Roller Revival: Hooligan Errien West's Journey in Building a Vibrant Skating Community

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey there, welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate
destination for all skatingenthusiasts.
We cater to everyone, frombeginners to pros.
Whether you love inline and iceskating or prefer quads and
skateboarding, we have it allcovered, and we bring you
exclusive interviews withprofessionals, talented amateurs

(00:30):
and influencers in the industry.
So sit back, relax and getready for an exciting journey
into the world of skating.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
All right, welcome to this week's episode of how Do
you Skate.
I am your host, Sean Egan, andmy guest today is hooligan Ron
Arian.
So how are you doing today, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm doing fantastic.
Anytime your eyelids get toopen, it's a great day.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
You don't have to tell me twice.
So when did you actually startskating?
How old were you when yourwhole skating, as we like to
call it career started?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
It started when I was young, I would probably say
seven years old, eight years old.
My growing up, born and raisedin Riverside California, my two
rinks growing up was Roller City, 2001.
And I want to say Cowskate, andthey're essentially like right

(01:29):
across from the street from eachother.
And then when those shut down,Cowskate Grand Terrace became
essentially my home rink andthen that went on.
But growing up I didn't see thestylistic skating that you see
now, so fluid the JBs, theJersey circles, the trains, the

(01:53):
trios, as growing up that wasreally a safe environment for me
, or I would just skate outdoorsand became more of a boardwalk
kind of freestyle skater, Iwould say.

(02:13):
And then I joined the serviceout of high school, literally
right out of high school.
Right out of high school wouldrollerblade around different
ports because you didn't haveaccess to rinks really, and so I

(02:34):
did that for a little bit.
And then I started a family andI'm kind of a firm believer
that you can show your kids yourpassion but it shouldn't become
their passion.
So unfortunately my childrendid not gravitate to the skate
world, so they got shelved.

(02:56):
And unfortunately life happensright.
20 years later, 23 years later,I'm bored and I got extra time
on my hands and kind of want tofill it
up and kind of got stuff goingon at work and things like that.
And it's like you know, Iremember skating used to really

(03:19):
center me.
Skating is just a thing whereyou can just put your headphones
in and you can kind of justlock in and just go get miles,
you know, and then turn aroundand skate back.
Or go to a park and just hughalf a baseball, a football, a
basketball cart and uh, haveyour own moment, you know, and

(03:40):
just work on yourself.
So I slapped them back on.
I went to the only rollerskating shop to go get skate
shops in hand in person.
Unfortunately he is an hour anda half away and he's really the
only one here on the westernside of the state of Washington.
It's called Get your BearingSkate Shop.

(04:00):
So I went there and justgrabbed me some quick pair of
skates.
You know, I didn't know I don'tthink I spent more than 250 and
just got me a quick pair ofskates.
And then uh got back home andmy home rink is called linden
skateway.
Um went back there and uhstarted getting some laughs in

(04:23):
and next thing, you know, so bam, fire reignited doesn't take
much no, it doesn't.
It doesn't, especially when youhave other outside sources, kind
of like you know.
They say you know, if you justlisten, you know god does talk

(04:43):
to you.
Or if you just listen, lifetalks to you in just little
mysterious ways.
And so at the time, I'mlistening to people like gary v
on on you know podcasts, I'mlistening to cody robbins, I'm
listening to all these differentspeakers and the one thing at
the time that kept saying is if,if you do what you love, you'll

(05:04):
never work a day in your life.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I went to my first state party here in Seattle full
weekend, friday, saturday andSunday and the bug and the fire
really got lit there.
Just the community, just themusic, because me, coming from
SoCal, that's really my musicand so just being reintroduced

(05:34):
and re-embraced in thatenvironment really gave me a new
purpose.
And so that's when and I'vealways thought about it here you
know why doesn't bellinghamhave their own skate rink?
Yeah, not just one for adults,but just in general, because we
can drive 30 minutes and hitlinden, or we drive 35, 40

(05:59):
minutes and we go hit skagit.
Nothing against these two rinks.
I I love them, I visit themfrequently, but they're more
towards the birthday parties andthat type of environment.
Skagit only has an adult skateonce a month, that's it.
Linden has it once a month, butit's not even with the DJ.

(06:24):
It's people that don't evenreally have that state mentality
or culture mentality, sothey're putting music that just
shouldn't be.
Yeah, unfortunately you're,you're headphoning it right.
And so for me, I see a nichehere in bellingham because

(06:47):
there's a big crew up in canadaright across the border, and
they don't have a wood floorrink up in canada anywhere, so
they literally will drive pastthree rings to go all the way
down towards linwood or seattle,because that's where that
culture that's where thatcommunity is right.

(07:08):
Yeah, and that's that's kind ofdisheartening because you're
bypassing three rings that couldreally use some love yeah, but
you don't curate what they'relooking for.
So, and for us adults, you knowI still have a a regular job and
so sometimes it's hard for meto go do an adult session at 10

(07:32):
o'clock, nine o'clock at nightand not get home, because if I
do it down south I still gottadrive home two hours.
Yeah, I'm not getting home tillone in the morning, but I gotta
get up at four in the morningto hit the road back down south.
So, although I love supportingother skate rinks and other

(07:53):
events, I really see a niche anda need for here in Bellingham,
and one really for adults.
And like roller sizing and justtrying to stay healthy, whether
you're working on your physiqueor your mental health or just
want to be around like-mindedpeople that you know all we
think about is skating, whetherit's indoor, outdoor that's on

(08:17):
our mind the styles, theballroom, the music, all of it.
Yeah, so I didn't win the lotto,unfortunately, this week.
So how do I go about making ithappen without trying to bring a
bunch of people on board,because at some point it could
not be mine, they could be likeyou know what?

(08:39):
We just don't like this.
Only you know middle school andadult kind of focus.
We, we don't need you anymore.
It's been thank you for gettingus here, but you're good, I, I
don't want that.
You know, I'm, I'm.
I want to leave my nine to fiveso this can become my nine to
five.
So, yeah, eric picked up thecamera and eric started

(09:02):
videographing and takingphotography and figured you know
what?
I'll go travel skate and I'll gomeet people and I'll go build
the pivot skate brand and andand.
While I'm doing this, I'm gonnalearn all the styles.
Yeah, you know the borderlinelast year.
I don't know if you've been tothat um skate party yet, and

(09:24):
it's just starting so I believethis is going to be the third
year, okay, um, and it's intawanda, new york, um, just
outside buffalo, new york, um,at rainbow roller rink, and it's
a phenomenal skate party.
But I went there, and my firsttime, even really traveling long
distance, so I'm going all bymyself, not knowing what, but I

(09:48):
went there and you know you havepeople from Toronto come down
like Shem Shem Just some greatpeople, some great talent, and
it just really showed me like,ok, this could be a thing.
Yeah, this, this, this is thing.
Yeah, this is something.
And you know what?
I know it's been said a hundredtimes over and over through all

(10:11):
the different podcasts and allthe different skate influencers
right now, but we all got to behonest and real about it Skating
never really went away or died.
It's like records, right.
Yeah, records kind of went awayand got quiet for a little bit
because people wanted the newright, the, the cd, the, the
quick access.
But then, when it all can be,if you want real sound, you want

(10:36):
raw sound.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
You got to go to a record, you got to do the vinyl
right same thing with skating.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
it's like, look, this is where we're at, so big props
to usher and and bringing it tothe millions and millions,
because I think what it did wasreignite a bunch of old people
to go man, I remember that.
Oh man, I missed that.
God, I'd love to, but I'm tooold, I'm too, whatever Right,
and so I want to give a spot towhere you know what?

(11:09):
It's all good.
Come on out.
We'll have a spot just for you.
We're going to create a, a, amoment called turtle power hour,
to where is no zoomy zoomyskating.
You're going to.
You know, you want to be in aWalkerer, move a mile a minute,
whatever.
That's cool, you do you, and soit's.
It's for those people that areafraid that a person's gonna

(11:31):
come knock them and make themfall right.
So oh so, I think usher did areal solid, even though it was
just a blip of a flash yeah atthat halftime show right it
wasn't like half the show wasall skating.
It literally was a blip.
But that blip, I feel,rekindled and reignited a lot of

(11:55):
people.
I mean, cali is opening upanother skate rink, I believe in
Long Beach, called SunshineSkate.
Okay, you know.
So there's.
Although some rinks have closed, there are others opening.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, I saw during like the pandemic, though there
was a huge resurgence of skatingbecause the whole social
distancing and not really beingable to go anywhere can't go to
the gym.
That's actually when I got myskates again and started skating
again briefly, and it reallypicked up when I moved out to
Colorado and you were talkingabout the adult skate.

