In that time I tried skateboarding and didn’t have much more success so I decided to stick to road hockey. In addition to this, my family had moved to the states due to my dad’s job and I remember several times catching glimpses of rolling in major events like the X-games. I still didn’t wake up and my family soon moved back to the town we had come from: Parry Sound, Ontario. Of course, we were nowhere near civilization because my father had inherited a 200 acre farm which my parents were determined to keep going. (they failed) Somehow I met this asian kid named Caleb and he said he lived at a camp near by called Muskoka Woods, since his dad was the head chef of the kitchen there. He was into skateboarding and asked if I wanted to come and skate with him at the massive B3 skatepark that they had there. I was 12 or 13 at the time and this seemed like a cool thing to do, so I said yes. However, there was a catch. I had to bring my own equipment and pads because the camp had packed all theirs away for the season. I had my own pads, and I had the choice to bring a wal-mart skateboard or a wal-mart pair of skates. Something told me to bring the skates. I brought them and in the few hours we skated, I barely learned how to go up and down ramps. This was a huge achievement for me and I considered myself a rollerblader from that point on.

     I went to Muskoka Woods several other times with a home school group, (yes, I was home schooled for a while), and we were taken to skate the smaller, crappier B2 park. This was the first time I had ever used aggressive skates and they weren’t in the best condition so I thought my skates were better. However I did learn to air out of quarter pipes and such. Suddenly, I started not being home schooled anymore and I stopped going to Muskoka Woods which lead to, two years with absolutely no skating. I didn’t miss it much though because I still hadn’t been given the full-frontal rollerblading treatment. Close to the end of this two year skateless period my mom got a job at Muskoka Woods as a housekeeper. This meant that me and my brother could go to a camp, which kids pay thousands of dollars to go to for one week, for absolutely no charge. I was 15 and had recently quit my boring job at Tim Horton’s so I decided to sign up for a week doing what they called inline skating at B3.

    The first day rolled around and I reluctantly got out of bed nice and early so I could go to camp for the day. I honestly didn’t expect more than what I had already been getting out of rollerblading: going up and down ramps. When I arrived at the activity meeting point I heard my name called and turned around to see some guy who was almost shorter than me, almost as skinny as me, and he was wearing glasses. He was also wearing these really stupid looking shoes which I later learned were called footwraps for a skate called xsjado’s and that they weren’t stupid. Until then I didn’t even know skating had its own brand names. Anyways, I thought this guy was kind of weird at first, because the only cool skating type image I knew was that of skateboarders. The guys name was Roger Wilkinson, and I had no idea that he was going to take my viewpoint on rollerblading and turn it completely around.

    We walked up the really long hill to B3 and Roger lent me a pair of skates that didn’t have a brake on them. I later on learned they were made by a company called, “Remz”. We got to the skatepark and I still wasn’t expecting much. I padded up and put on Roger’s smelly skates. We were given a quick tutorial about the rules of the park, and then told to go do, “crazy awesome tricks and stuff”. Roger had disappeared somewhere and I started rolling back and forth, back and forth on the ramps, thinking I was amazing because i had good balance. After about 10 minutes I got bored and went to look for Roger to see if he could roll back and forth better than me. I did not see what I was expecting. I turned a corner just as Roger aired a spine ramp, and busted out a front Royale across a long length of coping. I was amazed and stunned and confused all at the same time. Where did this come from? I thought this kind of rollerblading only happened on that goofy movie! Over the course of the week I learned to frontside and backside stall, and was refreshed with some old things I had been taught. Roger introduced me to the underground world of rollerblading, Chris Haffey, Aragon, Razors, Remz, Chris Farmer, basically everything I needed to know to get me intrigued. I went back for the last two weeks of summer in which time I learned about the different soul tricks and how to grind a ledge. I have only been skating for just over a year but I’ve learned a lot of new stuff and I am getting better and loving every minute of it. And that’s my story on how i finally found rollerblading.

