Catching Up With Ramelle Knight

Adonis Taylor: Yo what’s up man? How you been?

Ramelle Knight: Been good, just working on healing this knee.

Yeah I see. I’m hearing all about this knee but I’ve got no idea what happened

. Fill us in…
Yea man…

Here’s what happened…

Mid August a 95 year-old (Yes 95 years-old, lol) lady T-Boned into my girlfriends car hitting the passenger side in which my knee became sore. I went to a knee specialist and had some MRIs done of my knee finding out that I tore my meniscus. Right after finding that out my doctor did surgery to repair my meniscus as well as some other cartilage tearing.

Yikes. I forget that we have misfortunes outside of blading but I’m kind of happy to hear it wasn’t through blading. 
Didn’t you have a previous knee injury from blading circa the Know Difference / |B| Unique days?
Well I’ve had a couple bangs and bruises at that time but nothing that needed any surgery.

Okay, How soon can we expect to see you back on a pair of blades? And what have you been doing in the downtime?
Right now I’m working with a great physical therapist to get me back to 100%. In another 4 weeks I should have full range of motion so I’ll say in about 8 weeks or so I should be fully back up and running again. 8 more weeks on Therapy and 4 after that of me just working out and building muscle back.

Oh that sounds like a quick recovery process. I guess I’m not too familiar with the meniscus. For those of us that don’t know, what exactly does the meniscus do

?
The meniscus is basically a cartilage disk that acts as a cushion between the ends of bones that meet in a joint.

Okay I can visualize that better now which actually sounds like it won’t be the same after tearing it. Once your range of motion is back do you anticipate losing any tricks or being partially limited on a certain side?

I hope that I’m not partially limited. My doctor says once fully healed and strengthened properly I should be able to do whatever I was able to before the surgery. I know with my own mental fears I will be limited at the beginning but as time goes on I think I’ll be back to normal.

I’m relieved to hear that this injury is not as severe as assumed and I hope you can make a full re-introduction.
I hope so too bruh.

Before I go any further… I’d like to personally thank you for this opportunity and for giving us all a chance to get to know what’s going on in your life.
You’re quite welcome Adonis and thank you as well for taking the time out to chop it up with me.

Interview: Adonis Taylor. Photo: Ryan Loewy.
Source: http://rollerbladearchitect.tumblr.com/

Ryan Loewy Interview

Ryan Loewy has been a great contributor to I Roll NY and throughout the years has expanded his photography coverage to most of rollerblading’s most popular websites. Not one to shy away from openly addressing controversial topics, I not only wanted to give a look into Ryan’s photography work, but also take a look into his thoughts on the current status of rollerblading and the way it is portrayed within the rollerblading media. View the mobile version here.

Brooklyn Banks History via Blading Info

Brian Shima – Fishbrain stall. Photo: Drew Amato

“The Brooklyn Banks in New York is one of the most famous spots in the world of extreme sports. Already in the mid 90’s the first generation jumped the stairs and worked on their first grinds. Over the years the spot, which is in front of a huge police station, became a legal street spot and some of the biggest real street events in blading, skateboarding and BMX took place at the banks.

But today the spot is un-skatable since its giving construction crews a staging area for trucks and equipment until 2014 during a four-year renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge. We spoke to some of the NY locals to find out how they feel about the situation…” – Blading.info.” Full articles at Blading.info.

Austin Paz about the Brooklyn Banks What does this spot mean to you?
This is one of the few spots I’ve seen people skating since before i started in the mid-90s. Every time I see or think of the banks, I see history. The Brooklyn Banks is the Madison Square Garden of skating. If you go to MSG, all over the place you can see huge pictures, portraits, and plaques of historical moments in sports that have happened in that arena throughout its existence, I always felt you could do the same thing at the banks.

Here’s Angelo Ferrer (The Art of Rolling) about the Brooklyn Banks. Best memories from the Banks?

One of my personal favorite moments at the Brooklyn Banks occurred when I was young and there was a huge NISS skate competition at south street seaport. I was very young at the time and was lucky to be unsupervised by my parent and joined the mob of skaters that flocked the Brooklyn Banks.
I remember at the time there being skaters from all over the world there. It was my grommet period in skating and I adored how all the pros I looked up to happen to be in one spot at the same time. For whatever reason the Brooklyn banks session stood out more to me than the competition that took place shortly before because everyone was putting in so much energy. It was great to see what normally I would only see on television take place right before my eyes.