(12:29):
You can find an adult skateevery night of the week here.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, so if I go down south, if I move to Seattle, I
could have an adult night everynight of the week.
Between Linwood Bowling Skateand El skate and l central skate
rink they literally have anadult night essentially every
night.
Yeah, and we're spoiled becausewe actually have a one of, I

(12:56):
believe, a really solid up andstarting to become a big hit at
a lot of the skate parties.
But I have dj prototype in mybackyard.
Okay, so he really, when he,when he does a session, he
really gives you a mix of alittle bit of everything.
Yeah, so when you're you're ahouse head, you're a jb head,

(13:19):
you want your little trio, youwant your little linky skate,
you want to get a little saucy,a little backpack sesh, going on
, he gives you just a little bitof everything.
So at the end of the night, noone should leave one of his
parties disappointed yeah youknow, I mean, like I said, at

(13:39):
Skate Rock City, I really wantto say the opening night, which
was him and Shmurda, and thenthe last night, which was DJ
Tech Tricks and DJ Wildchild.
Those, I feel too, were likereally, where you felt the
energy the whole night amongstthe people and everything.
Yeah.
Those two nights were reallybumping.
And I got to say man, the rinkcould use some love, let's be

(14:04):
honest the rink could use somelove.
Let's be honest, the rink coulduse some love, but the
environment of skate rock cityand everything else, that was a
great time you know, the meetinggreat, was a great time, you
know.
And again, this is their firstyear of kind of really getting
back at it to, I believe, thecore of what the skate party

(14:26):
should be.
So I only expect it to getbetter and better.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, we got uh in April coming up.
We have mile high rollers outhere, which is the giant, so
it'll be the second one andluckily for me, they've actually
got a spot where I can set upand do the podcast and stream
from it, so that's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Definitely looking forward to that.
Oh no, that's going to befantastic.
I can't wait to watch that.
Well, I'm looking forwardbecause I don't know if you know
him, it's my Jim Bob.
He hit me up and asked me if Ican come out June 21st to
Colorado for your guys' skatecompetition you're hosting out

(15:08):
there.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Okay.
Do you know where it's beingheld at?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
I have to look at my phone real quick, but it's in
Colorado.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
We have so many rinks here, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
No doubt, no doubt.
We have so many rinks here.
It's ridiculous, no doubt.
Trying to find it right now.
Okay, it's my jam ball, causehe's posting about it.
Skate story.
I'll find it, I'll hit you up,I'll get it to you via instagram

(15:48):
though, but yeah, it's uh, Iguess, two different
competitions and then the.
The final competition is goingto be in colorado june 21st.
Okay, so I'm gonna actually beout there for that, um, and then
, like I said, may, I'm gonna bedoing borderline again.
That's a fun one.
I'm trying to make Houston inthree weeks, but I don't know,

(16:09):
man, flights are expensive rightnow.
Yeah, especially on shortnotice.
That's the hard part of makingsome of these skate parties is
the flights Right.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, so have you watched the show roller jam?

Speaker 3 (16:32):
I did show roller jam I did and you know, for a lot
of us, honor roll, I think, gaveus what we were hoping roller
jam was gonna be.
Yeah, I love everything thatroller jam brought right because
, you don't know, you're just,you're shooting from the hip the
hip and I hope they haveanother season and then refine
it a little bit more to whereit's like that honor, where it's
like the battles and the crewand you can still do shuffle

(16:55):
battles you can still do.
But I felt like they kind oftheir little, their attitude,
their whole thing, where theywould face the other crew and
kind of, you know, have a littlejam off or whatever.
I really feel like theydefinitely deserve to win it.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, I actually had them on a couple of weeks ago.
So, they were on the podcast acouple of weeks ago, so it was a
fun session with them.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
So now I've taken a class from dylan morton.
He was out at borderline, soyou know, that's one thing like.
Uh, I've taken a class from umthe real, mr real, jb, uh,
reggie, premier, okay, um, andthen I've taken classes with
dylan morton, rocks world.
I'm trying to with jediah, I'mtrying to with Jediah, I'm

(17:43):
trying to actually sign up forhis program to hopefully become
one of his helper, you know, andhelp teach and help spread the
skate love and the skatecommunity and just get it to
where it needs to be.
So those people are mostinfluential right now,

(18:04):
especially you know they havetheir thumb.
And right now and you know, Ijust took a class with bat smoke
here at vegas.
You know, if anybody can take aclass with that cat, that's man
, that guy.
And here's the funny thing hebroke it down in such a to the

(18:25):
foundation.
You know, it's like when youtake a normal class.
People just go okay, you takeyour left ankle, turn it out, do
this.
They just show you the moves.
Right, yeah, fat smoke broke itdown to the, to almost the whole
chemical analysis of a skatemove per se.

(18:47):
Right, like, you know, you havecement and what would make
cement?
We know we got sand, we gotrock, we got lime and you add
all that together.
Now you got your cement and youadd a little bit of water and
over time it hardens.
Now you got a solid foundation.
That's kind of how he teaches.
I mean, if anybody can take aclass from josh mr bat smoke, I

(19:10):
absolutely highly recommend it,especially if you're just
getting into skating.
Yeah, he is such a greatbeginner instructional skater.
Because that's what you need,right, you need a good
foundation, a good base, becauseeverything comes off of that
foundation.
And if you don't have a goodfoundation and a good base,

(19:32):
that's.
You know you're always going tobe falling, your feet are
always going to be hurting yeahlike I ain't gonna lie this guy.
I took his class sat morning.
He gave us a skate secret.
I won't say exactly what thesecret is, I'll just say the
word that's within the secretSocks.
He gave us this little thingabout what he does and how he

(19:57):
does his socks and the boot andall that.
I was like, okay, interesting.
Now my dogs kind of bark at theend because you know your toes
are gripping and I'm trying tocatch skaters and I got to zoom
by other people and crouch downand kind of slide in and all
that.
And he gave us this little socksecret that he does and man.

(20:18):
I did that that night, Saturdaynight, at rock city.
My feet were like on pillowsthe whole night.
Just a simple little socksecret that he has.
It changed no different thanwhen I so like I mentioned
before I went down to Get yourBearing I bought my first pair

(20:38):
of their Jackson skates.
They're now my outdoor skates,so I don't got to keep changing
my wheels.
Yeah uh skates, they're now myoutdoor skates so I don't gotta
keep changing my wheels.
Yeah, um, so you know I uh, so,yeah, so they're my outdoor
skates.
And then, um, when I went toborderline, reggie showed me and
I tried on a pair of hissignature chicago skates.
Okay, so then I went andordered those.

(21:02):
That was just a little bitunder 500 bucks.
You know, they say a skatedoesn't make a skater, the
skater makes the skate.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
But I'll tell you what a skate sure can't help
absolutely, and everybody's gottheir own style and their own
preference and so exactly.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
And so when I put these skates on, man I was, I
like, right out of the package.
I was able to, all of a sudden,just without even thinking
about it, just everything, mybalance happened, everything
just lined up.
I kicked out a three rotationheel spin and I haven't been
able to do a heel spin in threeyears because every time I went

(21:43):
and tried it, just on the otherskates, it just something
wouldn't click.
I literally slapped thosebabies on and I don't know if
it's just all right, man, now Igot me some jb skates, now I got
me some.
You know, I don't know if itwas that whole, that I just got
comfortable or what.
But bam now, oh man, now I, Ijust every time, man, and that's

(22:08):
what I keep telling people,it's all about time yeah,
exactly you can't expect tobecome even intermediate skater
if you don't put the time in.
if you only put your skates ononce every four weeks, it's
gonna probably take a year ortwo before you're not doing the

(22:28):
bobble anymore, or you're you're, you know, kind of oh I'm gonna
, you know, when you're doingall this shaky, bakey kind of
stuff, you know, because you'rejust not putting the time in.
So I really encourage thepeople, even if five minutes at
home in your kitchen, if you canput in 10 minutes a day of just
balance and climb, man, that'severything and then it helps

(22:51):
your mind unlock whatever thehindrance is a little bit
quicker.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, it takes a little time to get back,
especially with culture.
Nowadays Everybody's lookingfor that quick fix like, hey, I
went to the the gym once.
Why aren't I skinny or buffedor anything like that?
So people where's?

Speaker 3 (23:10):
my eight pack.
Yeah, what do you mean?
I did 50 sit-ups yesterday.
That's not what exactly I gottado 50 a day for 10 years.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Oh well, I don't know if I want to commit like that
and do strength training and eatright, and it's everybody just
takes bits and pieces.
It's like nobody actually takesit.
And the funny thing is is in alot of the skate groups on
Facebook they're like how do Iget better at skating?
I'm like, keep skating.
It's like A hundred percentright.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Like I, literally in my work van, I made a spot and I
bring my three pairs of skateseverywhere I go, because I don't
know if I'm going to get eitheran outdoor moment or I'm going
to get an indoor moment.
And I have two pairs of skatesfor indoor.
I got my custom made Adidasshell top sliders and I got my

(24:00):
JB Chicago skates.
Yeah, you know, so I can do mytwo different styles, and then I
always carry my outdoor skateswith me, like I said.
So, no matter what, I'm goingto be good, because with my job
I might have a two hour dead oryou know what Weather is going
to be kind of bad.

