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Chats with Nakula Boag
July 26,2023
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Photography by Remi Pauleau and Jesse Bernasconi
Nakula: What's going on?
Vijay: Not much, Friday, baby!You're drinking a beer?
Nakula: Uh, yeah, yeah. I went up to the local bottleshop which is like a 5-minute walk.
Vijay: Oh, nice! Cheers! You're, in Crabbs Creek, up back of Byron Bay right?
Nakula: Yeah, middle of nowhere. It's f*cked! Closest neighbours, like a kilometre away.
Vijay: Did you grow up there?
Nakula: Yeah, I’ve been in the same place my whole life since I was like six months old.
Vijay: And your parents are Hare Krishna, right?
Nakula: Yeah. Yeah. Full Harris.
Vijay: That must have been interesting growing up with that, yeah.
Nakula: So yeah, they would go back and forth to India all the time and stuff just to visit temples.
Vijay: That would be a kind of peaceful way of living, right?
Nakula: Ah, yeah, for sure.Well, yeah, my whole family is all into, meditating and a bunch of, like, just spiritual stuff.
Vijay: Do you still meditate?
Nakula: I try to. I mean, skating consumes a lot of my time. But yeah, whenever I get a chance. I, you know, meditate, especially in the morning, if I wake up early, I'll do like 1/2 an hour of meditating and stuff, which helps for sure. Just clears your mind.
Vijay: So when did you start skating?
Nakula: Umm I was 10, so it's been about 8 years now. As soon as I got my board, I was like, oh, I'm into this! My mum went overseas for a year, so it was just me and my dad. He got me my first board and I got heaps of days off school just to skate and stuff, which was sick.
Vijay: Who were your favourites skaters growing up?
Nakula: Growing up I kept like switching over every month. I'd watch someone's part and be like oh, he's sick.Umm Ben Raybourn. He was a sick transition skater. Probably Pedro Barros and Grant Taylor and then now lately it's switched over into Tiago and all that.
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Vijay: You were overseas recently right, how long where you gone for?
Nakula: Yeah, I was away for 5 months. I was in Europe for 3, then India and Bali which was sick!
Vijay: It's a long time to be away for only 18. What made you want to do that?
Nakula: Yeah, I mean, I don't know, actually. Before COVID I was wanting to go overseas to like America or something. And then I never really thought of Europe as being an option because I just thought the skate scene was in America. But yeah, I sussed Spain, and I didn’t even know that there was a big skate scene there. But then I looked it up and I was like, holy sh*t, that's crazy. So, I was like, yeah, f*ck it. And then yeah, when I got over there, I was like, holy sh*t. It’s just insane, like skaters every corner. You know, you walk down the street, you'll just see some, skater ride past and then you see them at Macba doing all this crazy sh*t. It's pretty surreal.
Vijay: So you got to skate Macba a lot?
Nakula: Yeah, my apartment was a 5-minute walk, so that was the local. But it was pretty intimidating at first because, you know, it's pretty much every skater there is doing crazy sh*t that you are just like, “what the f*ck?”But then once you get used to it, it's so sick.
Vijay: Just skating every day?
Nakula: Yeah, just skating. Enjoying the whole culture and everything.
Vijay: And then straight to India?
Nakula: Yeah, which was sick.
Vijay: Did you do much in India?
Nakula: I did f*ck all skating out there. I love India, but that's the only bad part about it is that they've got nowhere to skate. I was just staying in a few ashrams and a few temples and just yeah not doing much. Just following the temple lifestyle and meditating everyday.
Vijay: How did you find it?
Nakula: Yeah, I love the lifestyle, but I start going crazy when I can't skate there, but it's sick to be over there.
Vijay: And then Bali, just like full Bali hanging out?
Nakula: Yeah, that was like holiday from a holiday, you know?
Vijay: Yeah, sick! I saw the new park in Kuta that just got built.
Nakula: Yeah, that was sick. It’s right on the beach which is a sick scene.
Vijay: Like Kuta is a sh*thole, but the parks sick! It’s actually the classic example of how, like, Westerners can just completely f*ck up a place haha
Nakula: Oh yeah, just fully take the culture out of it for you haha.
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