You mentioned that Dominic Sagona skated for Hardline. I had no idea. How old do you think he was at the time? He must have been a little grommit then. What was he like at that age?
Welp, I don’t think he was an official rider, but a lot of people were on flow or whatever. Details… who knows, but he always represented, wore hats, shirts, etc. Definitely part of the Hardline family, even long after the company slowed to a halt. But it was more into the time when he had passed the whole grommet stage. All I know is he was always a monster on the skates! Always.

In all of my travels and talks with rollerbladers I hear your name a lot. People have always wanted to know what happened to you. You dropped a couple of sick sections then, to a lot of people, it seemed like you fell off the face of the earth. So what is the real story, why did you stop rollerblading?

Well, it comes down to one thing and one thing only—my body gave out. My knees, my back, my wrists, my ankles, my shins… woe is me. I never stretched at all and I think that led to a lot of problems with my body. Stretching is so important! I never let my body heal when I was injured. It all just added up to not being able to roll without pinched nerves being aggravated and knees popping out of place. To this day I have a cane for when my back goes out… ughh. It’s been a while since I’ve had to use that cane, fingers crossed.
 
Lately, I’ve begun working out 4-5 days a week, nothing crazy, 20-45 minute workouts: 3-6 miles on the bike, some lifting, and also using the foam roller! My goal is to strengthen my body to the point where I can roll without hurting. Worst case scenario is I will be the most healthy I have ever been and still can’t skate. I figured if I put off skating for long enough I might heal and be able to skate again. We’ll see. I still dream about skating, like it was before. I guess it’s sad really. I always wanted to learn to skate transition; maybe if my body will allow it I can learn to do that properly, staying a safe distance away from the rails and stuff.
 
On a side note, one thing I always respected was the hard work and time people like Mike Opalek, Brooke, Angie Walton, Chris Mitchell, Pat Parnell, Arlo, Chris Edwards, Mark Heineken, A.J., Mark Billick, Dave Paine, Jess Dyrenforth, Rick Starks, and others put into the sport and industry. If I had a better head on my shoulders back then I would have made sure to let them know how much I appreciated them for sacrificing their time, money, and bodies for all of us to even have a sport to express ourselves through.

Was there one big injury that kind of lead to you deciding to stop, or was it more just the build up of little things taking its toll?
No, not really, although one thing I remember very painfully was racking my shins from time to time. Wow… that’s pain. I never broke anything, maybe some stuff is chipped, and a bunch of my body parts don’t really work correctly anymore, but there was never really one injury that convinced me to stop. It was all the little things that I believe led to the pain being consistent enough to bow out. Although there was this one time at UNI high school (I think Brian Bell Royaled it, and probably by now Haffey or someone has 450 to true switch fishy to gap over the second set of stairs on to the third down section of the rail disaster alleyoop torque to 900 spin out) when I tried to unity this triple kink rail. It was nasty. I just remember laying there for maybe 20 minutes. Oh, and there was this other time when Chris Beck, Carlos Kessell, Alex Miranda and I (I think it was) went early morning to a high school in Huntington Beach, I hopped out of the car with my skates on, and went directly to the big kink rail and soul slid down onto the small flat section. From there I remember launching accidently over the next 17 or so stairs, flailing all the way to the ground on to my face and head, and was knocked out for a bit. Still to this day there is this really sensitive part on my left temple… bad mojo. Be careful kids, being stupid is a bad idea. (By the way, I saw last night on a DVD Matt Mickey gave me the other day that Haffey disaster back sided the rail on the second flight of stairs at the same spot, the rail was disconnected from the the first flight. Just ridiculous man… Haffey is a monster!