(24:21):
I should probably leave a littlebit early.
Oh, hey, it ended up not beingbad.
Now I'm at the job site twohours early.
Let's go find a park.
Exactly, that's it, man.
It's all about.
You know, when people say, well, I didn't have time, I don't
know about that, you know,because it's just you had time,

(24:44):
it's just not where you wantedto put time in that day you had
exactly not the time you wantedto shove over.
You know you.
You chose to go watch thatyoutube video for an extra 20
minutes.
Well, at 20 minutes you couldactually still been watching the
youtube video.
Put it on the counter, put putprop phone up, still watch, but

(25:07):
have your skates on for 15minutes.
Just stand in there, just getin your balance, lift a leg up.
Walk up to the other leg.
Something as simple as that.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
And that's the nice thing about the iPhone is
they'll give you a weekly reportof how much time you spend on
your phone.
And this week was a little oddfor me because I was laid up for
a few days and my average waseight hours a day on the phone.
If.
I was able to actually get upand do something.
That's eight hours I could havespent skating, so yeah, no, I,

(25:45):
you.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
So that's, that's my whole thing.
So now the big fire for me iswhatever I can do to help grow
the pivot skate brand, to helpfully one day have an actual
building here in bellingham thatpeople can actually physically
come to.
I almost had a building butunfortunately, like everywhere

(26:09):
else you know, they'd ratherbuild apartments and get $2,300
for a studio.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, and then complain that there's too many
people Right complain there'stoo many people.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
They'll complain that there's nothing for the kids to
do, there's nowhere for us tohave a community gathering, and
just all these other things.
But now I'm trying to bringsomething and I'm trying to, you
know.
So what can we do?
So yeah, after I got thego-ahead with the city to move
to the next step, I got a phonecall four days later saying nah,

(26:42):
next year we're going to goahead and level it and put up a
six-story apartment building.
And it's like all right, backto the drawing board.
So, that's what I'm doing rightnow.
I'm actively looking for eithera piece of land or, hopefully,
a turnkey building to where wecan just go in and just get
skates down, in and just getskates down and even if it

(27:08):
starts off on cement, you know,and we can, we can put back into
it and once the community buysin, or we do fundraisers to
where we could either a purchase, a floor that's for sale here,
that's available right now, butI don't have 75 grand right now.
So, maybe we do some communitythings or I started this as a
LLC, but not not knowing thewhole ins and outs of nonprofit

(27:33):
and things like that.
But maybe we switch it up and Igo towards that nonprofit side
so I can get easier grants andthings like that.
I'm in the process of trying tofigure that out right now and
talking to somebody and seeingwhich one's more viable.
But you know when you got moneyalways going out whether it be
for flights, quick books, lifeplan to help me with my business

(27:57):
plan.
You know all that it's like okay, man, like the wife's cool with
it a little bit, but at somepoint, man, she's gonna, so I
gotta.
So I filed the the business.
So then that way I can at leastclaim some things on taxes and
and not take such a harsh hit,even though the first year or

(28:19):
two it's always going to be inthe red right because you're
building right you're alwaysgoing to have something going
out, but this is where we'rehoping to the videography and
the photography side.
You know, partner up with mylocal skate rink and offer, you
know, something for birthdaypackages or corporate gatherings
at the skate rink, you know.
So that way, when I starttravel skating, I'm gonna start

(28:42):
bringing towels and some some myown branding stuff with me to
help do it that way and thenhopefully, you know, through
YouTube, um, we're, I'm, I'mcreating a pivot skate
productions where I capture alot on a weekend.
Yeah, anybody that that thatsees me and and and knows me

(29:05):
knows Skate Hooligan don't playwhen he got that camera in his
hand and he's on that rink.
Man, if you're going to createor you're going to give that,
just in that moment, I'm goingto capture it.
Whether you realize it or not,I'm going to capture a moment
and I had a great moment thisweekend.

(29:29):
Let me I want to correct thepeople that really deserve it
Young Rich, 23, and SidewaySkate Club created such a great
moment for me to capture thisweekend where Sideways came in

(29:54):
sliding and Young Rick camesliding right in between his
legs.
Okay, such a great moment tocapture, yeah, you know, and to
get it out there.
And I mean right now I thinkI'm at 4,500 views.
It's not 10,000, but forsomeone like me it's a lot and
that's huge.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, and you got to start somewhere, right.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
So, yeah, so it's things like that, catching
people that don't normally getto skate with each other, but
you can tell that when they doskate with each other, there's
some connectivity, there's amesh to them, right that you're
just like I got to get this.
This is something specialhappening here, yeah, I like

(30:42):
getting all of that, you know.
So on Saturday alone at SkateRock City, I took over 1,500
pics and videos total.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, and so what I do is I just upload it to a
Dropbox so people can have thesemoments for them.
Right now we don't want, Idon't watermark my stuff and I
help capture for northwest rinkskaters up here in washington.
they cover a lot of the pacific,northwest skaters and the skate

(31:17):
scene, um, and so we'll coverunder that and then also under
me, and so we really try to getpeople you know the footage,
because not only do people wantto see them in the moment, a lot
of people like to look back atthis footage and learn from it.

(31:37):
Yeah, you know, some of thetimes when you do the choreo
right, it's like, oh man, whatwas that move?
Okay, I know they went thechoreo right.
It's like, oh man, what wasthat move?
Okay, I know they went leftfour times right, but then was
that the right foot wiggle.
So it's great sometimes to goback and watch, especially when
you've got someone like theRoller Dance Academy they were

(32:03):
there or when you got, you knowthe true OG, stateline Rick.
When he's there, you know,anytime you can sponge off of
him, man, that guy, especiallyafter watching him snap his
thigh bone.
I was there for that man and Itell you what, to see that cat
still coming back out and doinghis thing and keeping the choreo

(32:26):
and in that whole vibe alive.
I mean that that gives meinspiration, man, because it's
like, okay, you came back fromyour leg, literally almost
wrapped around your body yeah Igive you props.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, I give you props, you, you true well, now
you were telling me before westarted about your injuries when
you came back.
You care to share it again forthe people?

Speaker 3 (32:51):
oh yeah, no, I don't mind.
It's kind of a bummer, though,because my wife was there for my
for my first injury now, mindyou, I am I turned 50 in
december.
So I'll say I've been skatingsince eight years old.
So from this whole time, I havenever in my life broken a bone,

(33:12):
I've never had to go to the ERfor any major contusion or
anything like that.
So, with that being said, Idefinitely had long had long,
long, long overdue wood tax.
So my first injury and Iliterally have only had my

(33:35):
skates on, maybe not even a year, and we were skating and it was
an open public session and Ihad my custom skates on and they
don't have toe stops on them,and I didn't want to drag my toe
because I didn't want to ruinthe stitching or, you know, ruin
the shoe, um, and so I startedto kind of, you know, a hockey

(34:01):
stop, um, and then try to gotowards the left.
But people were coming off therink at the time, um, so then
it's like, oh okay, well, let mego right.
And someone was coming on.
So then I was like, well, I'lljust lean over them and embrace
my fall.
Well, as that happens, theydecided to get up and and threw

(34:22):
my arms backwards and I ended upsitting on my left wrist and,
uh, lightning bolted it.
So I saw that it was lightningbolted.
My wife does not do good withthat stuff, so I straightened it
right there and and juststraightened it held, held it to

(34:43):
my tummy, got off the rink,looked at my wife, did the.
Yeah, we got to go andliterally went right to the ER
and put my hand in a kind oflike a makeshift kind of thing
because they couldn't set it, itwouldn't set right.
And it's still not perfect tothis day.

(35:04):
It's kind of still crookedbecause they couldn't set it, it
wouldn't set right, um, andit's still not perfect to this
day.
Um, it's kind of still crookedbecause it couldn't set it a
hundred percent.
But I now have a plate in mywrist, um, because I literally
crushed, literally crushed, uh,those bones and so uh so that's
my first injury ever.
And then, literally a year tothe date, I was down, like I

(35:29):
stated out, at El Centro inFederal Way, washington, at one
of their adult nights, and I wasactually there to meet somebody
from Canada to talk aboutroller skating and creating
something here in Bellingham, totalk about roller skating and
creating something here inBellingham, and she was meeting
people, so I didn't want tointerrupt that right away.

(35:51):
So then I just go out onto therink, start doing my own thing,
and I got inspired by the talentthat was down there and all the
stuff that was going on, and Iwas, like, you know, I remember
I used to be able to do that.
Maybe I can do it again now.
Mind you, I didn't warm up, Ihaven't practiced any of these
spins, I just was like in myhead it's like riding a bike.

