Regardless of what number of years have handed, you absolutely bear in mind the combination of feelings while you first bought your driver’s license.
For some, it was an keen pleasure; for others, a candy launch. Perhaps there was some nervous anticipation within the air as properly. However no matter how snug or assured you have been behind the wheel as a brand-new driver, securing that license meant one factor for all of us: freedom.
The power not simply to drive however to journey locations. To get away. To go anyplace, anytime, and to create all of the experiences that include it. That’s one thing you don’t overlook.
Like many, I spent the primary week after getting my license cautiously driving to highschool and over to my then-girlfriend’s place within the household mini-van – a barely embarrassing Toyota Sienna.
However videographer Mark Vasilyuk – AKA Skuraweekly – took a a lot cooler route. Proper after passing his driving exams, Mark took his Nissan S14 challenge automobile 2,000 miles from Washington State to Southern California (and again once more, hopefully). Alongside for the trip was his older brother Ruvim, who drove a JDM S13.
How may a barely 16-year-old afford such a challenge, you would possibly marvel? Properly, Mark had been onerous at work capturing and modifying movies since earlier than he was an adolescent. By the point he was 12, he had a particular exemption to shoot movies at his native drift observe, creating content material for pals and ultimately purchasers properly earlier than he may even drive.
“I grew up in a household of 14 [not a typo], so we by no means traveled in any respect. One of many issues that drove me to get into videography was that it was a approach to journey and have new experiences. The primary time I flew on a airplane, it was for work. I at all times needed my work to take me out of my consolation zone,” Mark says.
This work led to Mark producing considered one of Kansei Wheels’ early promotional movies, which featured Ruvim’s S13. The video was proven on the SEMA Present that 12 months, and the connection with Kansei continued from there. The corporate later invited Mark and Ruvim to showcase their vehicles at a drift occasion in Southern California at Apple Valley Speedway (or ‘The Grange,’ because it was recognized again then).
So, when the time got here, Mark’s S14 – slammed on coilovers and rocking some Kansei wheels – was prepared for its first main journey. It simply wanted a driver. Or, extra particularly, one with a license. Mere days after that milestone was achieved, it was highway journey time.
A quick disclaimer: These images are almost seven years outdated, so Mark is now properly into his twenties. However I just lately stumbled throughout these photographs and felt compelled to revisit them.
Not as a result of the vehicles or the story are notably distinctive however as a result of they mirror one thing common. The early days of driving are formative, and extra importantly, they’re shared experiences. However we don’t at all times notice that on the time.
From The Archive
So, Mark set out from Washington with Ruvim, the extra mechanically inclined of the pair. It was Ruvim who had been instrumental in educating Mark find out how to wrench on his automobile within the years and months main as much as his youthful brother getting his license.
After all, this dynamic introduced them nearer, too. “Automobiles are what united us. You might have the same old fights as younger siblings, you develop up, and you then discover frequent floor. For us, it was vehicles,” Mark shares.
This was their first highway journey of this magnitude, and for Mark, it was the primary huge journey the place bills have been coated by a consumer.
The drive was fueled principally by Cheetos and Pink Bull, so a ham and egg breakfast from my native diner felt like a luxurious after hours on the highway. Afterward, we cruised out to the seaside and hit considered one of my all-time favourite backroads earlier than Mark and Ruvim continued their journey south.
I’ll always remember driving Mark’s S14 that day or how excited he was concerning the automobile and attending to share it with me. However past that, I had a front-row seat to one thing a lot greater: Mark’s world was increasing exponentially, all due to the privilege of driving.
It’s straightforward to take with no consideration while you’ve been driving for years, however moments like that remind you that one thing so simple as getting behind the wheel can nonetheless really feel like a life-changing expertise. Years later, Mark says he and Ruvim nonetheless speak about that journey.
“Ruvim has moved just a few hours away to Seattle, and we’re each married now, so we don’t get to see one another that always. These are the levels of brotherly relationships… we by no means realized on the time how cool that chance was. Trying again on the journey, it was simply good occasions,” Mark says.
So, the subsequent time you set out on a highway journey or cruise down a again highway, take a second to understand it. Expertise it totally. You by no means know, you would possibly simply be making considered one of your greatest recollections but.
Trevor Ryan
Instagram: purposebuilt_trevor
www.purposebuilt.media
