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The Suit and the Scene

Kayla Saddington
austin

There are many people that travel to the inner city of Melbourne every single day.

Around 844,000 people are in the city every single day with a further 378,000 travelling in at night. On top of this, the international visitors usually total over one million every year.

That’s a lot of people.

Melbourne is full of crowds containing tourists, office workers (‘suits’), construction workers, protestors, the homeless, residents, students and volunteers. It’s never a quiet place. There is always something happening, somewhere. There are so many people and every single one of them has a story to share. Every time you walk past someone, there’s a story there. When you see people dressed up in strange costumes, there’s a story there too. To be honest, no matter where you look, there’s a tale to be told. All people are interesting.

Sometimes, you just have to dig a little bit deeper to find the essence of that.

Austin Carroll is a 22 year old man who is making his way through the world. He has completed a Bachelor of Environmental Science and graduated from RMIT University last year. He then interviewed for a position at an accounting firm called Ernst and Young. He was then employed full time as one of their Audio Visual (AV) Technicians.

‘I had to have training within the field of sound and sight, (SS) which is what I learnt from living at a residential college during a part of my university degree. I had to have a degree in order to apply for the position and I also had to have some experience dealing with corporate clients within a certain setting.’

His main responsibilities include videoconferencing, responding to clients’ technical issues and repairing and fixing faulty AV equipment.

‘One colleague in particular and I both have degrees that have no bearing on what we are currently doing for work. If you have the right experience and skill set to perform a job to the best of your ability with some paper work to back you up, working in a place (like this) can be a lot simpler than you’d think.’

But Austin hasn’t always been a professional Melbournian, working in the hustle and bustle of the CBD.

‘I’m originally from Ballarat but I’ve been living in Melbourne for the past four years in share houses across Fitzroy and Brunswick. While I was still finishing high school back in Ballarat my older sister had already been living in Melbourne for several years. I would come down and catch up with her on any free weekend that I had. I loved coming down to Melbourne for fun and to see her. The buzz the city gave me was immense and I wasn’t used to it, coming from a country town.

‘Ever since I was about 15 I knew I wanted to move away from Ballarat as soon as I had the chance. Not because of the people there but purely because of the fact that I had been living there for about 13 years and wanted a change in scenery and new place to explore.’

Austin might seem like your average ‘suit’ with his professionalism but to be honest, he’s a bit of a double agent, with a hidden identity.

He works full time from 10am to 6pm every single weekday. He travels home some weekends to visit his family. He also spends time with his friends and girlfriend, dining out, going to the movies and just hanging out. You’d think he had everything he would ever need. What you didn’t know, is that behind his professional ethic, whenever he finds spare time, he gets out his old skateboard and forgets about everything.

‘I love skateboarding and always have ever since I started when I was about 15. I still skate today at the parks and local plazas throughout the city whenever I have some free time and the weather is half decent. I don’t skate as much as I would like to since I started working full time.

‘Now I have bills to pay and stuff but I still try to get on the board as often as I can.

‘I also really enjoy rock-climbing in the Grampians and downhill mountain bike riding.’

It doesn’t matter how secure your job is or the amount of people that you have strong relationships with. What Austin has learned is that everybody needs to put aside some time for themselves. Sometimes it helps to get away from everyone and everything in order to find yourself and to discover who you are, alone and on your own.

‘Skateboarding gives me a feeling like no other. It’s just you and your board creating something that no other sport can. Sometimes I have a really average day at work or on the weekend so I go for a roll for a couple of hours. I always come back trying to remember why I was angry or frustrated in the first place. The main thing that attracted me to the sport was the limitless amount of creativity that I could bring to it.

‘There are no boundaries. There are no rules. It’s a real expression of who I am as a person.

‘To me it was a way of both escaping the frustrations of school and work and doing something that I genuinely enjoy. I try to make as much time to skate as I can to keep this element of my life still alive. I still need that release every now and again to clear my head and to let off steam.’

Having said that though, there are times when it’s so much better to do the things you love with the people you enjoy spending time with.

‘Sometimes I just feel like skating by myself with my headphones in. But I also love skating with friends because we all feed off each other.

‘If a few friends throw down some sweet tricks everyone else gets hyped and try to go bigger or try a new trick that they haven’t tried before.

‘It works both ways.’

When Austin’s not in the office, fixing technical issues or videoconferencing, you might find him down in St. Kilda.

‘The wooden banks are an awesome place to skate. They always challenge me to try a new trick or to perfect my old tricks.

‘Riverslide Skate Park is always a winner though.’

When he moved to Melbourne from country Ballarat, Austin had to make a lot of changes. He changed the way he travels to work. He’s changed the way he dresses. He’s made new friends and learned how to live independently. The scene he skates in changed too.

‘The scene in Melbourne is more progressive. There are more skate shops, scouts and skate parks. It’s easier to get noticed and sponsored here in Melbourne.’

There are similarities though: the same sort of attitude and vibe is always found at the local skate park.

‘Skateboarders and bike riders usually stick to themselves or within the group that they hang out with. Some issues can occur in the skate park though if a skateboarder or a bike rider cuts of another person.’

Some things just never change, no matter where you are.

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