You all (hopefully) come to your local gym because you love the climbing, the community, the great work out.. ext. Now imagine going to that same gym every day, BUT GETTING PAID FOR IT! The staff at our various Touchstone Gyms are made up of amazing, passionate people. Want to know what makes them tick? In our new segment ‘Better know a staff member,’ you’ll do just that. To start us off, Jason Bove sits down with himself and confesses his addiction. My name is Jason Bove, and almost 7 years ago, I began working as a Desk Staff at Sacramento Pipeworks. Today, let me be the first to express how happy I am to still call Touchstone my employer. Wait a minute, this is starting to sound as if I should be either in a confessional, or standing up in front of a room of other people addicted to something.
To tell you the truth, I suffer from obsession…and one of my addictions is climbing.
My desire for climbing has followed me through the last 19 years of my adult life. I have moved with the industry as it has taken me from working at my hometown gym in Rockford, Illinois to Montana, Virginia, California, and Thailand. Jobs throughout this career have ranged from building indoor rock climbing facilities to shipping packages to happy Prana customers. I have even spent some time solving problems behind the desk of another local gym, Granite Arch!
The most common weekly question I receive is “What keeps you here at Pipeworks?”
The best answer, of course, has to be the community.
The gym has brought me daily smiles and a large number of unmatched personal relationships. Over the years, I have met friends with a very diverse range of upbringings and professions, yet all still have the same common goals…staying fit and having fun. Admittedly, all of these people I would have never met without my selfish love of climbing. Along the road, however, I have learned that pursuits are not necessarily selfish if joy is brought to others by sharing your talents with them. It is the exact opposite.
In addition to climbing, I enjoy making and selling music and art. My ‘desk job’ allows me sufficient time to pursue all of the professions that round out the individual human that I am, and I am constantly encouraged by my employers to continue to be myself. Eli and the Sound Cult is a project that I have been involved in for the last year. Since the inception of the band, my friend Elijah Jenkins and I have brought our music on tour a couple of times so far, to share with folks in Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Modesto and Los Angeles. We piled all of our belongings, (climbing gear included) into a borrowed van and took to the road. We have played 13 shows over 4 months just to refine the stage performance, constructed a studio in Elijah’s basement to record an album, and built a huge sound system and video display to tour the live show. Now that’s ambitious!
We are presently running a Kickstarter project to help fund the ability to continue to share our craft and put out our debut album, ‘Best of Pop’. If you are so inclined, feel free to check us out at www.eliandthesoundcult.com.
If you still believe that there is some leftover free time in my busy schedule, under the moniker of ‘doctorbove,’ paintings are made and sold by my company/art gallery, Japaints. I have recently been working with the City of Sacramento to create larger scale murals and share art with the public. This year, I was lucky enough to work with local artist John Horton on a 75’ mural behind The Crest Theatre, and am currently busy creating another on ‘The Kay’ (K & 8th Streets). This new project is 150’ x 8’ and will be completed by the end of June. Over the years, you may have even seen a Japaints show or two at one of your local Touchstone facilities. If you have not yet witnessed one of these displays of artwork, in December you can view them when the paintings will be hanging in Berkeley Ironworks!
Check out more at www.japaints.com.
In life, my goal is to spend time doing the things that will ultimately make me happy. As I have been told time and time again, “You only have one spin around this roller coaster.” So, why not be happy? Personally, I can not think of any reason why not, and will tell you now that I am. Thanks for spending some time with me, see you at the gym!
