I first met Mike Opalek in 1996 when he was in Ohio filming for the Senate video “Day of the Rope.” I was hanging out at our mutual friend Steve’s place when Mike came by, bringing along then-16-year-old Eric Schrijn and Louie Zamora. I suppose as first meetings go, it went pretty well. Mike was insightful and funny, and different than I had imagined. I liked his skating and I liked his writing in Box Magazine, and years later I’d learn that I wasn’t the only one he’d inspired. I’d also learn about all the cool stuff he got to do through skating, like be on posters for Nike in Asia, do stunts in “Batman & Robin,” thrash Devil’s Backbone in “Airborne,” coach international blade teams, not to mention that his first pro wheel was the very first pro wheel, and its graphics said it all: American Dreams. Read this conversation between Mike and long-time friend Chris Mitchell to learn a lot about the history of rollerblading.—JE

Let the record show that I am not an accessory to the crimes that took place during the course of this interview.

A few facts about The Celebrity: He was born on June 3, 1973, at The Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an avid skier, even sporting a Glen Plake mohawk until the age of 21. On Christmas Eve, 1992, he received a letter from Wright State University asking him to leave because he had a 1.2 GPA. He considered putting this letter in his parents’ stocking but decided not to ruin Christmas for his mom. In 1993, he was hired as a stunt rollerblader in the film “Airborne” and moved to L.A. later that same year. Mike was one of the first pro riders on Senate, one of the first pro riders on Oxygen, and the premium writer for Box Magazine. He lived at the world famous Spohn Ranch until 1995 when he moved into the worst ghetto in Venice Beach with Arlo Eisenberg. He is the strong silent type, a quietly brooding artist whose introspection can easily be misunderstood as anger and/or vitriolic hatred.

Mike, thanks for taking the time to speak with us.

Thank you.

Let’s start off easy. Why do you hate Arlo?

Do I? I suppose I have my reasons.

(He fiddles with his seat belt, scowling at the angle of the mirror, the climate control panel, the tilt of the seat. When he finally returns his attention to the interview, I am getting on the freeway, heading toward Venice Beach.)

In your long career, what important lessons have you learned?

Along the way I picked up photography, writing (editor’s note: Try editing his articles!) — I learned how to interact with people and sponsors.… Looking back, I would have done things differently.

What were some of your journalism highlights?

I once had a column in a San Diego newspaper. I did a lot for Box Magazine, and we could do whatever we wanted — spy on other magazines, go on road trips, go to Europe and do fun stories. I interviewed They Might Be Giants — one of my favorite bands.

Tell me about Senate.

Senate was my first sponsor. When I moved to L.A. I lived with Arlo and that was right when they started Senate. Arlo made like 50 T-shirts, and I was one of the first riders. Then, when they poured wheels, three of us got wheels — me, Arlo and Scott Bentley. At that time there was a lot of money in the industry. People were throwing money at you and you were just skating and not caring.

And yet things went horribly, horribly wrong. What happened?

It started as a personal issue, which could have been avoided by sitting down with us face-to-face and apologizing.… Senate at the time was big and they had like 13 riders. A lot of us were older — me, Scott, B Love, Tasha (Hodgson) — and when Josh Petty, Randy Spizer and Louie Zamora left to start Second Regime, they decided to revamp the company. It was a business decision, and I can respect that, but the way they went about it, with their secret meetings, was not professional. First I heard rumors that Senate had to “trim the fat.” I was on tour with Medium at the time; we were in Arizona in Dustin Latimer’s kitchen, and Kevin Gillan let the cat out of the bag. I had been living with Arlo for about five years at the time, and I didn’t say anything for a few weeks to see what he’d say to me, and then one day Arlo called me.

Your roommate called you?

My roommate called me. I was really proud to be on Senate. I liked the marketing that Brooke (Howard-Smith) and Arlo did, and I felt like the fifth Beatle. I used to go into the meetings with the owners. I felt like I did a lot for them. I traveled around the world. I came in last at the ’96 X Games on vert. When Arlo finally told me — the way he told me — it was like they were spitting in my face. All they had to do was call a meeting and say, “Thank you, but we’re moving in a new direction.”

Of the original Senate owners, who do you hate more: Brian Konoske, Brooke Howard-Smith, Aaron Spohn, Arlo or Mark Heineken?

Heineken.

(We arrive at the address and find the bright red Ford F-150 parked right in front, unsuspecting. Mike pulls a black hood over his head and jumps out. “Follow me,” he growls, and then he’s gone, a shadow against the dark trees and cracked pavement of the Venice neighborhood. In less than a minute, the truck engine roars to life, and the liberated car pulls away from the curb. I follow him into traffic along Lincoln Boulevard, where he blends in with all the nonstolen — and, most likely, other stolen — vehicles on the road.)

(He makes a series of rapid turns through the residential streets around the marina, obeying speed limits, stop signs and rules of courtesy. A couple of miles away, he leads us to an all-night diner. I recognize it as one of L.A.’s classic dives, a place with scalloped linoleum and jukeboxes at every table, and that smells of pastrami and axle grease.)

(We slide up to the bar and resume our interview.)

Tell me about your time on the Oxygen team.

Oxygen was sweet. They were based in Austria and they had a bunch of money at the time. We’d go to Austria to do R&D and just have a good time. They ended up getting bought by the Amer Group, and they cut the personnel and didn’t put any money into making new skates and eventually cut the team. By that time, my days of being a sponsored skater were pretty much behind me.

So you moved on to manage the Roces team.

I did. Thanks to Rene Hulgreen, who was managing the team at the time. I always had a good relationship with Massimo and Roces, so it was natural. I managed the team for three years, and it was a good learning experience. When you grow up in America, you have a certain mentality and a certain way you do things, but anywhere else, they do things differently, so you have to figure out how they do things, because they’re your bosses and so they’re right… most of the time.

Why do you hate authority?

(Laughing.) Because they’re always telling me what to do! I just want to sleep and watch futbol!

Tell me about your experiences in Thailand.

I’ve coached the Thai National team twice. And it just sounds weird because it is. They do this event in Asia every two years called the Asian Indoor Games, and in 2005 Thailand hosted it, so they hired coaches for the skateboard, BMX and inline teams. At that time, I was there for four months, and last year I did it again. I’ve known the skaters over there for years from Asian X Games, and they’ve got incredible athletes over there. Jeerasak Tassorn and Wooropoj Boonim. I’d go over and they’d skate every day and I’d watch them and coach them, try to make them a little better. That was a little weird — teaching people tricks that I had no business even trying. And of course, there was the language barrier.… It was tricky but we worked through it, and I think I made them better skaters in the end. Out of eight possible medals, we got six.

So you’re saying you are personally responsible for how good Jeerasak and Wooropoj are.

(Laughing.) Oh yeah! No, I think I helped them become better skaters, but a lot of it was teaching them the mental game, like having fun with it and relaxing. Jeerasak, for instance, wants to skate every day, and once, he was hurt, and I had to take his skates away from him because he kept wanting to skate and he was just going to keep injuring himself.

And there’s even more to read in Issue #10, out now!

Interview by Chris Mitchell.