What do you think about the current state of blading “culture”? In what ways could we make it more robust and interesting to the outside world?
That’s a hard question. I don’t think we need to change much at all. Its not that it needs to be more interesting, but that the outside world just needs to be shown how interesting it already is. The thing is you can’t force feed it to people. I think something as simple as having events with the right format and the right courses (to keep it impressive to an outside eye) in the right places would help a lot. Places like Venice beach or any boardwalk of any beach for that matter. Places with a stupid amount of foot traffic. They see how tight skating is, and I think you can get a good sense of the culture from an event like that. Especially if its less of a contest and more of just a showcase of tight blading. If its relaxed and all the skaters are having a good time it will come across to all the people that walk by. I know when I used to go to NISS at Venice Beach I always wanted to get better just so I could be hanging out with everyone cause it looked like they were all having a good time on and off the course.
Do you think blading was a lot more about personality when it first started out, and less about how good the skating was? It seems that after 1996 as time went on blading progressed as a sport and reached new heights as far as magnitude, style and technicality were concerned and that it became less and less about personality as far as the overall skater is concerned. How do you feel about the validity of this statement?
I would definitely agree with it. Back in the day the filming was terrible, the tricks weren’t super hard, there wasn’t a lot of variety, and yet they are still much more entertaining than a lot of recent videos. It got to a point where it was all about progression and craziness. It seems like we are starting to get it back to a healty balance. If its all tricks it sucks, but if its all personality, that kind of sucks too. I suppose we will see what happens, but I think we are moving in the right direction.
PHOTO BY JOHN HAYNES
Do you feel that if pro’s more people were getting paid, that rollerblading would be better? Are the economics of rollerblading its greatest obstacle as far as the overall progression of the sport is concerned or is it more about the skaters and their internal motivation? Maybe both?
I don’t think that it would change much in terms of the progression of the sport because it keeps getting crazier and I don’t see any extra money flowing anywhere. At the end of the day what is going to push someone hard enough to push an entire sport is love. Ill continue to challenge myself with new tricks in until I can’t skate anymore. Even if I stop getting paid to skate I will never stop pushing myself. That is just what I do. I skate and I love it. I suppose I can’t speak for everyone, but I think most people would agree.
In chestboarding pros skate through their mid-30’s. They have lifers…that is people that skate for life and never quit. Granted our lifestyle participants are younger generationally speaking but it seems that a lot of pros in rollerblading fade away and dont really have that “4 Life” mentality. Do you think this is true and why do you think this is the case if yes?
I think this is what would really be affected by more money in skating and in turn would make it better. Its really sad to see people getting dropped from rosters due to budgets. I understand that every company wants to have a team that skates at a highly competitive level, or is putting out progressive sections, but at the same time we are losing too many icons. The problem is after a company is paying their top riders their budget is gone. There is not a lot of room to pay older pros that we NEED around or even the up and coming pros of tomorrow. Its a big problem and hopefully rollerblading will get some more money flowing through it so we can do something about it. I think everyone has the “for life” mentality about skating itself, just not being a paid pro. I know I do. At some point I might “disappear” from skating too, but I will never not be skating.
What do you think about wearing ridiculous outfits while death blading? You’ve always been more into the basic apparel and less concerned about dressing trendy or fashion blading. Why is this?
It doesn’t really bother me much unless its just over the top ridiculous and making rollerblading look terrible. I don’t see that too often, but there has been a few times I remember wanting to tell people to quit rollerblading or stop making it look so fucking stupid. My personal style (or lack of it) is pretty basic. I just wear what’s comfortable. I don’t like drawing any unnecessary attention to myself. I just like blending in, rather than standing out when it comes to fashion.
Do you think rollerblading needs the kind of people who simply act ridiculous because they want to live the antiestablishment mentality i.e. get drunk at competitions, break shit and get kicked out? Is this bad for the sport or simply an inherent biproduct of our lifestyle? Should we celebrate and promote this absurd behavior for the sake of keeping rollerblading and its associated image exciting?
Its hard to say. I think there is a time and place for everything. I think that includes a drunk dude breaking stuff and getting kicked out. However I also think right now we need to make the most of every opportunity we get to blow this blading thing back up, and we have to be professional in certain situations if we have the chance to get some serious backing or TV coverage. If blading was big enough that people would shrug off some stupid shit and continue to throw money at us anyway then I would say people like that would make rolleblading and its image more exciting for sure. Unfortunately its not there yet, so when vitamin water comes knocking, just get a little less drunk, and don’t break anything right in front of them.
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