January 19, 2003
Westchester County Business Journal
By Christina Kosta

Aaron Kershaw, founder and president of West1Media, credits youth groups in New Rochelle for most of his good fortune. His business grew from a Web site he established as a hobby seven years ago – westchester1.com – to include Web development, e-mail marketing, and e-commerce systems for an array of Westchester businesses and a radio program he created and hosts, Westchester1 Radio.

Just like he says the Boys & Girls Club of New Rochelle made him who he is today, the 33-year-old entrepreneur credits another youth group with turning him on to his most-cherished hobby: snowboarding.

“I would never have tried snowboarding had I not learned to ski as a Boy Scout years ago,” says Kershaw, an ex-Marine who served in Northern Iraq during Desert Storm.

He says whereas he only skied every couple of years he gets to the slopes with his snowboard as often as possible each winter. Former passions surfing and skateboarding Kershaw says prepared him for going 60 mph on his snowboard at Hunter Mountain in Saugerties.

“Because of my background on a skateboard and surfing my body was ready to snowboard,” says Kershaw. “Without lessons, with these sports as preparation I learned pretty quickly the techniques involved in snowboarding. As soon as I did that I wanted to jump up and ‘catch some air.’”

Kershaw started to snowboard in the mid 1990s and says now he only boards double black diamond slopes. Now, he says, he always wears a helmet – after having suffered six or so concussions when he risked it without one.

Apart from Hunter Mountain, Kershaw enjoys New York’s Windham Mountain as well as going free-riding in the non-groomed areas of Vermont’s ski resorts when he can. Although he still has not taken a lesson he took his daughter to the school at Hunter Mountain a few years back. Now, at 10 she too loves to snowboard.

Kershaw likes the adventure of snowboarding and also appreciates the people he is able to meet on the mountain. He typically goes alone and says he meets people from all walks of life and many different backgrounds in the Adirondacks where he goes, from mayors to police chiefs to people of other countries who have come to New York City to work and miss the mountains.

When it’s not wintertime, the former About.com technical director enjoys mountain biking and just recently took up kayaking. Kershaw says, “Paddling on the Hudson River is an awesome experience and the view from beneath the Tappan Zee Bridge is one everyone should see.”
Kershaw’s company is growing fast, but he makes time to give back to the community where he was born and raised. He learned to roller skate at the Boys & Girls Club of New Rochelle when he was 3. Realizing the program had ceased, in his 20s he decided to fund it himself to get it going again. He and others took a group of kids on skates down to the Southside Seaport in Manhattan. “The look on their faces made it so worth it,” Kershaw says.

He also volunteers with the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, acting as a parade marshal at the city’s Thanksgiving Day parade and helps build the haunted house for Halloween each year. He calls all of this his civic duty of giving back to the community that has been good to him.
Building a business is demanding, but it seems Kershaw has found balance regardless of season. One sport, anyway, helps him forget about any troubles.

“When I’m at the top of a mountain I imagine all the normal stress of life as a paper bag. By the time I get to the bottom of the mountain the bag and everything is all gone. Once I’m at the bottom I’m thinking about nothing but getting to the top so I can go down the mountain again.
“I love this sport. It’s a full-body sport and I can’t think about all the normal stresses of life while I am doing it. It just takes you away.”