(36:14):
Right, you should be able to,you'd be okay.
Yeah, no, lesson um aaron triedto do a spin on the apex of the
turn.
Oh, so my momentum, you know,is already pulling you.
Now I'm going to add spins toit.
And so, I mind you, I have size14 feet, so they're not exactly

(36:38):
dainty feet.
So my front toes clipped.
And when, when those clipped myknees clipped literally right
behind, one behind the other,and then I literally went down
like a chopped tree.
Yeah.
And at first I thought maybe Ijust dislocated my shoulder.
And then I went over to thetable and I laid my chest and my

(37:02):
arm out and I tried putting itback in, and then when I sat
back up it dropped and then Iwas like huh.
So then I tried it like threetimes and then I felt my other
side of the collarbone.
It was like okay, that feelslike that.
And then I felt the other one.
It was like it doesn't feellike that.
Yeah, luckily the the emergencyroom is only a block away.

(37:25):
So it was good.
What was not good is I now hadto make a phone call to my wife
stating that I heard again abone again now, mind you, I am
the breadwinner of my familyyeah, you know so when, when
that goes down, that's not goodyeah exactly luckily it was the

(37:47):
collarbone and I could still goto work.
I now, mind you, I was going towork like a t-rex.
I couldn't move my elbows awayfrom my my side, so I literally
was like a t-rex, but I stillwent to work, I still climbed up
ladders, I still did what I hadto do.
But now the wifey, she's reallyanxious when she gets her

(38:15):
skates on and she gets on thering because she just flashes
back to the snapping of thewrist.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
You know what though Injuries happen in skating?
If you're not falling, you'renot skating.
What though injuries happen inskating?
If you're not falling, you'renot skating right.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
You don't learn if you're not falling right exactly
.
Fortunately for her, andbecause she didn't grow up like
that, she doesn't have thatinternal skate fire right.
So yeah, she don't have thatreal.
So, unfortunately, and she, sheis the absolute best skate mom
any group can have.
So if you do see my wife at youknow one of these skate events,

(38:53):
you know because she does cometo some of them with me.
She can't come to all of them,yeah, but she can come to some
of them.
But if you do see her, don't beafraid to go say hi to her or
set your stuff down by her.
She is a great skate mom.
She'll make sure you stayhydrated.
She'll make sure you got freshtowel for all the sweat we're
dripping, because some of theseplaces don't want to turn their

(39:15):
fan on or open a door fiveminutes after the session begins
.
Yet you're swampy everywhere,um, but she'll make sure you're
good and and that's the the sidethat she's great for you know.
So, although, yes, I would lovefor her to be my linky, my, my
ballroom partner, it doesn'tseem I'm going to get that and

(39:39):
that's okay, but she alwaysbrings the Twinkies and Capri
suns, absolutely.
She is the absolute best skatemom.
I'll tell you what.
You know, some people oh, goahead, what were you gonna?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
say I was gonna say, um, so what exactly is pivot
skating?

Speaker 3 (39:59):
because I don't think we've really gotten into the
business side and explain thebusiness of what you got going
on so pivot skate is a companyI've created, um, pivot skate
llc is a company I've createdand right now it's just out of
my home where you know you wantsome lessons, basic instruction.

(40:20):
You know you want some basic.
Hey, I'm about to go to therink for the first time.
I ain't been in a while.
What's some things I shouldknow?
Well, sides for fast people andsides for the slower people.
When you're going to exit thefloor, please put your arm up
like a turn signal.

(40:41):
Let people know, hey, I'm aboutto exit the floor this way.
So then that way they can kindof maneuver around you and not
hinder you or make you feel likeI'm about to run right into you
.
Things like that, right.
Things like that right.

(41:03):
Um.
So the hopes is to have abuilding a skate rink that
focuses more on the adult sideof things, where we don't have
to go to skate parties or adultskate nights at one in the
morning.
You know, as we get older, ourbodies can't stay up.
We were, we're tired,especially if you worked all day
and you got a demanding job ofwork, but you still want to go
do some, some work on yourself,and that is vol skating.

(41:27):
Well, you know especially likefor me, if I want adult skate I
gotta drive two hours for itright so that's real.
Luckily for me, my job has megoing up and down the i-5
corridor, so a lot of my work isdown there.
So that just means I just gottakill time until the skate
session begins and then or do adouble session, a public session

(41:50):
and then the adult session, butthen not get home till midnight
.
One in the morning.
Yeah.
But then I got to get up at fourin the morning to start my day
all over.
Now you know it's tough to dothat on a consistent basis.
So why not have something whereit's more adult-focused?

(42:18):
Right, the music's moreadult-focused?
We can enter the junior highand the high school age group
into the more stylistic stylesof skating, whether it be
shuffle skating, jam skating,the ballroom side of it, the
trains, the treetops, those allthe different styles.
Yeah, you know, just like likethe jb style.

(42:40):
Right, there's not just jb.
I learned this, I didn't knowthis.
I thought jb was jb.
Nope, there's chicago, northchicago, jb, south chicago, jb I
didn't know.
That's one of the things thatthat I just learned.
Yeah, but this isn't here.
You know where I'm at, betweenLinden and Skateway, like you

(43:05):
don't see these.
So I would like to bring thathere to Bellingham, because
Bellingham's got a lot oftransplants.
We got a lot of cali folk, wegot a lot of colorado folk, we
got a lot of my barber fromgeorgia, you know.
We got a lot of people thatwant it, that have it, but it's

(43:26):
not curated, so they don't know,and so, because they don't know
, it just goes to the wayside.
Yeah, I want to, I want tochange that, but unfortunately
land ain't cheap, buildingsaren't cheap, you know, and
trying to find the rightbuilding to where you can just
almost essentially turnkey it,open the door and just have

(43:48):
wheels going, that's tough andfar and few between you know
yeah, um but it's not a lostcause.
But until I can make thatofficial dream a reality, how do
I build the name right?
How do I build the brand?
So that's where my travelskating and me hopping on to the

(44:11):
recording side of things andthe capturing side of things,
okay, so then, as I put it on toyoutube and on my instagram,
the, and share it with thepeople around here, they go oh
okay, so this really is a thing,okay, and then, as I do my like
, come springtime I go dooutdoor gatherings, you know

(44:35):
rollouts yeahyou know, and then that's where
I'll start introducing, you know, the choreo lessons that I'm
learning and you know, one ofthe great groups to learn choreo
from is the united skate squad,and, and they're a huge skate
group, but they're literally I Ican probably say in your ring,
you, you're going to have onemember of the United Skate Squad

(44:58):
there, okay, and their goal isto teach and to share and to
spread the knowledge of skating.
So if you ever see someonewearing a United Skate Squad
shirt, don't hesitate to go talkto them, you know, or ask
questions, because that's whatthey want.
They want you to inquire, theywant you to have the earn for

(45:26):
the knowledge and for thepassion and the growth of your
skating knowledge.
You know, dee Hawk is a greatand his lovely wife are great
instructors.
Um, oh, hey, is Jai out of LasVegas.
She's a great instructor.
Quadette for Seattle, code forSeattle.

(45:49):
These, these, these are membersof there's chickpea and Oregon.
Um, these are people thatthere's chickpea in oregon.
Um, these are people that youknow strive to help keep that
fire or reignite that fire.
You know, and some people, theydon't want to go around in
circles for three hours, someare just content, staying in the
middle and and slow walking ordoing that choreo stuff.

(46:10):
That's what I'm trying to getmy wife into.
It's like look, look, look,look, see, you don't have to get
hurt.
You don't have to go in acircle and try to do fancy stuff
.
You can just be right here likeI don't know if you've seen uh,
have you ever seen poppingpoppin?
auntie, they're out of buffalono that skate group out of
buffalo, new york.
Oh, they're great.
And I mean, she's got, I meanshe's got her flag, her fan just

(46:33):
popping and the whistle, just Imean, but just, but she ain't
moving 100 miles an hour now shecan.
I've seen her ride, hug thatrail, yeah, but for most of the
time she was just a hip shakingand a tweaking and a pop popping
and a pop popping and just a awonderful skate vibe just

(46:55):
spewing all over the floor.
It's like makes you want to gorun and go buy a fan yourself
and just pop, pop.
It was that.
It was literally thatinfectious.
Yeah.
But it's seeing stuff like thatand capturing stuff like that
that you know people thinkskating is just going around in
a circle and skate mates comingright at you.

(47:16):
And you know people thinkskating is just going around in
a circle and skate mates comingright at you.
And you know that's not it atall.
You know skating is so muchmore, especially if you take it
into the self-work side of it,right?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Therapy is expensive and you don't know if your first
go around is the right personfor you.
Right, you might go throughthree, seven, eight therapists
so you do know me I thought youmeant wives, you know, but
what's the guaranteed therapistthat that that never fails you

(47:54):
yeah, yeah, you and your stakes.
Exactly Because no one, youcan't lie to yourself.
Yeah, you look in the mirror.
You can't lie.
You can't say you know I'mseven foot when you're really
four foot.
It's right there in front ofyou.
You can see it.
You can't lie to yourself.
Yeah.