Brooklyn Banks Present day. Photo: Ryan Loewy

Would you say it had an influence on your development as a rollerblader? (Franco Cammayo)
I think so. Provided the rugged layout, dirty unforgiving floors and raw obstacles in a place where it was easy to meet bladers from all over the five boroughs I think it embodied NY blading in a nutshell and it shaped my blading in terms of working with what the spot has, making old things into something new, creativity etc.

Would you say it had an influence on your development as a rollerblader? (I Roll NY)
The Brooklyn Banks definitely had an influence on my development as a rollerblader and I think it influenced almost everyone that was lucky enough to skate it. The Banks was one of the premiere spots in New York City to try out new tricks and perfect the ones you already had in your vocabulary. Not to mention it was the spot where all of the big tricks went down during most of NYC’s biggest competitions. The down rail was the perfect setup to get people juiced to try new tricks and when the bigger stair rails were put in, it was time to step it up and see what you could really do. The Brooklyn Banks was about 4-5 different spots all in one location and I think it helped a lot of bladers with their tricks and influenced them to try new ones.

Read the full articles here and here.

Source: http://blading.info

The Five W’s with Craig Benabu SUAS Interview

Read the full interview on ShutUpAndSk8. “Craig Benabu’s 5W’s is a great read and I hope that it lights a fire under NYC’s collective asses. I sent over my questions and he provided me with thorough answers making this my favorite 5W’s thus far. Thank you Craig for being honest and telling it like it is” – SUAS.

With all of the new amazing talent that is brewing in every borough WHO do you see as the young leaders of the future of NYC blading?

No doubt there is a ton of talent in NYC, but as for leaders? Unfortunately, I really don’t see anyone stepping up to the plate and trying to do something more for our scene than just trying to make a name for themselves and the small group of friends they skate with. A leader to me is someone who is trying to expose our local scene and talent as a whole. A leader is someone who shows love to everyone, not just a select few. Our scene lacks unity. There was a short period of time where most, if not all, of the rollerblading media heads were working together or at least working under the same umbrella, and honestly that was when NYC was blowing up again within the blade media. I’d say this was around 2009 up until late 2010, where most decided that they would be better off on their own focusing on stamping their name on everything and only working within their own website or crew.

Now look where NYC is at. There’s no coverage on our scene on any non local blade media site, or in any magazines or videos, and the people that branched out are barely putting out any new media. We’re back to being one of the biggest but least exposed scenes within this small community and honestly it’s our fault. Everyone’s too concerned with just building their name up instead of building up NYC as a whole.

After all these years HOW do you keep up with providing new content daily to I ROLL NY?

Well this year I’ve made some changes. I stopped mindlessly posting content and media from anyone and everyone. After about five years of showing love to just about anyone, I started to ask myself who were the people that were showing love back? Who were the people that I helped come up in this industry that still continue to help the site out? And unfortunately the list was and still is very small. With mostly everyone only looking out for themselves these days, I decided that it’s not fair to our scene as a whole to share content from people who’s only focus was to build their name up. As I said before, I recently updated my equipment so now I have the chance to create content that brings the site’s focus back on the NYC scene as a whole myself. Full Interview.

Source: http://shutupandsk8.wordpress.com/

Jon Ortiz “Where Are They Now?” WheelScene Interview

Photo: Jeremy Stephenson.

“New York City has been a hub for street skating since the birth of the sport and early videos like The Hoax showed the strong scene that existed there from the very beginning. Jon Ortiz knows about the city’s proud blading history more than most people. Alongside the first generation of street skaters that included Rawlinson Rivera, Ryan Jacklone, Joe Dedentro and the Dave Ortega, Ortiz helped establish the city’s legacy and paved the way for future icons of the spots like Mike “Murda” Johnson and Billy O’Neill.

During the rapid rise in rollerblading’s popularity in the early nineties, Ortiz competed regularly at the NISS and ASA events that received a lot of television coverage at the time and he could be seen in the majority of skate videos that were being released with rapid succession. He was also one of the first skaters to receive a pro wheel from the Medium, the notorious wheel company owned by Shane Coburn before he went on to found Mindgame.

Despite the fact that Ortiz has been rollerblading for over two decades, he is still skating hard and can be seen in many of Denial’s recent edits. He is one of the few professionals from that era that remain involved in the industry and he has managed to carve a career for himself out of the sport by organising rollerblading lessons in his home city and judging major blading events including The Bittercold Showdown and WRS Finals. There are only a handful of personalities that have witnessed the birth of street skating and stuck around to see it develop into its current state, so we decided to gain a little wisdom from one of the original New York icons” – WheelScene. Full Interview on WheelScene.

