8’s

One of the greatest privileges in our human existence is that we are able to have hobbies, and a multitude of them. Hobbies are simply the pastimes or leisure activities that grant us a sense of solace away from the constant business we have with and towards our families, careers, and society at large. Some people like to bowl for the sake of friendly competition. Some people like to create art for the sake of pure expression. Some people’s hobbies involve a great deal of mental focus and sometimes silence like yoga and meditation. The list goes on. Sometimes, in our rightful paths to our purpose and life aspirations, hobbies can become the work we provide to society like being a pro bowler, a fine artist, or a prominent Yogi. It’s not rare at all. In fact, my life pursuit is to combine my knowledge and efforts in business with my childhood epiphany to becoming a fine artist. But what gives me joy from being away from the studio and conducting business with other individuals, is immersing myself in a roller rink.

Roller skating.

Quite frankly the greatest pastime of all pastimes if you ask me. Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the feeling of walking into a neon wonderland, where the floor glistens with the shine of brand new car, the music blasting loudly and the people, though appearing to be moving in unison around and around and around, are truly grooving to their own beat, direction and interpretation of rhythm and tempo. To this day, I feel at home every time I walk into the doors of any skating rink honestly. They feel like safe havens meant for you to move past the problems of life or to move forward into a new view of yourself. So lace up or fasten your skates with me as I share a glimpse of my experiences as a roller skater

EDIT: My story actually doesn’t start on 8’s, it started on 6’s

My roller skating journey started at my 6th birthday party, February 2000, at this forgotten Metro Atlanta treasure called Billy Bob’s. It was indubitably more fun than say Chuck-E Cheese’s or Dave & Busters. Bowling lanes, a giant play pin to traverse, a massive arcade, food and a skating rink. It was a kids' perfect playground and to my memory, my 6th birthday party was amazing until I put on the eights. I remember not being able to go forward, and constantly teetering over and falling to the ground with each attempt. To see other children move (at least forward, not necessarily well) created jealousy in me and I became a brat at that point, removing the skates at the very place I stayed for 10’s of minutes trying to move forward. For me it was totally embarrassing on my birthday, and I didn’t return to the skates.

A couple years go by, and I saw a commercial for some inline skates that were really popular. In fact, it’s the early 2000’s. Inlines were really popular, period. That’s when it dawned to me that maybe I wasn’t on skates that were meant for me (for the most part all rental skates are bad). I remember my mom not being able to afford many things but she once skated at the age I was in, and made sure I had those skates. She also is and continues to be the person that tells me “do not give up on things you can see great results for your mind and heart”. This new will would become my favorite thing to do. At this point in time, it’s 2002 and I’m in the 3rd grade. My mom was a part of the Parent Teacher Association at my elementary school, and high ranking within it. Within that year, PTA nights would be hosted at the local rink, All American Skate in Stone Mountain, GA. It is the largest skate floor in Georgia, maybe even the south and with the combination of that and the new skates my mother purchased for me through her hard work created a super determined and self sufficient boy. I would make sure I was on top of my studies and choring to just go skate. To mention, I was a very well rounded kid. I played many sports, started writing and making art, and always loved riding my bike. These things didn’t make me feel like skating did. It was the thing where I began to excel in skill. I became a local star at my school! From the first PTA night to the very last in my 5th grade year (except for maybe the few times I was sick or away from home), I showed up to every PTA night and won almost every competition that they had for the kids to skate, consistently. It was through those formative years of inline skating that I developed my own self confidence.

When I made it to middle school, alongside most of the kids at my elementary school, I was known as the boy who could do many tricks. See for where I come from, roller skating isn’t just a hobby, it really developed its own culture and history of great importance. I began to become aware further in 2005.

