Canadian Roll Life Style

Canadian Roll Past, Build Up, Expansion, and Future

We have decided for the first lifestyles peace we would give our readers a little insight to Canadian Roll’s past and where it is going. This article shows you how we live our lives and how Canadian Roll is incorporated in pretty much everything we do, so I hope you like it!

Past

Canadian Roll (C-Roll) started on July 30th 2006 by one person, me (Nick D’Amico). I started the whole website because I felt that the Canadian rolling scene was not getting enough exposure from other news sources. I would check rolling websites everyday and I would seldom see any information on Canadian rollers, Canadian competitions, Canadian session, Canadian picture sets etc… and I thought this was a great injustice because we have a lot of talent in this country that just needed an outlet to be seen. I also started the website with the intention of getting news from everybody, from the smallest session to the biggest competition, C-Roll was not going to selectively choose what they presented, because I felt a lot of young kids get excited if they see their picture, or video up on a website, and that this could help keep kids in rolling and maybe attract some new ones. Not only that, but I wanted news from all reaches of Canada and not just around Hamilton, Ontario (where I live aka the Dirty H) so I could truly be justified when I called it “Canadian Roll”. To be honest I never thought the website would get as big as it has today, I figured if the website was seen just by one person and they liked it then it would be well worth it, but lucky for me a lot of people have liked the work I have done, and I am grateful for that! I would have to say in the begining my biggest supporters were Leon Basin of Shop-Task and Garett “Blader” MacGillivray, who does website work for the Conference. They both gave me a chance to write pieces on them when no one knew what Canadian Roll was, and for that I will be thankful to these two for a very long time.

Early Supporters of C-Roll

Pictures of Me From Back When C-Roll Began

The Build Up

I can pinpoint the build up of the websites popularity from a few key moments. The first, without a doubt, was the Richie Eisler interview I did, which was released on January 9th 2007. This interview brought a lot of exposure to the website that I was not getting before, and I think it got me a lot of readers that check out C-Roll today. To be honest, this was a large step forward in securing an interview with a pro because I had never done something like that before, but lucky for me Richie was an awesome guy and gave great answers. Not a lot of people know this, but the original questions I sent Richie were generally skating based and the same old boring ones that people read everywhere else ( I was new at this, give me a break). It was actually Richie himself who suggested to make it more about his life in general and how rolling fit into it, and his views on the rolling scene at that moment in time. These suggestion made the interview a hit, and I got exposure from the likes of Be-Mag and Rolling Revival, so basically Richie Eisler taught me how to do interviews and saved me from looking like I did not know what I was doing. If Richie ever reads this, thanks buddy. Also, Be on the look out for Part 2 of the Interview, I have a feeling this is going to be a yearly thing!!

The Next big event Canadian Roll would support was the Hamilton Skate Weekend (H.S.W), which started off on June 15th 2007 and lasted a whole weekend long. This weekend was amazing, packed full of great skating, amazing people, MacDonald’s breakfasts, Guitar Hero, and everything else you could imagine. This was not just a good time for Canadian Roll, but one of the better times of my life. Not a lot of people know this, but this was basically the beginning of bringing in my friends to help with Canadian Roll. My best friend Roger Wilkinson came up with the idea of having a H.S.W and arranged for rollers to have a place to stay (His sisters apartment) that was close to a lot of spots, he also suggested we get prizes, which we both went half on, to promote the weekend. We used Canadian Roll to promote the event, but I was not the one who came up with the idea for it, this has been a point of confusion for a long time. H.S.W was a big success, with 30+ attending, and I think a lot of people really liked all the spots Hamilton provided, so H.S.W’s success showed that A) Canadian Roll could host events and B) Hamilton has a lot of spots for people to skate, which has seen more people come down and session with us. This event made a lot of rollers check out the website, which gave it even more momentum. Be on the look out for H.S.W 2, coming a lot quicker then you think!

