Harris handcrafts all the boards in his Hawthorne. Calif.. production studio. The process usually begins with Harris and his partners or a client coming up with a design idea. After that. Harris crafts the basic board. Adds natural resin and then bamboo in order to make the board more flexible. then he vacuum-bags it. Finally. it goes into the “hot box” and by 6 a.m. the next morning it’s ready for the fins to be added.
Steph Davis’s day job will likely make you feel like
The 38-year-old Moab. Utah. resident on a typical day will climb up a sheer rock face hundreds of feet high — without ropes — then casually jump from the top. coasting back down to earth using a small parachute. She also jumps out of planes. And she does this.
Davis was the first woman to free climb the Salathe Wall on El . For Davis. rock climbing started as a hobby in college. Making it a job stemmed from her figuring out what she really loved rather than “getting bogged down in what job” she should be doing and how much money she should be making.
“It’s about pursuing passion. living simply
Davis said. For her. climbing — and jumping and flying — helps her examine the larger questions in life and deal with fear. not by just trying to overcome it but by being aware of it and working “alongside it rather than being controlled by it.”
About 80 percent of Davis’s income comes from sponsorships. She’s established relationships over the last 20 years of climbing with well-known outdoor brands like prAna. Clif Bar. Mammut and Backcountry.com. She’s also a scholar with a master’s degree in literature and is presently working on her second book. “Learning to Fly.”
Slated for publication sometime next year
Rent-A-Center and other rent-to-own companies tout hot products with appealing payment plans. but their deals are a costly way to buy appliances. electronics. and furniture.
Would you buy a $600 computer knowing phone number data that it would cost you nearly $1.900 after less than a year’s worth of payments? How about a $1.000 clothes washer/dryer combination at an equivalent interest rate of 100 percent. leaving you $2.700 out of pocket after two and a half years?
Those are the types of deals you could end up with if you get your electronics. furniture. appliances. or other items from a rent-to-own store.
We recently examined offers at several
rent-to-own merchants and found that you easily end up paying two to three times the amount it would cost to buy an item outright from a traditional retailer. with equivalent interest rates of as much as 311 percent. Low-income people. who unlocking growth with automated email campaigns can least afford the higher costs. Are the ones most likely to shop at rent-to-own stores. If you’re among them. we advise finding alternatives. even if it means postponing purchases until you can better afford them.
The rent-to-own industry has more than 4 million customers
Its about 8.600 stores in the U.S. and Canada generate $7 billion in annual sales. according to its data. The lure of stores such as Aaron’s and Rent-A-Center is that you can acquire a new or used washing machine. television. or bedroom set right away. typically without a credit check and with relatively low weekly or monthly payments.
Your agreement is generally on a week-to-week aero leads or month-to-month basis. and you can return an item and walk away without penalty and without damaging your credit score. as you would if you were late on a traditional loan payment.