(48:20):
So we all, though, try to foolourselves.
If you get honest and you'retrue with yourself, you put your
headphones in, you lace them upwhether it's quads or inline
and you just work, and you justwork through your day.
Maybe it's you got just got towork through your day.
Maybe you had a hard day?
All right, let's just put ourheadphones on, let's put our
wheels on and let's just thinkabout it.
Let's just work it through.

(48:41):
What went wrong today?
Why did I get upset today?
Okay, I see you.
All right, you know what?
I'll make sure I don't let thatget to me tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I'll make sure I be a little bit better than
yesterday.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
That I'm not, I'm not , none of us are earth creators,
right?
Yeah, so there's no way we'regoing to achieve that, that
level of perfection, that levelof you know worldliness.
Right, but we can do just alittle bit to make sure that we

(49:30):
don't have so many hiccups.
Right, we can do.
You know, I'm always up late,I'm always, I'm always rushing
out why, why, why.
Well, maybe don't stay up tillthree in the morning, yeah, you
know, maybe maybe go to bed alittle bit sooner, or maybe do
that.
You're right, and and it mightnot work right away, it might

(49:50):
take a minute, but you at leastgot to make the conscious effort
of trying instead of justalways making excuses, right?
Exactly Don't use those excusesas crutches in life.
Use them as building blocks.
Help build that foundation towhere you want to build and put
your castle, so then you'reprotected.
And that's what skatingultimately really does, I feel.

(50:13):
You know some people.
It just gives them that senseof all right, it's okay, you
know I might go home and I mightnot have that person that that
I want, but that's okay.
Yeah, I got exactly you know,and so that's where I feel the
skating, and so that's really,ultimately, what I want pivot

(50:35):
skate to become, you know, is aplace where people can come work
on their health right, becauseif you do it right, you know a
few moves, man, I don't knowabout you, but I drip sweat man.
I literally like I go throughtwo towels, if not three towels,
a night.
Yeah, you know, if you, ifyou're moving, if you're working

(50:56):
, you know even going around incircles, if you're moving,
you're going to sweat.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Exactly, and I'm on the speed skating side of things
, so I'm not the artistic andjam skater, but I appreciate all
forms.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
But even the speed skating side of it, right yeah,
even if you're doing solid speedskating, or if you're doing
long distance speed skating orjust the lap speed skating,
either way you're gonna work asweat absolutely, and I do every
time I go to the rink.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Lately they've been right on the heaters, do I so
exactly?

Speaker 3 (51:31):
right, so it's inevitable.
And then if your health startsto feel good, then mentally
you'll start to feel good.
Yep, you know, so it's, it's.
It's that you know, especiallywhen I live in such a doom and
gloom state.
Right where it's, it's wet andgray eight months out of the
year yeah so for me washington'snotorious for that right for me

(51:57):
those days when it ain't man,I'll tell you what the sunsets,
the sunrises, yeah, the greeneryeverywhere, it's just, it's
something else, man, you know,and I, like I said you know, my
wife's born and raised grassvalley.
We moved from um weavervilletrinity county area.
you know I'm born and raisedriverside so I'm used to the

(52:18):
Santa Ana winds, the fires.
You know that's one of the bigreasons why we left Northern
Cali.
We kept getting smoked out andwondering if this was the year
our hill was going to be on fire.
So we're just finally like,yeah, you know what we're good.
Well, you know what I knowabout this place.
You want to go see it?
Yeah, let's go see it.

(52:39):
All right, so we took a trainand I brought him up to
Bellingham and we've been hereever since Nice.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Yeah, I only came out to Colorado a couple of years
ago and I have no desire to moveback to California.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
You know what Like, don't get me wrong, it's home,
right, it's what made me who Iam.
My street smarts, everythingthat I am came from the Inland
Empire.
No doubt about it, and I missit and I love it.
I'll wear it on my sleeve forlife, man, but the reality of it

(53:18):
is it's not livable anymore.
Yeah, realistic, livable, right, you know, unless you've got
that niche where you'reHollywood or Silicon Valley,

(53:40):
average American, average Joe,the mall worker, the custodial,
even some construction workers.
It's just not conducive thereanymore.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, exactly.
So now, when it comes to yourskates, you've explained what
brands you use.
Now is everything stock on them, or have you changed them to
your taste?

Speaker 3 (53:59):
No.
So my first thing is oh, whatis it?
Oh wait, you got a lot of lowIP.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
So here's, my sliders , okay so.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
The plate and the Cushions just got redone and the
wheels got done by SkateFanatics Okay, by Kenny, and Pre
Definitely recommend these guysdefinitely got their thumb on

(54:42):
the spider and skate communityjust in general.
Yeah.
You know, they were just at RockCity and people's stuff broke,
but they were able to get itfixed in and repaired right away
nice someone lost a pair ofskates not to their own doing,

(55:04):
but you know, some unfortunatestuff happened in vegas and they
were able to get him right asbest as they could very cool, so
you know they're always great.
But yeah, so this got done forme at last year's uh cali slides
event okay, that's enough youfaded out on me if you haven't

(55:31):
been to that event yet.
Cali slides, that is anotherfantastic skate party, okay, um,
they this year, especially thisyear, they had a vip gathering
before the event kicked off.
Yeah, and it literally was likethis the who of who of skaters.

(55:52):
Okay, that showed up and it wasjust just such a beautiful
moment to be able to capture andsee and the floor was like
slicker than elephant snot, buteverybody adjusted to it.
It was such a beautiful poetickind of chaotic thing going on.

(56:19):
Nobody fell, nobody, whatever,but it just really was a great
event that they did for the VIP.
And then DJ Lady P was the DJand she, just from the moment
you walked off the elevator orup the stairs you were just

(56:39):
bumping, walking in, justbecause the vibe, the ear candy
that she was laying down, wasjust, it was good to go.
So that's definitely one Iwould recommend if you haven't
been to yet.
You know, and it's different,right, it's all about the slides
, right?
Yeah.
There's other skate styles there.
Right, there's other.

(57:00):
You know people got yourregular boot skates, artistic
skates or whatever, but youreally get a sense of like this
is cali, this is west coast yeahso and then.
So that's about as customersthat I have gotten.
Okay, and then, like I said, Ibought the signature Chicago

(57:21):
skate from Reggie Premier.
Okay, and that is just hisstandard setup.
Okay.
He didn't give me any specificson like plates or wheels, but if
you go to the chicago websiteor hit up reggie uh premiere on
instagram um, it's his signatureskate and I'll tell you what

(57:46):
man I, I am actually reallyhappy with them.
Um, I'm able to, and growing up, I never took the time to learn
what a skate setup should feellike.
Yeah, now I know, as you refineyour style, you're going to
tweak things a little bit moreto kind of fit you right.

(58:06):
But what's that foundation like?
Right, where do you begin?
Yeah, so I asked him to set myskates up with what you would
feel would be the, thefoundation of a setup.
So he did that for me.
So now I know what a startingof a foundation should feel and

(58:28):
look like.
Um, so that's, and essentiallyI haven't touched it since.
And I got last year okay, juneand I haven't touched it since
and I got last year, june, and Ihaven't tweaked them, I haven't
messed with the trucks at allor nothing.
And man it, I ain't gonna lie,it was, it was a, it was a game

(58:49):
changer.
I can definitely tell thedifference between when I put my
Jackson's on and when I put myChicago's on and when I put my
sliders on.
You can definitely kind of feelthe difference.
And I'm still doing the samemoves.
I'm still doing the same, butyou can just tell when, like on
the JB, I feel it might be alittle shorter base and the

(59:10):
wheels might be a little bitcloser, bit closer.
Yeah.
So you know, I'm the fluidity.
Of certain moves happen a loteasier and a lot more fluid, and
that could also be, like youknow, my outdoor has got, you
know, uh, stickier wheels.
Right, I'm going with a 76 foroutdoor because where I'm at the

(59:32):
roads are just atrocious toskate on yeah so if you don't
want to feel like your feet aregoing through a needle gun, you
know just kind of just gettingjust beat up under your feet,
and then when you take them off,your feet are all tingling
right and you're like, oh my god, my feet hurt.
Um, I didn't get that withthese, so I kind of, I kind of

(59:57):
like that.
Now the downfall is they'restrictly indoor.
Yeah, you know so.
Yeah, so now I gotta carryskates with me right now when I
fly.
I definitely gotta.
I can't go spirit airlinesbecause I can't bring all that
on just to all my carry-on.
Yeah exactly.

(01:00:18):
I now have a suitcase with justtwo pairs of skates and it
carries all my sweat towels init Nice.
And then I got a, which a lotof people don't know.
this but, Zuka makes a skate bag.
But Zuka makes a skate bag fortraveling.

(01:00:41):
Here's the thing, though theone that they make for skating,
for roller skates, that wheel iskicked out of the frame okay,
so TSA won't allow it.
That wheel is stuck out of theframe Okay, okay, so TSA won't
allow it, oh wow.

