West Henderson senior Patrick Henley released a video titled “Project Pat” on May 1. The video includes an abundance of skateboarding content that he has been putting together for over a year.
Henley announced the video on the morning of May 1st and released it that night. It ended up being a huge success around the county, with students sharing it on social media throughout the weekend. Henley had put a lot of time into the video and he was relieved to finally finish the project.
“It was a huge weight off my shoulders,” Henley said. “I’ve been working on this video for so long. Balancing making it with life and the injuries that come with skateboarding has been rough. I cared a lot about this project and I really wanted to get it out. I’m glad we finally got there.”
During the filming period of the project, Henley suffered from several injuries to his ankles and wrist. Henley had two sprained ankles and a hurt wrist, and still worked to get content for his video. He was able to push through and finish filming for the project.
Skating has always been a big thing for Henley. He’s been skating since he was five years old, a little over 13 years. Him and his older brother Jonah have always been huge skaters. Jonah was included in the video, as well as many other friends of Pat. With last year’s outbreak of COVID-19, Henley had to take a break from his skateboarding passion and stall the video’s release. The break from skateboarding and being with friends really got to Henley, but the video brought them all back together and doing what they love.
“My favorite part of making the video was definitely just being able to be with my friends again,” Henley said. “I was also able to see my own progression as a skater too. It was super cool to see all the support. I wasn’t really expecting it to blow up like it did, but it made me really happy. It was nice to know that it was worth the wait. ”
Project Pat is just one of Henley’s many projects over the years. Henley has been making skating videos on iMovie since he was 8 years old and has gotten very good with the app. He loves to take videos of his friends at the skatepark and this project is just a compilation of what they are doing in their everyday lives. Henley wanted to make the project just so that they could have a proper video of what they were doing.
“Over the time of filming I’ve learned stuff like this takes a lot of work,” Henley said. “Putting your best work into something like this takes time. I’ve been so used to filming for one day then posting that, but spending over a year filming really makes you realize the work you’ve put in.”
You can check out “Project Pat” now on Henley’s Instagram account @patsesh.
By: Cooper Hughes, Staff Writer
