Erick, though you put out a ton of edits of other dudes you blade with, some people may not be as familiar with your blade history. Can you tell us how you get into blading, and when?

I think I started blading when I was in the 5th grade, which is like what—10 or 11 years old? But it was always on and off, then I fucked around and got shot so that put me out for a little over a year. Now I’m back and going H.A.A.M. (hard as a muthafucker)

As someone who cut their teeth in the LA area, what insight can you share about the LA blade scene; including the people, the attitude, and the skating?

I honestly feel like my city is where you need to be if you’re a rollerblader. The weather in Long Beach is amazing, most of your favorite U.S. Pros live here, and the spots are endless. There isn’t a day when I can’t find someone to blade with, which makes it easy to get footage.

I see you Tweet a lot about blading with Franky and J Bah, and everyone should know you and Rachard are tight. Who else do you session with on the regs? And is that group specifically the BladerGang?

Ha ha, I be Tweetin’ about the wildest shit, normally about my everyday life, but I also give updates on what the team and I are doing (blade sessions, behind the scenes material, edit release dates, ect.) so follow your boy E_Rodriguez09. As for who I skate with on the regs, the answer to that is BLADERGANG. I’ve also been skating with Jeremy Soderburg lately and helping out with his “Take Your Time” project.

Seems like you’ve done a bunch of traveling lately, where all you been, and what was the best trip?

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to get myself out of the hood and see some beautiful places (Amsterdam, Berlin, Belgium, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei/Taiwan, and most of the U.S.) but my best trip would have to be Beijing. The people are dope as fuck, there’s a spot on just about every block, and you can ball out with 50 bucks.

You blade on Razors skates, right? What do you like about the blades they make?

Correction, I “bladed” for Razor skates but I recently got cut from the AM team. Supposably for leaking J. Bah’s Ground Control section on Ustream while Andy was in Australia watching, when in reality I leaked a split section of Julian and myself that we’re dropping at the end of the month. I’m still skating for Jug though; Murda and Robert are like big brothers to me.

We mentioned earlier that you steadily put out edits. What is your equipment setup? Any tips for would-be, up-and-comers?

I use a Canon 7D with a Glidecam 1000, 7mm Vivatar fish lens, Canon 16-35mm lense, and a couple stock lenses. If you’re an up-and-comer in the editing game my best tip would be for you to do your homework and study the rollerblading history. I grew up watching all the Joe Navran “FP” videos, the “LIFE+” dvds, Lonnie Gallegos’s “Fade Nation” shit and, most of all, Vinny Minton’s “Hyphy” videos, so I guess I got schooled from the best in the game.

What’s the most exciting stuff happening in blading, at least from where you’re standing?

The fact that it’s fun again, and all the dope shit that’s to come in the near future. There’s a lot of videos being made right now and I’m exited to see my friends do what they do best.

What kind of hobbies do you have outside of filming, editing and blading?

Girls! Nah I’m playin’, it’s still M.O.B like errday my nigga, ya digg? Besides music I really don’t do much outside of blading. I kick it with the people I skate with so at the end of the day it’s still on some rollerblade shit.

You have any thoughts to share on the “stunt vs curbs” argument/debate that rages on the message boards? Do you think skating is softer now than it was several years ago?

It’s definitely softer now than it was back in the day, but I like all kinds of skating. I’m not into the whole spin it to win it type skating and care more about how good you can make a trick look rather than having a whole bunch of sloppy tricks. Every now and then I like to drop a hammer and go hard (pause).

Who’s your favorite blader now… how about of all time?

I’m not sure who my favorite skater is ’cause there’s so many people killin’ it right now, but my favorite skater of all time is Dominic Sagona. Shout out to that dude. #swagg

What projects are you working on, or what should people be on the lookout for?

I’m dropping a split section with J. Bah and myself on Halloween 10.31.11 (also Julian’s b.day) and you can see the trailer to that here. I’m dropping a BladerGang music video within the next few weeks, gotta short skate edit of my little homie James Macay from NYC, and also a Nick Rother skate edit coming soon.

Any shout outs or anything to add?

Shout out to my homie Armando Colunga for taking time out of his day to shoot these photos and help out with some of the filming. Shout out to my BladerGang Fam (Frank, Dre, J Bah, RJ-FrsH, Murda, Aragon, Coco) all my sponsors, JC Rowe, Obe, Geoff Leyva, Jerm, and everybody else in my city, and you guys over at ONE for the interview.

We Out Here…

Photos by Armando Colunga

Interview by Justin Eisinger