(01:01:02):
But Zuka makes a pickleball bagwhere they put the wheel like
this, and that's allowed, whereit doesn't stick out, and so for
some reason, this is allowed,tsa yeah.
So I recommend to people.

(01:01:24):
Now, you know it's a greattravel bag.
Um, it handles all kinds ofthings.
It holds a lot sometimes I'llactually just fly with this and
two pairs of skates.
It'll hold my jacksons, myoutdoor skates, and it'll hold
my sliders okay, so I can fittwo pairs of skates in here.
And then the pockets, you know,can hold some your like my

(01:01:47):
whistle, your some bandanas,your water or whatever else, but
it and it goes up in thecarry-on, just fine okay most
people don't know that becausethey're looking for pickleball
bag to carry their skates, right, yeah?
so I've been telling people that.

(01:02:08):
So if you wanted a good travelskate bag, zuka makes a travel
skate bag.
That's TSA approved, but yougotta look under pickleball okay
you gotta type like pickleballtravel bag and then it'll pop up
yeah, so so it's silly yeah, itis.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
It's weird how we get discriminated against for being
skaters right, it's sounbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
it's so, it's just unbelievable, Sounds so simple.
It's like oh well, why don't wedo that?
So then, well, you don't thinkskaters travel yeah.
So, yeah, it's kind of mindblowing, so yeah.
So then you know I'll take thatcase.
So now I got that, I got my, mycarry on suitcase, and then you

(01:02:57):
got your, your, your, your bigsuitcase.
That's got all your clothes.
Because, well, I don't knowabout you, but I usually go
through two shirts a night,three towels, you know,
depending on how the night is, Imight even go through a pair of
pants.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Yeah there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
And if I go to a skate night, you know three,
four nights well, that's a lotof clothes and I don't really
want to do laundry when I'm outof town.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
Exactly so now, who was one of your biggest
influences in skating when youfirst started as a kid?
Like what made you go thatdirection?

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Well, man, you know, I wouldn't know one specific
name, more of just what I saw.
You know, like me, being asocal kid, I grew up with venice
beats and I would spend a lotof time at venice and just
seeing the different, differenttalents.
You know, I didn't know theirnames.

(01:03:58):
I growing up in socal.
It's kind of funny.
We don't get starstruck, yeah,like I don't get starstruck
because everybody around you isa star, yeah right like
everybody around you some formor other has been on tv or this
or that.
So it's like, oh, okay, oh, I'mup.

(01:04:20):
Okay, so it was.
For other people it's no bigdeal, right, we don't?
I don't know, for me, I don'ttend to kind of get all googly
eye and wooey eye over somebodythat I've seen on Instagram or
whatever.
Right, like here at the skateparty, you saw a lot, and I mean

(01:04:40):
a lot, of skate.
Like here at the skate party,you saw a lot, and I mean a lot,
of skate influencers.
Here at the skate party, okay,you had mr hollywood who, well,
you literally saw half of rollerjam past skate rock city, nice.
You know dylan morton wasn'tthere, but half his honor roll
crew was.
You know you had some peoplefrom trendsetters there.
You had, um, like I said, mrHollywood and his other partner

(01:05:04):
was there.
Um, but yeah, so it's like, butyou're not running up to him
going.
Oh my God, can I have yourpicture?
Can I have your autograph?
You know you're like, nah,they're here to do the exact
same thing I'm here to do, yeah,be amongst like-minded people
and relieve stress and whatever.

(01:05:26):
You know if I happen to get aphoto or if I happen to remember
at some point during theweekend.
Hey, man, you mind if I get apicture with you.
Man, you know, I really look upto you.
I really.
You know, I love following you.
I love watching your stuff onInstagram and this, and that I
loved you on Roller Jam, youknow, great, but it's not what

(01:05:47):
I'm striving, it's not myend-all, be-all goal, right?
Oh man, I got to go to theskate party so I can go meet
this person because, oh, now mylife's complete.
Yeah, you know, I'm good, don'tget me wrong, I'm wild by you.
I love watching you.
You know, I'm probably going totake a little bit and sprinkle
it on my own, just because Iliked how you did that or

(01:06:08):
whatever, or try to figure outhow I can incorporate your kind
of.
You know, one of the things Ilove doing is striding, right.
Yeah, everybody's got adifferent little stride, how
they kind of, you know, dip alittle bit lower or this or that
, right?
So it's like oh man, I kind oflike how you kind of stride like
that.
You kind of got a little extraswag to it.
I might be a little bit heavylike that.

(01:06:34):
You know things like that, butnow I can tell you who my
inspirations and influencers arenow.
Yeah, you know, um Malik.
You know, uh, mr JB, uh, uh,skater out of Chicago seeing him
taking a class from him atborderline.
You know, he's a big influenceto me, reggie, like I've stated.

(01:06:57):
Um, local people, uh, djprototype.
You know, he's a big influenceto me, reggie, like I've stated,
local people, dj Prototype.
You know, not only is he a DJ,that fool can skate his butt off
, that guy doing cypher andmiddle work or the jersey
circles I mean, he, the cat canskate man and a phenomenal DJ.

(01:07:22):
So he's a good inspiration forme right now to to always keep
my, my craft going.
Um, I got some people thataren't Insta famous but they do
influence me just because oftheir dedication and the work
that they have to the skateculture and community.
Yeah, so there's people likethat, there's people that, at

(01:07:47):
age 70 and still out thereskating amongst the adults, you
know they're inspirational to mebecause I'm 50.
You know you're 52, right?
Yeah, so you know this is thetime where we're not supposed to
be getting dumb and notsupposed to be putting our
ourselves into precariouspositions where we could be laid

(01:08:08):
up for a little bit longer thanwe really want to.
Be right, yeah, there's somework because we we really
shouldn't be missing work.
Right, because we just tookvacation.
So now we don't got vacation orwe have something else happens
to where we can't use the familymedical leave plan acting right
now.
So now it's like, well, if I,if I miss out, man, I'm missing
out like we're gonna, we'regonna feel this one, yeah, you

(01:08:32):
know.
So it's seeing people like that, that it's like, wow, okay, you
know, we were at Rose City,portland had their first skate
party this year, and there wassomebody there 82 years old.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
He had elbow pads on, he had knee pads on, he had a
helmet on, but he was out there,yeah.
And then, once it got busy, hewasn't out there, but he was out
there, yeah.
And then, once it got busy, hewasn't out there, but he was out
there, you know, he didn'tleave, he kind of still took it
in, you know.
So it's seeing stuff like that,that's just it's inspiring to
me.
And then people starting torecognize me, yeah, you know,

(01:09:17):
and when I walk into a rink nowand people starting to say some
things, you know, or when youleave the floor, you know, like
I said, I've only put my skateson here, you know really, and
I'm like I'm active on them, youknow, but really three years
ago, for when I get off the rinkand people go man, that was
cool to see you, man, you're agood skater it's like all right,

(01:09:40):
thank you yeah you're justyou're, you're, you're
reassuring that the work thatI'm putting in, the time that
I'm putting in there there's,there's validity to the
sacrifice that I'm, that I'mdoing right now.
Right because, whether it'sfinancial sacrifice, leap

(01:10:00):
sacrifice, time away from thewife sacrifice.
Right because if you're skating, you know you're not with her
right so exactly and once I hitthe floor, you know it might be
a minute before I go back by herand go hey, hey, you doing good
, you, okay, all right, give hera smooth, smooth, get a hit of
water, and then I'm right backout on the floor.

(01:10:21):
Yeah.
You know.
So it's it's.
It's those that are right nowthat are that are absolutely,
really inspirational to me rightnow.
Um, you know the the difference.
Anyone who does a style anddoes it well is inspirational to
me, cause that just tells meyou put in the time, yeah, and

(01:10:45):
that's inspiring to me becauseyou know you have a sense and
you had a belief in somethingand you crafted it to a point
where people want to learn fromyou Exactly, and you've got
knowledge that people hold valueto.

(01:11:05):
You know, there's some peoplethat when you go to the rink,
they never get a minute tothemselves because people want
the moment with them.
Right, yeah, they always gotsomeone in, you know, whether
their partner, or skating aroundthe ring, doing a train or a
trio, but they always gotsomebody new with them, because

(01:11:28):
the people that's how manypeople want to gain some type of
, even if it's just a simple heyman, can you show me this hand
placement so when I go back homeI can do it correctly?
You know, can you show me oryou know when they're doing or
if anybody's doing?
One of the good things is a lotof people, you know, trying to

(01:11:50):
learn spins.
Right, yeah, learning spins isscary, scary.
But there's people out therethat do it super good and they
have little tricks that theyhave learned over time to help
make it be more easier or morefluidity to whatever they're

(01:12:12):
doing and to gain that slightbit of knowledge.
You go a long way versus youjust going out there just trying
to wing it.
Yeah.
You know.
So if you can learn simplelittle gatekeep secrets, those
are everything.
So anytime I'm at the rink andI'm seeing somebody do something

(01:12:33):
that I myself am trying to workon, but like, okay, right now I
can't unlock the front toespins, it's just not.
It's just not unlocking for meright now.
I don't know if it's my lead inor what, but I can do heel
spins left, right easy, but getup on my front toes.

