What’s that we always say? Rollerblading isn’t a sport, it’s an art form? Even if you don’t consider it a full on “art” everyone can probably agree that it’s very subjective. Who’s your favorite skater? Favorite trick? Favorite video? You will get wildly different answers.

If you’ve ever been to a competition you know how controversial declaring a winner for just a single event can be. Stretch that across an entire year of contests, events, video sections, social media, sponsors, products, etc. and declaring an overall winner is even more controversial. Deciding that winner by letting people all over the world vote and it becomes exponentially more controversial. And now all this madness will determine the fate of thousands of dollars of prize money? What could possibly go wrong!?

Even in a chill year like 2024 when most people would be equally happy to see Jeff or Sean take home the cash, there are still angry comments arguing that others deserved it more and were robbed.

Many of you probably still remember the outrage 13 years ago when Nils Jansons (already an amazing skater but not yet the rock star he’s become today) beat out the veteran Richie Eisler. So next time we tried something different. We invited a small group of bladers who followed blading closely, who understood blading intimately, who wouldn’t just vote for their friends, to determine the winners. But that just generated even more outrage. We were stealing their vote! And they were right. So ever since then we’ve just embraced the chaos of letting everyone vote.

While we probably all agree that the incredible talents of professional bladers deserve compensation more on par with professionals from other sports/arts, ONE has obviously never thought a Skater of The Year cash prize was an efficient means of making that happen (and we have no plans to do so in the future).

Did your favorite skater just get a pro model skate? Buy them! Is your second favorite skater coming to a competition near you? Donate to the prize! Did your third favorite skater put out an amazing video for free? Buy the VOD anyway! All of these are much better ways of getting money to the skaters who deserve it and allows these made up awards to remain a fun way to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year. – ONE