CONCORD, N.C. – A love of water is what followed one Hendrick Motorsports pit crew member from the California coast to the shores of Lake Norman in North Carolina.
Chad Avrit, rear-tire changer on the No. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS driven by Chase Elliott, is originally from El Centro, California. He moved to North Carolina on a whim to pursue a career in motor sports.
After joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, this is Avrit’s fifth season with the No. 24 team.
GROWING UP ON THE WATER
Prior to moving to the stock car hub of the country, Avrit was quite the active athlete back in California.
“Our typical summers consisted of beach activities,” he said. “Skateboarding, longboarding on the boardwalks over there and surfing.”
Avrit shared two pro tips for beginning surfers:
1. “Don’t get frustrated. It’s the most frustrating thing to get out there and learn to surf and not have patience. You literally have to swim back and forth, so you’re going to get tired, swimming out and paddling in and out.”
2. “Start on a long board. Almost anybody can get up on a long board.”
While growing up, Avrit’s parents also had plenty of camping equipment, which made for additional time spent in the great outdoors.
“We’d actually go camping in the bay area, so it was a group activity with family and friends,” he reminisced.
SURF AND SHOP
Avrit and a friend founded Swell Board Shop in 2014, a Mooresville, North Carolina, shop located on Lake Norman.
The shop sells any type of board for lake or beach activities, as well as apparel, including eyewear and GoPro accessories.
“The atmosphere we kind of brought with my shop is that typical surf shop you would find on the East or West coast,” Avrit said, “and we’ve brought it to the lake atmosphere. So we’re including all the board sports that are associated with the lake.”
Some of the largest-growing watersports right now are wakeboarding and paddleboarding. Avrit has also incorporated skateboarding and longboarding into the shop’s merchandise.
“In this area, really all watersports right now, especially leading into summer; they’re huge,” Avrit said. “Skateboarding starts to slow down because of the heat outside. You still have your die-hard skateboarders that are out there just crushing it in the heat and loving it still. But right now our season is huge with wakeboards, surfboards and paddleboards. Everybody loves to get out on the lake and just paddle around and cruise.”
FAST-LANE ATHLETE TO FAMILY MAN
Is there anything Avrit misses from his days growing up on the West Coast?
“The lifestyle of the summers we had,” he said. “Now living on the East Coast versus the West Coast, doing all those things with my family, I enjoyed growing up in that atmosphere.”
Avrit continued to enjoy time on the lake when he first moved to North Carolina, although lately, free time for the pit crew member has been hard to come by.
“Now I have a 9-month-old and a 2-year-old so my watersports have drastically slowed down,” he admitted. “Obviously when they get older, it will pick back up.”
His love for being on the water is no doubt a passion Avrit plans on sharing with his children.
“With my kids now my perfect summer day is getting up, taking them out to the beach and watching them enjoy building sandcastles more than anything,” he said. “It’s a whole different atmosphere with children now.”
TEAM STORE SUMMER DISCOUNTS
In this week’s #HendrickSummer guide, you can receive a special discount on a Chase Elliott No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports official team hat in both the team store and the online store. To receive 10 percent off your hat, use the code HENDRICKSUMMER at checkout.
And remember, look for another #HendrickSummer feature next week for new stories and a brand new discounted item and share with us your favorite summer tailgating games, recipes and more using the hashtag #HendrickSummer.