This was the year, roller skating made its return to big screens in fanciful forms. Roll Bounce, starring Bow Wow, Lauren London, Wesley Anderson and more came out. This movie provided a fictional reality to Chicago in the late 70’s, which has a reputation around the country as the birthplace of James Brown style skating, a sort of rhythmic and groovy style derived by the fluidity Mr. Brown gave on stage to the tempo of the music. The movie's main characters would inspire people to skate more, but it was really the supporting cast that I delved into like Sweetness’ Sweetwater Rollers led by Tony Zane (Of Breaksk8) or the stunt double for Bow Wow, roller skate legend and Godfather, Mike Johnson. I paid a great deal of attention to those skaters specifically as they would incite me to become madly focused on the different styles from around the nation. But another in particular prompted an insane surge of inspiration. ATL, the movie, starring rapper and music icon, T.I., actress Lauren London, and 1/2 of Outkast, the antagonist of the film, Big Boi changed the city forever. For the first time, I saw the city of Atlanta represented in a way that I could relate to in some ways. From the slang, the music, the scenes of skating at Cascade, Atlanta’s most famous rink and arguably a Southern Landmark, to the overall depiction of my people, I was inspired.. to let go of the 6’s and get back on the 8’s. . Believe me, when I first tried to get back on them, I failed just as miserably as I did on my 6th birthday, but now I’m in my teen years and the angst to overcome and win was just too great to let myself falter again, mainly because I already started skating on inlines, and was the best at it. I saved up some chore money (and occasional adolescent bribes) for about 4 months, gratefully asked my mom for the other half, and purchased a pair of Sure Grip Carreras, the roller skate that made ATL skate culture. They were $150 well spent indeed as I, like those PTA meetings, began to be a face at All American every weekend. My control and ability to learn viscerally and visually caught the eyes of staff and adults that worked and attended there. One of those adults happened to be Kyle Dutcher (@push1515), an Atlanta skate legend and an actual actor from the movie ATL. His silky smooth style, control and rhythm caught my attention. Along with his amazing set of skates; Riedell 811 with the now defunct skate brand, Labeda Prolines. He drove me to dive further into the stylistics of roller skating all around.

Later that year and into next, reality outside of the rink would set in.

As mentioned, I lived and schooled primarily in the city of Stone Mountain, GA. For those who may not know about the location and history of Stone Mountain, it is a suburban city situated east of Atlanta and for even greater clarity, is not East Atlanta. It was founded in 1822, and has a quite repressive history centered around the monadnock that gives the city its name. It was once a major slave holding ground and later in time the second HQ for the Ku Klux Klan. 100’s of years later it has become a predominantly Black city that definitely relegates any stereotype people have on “suburban living”. For the most part, around the time of 2005-2007, crime, poverty and unfair political aspects made Stone Mountain kind of crappy. Influx of Section 8 homes and the displacement of people from Hurricane Katrina accidentally invited a new wave of negativity, and it was seen in some of the kids around me. This was also the time where I was being introduced to the” lock ins”, a skate event where parties happen after the skate session ends. Some people genuinely skate and some people seemingly loiter, waiting to cause trouble with boys and girls alike. I could always identify certain groups' intentions by their will to skate at skating rinks. Or so I thought..

I once knew a dude and his three brothers, who ended up growing to live lives of crime. They were very covert in their relations to me. I skated and they skated too. I would begin to hang around these guys more because of the commonality. I thought they were my boys, but this would be my first real life lesson on trust and friendship. One day in the summer of 2007, I received a phone call from my mother frantically. I was absolutely on my feet and returning the same frantic nature to her as I asked “what’s wrong mommy”? She had told me to come home because it was broken into and robbed of most of my favorite belongings, including shoes, video game systems, and cool clothes. They stole some of her jewelry and her laptop. One house out of an entire neighborhood, robbed. I felt naked and exposed. I cried with my mom, for 30 minutes after the police, with lackadaisical efforts, came to process the damage. Break ins and armed robbery were becoming common around this time, but I had a feeling who it was that did this to us. This single event altered my intuition for life and distorted my trust. An hour later, my aunt and cousin came over to give my mother and I warmth, and a feeling that we weren’t alone. Maybe 15 minutes last and I remember my aunt telling my mother she’d take me off her hands and let her handle business with the family members that were also coming to check in on us. I, still in a slightly cathartic state, was shaken by my cousin who with good fervor cheered me up and let me know the plan. “We are going skating!” He exclaimed. I felt like I lost everything, and I had a right to, but when I looked in the hall closet there were the most important items I owned. My skates. When my cousin and I got to the rink, I skated so hard I forgot that I was robbed of my belongings and for a moment, didn’t have to feel the pain of intrusion. That skate session was the single most important session after the fact of being on the eights. It let me know that this hobby wasn’t to remain just my fun, but my therapy for $7.

Time progressed and so did my skills and focus to the sport. The following year, I took an interest in Jam skating and that would last for around 6 years. I picked up a pair of Vanilla Freestyles 1st edition, thanks to watching America’s Best Dance Crew’s Breaksk8 at the time. Ironically composed of Tony Zane, Diamond Walker, Michael Lehrke and a few others, I saw a contemporary approach to skating. Dancing.. breakdancing and combining the technicalities of the skates itself. It also became the intrigue for many teenagers around, and it was always great to see other black kids get into it. I was having a lot of fun, I worked hard and I travelled to other rinks to skate. Within this period, I networked and learned from a multitude of skaters from neighboring states, to the west, up north and in the middle of the land with Breaksk8 being founded in Kokomo, IN. Eventually I got good enough to keep up with the likes of elite skaters. It took 7 years of Jam Skating to realize I wasn’t that good of a jam skater after all. I didn’t get sponsored or signed to major teams, and it created a lack of gratitude for the local teams I represented. It was then where I looked at it as work and competition, and no longer the therapy and fun I once had. It was work that wasn’t working. I continued nonetheless on a less competitive note and then one day my skate boot ripped and it was game over for skating for a while.

