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.

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

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

AOR Flatline Skateshop Audio Interview

Check out some of the raw audio from Art of Rolling’s past interview with the Bronx, NY based Flatline skateshop.

Josh Marlinksi Edit + Interview

“Meeting and skating with Josh in Buffalo is one of the main reasons why I will be visiting every year hopefully for the rest of my life. His skating is soooooo sick i aspire to be able to skate just like him or close to say the least. This guy can do Fishbrains like no other, I’m proud to say I have learned how because of him” – Gregory Preston. See the full interview here.

How long have you been murdering spots on blades?
Well I started skating at the age of fourteen pretty religiously until I was about 18, Fell back in love around twenty one. Been murdering spots for about the past 3 year’s maybe? But I don’t really murder spots, A few stabs here and there tho.

Inheriting your grand pa’s house, what crazy stuff did you find in there?
Oh, I don’t even know where to begin! Total craziness for sure! It was a VERY WILD treasure hunt to say the least.

How do you do perfect fishbrians every time?
Its funny that you mention that, I never use to do fishbrains. I get lucky I guess! You just have to want to do it.

Source: http://efficiencyiskey.wordpress.com

Franco Cammayo Edit + Interview

Sophie Planque: Can you make a short summary of your “rollerblade story” for everybody ?
I’ve been blading hard for over 17 years… through the blood, sweat and tears, I’ve loved every intense moment of it. I am just now, really getting started as far as “pursuing my professional career” since I have an awesome, fairly secure & lenient job and the wonders of the internet allowing me to study my Masters degree online wherever I go…Style is incredibly important to me at this phase of skating I am in… quality over quantity is a good way to look at it…

In few sentences, what is your vision of rollerblade?
Blading is the most badass thing out there to me. A fusion of family and friends, a worldwide social network in its own. A passionate challenge in life that can leave anyone fulfilled and proud of themselves and friends alike..It can be the biggest thing since Rice&SoySauce.. once all of the puzzle pieces come together and the public slowly re-opens their eyes to the evolution of Blading… See the full interview here.

Art of Rolling Interview via Latin Roller

How did the concept of Art of Rolling come about?
The concept of Art of Rolling began when we felt it was necessary to document the nyc skate scene by putting a bunch of history and a lot of current news all together and create a book that documents the past and current and future of the NYC skate scene. In order for us to begin though we felt it was necessary to practice before we made a book, so we created a magazine to practice layouts and the overall look on it. From there we felt it was a better idea to just stick with the magazine so we could be putting out news and what goes on from month to month and still be able to educate the readers about the past and have the freedom to do this from month to month to be as updated as possible.

What can you tell us about the New York skating community?
The community in New York is amazing, We have so many educated skaters that are talented in about every field of life, So we have skaters in the background of our scene making in stronger and we have skaters inside the picture doing huge stunts and taking advantage of the greatest city in the world. By having a place like NY you are able to connect with your fellow skaters really quick and its very rare that you skate by yourself out here unless you want to.

See all the photos and read the full interview here.

Checking in with Photographer Sam DeAngelis via Be-Mag

Franco Cammayo – Toe Makio. Photo: Sam DeAngelis.

HOW’S THE NYC SCENE THESE DAYS? WHAT DO YOU GUYS HAVE PLANNED FOR THE SUMMER OF 2010?
The New York City scene is bursting with talent and vital industry representatives. Art of Rolling owner Angelo Ferrer is working towards his first full print issue, which is just the beginning of a successful enterprise within the rollerblading industry. Skaters from all over New York and New Jersey have the opportunity to show off their talents within Ferrer’s picturesque magazine. iRollNY creator Craig Benabu is doing big things to get NYC blading to the masses. His website, iRollNY.com, is updated daily with the latest news in rolling along with updates on the hottest equipment and apparel. You can always expect the sickest street competitions coming out of New York City and this gives us just another reason to skate every weekend this summer. This includes the competition titled “Battle My Crew” which is back after a several yearlong hiatus. New York City native, Hyper Mike, owner of hypermikenyc.com, is doing big things trying to expose local skaters and give them the online time they deserve. David Toro has been working with an amazing media team he developed called ODNY. They use the latest in web degisn, photography, videography, and graphic design to bring you the future of rolling websites in NYC. Of course, you can’t forget that we have New York representative Billy O’Neill and his outstanding frame company Create Originals. They are currently working on big things for the New York City scene and you can expect to see a lot more of him and his company this summer! Lastly, you can’t forget the opening of Pier 62 Skate Park at Chelsea Piers, New York. The opening of this spot is exactly what we need to step New York City competition rollerblading to the next level. Along with Pier 62 there are several cement skate plazas being built throughout the five boroughs in NYC. NYC is where it’s at in 2010 but watch out for New Jersey too… BOOM!

See all the photos and read the full interview here.

Dan Barnes Be-Mag Profile

Ben Murphey of Be-Mag posted up an in-depth interview of Buffalo, NY’s Dan Barnes. See the full interview where Dan talks about the western New York scene and his thoughts on blading below.

NAME, AGE, LOCATION, SPONSORS, YEARS SKATING?
My name is Dan Barnes, I’m 23 years old from Buffalo, NY. Current sponsor is Razors and I’ve been skating for 13 years.

Art of Rolling Be-Mag Interview

WHAT MAKES THE NYC SCENE WHAT IT IS?

“People might not understand, but NYC is street skating. That is what it is. We have the power to jump on a train and head anywhere in NYC to skate in a matter of an hour. And we also have the option to not take any trains and skate from spot to spot all day. That is real street skating. Right now we have a united state of things right now. If someone says lets sesh here then you can believe it that 50+ people will show up. Everyone backs each other up and represents their state with everything they got. What that means is when you skate with other skaters it’s a family.

It’s not like when you see 40 skateboarders in a skate park but none of them are saying what’s up or cheering for each other. Right now we’ve got the big family vibe and a great sense of belonging. We are witnessing each other grow and helping each other out along the way. And our sport is thriving here; this is the only part of the world where rollerbladers outnumber other action sports.

One of the things many people don’t understand when they come in from other places is that they go to the known skate spots mostly located in Manhattan. But the best skate spots in NYC are located in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens. In each borough you have a variety of spots that can be compared to anywhere in the world. The big misconception is that in most NYC video’s you only see the same spots so people tend to want to skate there. Our magazine is a great testament to how many spots we have here” – Angelo Ferrer. See the full interview here.