SHOCK: RANIER PIRAMIDE from Joel Buenavista on Vimeo.

At the end of my block is the park I grew up at.  I remember seeing a pack of rollerbladers that would blade past my house jumping off of the little dips in the driveways to end up at the park.  They would grind the red curbs at the parking lot and a bench that was stolen from the school across the street that was placed down a two step stage. They were the kids that were two grades older than me that I had hoped to one day be just like.  On one of their daily “blade by’s” a kid accidentally knocked over a trashcan while trying to jump over it and before one of them was able to even try to pick it up, the neighbor came rushing out.  “You sons of bitches better pick this up”.  The kids being on blades just skated past him hollering back at the guy “fuck you” and one of them pants down to his knees with a shiny rear end up in the air mooning the motherfucker.  Another screaming, “you can kiss his ass”.  Ranier pulled his pants up and just started laughing picking up speed to catch up with the rest of the pack and to avoid getting caught by the angry neighbor.

I bought my first pair of blades the summer of ’97.  They were an oversized pair of Rollerblade Troopers.  My first trick was a soul grind.  My first switch was mizou to macchio to soulgrind.  (I thought I was super tech at the time.)  Some of the kids of the pack would blade later than I could be out, so I had always heard about the local hero, Ranier and how he had hit this rail that was hip high.  There were so many stories floating around about how he soulgrinded down a double kink rail that I thought was imposssible at the time.  The first time I bladed with him at the park he was doing tricks I had never seen.  Royales and frontside farfigs.  He even did a fishbone!  He made rollerblading look so easy.  I couldn’t even blade in front of him.  I was starstruck.  When he left he taught me the universal hand shake.  The five followed by the fist bump.  Knuckle to knuckle.  I thought I was the coolest kid at the park just cause he acknowledged me.

The next year I was in high school hanging out at the skater planter.  This was where Ranier and his friends hung out and had openly invited the 2nd generation of bladers.  Not just anyone was allowed to hang out there.  If you couldn’t handle the trash talk you were dismissed.  I, being the nice silent type, was an easy target.  I didn’t mind too much.  I let my blading do the talking.  I made sure to lock on my topsouls and grab my backslides.  Since he was two years older than me Ranier did have a license.  Whenever it was possible, I was able to tag a long some of the trips he would go on.  Since he was the all-star I got to watch what a pro was made of with him and the people he surrounded himself with. Tat Nasu, Craig Case, Ryan Delancey, Charlie Ashby, Randy Spizer, Dave Paine, Louie Zamora,, Matt Andrews, and Brandon Negrette was the crew at the time.  I saw what a sponsored blader was about and what it was like to be in an actual magazine, Daily Bread.  I was developing style at the time.  Free merchandise was handed down when he had extra.

After high school I wanted to prove my worth and make all of these influences proud and to keep their spirit alive. I met Lonnie Gallegos at a session that Ranier had taken me to.  Soon after that I was asked to have a section in 2feet.  The rest is history.

Having Ranier as my mentor is the reason why I continue to blade today, 12 years later.  The Carson babies are being mentored as we speak.  I did have to do some learning on my own but, one thing I did learn about rollerblading was that it isn’t about how many sponsors you have or how many tricks you can do.  It’s the relationships we build with all of the bad ass motherfuckers that we face these obstacles with.  Ranier blading today is a true testament to family and not just another guy mooning my neighbor to back up one of his homies that had knocked a trash can over.

sincerely,

Obedobe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.