Are you in school? Working? Just blading? What’s the deal?

Haha, what’s the deal?  Well, I have been doing the school thing, while trying to skate as much as possible when I have free time.  I have also been playing a lot of music lately.  Some friends and I have been jamming and working on some songs to play a show here in Birmingham.  I am pretty juiced.

You were born in Minnesota, but live in Alabama now, where did you start skating?  How has the dirty south skate scene effected your skating?

I actually started skating in Minnesota.  I grew up in Maplewood, Minnesota but did not start skating until I moved to Marshall, Minnesota which is three hours southwest of Maplewood.  I skated in Marshall for about 2 years, and then moved down to

Birmingham.  The whole time that I skated in Marshall, I only got to skate about five or six spots.  The best part is that I was not old enough to drive then so I couldn’t skate anything that was not in skating distance from my house.  It was terrible.  But, once I got to Birmingham and actually lived in the city, it was on!  It was like a dream to be skating street spots that were similar to those that I saw in videos.  As far as the southern skate scene goes, I feel as if it has kept me on my toes constantly.  We don’t have a lot of your typical session spots, so my eyes have been peeled for what seems unique and interesting.  Birmingham is full of wild spots that force you to go out of your element or comfort zone to be skated.  I feel like it keeps my skating well rounded.  It’s like I am always experiencing something new.

Who do you feel has influenced your skating the most?

Oh man, what a question.  Well, I feel like the people I have been skating with everyday throughout the years have actually influenced me the most because they have helped to mold the skater that I am through their overall mindsets and attitudes that they have had about skating, as well as the spots that they brought me to and the type of skating that they did.  I am mainly referring to most of the Rejects crew.  All of those dudes were just so dedicated to skating and trying to get things accomplished that it showed me the true potential that I could have if I stayed dedicated.

Many complain of small defects of street spots, such as cracks in a run up or bad concrete.  In the South, you have to deal with some of the shittiest imperfections in spots, how bad is it?

Let’s just say that you can’t be picky.  You just learn to work with what you have.  It’s not even that our spots are terribly imperfect, it’s more that almost every one of our spots has many minor but annoying problems that force you to have to work a little harder at the trick you may want to do.  The main problem is that Birmingham is an older city that has not fully taken efforts to keep up with all of the small defects that have accumulated over the years.

From the week I spent with you this summer, I noticed you have some of the best manners of any blader dude I’ve ever met, is that the “minnesota nice” in you or “southern hospitality”?

Haha, I don’t really feel that my manners came from any one place, so to say.  I think that my overall experiences have affected me to be respectful as much as possible, and I feel like the most important cause of having good manners is being respectful.  Or, maybe it’s just that all this southern hospitality that I am around has wore off on me and I don’t even realize it.

You got some of your first exposure in the Radius Media.  How has the death of Radius affected the Alabama/South skate scene?  Do you feel that it has been harder to get coverage in the rollerblading industry without that outlet?

It hasn’t really stopped any of us from going out and getting things done, but it has put a dent in our motivation to travel.  Radius Media was truly more of an outlet for being able to travel.  That was one of the best parts about it.  On the other hand, our coverage is now limited to the internet only, or at least for most of us.

Who do you skate with most often in Alabama?  Cole Bunn and Matty Schrock?  Does Dunkle come out at all?

I pretty much still skate with the same people that I have been skating with since the beginning.  I usually skate with Cole Bunn, Mike Buckalew, Matty Schrock, Philip Moore, and Cody Smith.  I know that Charles skates every once in a while, but I haven’t actually been able to skate with him due to school etc.  It’s hard to get everybody to come out and skate because everyone has different schedules.

Are you filming for any videos or working on any other skating projects right now?

The only thing that I have been working on is an online profile for the skatelife.tv website.  Other than that, I have let a few clips go here and there for some of the edits that Mike Buckalew has made for be-mag and whatnot.  If someone was interested in having me film a section for a video, you better believe I would take the time to make a section to the best of my abilities.  For now, I am pretty content with throwing my stuff on the Internet, since everything ends up on their one way or another.

James Beary Summer Profile 2009 from SOUTHERN LEGACY on Vimeo.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Blade Ripping, 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.