Until..

I went and bought some Chicago high tops in 2013 for 50 bucks. At this point, I was a broke college kid so trying to get a new pair of Jam Skates seemed futile. It was also the first time I put on skates I had ownership over in awhile. This brought me massive joy although these skates were just as trash, if not more trash than rental skates (cheap skates = cheap skater). It was a struggle to roll without any resistance but I would eventually just adapt to them. At this point, I’m still one of the best skaters locally but I knew I was going to need better hardware to shine spiritually and kinesthetically. In the late Fall of 2013, my good friend at the time, Fred Masters would offer to sell me his set of EDEA Fly’s. This specific set of skates are the highest quality you can get on the market to this day and it was just my luck that we had the same foot size in Italian. He offered to sell me these skates for $400 (the entire set including bearings and wheels is valued at around $1200). I really had no idea how I’d pay for them but I figured it out within a month of two. Skating or even getting skates made me more determined than anything in life as you can tell because I ended up getting these skates and the rest was history.

December 2013, my friend Sam Cleveland, who I’ve skated with since I was a teen asked me if I wanted to come out to Skate Zone for a skate party. This skate party wasn’t an ordinary party. It was a party for an elder and unsung legend to the black community. I had no idea whose party it was and quite frankly, had never been to an adult skate party. At the time my face card was the only thing saving me from being rejected at the door due to my age. The atmosphere of this party set the tone for what sort of skating I’d do to this very day. The music, filled with old soul jams and a variety of genres keeping it grown and sexy. Skate Zone’s floor, although the antonym of sexy, is filled with exceptionally talented skaters skating in a way I’ve never seen. This wasn’t jam skating, but this was jammin’. This party was packed to full capacity, with the marshal actually unfazed by the immense crowd (he showed up and turned out to be an off duty relative to the man we showed up for). This man is Roller Dance’s Godfather, Mr. Bill Butler. The legendary man who in 1978 invented Rollerdance at Empire Rollerdome in Crown Heights, NY, in which, Jam skating is derived. He was turning 80 something that year and to see him roll with just as much grace and control as a 20 something year old puzzled me but also gave me a new will you never give up on anything. About two hours into the session I got an opportunity to speak with the legendary man, and wish him a happy birthday. To my surprise, the man wasn’t even that caring of his birthday. Moreso caring of my philosophy on skating and life. We would talk for little over 5 minutes, and from my memory an inquiry I’ll never forget from him was “do you like to go fast?”. I replied with a quickness and lack of nervousness, “sometimes”. His words, in verbatim, will forever stick with me as he patiently expressed to me, “That’s okay. As long as you slow down more often than not, and enjoy your own presence. Sometimes when we go too fast (on the skate floor) we lose control, we lose rhythm, and definitely the stamina to be consistent. In life try to go at a pace that fits how you would envision yourself on the 8’s.” With that being said, I would keep Mr. Butler's words in mind and proceed to develop my style to primarily a New York style, but all and all with my now 20+ years of skating, a FREE style.

So what does it mean to be a roller skater you may ask? Being a roller skater is like being an atom. There is a mass of energy, and it is formed with protons and neutrons that keep it aligned. The amazing thing about atoms is that once they bond they have a limitless ability to create something new from the smallest unit of energy. The want and will to express my joys and sorrows through the 8’s has kept me alive, out of trouble, and given me a certain level of discipline that I may not have been able to attain in my career as a fine artist, a traditional athlete, or a scholar of any sorts. The philosophy I carry back and forth from rink floor to life stage and back to the rink floor keeps me grounded, inspired, moving, healthy and so much more. The culture and history of roller skating divulged by the many places in the United States keeps me connected to the interests of other people. I’ve been privileged to learn from legends in the skate world and have also been able to still find small successes in the skate world, like being put in a Nike ad, an HBO documentary, and countless social media posts displaying my talent and spreading my name. Quite frankly, roller skating has given me more benefits than anything in life. It saved my life, all for under $10 every walk through. I look back at that young 6 year old who couldn’t. I look back at that teen who knew he had to grow up fast and protect himself. I look back at the moments I’ve shared with my OG’s and fellow skaters, who share a special love for this pastime like me.

To be a roller skater, is to be a man or woman who can move forward even if you have to look backwards. To be a roller skater, is to be a spirit who moves to their own beat with the slick of the wheels and the gloss and glide of the floor. To be a roller skater, is to be free!