Controlled Accidents Num. 3

This edit was filmed a few tuesday nights ago at Walnut Creek Skatepark. For the last month or so I have been hitting up the tuesday night skate here and have been having a blast every time. A while ago an edit was put up on the infamous night where Kevin Yee was talking about how it is the only time these days where there will be that many Norcal Bladers together at a session. He was right. It could never match up against the legendary Friday Night skates that used to happen during the Norcal Glory years of blading, but it is the best thing going on right now for this time.

Getting my Rollerblade edits up is a bit hard because I don’t have a camera, but it never the less fails that it does come together each month. This time I truely had to walk through the door that was there open for me right in my face. Its funny how many doors are open right in front of you at all times. They are hard to see most the time because we always think that “goals” or “accomplishments” have to be done this or that way. So we think very narrowly that this or that way, and these or those certain steps have to be done in order for it to happen the “right” way. Over my travels and experiences I have learned that when you keep your eyes open, sometimes there are very few or NO steps at all that need to be taken to reach whatever goal you may have. Just a willingness to work with whats happening in front of you in every situation.

This particular door took the name of Matt Murphy. Matt is a good friend of mine who I befriended when I moved to Morgan Hill back in 96′/97′. Matt, along with Joey and Ricky Ihara (and his family) were truely my saving grace during that period of my life. I didn’t really have any friends at highschool I could relate too, and was pretty depressed even though at the time I didn’t even know what depression was. Lack of skate spots, skating, and friends to relate to really made my highschool experience horrible.

Anywho, Matt and I used to skate what little scene there was to skate there which was a school with ledges called Jackson, and some house rails that a few people had. Matt actually had some house rails to skate and sometimes I would drive over there to session. During this period of time, Friday night skate was what I looked forward too every single week. I used to save up my lunch money for gas and drive up to 70 or more miles to Jared Magers house, drop my car off then take bart to the city. After that I would stay the weekend with Jared and skate the east bay all day saturday and sunday. Those are some of my favorite years in blading…like 97 to 99. Amazing years. Anyone from that time period will agree with me. Not just the best years of blading, but best years of my life period.

So back to my door, Matt Murphy. I rarely see him anymore, as he lives in Oakland and works a 9-5, and I am only in the bay for a few months out of the year, but this night happened to be one of those nights where he came out…with his camera. I didn’t put two and two together until he just randomly started filming some lines I was doing. I did about 2 lines, and then realized that this would be a perfect time to get enough clips for a little edit. So after that realization came to me, I just asked him if we could film some more lines, and then get the clips to use for my monthly edit. He smiled, agreed, and after that was decided I told him to film us while I talk into the camera.

The first line you see in the edit was me just messin around. I pretty much do the same lines over and over when im there because they are fun to do. Lines are my new obsession. Its like a build up to me. A build up for confidence, each trick building upon each other. I find this makes doing “tricks” in general easier and just more fun. Easier because with each trick landed…actually I am not sure how to describe the feeling you get as each trick is landed…I keep saying confidence, but I feel there is a better way to describe the process of this build up. And, its fun because doing multiple things in a row is way more fun to me then lining up at one thing, to do one thing, then have that period of time of waiting until you come back to that same one thing and do one thing again. I think line skating is more efficient. Why does it mean that its more effecient? I think it’s more efficient because you get to experience that feeling that rollerblading gives you longer, and for as long as your legs can actually keep you going. This is why I enjoy park skating.

The remainder of the lines after my first ones were when I decided to make the edit. Aftwards Matt sent me the edit that is above, which I watched and aggreed that it was a good job. Normally I do the editing, but since he already did it for me it was perfect. Thank you for that very much Matt Murphy, and thank you for hanging out with me during those early years.