Hello —

Firstly, I am grateful to have this outlet to share with those interested. Thank you, JE, for allowing me to contribute here. In this section of the site I will be touching on rollerblading, art and music… mostly. There will be interviews. There will be randomness. There will be retractions. There will be contradictions. There will be a lot of “I” sentences. There will be times where I prove my non-omniscient Internet status and post something that has already been posted elsewhere. There will be run on sentences. There will be candor. There will be issues I think get overlooked or issues I would like to give my opinion on. Please never bite your tongue when it comes time to critique my pieces or call me out on what you think is bullshit or poppycock. I believe in dialogue very strongly. I believe that critiques are one of the keys to artistic growth and I believe writing can be a form of art. If no one comments then that’s okay, to me this isn’t about getting kudos or pats on the back. To me this is about contributing in any way I can with quality content and with that which I find interesting. There will be times when my pieces show no direct relation to skating. For those that struggle with that, please be prepared.

This introduction is about to get even more wordy than it hasalready become… perhaps skipping everything below is best for some of you.

If you are reading this and you can think of some issues or ideas you would like to see here, then please leave a comment so I can attempt to work them in. At this point I have four or five people locked in for an interview (and a list of lots of people I hope say ‘yes’ that I have not contacted yet), we’ll see how that pans out. Those interviews will hopefully always begin with a story directly from the person being interviewed. I will try to make sure to include a blurb from the ‘internets,’ straight from skater’s fingers, too…

(i.e. Tom, see bottom of entire entry.)

That reminds me, what’s the deal with the word ‘skating’ being a negative word because it’s associated with skateboarding…? Really? I never noticed the shift but looking back it is very apparent that although the term blading is most prevalent now, I always called it skating or rolling… What’s up with that? Is it cool with you if I call it skating? I’m all for blading, or skating… or whatever. I’m just so used to calling it skating or rolling… go figure. I will respect your opinion or gospel no matter what you think, I’m just curious. Is there a perceived or true insecurity for those that don’t or choose not to call themselves a blader? Maybe I’m insecure or maybe I am used to calling it something else. Maybe it doesn’t matter what we call ourselves or each other. Maybe I’m an asshole for even mentioning it. I do understand how things fell apart but I have never even for a second held an issue created by the fat-cats in skateboaring against an entire community of skateboarders. To me, we all do the same thing, and as far as I can tell that is expressing oneself in a way that is relatively new to history.

With that said… I will do my best to not post any filler. I will do my best to make and curate quality content, and to just be myself, continuing to learn as I go. I am not known to have good grammar, so please bare with me. I can be campy at times but I will do my best to post as often as quality content and time allows. I don’t know what this will turn into, but I do have an aim and plan to curate it to keep it in line.

I have a lot of respect for everyone involved in skating. I mean everyone — recreational, hockey, the business person that skates through S.F. to get to work, speed skating, companies, the audience, parents… on and on and on. If you take everything here too seriously then you may become very annoyed. Just in case it ever becomes less than clear — yes, I do respect us, all of us. Even if you think I’m stupid.

— Jay Dick

In skating related ‘news’ (blurry much?):