Last fall, Revere High School sophomore John Apicella and his friends searched for a fun activity to do one day and decided to jump into leaf piles and snow, trying to flip their sleds, which led to the title of their YouTube channel. Since then, they have regularly experimented with different recreational activities, focusing on skiing, long boarding and snowboarding. They began filming their different stunts as they wanted to show what they could do.

Apicella and other Revere students got together with other teenagers in Northeast Ohio in schools such as Copley to form a YouTube channel called Leaf Association 1, where they post videos portraying their skiing and snowboarding skills, along with other experiments.

If one watches any of Leaf Association 1’s videos, he or she will see a group of boys laughing as they perform different stunts. This explains the boys’ main reason for making videos, as they just want to have fun, according to Apicella. He talked about how this makes his YouTube channel unique.

“I have never seen people make actual edits . . . and put a lot of work into skiing videos. A lot of people who make skiing videos take it very serious, and if they’re filming with their friends and showing a trick . . . they get frustrated, and mad. When we film, we like to have a lot of fun,” Apicella said.

According to RHS sophomore Chad Nicholson, another reason for making videos is the location.

“We just wanted something else to do. [We live in] Richfield; there is not a lot to do,” Nicholson said.

Although this started off as fun activity, some of the boys hope to pursue a career similar to the activities they partake in the channel. Apicella, who films and edits most of the videos for Leaf Association 1, wants to go to film school. John’s brother, CJ Apicella, commented on his brother’s YouTube channel and his brother’s hope to go to film school.

“I think that he has the potential to make a career out of filming. He genuinely enjoys both filming and editing videos. I see a lot of potential with his channel . . . if he keeps it up I am certain that he will get more subscribers,” CJ said.
Apicella is not the only one who has hopes for a career. Nicholson explained what his and his friends’ goals are.

“The main goal would be eventually to move out west and make names for ourselves through skiing and snowboarding … I would definitely like to be either a snowboarder or entertainer like Cirque de Soleil [and] just keep active,” Nicholson said.
Revere graduate Nick Crockett, who has appeared in several videos, states what the group’s goals are as a YouTube channel.

“Our goal is to try to reach more viewers and spread the word around Boston Mills [and] Brandywine,” Crockett said.
Apicella explained why he likes filming and making videos.

“The reason I like filming is because its awesome to get your friends stoked on the new edit/ video that comes out, and they get to see their tricks they stomp. The reason why we like doing our tricks is because we are pretty much adrenaline junkies, but we just like to live like there is no tomorrow,” Apicella said.

Leaf Association 1 has about one hundred subscribers, which increases with each video. Apicella is working on editing another video and hopes to post it shortly.