Source: http://wheelscene.co.uk

Malik Ashby SUAS Interview

“Malik Ashby is a progressive blader. I say that because every time you skate with him he laces something new each time. He starts off each session shaking hands and smiling but shortly after once the iPod play button is pressed he quietly goes through the motions of his expanding and stylish trick vocabulary. Malik spreads the word about USD everywhere he goes as well which is necessary while representing one of the biggest companies in rollerblading. Even though it seems he is constantly being criticized he keeps a level head and keeps on blading as part of the future of the growing NYC scene” – SUAS. Read the full interview on ShutUpAndSkate.

SUAS: You just dropped a fresh new edit right in time for the holiday season and you have clips in pretty much every edit coming out of NYC. What are you building towards with all the work that you are putting in with the blades?
MA: I started roll’n for fun and I’m still just doing this to have fun basically.

SUAS: How do you feel about the current resurgence of the NYC blading scene?
MA: I just love that there is mad f#^&ing new bladers because every park you roll in NYC there’s always someone to teach or learn from.

SUAS: Where do you see rollerblading 10 years from now?
MA: With all the advance technology Powerslide is creating, I see rollerbooting becoming more of an everyday lifestyle for people who don’t even roll now.

Company Profile: Roc City Skates via Be-Mag

“Blading needs more shops. When’s the last time you tried on a pair of skates at an actual skate shop? Yes, not many have the opportunity to pick up their goods like that. But it isn’t only a matter of over-the-counter experience that may (or may not) include professional advice on what to get; local shops literally “make” scenes. This is only one of the topics that are discussed in this Company Profile with Roc City Skates out of Rochester, NY. Others being dedication and love for the sport, entrepreneurship, permits and a certain unnamed jerk. Read on” – Be-Mag. Read the full interview on Be-Mag.

So, let’s get some background, who are you guys and what the hell are you doing?

Grant: Ha, well, we’re Roc City Skates. RCS is myself, Nate Hall and Emery Kapral. We’ve all been in the blade scene forever, well not really forever, but anything that you started at 13 years old seems like forever. So, collectively we’ve got like 40 years in, haha. We’re at 181 Monroe Ave right outside downtown Rochester, NY. The shop is all about community, we want to see our sport grow and that happens one scene at a time.

So you got your storefront situated, what happened next?

Grant: Next thing was ordering product, way harder than expected. Between actually getting in contact with distributors/companies and deciding what we were going to sell it was easy to get lost. We wanted everything but when you’re looking at multiple page order forms from multiple companies, everything in different sizes and colors you start to realize that there is a ton of product available for us in such a small sport and you have to make choices. It’s sick to know there’s a diversity of products available, and more keep popping up, too.

Nate: We’re also trying to stay as diverse as we can while catering to our local trends: Xsjadobladers and flat setups. Or at least we’re converting the masses, except Grant, he just defected to Karbunz again. I’m definitely forgetting some stuff. Anything else, bloodsport?

Grant: Hmmm, yea, there were lots of permits, permits are the best. We have a wonderful neighbor who had some concerns about what we were doing with our shop, well instead of talking to us he decided to ask the city. And guess where that went! In all fairness we didn’t know exactly what we were doing but thought we were on track and doing good, haha. So we had some issues with the city, had to file for a couple more permits, spend some more money and here we are… all set up. We are in the Center City District, which means more regulations than other parts of the city, certain requirements for storefronts and such. I guess there is a certain image that the city wants to preserve. It has been a huge learning experience, which has been amazing, tiring and stressful but worth it.

Source: http://be-mag.com

The Five W’s with Jordan Baez via SUAS

Jordan Baez – Fishbrain. Photo: Ryan Loewy

“Jordan Baez is a talented young blader who is quickly establishing a name for himself. He is part of the foundation for a solid future in the NYC blading scene. Not only does he kill everything he blades, Jordan also puts together competitions to help grow the NY/NJ scene. In this 5W’s profile he gives us a sneak peek of what he’s about” – SUAS. Read the entire interview on shutupandskate.

I look at you as one of the young up & coming talents that is the future of the NYC blading scene. WHO were some of your earliest influences when you first decided to strap on the blades?
JB: My earliest influences were my boy Suki Davilla and Matt. One of my main influences was and still is dave lang! As for Pros, it was Murda, Julian Bah & Billy O’ Neill.

You make me wish that I could grow my hair back so I can have hair like yours. WHAT kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use to keep your fro so light and fluffy?
JB: Haha, to keep my fro so fluffy I wash my hair with Dove shampoo.