(01:12:53):
My mind wants to shut down andgo.
No, this isn't for you right nowyeah anytime I go see someone
that just gets up on them, it'slike, hey, what, what are you
doing?
Like, what are you doing acertain something to lead in?
Or like, are you lifting yourbody up?

(01:13:14):
Like what, what, what do you do?
Right, and then I'll listen towhat they say and I'm like, all
right, and then I'll go try toapply it and then it'd be like
all right.
Well, you know what?
I see that I did a little bitbetter by adding this, but not
so much this, and maybe thatmight be because they're shorter
, so for their body stature thatwhatever're doing works.

(01:13:37):
Where I'm a little bit taller,when I stand straight up, I'm
about six, two, six, three, yeah, you know.
So you know, when you got atall winky and now you're trying
to, and now you got this bigold dome on top of your head,
you're winging that around right, a little counterbalance, just
kind of going every which way.
Well, you kind of got to learnthese little things right.

(01:13:58):
And so those, all those littletips of you know, okay, poor
right bender needs a little bitmore this.
That you know, all these littlethings kind of help.
And the next day, you know,I'll be doing front spins, front
sit spins, you know.
You know no lookies, you know,but it'll just be a matter of

(01:14:20):
time.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
Yeah, so now, what is some advice you have for people
that want to do your style orget into skating?
Just in general.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
The advice I can have is the biggest NACI slogan ever
right, just do it.
Yeah, you're're gonna doubtyourself, you're gonna sit there
and go.
Man, I'm too old or I'm too fat?
Nah, uh, don't let weight tohinder you, because I I got some

(01:14:54):
clips of of folks that youwouldn't think would be brave
enough to get on skates, butthey're out there and they're
working it.
You know, I mean even on littlefibers.
They're out there on littlefibers and you're like, man,
that's going to be a hard fallif you fall, you know, but I'm
glad you're out here, but, man,that's going to probably be a

(01:15:16):
nasty fall if you fall.
But they never fell once.
Yeah.
You know.
So it's like, if you, honestly,are thinking about it, go do it
and don't, don't, don't, don't.
Go to the rink and go get thebrownies, go get you some skates
, because the skates, honestly,should be an extension of you.

(01:15:40):
Yep, you know, we didn't comeout of the womb with wheels on
our feet Right.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
So once you speak for yourself, right you?

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
know, once you came out, it's like what do we do?
It's like it's unnatural.
Your mind is not why you didn'tcome out with wheels.
So, with that being said, you,when you do put them on, you
want them to essentially be anextension of your feet, like you

(01:16:11):
don't even have them on.
So I I always recommend topeople go, and you don't have to
start off big right, you don'tgot to go get the custom skate
with the custom fabric, with thecustom plate, with the custom
wheels, to where?
Now, son, you're looking at$1,200.
You can go get a good boot, agood hybrid boot, whether you

(01:16:35):
want to do artistic or jam orjust a little bit of in-between.
You know it makes it easy toswap in between indoor and
outdoor wheels.
You know I don't personallyrecommend taking your outdoor
wheels indoors.
You know I'm a firm believer ofswapping or just buying two
pairs of skates.
You, um, that helps withbreathing too, you know,

(01:16:59):
especially if you got I foundout, uh, with with the leather
boot, uh, yeah, uh, you want tolet that bitch breathe uh yeah,
I learned that kind of the hardway.
I had to do some uh cleaning andsome repair and I hope I didn't
lose the leather.
But um, I I lesson learned.
Um, yeah, you definitely wantto take your cause.

(01:17:22):
I usually take my other skatesout, but I had them in the, the,
the Reggie skates, the Chicagoskates.
I had them in a cloth bag so Ijust figured that would always
keep it.
But yeah, no.
So now I come home and I stickmy skates on a on a boot dryer.
So now I come home and I stickmy skates on a on a boot dryer,
so they dry because, uh, leatherboots, um, you know, it's

(01:17:43):
leather, right, it's real skinit's.
It's still breathing, right?
So, um, if you get your sweatup in there and then you just
put it in and close it up,you're going to start to build
some funk.
So, uh, yeah, if you don't wantfunky feet, make sure you uh

(01:18:04):
air and dry your feet out aftera good, especially if you're a
hardcore skater and you and youuh sweat a lot.
You definitely want to makesure you you air them and don't
leave them in the car overnight.
Um, you know, because you gotmoisture in the night and
that'll cause things to rust,especially like if you got metal
screws on the inside of yourboot, those will start to rust.
And then, you know, just go,spend even 10-15 minutes in your

(01:18:42):
dining room, your living room,maybe.
Don't pull into the garage thatnight, Use your little garage
space for some time and just getcomfortable on them.
Then, once you're comfortableon them, then go to the rink and
then that's where it's allgoing to unlock, you know, and

(01:19:04):
then put the time in.
That's the absolute biggestthing.
We've said it over and overright Time.
Time is absolutely everythingin order for you to get any type
of growth in skating.
You know time on and off skates.
You know you don't have to justalways be on skates to to do

(01:19:25):
anything off skates.
You know working on balance offskates, working on certain
moves off skates just to keepyour body.
You know I coached sports asyouth sports.
You know my kids and stuff likethat.
One of the biggest things Iwould always show the kids is

(01:19:47):
that even in professionalathletes they're making millions
but if you watch them theystill do the same basic
fundamental drills that theylearn at age seven yep the
pop-ups, the grounders, the freethrows right, the, the layups.

(01:20:12):
I mean these guys playprofessionally, yet for practice
, when they're not at home, whenthey're not practicing with the
team, they're at the gym orwhatever and they're doing the
same thing.
You think by now, after 20 years, you still have muscle.
Your muscle memory should belocked in right?
Yep, oh, you still have topractice all the time, whether

(01:20:34):
it's five minutes, 10 minutes,but you always want to just keep
that sharpness of the basics.
So work on that and so long asyou have a solid basic and a
solid foundation, the house thatyou choose to build, the skate
house you choose to build, willbe a solid skate house because

(01:20:55):
you had a, you started with asolid skate house foundation.
You know, and that's takingclasses, whether it be in person
or a lot of them are doingvirtual classes now.
So there's ultimately reallyother than you not being honest
with yourself with where youwant skating to be out of your

(01:21:17):
life.
You know the opportunities arethere for all types of growth,
you know, and and learning to toget where you want to get at
any level.
You know what?
What?
If you never want to do fancymoves, that's fine.
You don't have to do fancymoves.
You don't have to be the rhythmskater or the quick one foot

(01:21:47):
pivot quick back, quick back,quick back, quick.
Find what is you?
Maybe hip-hop music doesn't getyou going right.
Maybe it's just not your thing,that's fine.
When I'm outdoors, I might hitmy playlist, but honestly I'm

(01:22:10):
listening to reggae when I skateoutdoors.
I'm listening to Revolution.
I'm listening to Stick Figure.
I'm listening to Revolution.
I'm listening to Stick Figure.
I'm listening to Bombargo.
You know, a great Saskatchewanband I just got turned on to
after I went to the MichaelFerranti concert, you know, but
these are all happy uppity.

(01:22:30):
You know, just love one anothertype of music.
You know, Put that on, See howyou go with that.
You know, skating actuallystarted with rock and roll,
right?
Yep.
So maybe it's that Maybe go puton some some Led Zeppelin.
Maybe go put on some uh uhRolling Stone.

(01:22:52):
Maybe go put on some old schoolAretha.
Maybe it's that Maybe go put onsome old school Aretha.
Maybe it's that Something isgoing to help unlock or reignite
or help fuel your skate journey.
You just got to be willing toplug and play and not get
discouraged when, a you get yourfirst bad fall, b you see

(01:23:18):
somebody else fall or you feelsomething's taking longer than
maybe it should.
You know because, honestly, youcan't have no timetable on
anything.
Things are going to unlock andhappen in the time it needs to
unlock and happen in the time itneeds to unlock and happen.

(01:23:42):
You know, one of the biggestthings is it wasn't until three
years ago I was able to startbackwards skating, for some
weird reason.
Every time as a kid I would try, even on ice skates, would try
to backwards skate.
My big feet would be like, yeah, no, we're not doing this, turn
back around, thank you, have anice day.

(01:24:05):
And I'd always skate forward.
Yeah, I asked my nephew'sgirlfriend.
This is funny.
This is he actually is the onewho made my original custom
skates for me.
I was at Vegas Rise, we was atCali Rise in Long Beach Okay

(01:24:33):
skates, right.
They were kind of catering to aspecific style of skating or
specific um side of skatingright, more towards the derby
side of skating of things.
Right, and it's like that's notreally what I'm kind of looking
for.
So I asked him if he could makeme a skate real quick.

