A dark night, in the middle of the Shenandoah forest, I had finally found a spot with cell phone service. By myself, no skateboards nearby, what should I do? I know! Check out the esk8.news forum! I kill a lot of time on this forum, I’ve developed my skills and my super cool friends list here!
I checked my notifications, a few private messages from some interesting people, ideas for projects, and some random conversations, but alas, not enough to defeat my boredom. I started scrolling through the new topics, a quick check up on the builds and projects I’ve been following when I stumble across a post titled “Thoughts on Kaly Raffle and Mystery Charity”
https://forum.esk8.news/t/thoughts-on-kaly-raffle-and-mystery-charity/
Click!
What raffle!? I didn’t hear of no raffle! A quick browse and a few clicks later I’m on kaly.nyc drooling over his urban carvers and reading about his raffle. Ernesto, the man behind Kaly.Nyc is originally from the Dominican Republic and partnered with Lazyrolling and Jay Boston to raise money for an orphanage back home. $55 per raffle ticket and he was keeping it limited to 70 entries. I liked my odds and figured even if I didn’t win, I’d be helping the kids. It’s all for the kids ya know?
Fast forward a few weeks…I had totally forgotten about the raffle or my chances of winning and went on with my life. I had been following the thread on the forum and saw that the drawing was going to be held live on Instagram on October 29th at 8:00pm.
I honestly forgot about it…I never win these things, so why waste my time even watching? At this point I just made the assumption that I had donated $55 towards an orphanage in the DR and was completely fine with that.
I had been studying all night for a certification I want (for my day job) and was laying on the floor with my phone next to me, trying to ignore it and not get distracted. Bzzzzt bzzzt…random NY phone number calling me…ignore. I’d been getting a lot of robocallers lately l, didn’t need another one interrupting my study time!
Bzzzt…1 new text from that random NY number.
Wait a minute…this can’t be real! I quickly called the number back and got the man, the myth, the legend, Ernesto on the other line telling me I did in fact win the XL2.0.
“Didn’t you watch the drawing? I just did it live on Instagram!!”
I had to relook at my order number, 10144, it was right, I won. I don’t even remember my full conversation with Ernesto at first. I ran downstairs while I was on the phone, my wife thinking I’m a mad man pacing back and forth verifying that I won this beauty of a board.
Ernesto said we would talk the next day to go over shipping and all of the details. That night I dreamt of carvers. Work the next day went by so incredibly slow, I probably went to kaly.nyc and looked at every part of the XL 2.0 over and over again, from the 4:1 helical gear drive, down to the angular bearing design for the custom hubs.
I had just finished my first big DIY build, and quickly forgot about it. I made room on my skateboard rack, planned out any additions and obsessed over every aspect of this upcoming prize.
It was perfect timing as well, that weekend was the DC invasion ride. The next day, Ernesto and I made plans to meet up at Union Station in Washington DC (an hour drive from my house) to do the pick up.
Saturday morning, I had to take the test first, the one I was studying for when Ernesto called, failed it gracefully, then jumped in the car to go grab this board. I wanted to go on the ride but I had been pretty sick the days leading up to it, I couldn’t miss the pick up though! We met at Shake Shack inside union station.
I got to meet a bunch of people from the forum and DCesk8, see a bunch of amazing boards, and most of all, receive my new stallion!! When he grabbed his bag with the board I was speechless, watching every move.
Ernesto hooked it up!! A brand new kaly xl 2.0, all blacked out with camo hexagon grip tape….drool worthy I’d say. He gave me a run down on the remote and the different modes (Red = you’re late for your meeting!)
I got an 8a charger and an extra BX hub/wheel combo as well!
Honestly I was dumbfounded by the board and the entire event. I’ve gotten to ride it a few times (I’ve been really sick and I’m finally starting to feel better now!) and this board is phenomenal.
One of my friends on the forum, Andrew (@derelictrobot) told me that his kaly styles carver has ruined his other boards for him. I finally see what he means. The evo hasn’t even been ridden since I got the Kaly. I did touch the evo today, but that was to pull my metr and OSRR remote out so I could upgrade the Kaly with it! The build quality and wire maintenance is top tier work from what I can tell. The layout is kept simple but safe and that gives me a sense of ease and comfort in its quality.
This board is insanely stable throughout all speeds and terrain I’ve ridden it on so far. I haven’t changed any settings on it, it came with white springs and yellow dampas in the back. Ernesto told me to just ride it the way it was set up for a few months to get used to a new riding style and then start tweaking. I don’t really see myself having to change anything on this board. The turning radius is insane, low speed carving, high speed runs, grocery grabbing, and every other type of riding I could do on this board is perfectly dialed in.
I’ve only gone through 2 full charges on this new battery, this is the first of the flexi-pcb with 20700 cells, I’m getting amazing range and consistent power. I’ll be sure to record a few of my rides now that I have the metr pro installed and my OSRR in there. I’m done typing, time for a ride before this rain hits!!
- The story of a boy and his raffle - November 16, 2019