Some of the people who showed up for H.S.W

Cops Didn’t Like the Idea of Us Skating This Down Rail

The next event that pushed Canadian Roll over the top was all the competitions that I attended in the summer. I went to both the Toronto Skate Battle, and the Ghetto Street Battle, presented by Mobb and was able to snap a lot of pictures at both events. The Toronto Skate Battle I realized a lot of people knew about the website. I know this from the fact that I did not have a name at the event and was just called “Canadian Roll”, and my girlfriend, Agnes Krajewski, was just called “Canadian Roll’s Girlfriend” and to be honest, I absolutely love that! It means that people are checking out the website, which is great, and I am glad that people associate my face to something they enjoy. It was from that moment onward I decided I would post news nearly everyday, so I could see the website get even bigger and hopefully inspire more people to rollerblade. Guess what? It worked! A lot of people began to take notice, Leon from Shop-Task put me on the main page of his website, and allowed me to host a video premier, Michael Bayr and Philipp Forstner from Be-Mag were interested in me helping to run their blog, and Jochen Smuda wanted me to promote Ucon clothing on the website. The hits have been climbing every month since the T.S.B and G.S.B and to be honest it was these two events that inspired me to shoot more photography, get more news, and generally run the website more efficiently.

G.S.B photo

T.S.B Photo

The last portion of the build up comes with the Cameron Card interview. I was lucky enough to get the first interview with Cameron since his injury, which was a huge deal for me, especially because Cameron Card had been one of my favorite rollers up until that point. We were able to present a great interview that touched on a lot of meaningful topics, and I was able to learn more about Cameron and I realized he is my favorite roller. His attitude showed in all his answers, and it was that attitude that made all the answers spectacular. This interview got Canadian Roll noticed by a lot of important people in rolling, which is amazing to see, especially because in the beginning I never would have thought people like Kevin Dowling or Jojo Jacobi would ever check out a small blog that was started for free with no intention of getting big. If Cameron ever reads this, I want to give him a big thank you, not only was it a great interview to do with you, but an excellent one to read myself. Also, I figure I will shamelessly self promote this interview, If you check out Rolling Revival Episode 47, skip to the 25th minute and listen to Tim, Al, and Adrian talk about the interview and how much they love C-Roll!

Photography by Cameron Himself

Expansion

Well if you are reading this article you are witnessing the expansion. I have added both of my friends, Brian Lofgren and Roger Wilkinson, into the mix to help with the website and to bring Canadian rollers even more great content. We have been planning this site expansion since October / November and decided to be more then just a news website, although we will primarily stick to news. We have decided to bring you lifestyles, in depth reviews on many products, and C-Roll exclusives (spotlights) along with a few surprises a long the way. We have also decided the number of contest and events will dramatically increase this year, in order to keep people excited about rolling, and you are witnessing that first hand with the C-Roll banner contest that can land you a bran new pair of skates (either Nimh’s or Remz OS) or the C-Roll video premier that was hosted in December. Also, we plan on doing a lot of work offline as well, working closely with Shop Task and anyone else who will be interested in working with C-Roll. Recently, we have mad T-shirts and Dog Tags to promote the website everywhere we go, but I would like to state that these are not for sale. These items are only for people who help out C-Roll, they can only be earned and not bought. Lastly, be on the look out for Roger and Brian to play bigger roles in the C-Roll family!

Dog Tags

Friends!

The Future

I hope C-Roll continues to expand until it is bigger then I could ever imagine, with my friends behind me there is no limit to what we can accomplish. However, the real future lays with you, the reader. If you continue to support us, I assure you that we will do everything in our power to support Canadian rolling. Do not be afraid to drop me an E-mail about an idea, or a thought, or anything along those lines. Drop an E-mail to canadianroll@gmail.com or just use our opinions board, all of us at C-Roll check that everyday. Lastly, I want to thank anyone who reads this blog, it has meant a lot to us over the past year and a half.

Pictures

Canadian Roll Main Office

Roger’s HQ

Brian’s HQ

Funny Pics

We Like Stuffed Animals…really.

-Nick. D

These are some photos from the video premier we had in November. Most of the shots are of the people who slept over. I would once again like to thank Shop-Task for helping us put on this premier!

Wonder What He Was Doing Earlier…