(01:24:54):
So he drove from riverside allthe way to Long Beach, grabbed
my shoes I had just bought Ibought two pairs of shoes
because I didn't know which oneswould work and then he drove
back about six, seven hourslater, after my concert was done
, and at about 11 o'clock atnight he brought me my custom

(01:25:14):
Adidas shell top skates Nice.
And so then I was getting allthose and those kind of became
my everything for a little bit,and then I got tired of swapping
my wheels out, because once youget your setup right and you
like it and things are good, youdon't really want to mess with

(01:25:35):
it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
Well, every time I'll swap in between outdoor wheels,
indoor wheels, and thehardiness of wheels like I um
skate, with some shaved downharmonies sometimes which you
know are ceramic, but those arelike, um, sticks of butter on
your feet, right, you justreally fluid around the ring.

(01:26:00):
And then I tried to describe topeople the slider side, the
smaller wheels.
That's like jugs of oil on yourfeet, super fast, super slick,
um.
And then if you don't want that, if you want a little bit more
grip, then you go.
You know your 80s and your 70s,right, but anything above I say

(01:26:21):
a 90, you start getting hard,you're going to be cooking,
right, yeah?
So I really try to suggest tothat.
So that's ultimately what Iwould give advice for people.
One get your own skate Now.
Don't get me wrong.
If you don't have the fundsright now, you know you need to
put five bucks away a week untilyou have the funds.

(01:26:41):
There's nothing wrong withdoing rent-a-skates.
There's nothing wrong withbeing with the brownie foot for
a while.
If that's all you got, that'sfine.
But I definitely wouldrecommend get your own pair of
skates because it really shouldbe an extension of you.
Yep, so yeah, no, really shouldbe an extension of you.

(01:27:05):
Yep, so yeah, no, I got man,you know, I just, I just wish I
didn't, I didn't hesitate.
You know, sometimes we needsome things in life to give us
that little push, that littlemotivation to help you not doubt
or have the belief in yourselfthat you should have yep just
wish I would have done this alittle bit sooner, you know, not

(01:27:27):
at age 50, because I tell youwhat?
trying to learn instagram,trying to learn clickbooks,
trying to learn videography,photography, lighthouse, movie
making stuff I'm literallylearning a bunch of stuff all at
once and a lot Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
So now how can my listeners follow you?

Speaker 3 (01:27:54):
So you guys can actually follow me on Instagram
at skate hooligan 75.
I'm in the process right now.
I was literally doing thatbefore your podcast but I'm in
the process right now creating ayoutube page where I will be
making movies and reels of theskate parties that I have been

(01:28:18):
fortunate enough and in beingfortunate enough to capture.
Um, if you would like me, um tocome to a skating event or just
a function to photographer orvideographer um, you can hit me
up at pivot videographer um, youcan hit me up at pivot,

(01:28:45):
wwwpivotskatecom or aaron atpivotskatecom and let's talk.
I would love to come helpcapture and and time capsule.
Uh, your, your wonderful skateweekend or birthday party.
I'll come film a birthday partythat'm not against that, but
that's essentially how you cankind of see us.
Or also at Northwest Rink.
Skaters is another Instagrampage that I'm a proud member and

(01:29:11):
happy to be welcomed into.
They help share a lot of myfootage that I am able to
capture um amongst the skatecommunity and they're just like
me.
We're just here to help peoplehold on and share the great
memories that they build and get.
So you know we don't charge forour services.

(01:29:33):
You know we come out, we, we dowhat we do and then we just
share a Dropbox folder and thenyou get to go through and you
know, oh, wow, that's my homie,that's my friend.
Oh, I didn't know, they got thattoo.
That's cool, you know, and sothey're able to get that.
And all we ask is for a simpletag or collaboration when they

(01:29:55):
share whatever we captured.
And you know, that just helpsthem grow, because we got a
pretty big audience and it'llhelp us grow.
You know, because ultimately,the goal is to grow the
community and to keep theculture alive, yep, so you know,

(01:30:17):
it is alive.
It's alive and booming and youknow, I'm happy to to be on the
wave now, um, I'm excited to seewhere it goes.
I'm excited to see, you know,so much young skaters out there
now, you know that that arecoming up.
You know, um, I'm definitelywould love to see the skate

(01:30:41):
mates go away.
I feel the skate mates are areal hindrance to to some skate
development.
In my personal opinion, youknow, I feel it develops bad
posture.
You know, because if you watchanybody on a skate meet, what
are they doing?
They're leaning over.
Yeah, right, and is that theposture we should have when

(01:31:02):
we're skating?
Nope, you know.
Do they learn to bend theirknees?
No, why?
Well, because they'restiff-legged and they're trying
to walk, but it's not calledwalk of skating, is it?
Nope, no, it's called rollerskating.
So you know.
So I think you know, that's onething like, one thing I won't
have at my rink, I won't doskate mates because, again, like

(01:31:25):
I say, I feel it's a hindrance,not a helper.
It gives a false sense ofsecurity.
So that's just like I said,just that's my personal belief.
But I know there's folks outthere that just love them and
can't live without them, evenadults you know, they're like oh
I don't know.
I need a skate mate.

(01:31:46):
And it's like well, you knowyou're gonna be at the same spot
, you're gonna be come next yearif you don't get rid of the
skate mate.
You know, well, why can't I getmy balance figured out?
Well, because your body's threequarters of the way leaned over
.
Well there's no way you're gonnaget balance if half your body's
hunched over, yep so.

(01:32:07):
But you know, ultimately, youknow that that's the goal.
But in the meantime, you know,catch me at one of your local
skate parties.
Um, on my list, like I said,I'm trying to make Houston
Roundup rollout here in threeweeks.
Don't know if I'm going to beable to make that.
The next one I'm trying to makeis the Atlanta one in April.

(01:32:29):
But if I can't make those twowork, just because flights right
, yeah, the one I'm definitely,definitely, definitely going to
and flights already gotten foris borderline two in new york.
Um, that's in may and it'susually at the end of may or
beginning of may.

(01:32:49):
Uh, it's like the first weekendin may usually.
Oh, that's why I call one of myspeakers.
I got it right here.
Borderline 3, may 7th and 11th2025.
Dj Dream, dj Tech Tricks, djTone Capoe, dj Prototype, dj

(01:33:21):
Wildchild, dj New Era, dj Swizzyand DJ Koolin and DJ Money Mike
are going to be your ear candygivers and, like I said,
wednesday May 7th through SundayMay 11th in Tawanda, new York,
is where I'll be capturing allthe fun and then in June and
I'll get this information to youvia Instagram I'll be in

(01:33:41):
Colorado June 21st for a skatecompetition that's going down.
And then in July, the weekendof July 25th, skate City Radio
DJ ENT is hosting their firstannual skate party.
So I will be going and anofficial videographer for that

(01:34:06):
event.
So that's the last weekend inJuly.
Then I will be in Atlanta atthe end of August for their big
skate party in August, memorialWeekend Also.
That weekend, if you cannot getto Atlanta, showdown in Seatown

(01:34:31):
here in Seattle is another greatskate party to get to.
That happens Labor Day weekendas well.
A lot of great people fly infor that.
And then that's our bigseafarer weekend.
So the day party is at a coolcommunity center and from there

(01:34:52):
you get to watch the hydroplaneraces and the Blue Angels do
their show.
Literally they fly right overthe community center a couple
times.
So you get to see somephenomenal fighter jet
maneuverability.
Literally you can almost liketouch them with your hands to
get that close.
So that's another great weekend.

(01:35:15):
And then there's one inSeptember Rose City in Portland.
I'll be at that skate party andthen in November I'll be at
Cali Slides.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:35:31):
So that's my skate parties for this year, and then
I always hope to add a new oneyear, and then I always hope to
add a new one.
So if there's a party that youthink would be fun or think I
would actually really enjoy,don't be afraid to hit me up and
let me know, because if I canmake it work, I'm gonna I just
told the wife I might thinkabout just going into an rv and

(01:35:54):
then just drive to all theseskate parties, you know, chase
them down one after the otherand and just do a mobile uh
videography podcast on the roadand just try to maybe make it
work that way.
Yep, you know cause?
Uh, yeah, I just looked upflies for Houston man and uh,
yeah, even just a basic classman, they're trying to get 700

(01:36:20):
bucks yeah, you can't trust theairlines no, you know, then I
got introduced to skip lagging,but it's like you can't have a
checked bag.
Yeah I was like well that's notgonna work, okay.
So what's my next option?
Oh well, you can do this, okay.
Well, I tried, I tried.
Looking at that, I'm like yeah,no, that's like two layovers.

(01:36:40):
No, I'm done with layovers.
I just had a bad layoverexperience with American
Airlines.
I'm not doing that, no more.
We're direct flighting it now.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
Yeah, well, I appreciate you coming on today
and taking time out of your day.
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
It's kind of the end of my day.
Thank you, thank you.

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