earphones and cranks up some music by Jurassic 5. The skate session begins.
Fernandez, a sophomore in mathematics, lives for skateboarding. “I picked up a skateboard for the first time when I was about 12 or 13 after the Tony Hawk Pro Skater came out,” he said. “It amazed me, and I just had to learn how to [skateboard].”
His passion for skateboarding grew over the years, and it took him all the way to China.
“When I graduated from high school, I was in a bit of trouble and didn’t get accepted at N.C. State, but I knew that I eventually would. So, I decided to go China for a year and half and skate.”
When Fernandez first arrived in China, he didn’t speak any Chinese and he didn’t know anyone, but that didn’t discourage him.
“When I first got there it was all hand signals, but I love the fact that I skateboard,” he said. ” You meet other people skateboarding and it made it pretty easy to meet people when I was in China.”
Fernandez attended Shanghai International Studies University while he was in China to help him learn Chinese.
“While I was there I fell in love with China — the culture, the language, the food. Now I’d like to go back and finish my degree there,” he said. “I still don’t know how feasible that is, but it’s a plan for the future.” Not only did Fernandez pick up Chinese, but he also skated at the world’s largest skate park.
“The skate park in China was awesome … pretty much a skater’s and BMX heaven.”
Now that Fernandez is back in the States, he has continued his love for skateboarding –despite the skating restrictions Campus Police enforce. But nothing stops him from waking up, picking up his board, and doing what he likes to do. He equates this type of lifestyle to a quote by Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
“That’s the truth in everything. With skateboarding you can’t just do what everybody else is doing. You have to think about what you like to do and do it.”
As for his future, Fernandez isn’t your typical skater boy. He is passionate about math, a subject he said doesn’t confine his imagination. “I love math. I find it so beautiful and interesting. It’s so amazing how it works and how it relates to life.”
He aspires to go on to graduate school and eventually get his PhD in mathematics.
“I want to come up with equations that high school kids are going to hate me for.”
So, the next time Diego Fernandez is skateboarding around campus, ask him about it.
“I love it when people show interest in it,” he said. It’s always pretty exciting when people show positive feedback with skateboarding.”