During my time in blading there’s been a few times I’ve forgotten why I rollerblade, and why I should keep doing it and for what purpose. Truth be told, we all could ask ourselves this question and come up with a million different answers, and I think this is important to remember when contemplating such questions about blading in general. We constantly keep stressing the importance of portraying blading as an individual sport/lifestyle and therefore in my opinion there is no such thing as wrong way to go after it either, we are all entitled to our own opinion for better or worse. One exception I have to mention though is the counterproductive behavior of the so called “haters,” as we know them. Trash talking and belittling people in general that actually contribute to the movement of blading is for me the lowest expression of jealousy. Constructive criticisms though are a complete different matter and should not be confused with “hating.”

This edit/project was my first attempt to chase after my own vision of blading as I see it, and how I love to see it, without following the unwritten rules of editing blading videos which I’ve tried to mimic in the past. I can’t deny I get a lot of inspiration from Jonas Hansson and recently Karsten Boysen in pursuit of my clips and new angles. When initiating this project I also started thinking about what makes an edit good and came to the conclusion that edits that makes me want to be there in it, watching it go down on the spot, feeling the vibe in person are the best ones — so this is the feeling I wanted to portray. I hope as I look back many years from now I can smile and remember this winter as one of the best.

Weeding through the countless clips I’ve collected over these last 4-5 months I realized that the key for me is to film as much as possible and then be harshly critical in choosing what clips builds up the best vibe I want to portray. I apologize to my dear friends featured in this edit for sticking my camera in their faces countless times but hope the end result make it worthwhile.

Sweden during winter time is no joke. This winter seemed especially long and is still not over, even if the minus degrees seems to be lower and lower day by day. Spring might be a month away if we’re lucky. I do consider myself lucky even though the Swedish climate is a bitch during winter because we have two really great indoor parks, one which is my local park where I hold events and skate several times a week during winter. The other park is Zero One Six in Eskilstuna which is my dear friend Fredrik Andersson’s domicile. Visiting Fredrik is one of my favourite day/weekend trips to make. Being such a urbane guy with such amazing potential and one of the best attitudes in blading I’ve ever come across, he always re-ignites my love for blading and we always have such a good time staying at his place. I hope this edit will give you some insight in how good my winter actually was thanks to my friends and fiancée. — Zebastian Cassel