Putting together a rollerblading contest is a lot of work, WHEN did you decide that you wanted to wet your feet in the blading industry by running your own competition series?
JB: It wasn’t me by myself. My cousin Jason Rivera and I wanted to help out the NY/NJ scene by doing little comps to get new kids into blading and into other areas besides the same ones kids blade nowadays. The last turn out was pretty good, I got interviewed by a New Jersey mag and alot of people came and showed love!

Justin Brasco WheelScene Interview

“If you are reading this and wondering why you have never heard of Justin Brasco, fear not. The New York blader rarely appears in online edits and if you blinked while watching either of The Truth videos by Austin Paz and the Kelso brothers, you probably missed him. Brasco is the muscular guy that appears in the montage sections and lands some bloody hard tricks. This is not particularly surprising, as there are talented new skaters popping up all the time that show a lot of promise. It’s the fact that he skates the same obstacles as the profiled skaters and manages to land much better tricks, which indicates that we may have witnessed another east coast legend in the making without realising it” – Wheel Scene. Read the full interview here.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?
Justin Brasco: I’m 27, which is the new 21, and I feel better than I did at 16. I’ve been skating for about 13-14 years – almost half of my life. I skate for USD, Undercover and Casualty. I’m living in Massapequa with some friends. It’s an hour outside of Manhattan, in the suburbs, with a tight skate scene and it’s close to the beach. I can’t complain.

How did you get into rollerblading?
Back when I first started, around ‘97, I was living in Brooklyn and, unlike Long Island, it was real big and very diverse. There were tonnes of kids doing all different things. My neighbours were a lot older and skateboarded all day, smoked pot and listened to Rage against the Machine. They had girls that would just sit back and stare while they attempted kickflips for hours. At the time, I was a 4ft loner and idolised them. Skateboarding wasn’t my thing, so my parents bought me some cheesy recreational blades from the store. I rolled around a bunch, jumping chairs and garbage cans in my backyard, until I felt comfortable to hit the street with my boys. I had friends from all over Brooklyn that skated. They were killing it and made me want to start so bad. I tossed my skates and went out and got some Rollerblade Chocolates, and from there I couldn’t stop.

I have seen a few clips of you in //The Truth// videos but other than that there hasn’t been much footage of you floating around. Where have you been hiding?
For awhile, I fell off. I was stressing about my future, girlfriends, school and life in general. I put skating aside, and when I skated it didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t fun anymore. Luckily, life started to fall into place a little better and I realised I can’t take life too seriously. I got back out there and started skating a lot more. I began skating a lot to film for The Truth DVDs. While doing this, I saw Fish (Billy O’Neill), (Austin) Paz, the Kelsos and everyone just going all out and killing it. They were so determined and loved skating. It made me realise I needed to focus more and give skating my all because I love it so much.

Source: http://www.wheelscene.co.uk

Austin Paz WheelScene Interview

“It seems as though Austin Paz has been putting out video sections forever. He has had timeless parts in The Truth video series, which he created with the help of the Kelso brothers, as well as various appearances in the Valo team videos. It’s crazy to think that his first Eulogy edit was only four years ago. The Staten Island native has since received numerous pro wheels from Eulogy, yet mysteriously still resides on the amateur team for Create Originals and Valo. Paz recently relocated to Arizona, so we decided to catch up with him and find out how his love for blading began” – WheelScene. Read the full interview on the WheelScene website.

First blades: My first skates ever that I can remember were those Fisher-Price plastic skates where the wheels move from roller skates to inline skates. From there I had two other pairs of recreational skates. I don’t really remember the brand but I tore through them and finally moved on to my first pair of aggressive skates, which were Rollerblade Menaces. They were a size three US.

First skate video: My brother was the one who got me into skating and the first video I remember him coming home with was VG5, I didn’t even know there were skate videos or anything like that at the time. My VCR ate my VG5 a few years ago – R.I.P.

First skater you looked up to: I never thought about this before but after I think about it, I remember seeing the best skaters in my home town of Staten Island and remember saying to myself that I wanted to be that good one day. I think the first time I ever noticed how good they really were was when I was skating a handicap rail on my block and a few of them were walking by saying stuff like, “Oh, cool man skating yeah!” and they were jumping and transferring the rails on their sneakers. By that point I couldn’t even picture doing that on shoes, let alone my skates. I remember practicing misty flips on my parent’s bed that night after seeing them, ha! As an individual though, I might have to say Angel Soto was a major influence on a lot of Staten Island skaters in the late ‘90s, but I kind of also looked up to his younger brother Jon because he was really young like me but also killed it way harder than anyone his age at the time.

Source: http://www.wheelscene.co.uk