Taylor Storey was born in Riverside California as the oldest of three boys, had a three year stint with the fam in Durango Colorado before settling down just north of Santa Barbara California. “I think moving around a little bit had both positives and negatives, it helped me get better and more excited about meeting new people but it kinda sucked when you don’t get picked for all-star soccer just cuz you don’t know anybody.”                     The story of Taylor’s coming to be Adoni’s Surf Team Manager is a long and complicated one-he didn’t start surfing until he was 17. “I lived with a friend of mine Noah Swanson in Mexico my junior year of high school. Every day we’d come home from school and his dad would have some work he wanted us to do, but if the surf was good he’d tell us we could surf instead. Even though half the time I didn’t want to surf, Noah and I chose it over working. I’m incredibly thankful for that experience, I never would be where I am today if it wasn’t for the Swansons or my mom choosing to Homeschool me and my brothers.”

If it wasn’t for being homeschooled Taylor doesn’t think he ever would have had the opportunity to spend a semester in Mexico and learn to surf. After high school he did the unthinkable and moved away from the waves of California to the small town of Cedarville Ohio. “Everyone always asks me why I went to school in Ohio. And in all honesty I don’t really know, I think I just wanted to be unpredictable, everybody thought I’d go to some school close to the beach or something, but I just wanted to stick it to ‘em and go out to Ohio…Cedarville University is an incredible school and I’d recommend it to anybody who doesn’t surf.” Two years of Ohio was enough before he had to get back to the sun. “I was walking to class at 8am and the snot was freezing inside my nose. That’s when I knew Ohio wasn’t for me.” So the summer of 07 he got a job working as a surf instructor at Mount Hermon’s Ponderosa Lodge in Santa Cruz and its there that his formal relationship with Adoni began. “Matt was a friend of mine and he’s like, ‘hey, what if I sponsor you and you give out stickers to all the kids you take surfing?’ I was down, the kids loved it, there are still stickers all over those cabins.”

            Since working as the surf instructor at Ponderosa Lodge Taylor got a job working at a startup church for a year. “I was stoked they hired me, at the time I had dreads and like I’m grateful to the Swansons I’ll be eternally grateful to the pastor Rick Soto and the whole team there, its an experience I look back to whenever I feel like I can’t do something, it gives me confidence to know those people believe in me.” Taylor doesn’t want to shove his faith down anybody’s throat, but does hope people will learn to love God and love the people around them. “It’s like a really good burrito, when you eat it, you want other people to try it too. Jesus is the best burrito I’ve ever had.”

            Taylor has recently transferred to Azusa Pacific University and is Majoring in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication and loves Adoni. “What I’m most excited about is building excitement through Adoni then recycling it to organizations like Love146 and the Pre-Emptive Love Coalition. We can change this world and You should be a part of it.”