Thanks Roger, you got me addicted!!!!!

Guelph Ontario. A small community with not much going on. In general, it does not help youth find many interesting things to do. I was in this position about 5 years ago, when rollerblading was not a part of my life. I still remember the first time I ever saw rollerblading. I was loafing around home, flicking through channels when I passed by an ASA event. Dominic Sagona was ripping through the park course with his t-shirt half on, and style I’d never seen before in my life. From that point on, I knew I wanted to start rollerblading. My 15th birthday was one of the happiest days of my life! My mother knew that I had a new found glory with rollerblading and decided to take me to sports shop and buy me some skates. Once I got to the shop, I saw TRS’s on display and I ran right towards them. The moment I held the skates and tried them on, I knew I was going to be a rollerblader. I remember when I brought my skates home, I skated in my basement for hours, just rolling around and jumping over things. It was a rush that skateboarding and other pass times, the media glorified, didn’t deliver to me.

Once some of my friends saw the skates, they needed some too. I was bringing kids into rollerblading just by getting into rollerblading myself. We would meet up everyday after school and on weekends to go skate the University of Guelph. I have vivid memories of our first grinds, gaps and switch-ups. Rollerblading built our friendships to a level I’d never thought possible.

As the years went on, and some people decided that rollerblading wasn’t for them, I continued doing what I had grown a passion for. Once I began rollerblading on a regular basis, I started meeting new rollers, including a couple of people that influenced me greatly. DP, Sean Knight & Paul Pursell were the Guelph crew at the time, and the moment they saw me with my Broskow skates, they took me under their wing. They taught me what I needed to know, and showed me how far rollerblading could, and would take me. Skating with older dudes was scary at first for me. I felt like I needed to impress them for some stupid reason. They would tell me things like, “Just do tricks that you think are sick,” and, “Skating is all about fun, if you’re not having fun – you’re not doing it right.” As the years began to pass, trends went in and out, music tastes changed, and fashions became old, but rollerblading was always number one on my list. It was just as fun, if not more fun than when I began. I started to progress, and I wasn’t the only one noticing. As I continued skating and gained a “flow,” or feel for skating in general, everything became possible. Rollerblading constantly progresses for me, each and everyday there is always something new to do.

The summer of 2007 was my “stepping stone,” if you’d call it that, into the actual rollerblading community. DP would tell me about competitions, the crowd, the hype, and the all-around fun the events created. He was always begging me to go with him to the competitions. Once summer rolled around, I had a lot of time on my hands, so DP would help me fill in that time with rollerblading. Practice, practice, practice. I began filming clips and getting photos with DP & Knight, they showed me how truly amazing rollerblading could be. It’s not just the simple act of skating, which makes it amazing. It’s also being with other people that share a passion for it, just as you do. They always find the time to skate and chill. As I began coming out to sessions, I started to see it throughout the entire Ontario scene; a tight-knit group of people who are progressing the sport of rollerblading everyday.

Looking towards the future of rollerblading in my life, I have plenty of plans. I am working out a way to move to Calgary for the summer to work with Dallas Kurtz and Alien Inline, teaching kids how to rollerblade. I am also looking forward to the many opportunities arising with sponsorships and what not. I have no idea what will actually happen, but I know that rollerblading will guide me down a path that I will love. I never pictured myself to be so committed to just one thing in my life, but I think rollerblading is perfect for me. Rollerblading has gotten me through many personal battles and keeps my mind in a place I like. Rollerblading has done so much for me, and I will continue to show what I can do with it.

-Roger wilkinson

About two years ago, in the spring of 2007, I found myself working fulltime at a Wendy’s. That’s right, I was cooking chili, flipping burgers, and taking orders. Believe me it was a lot less glamorous then it sounds. I was pretty much the most diligent worker there and after 5 months they wanted to make me a shift manager. That’d be the life, telling useless teenagers to remember to ask if they want fries with that. I thought. God is this what my life is going to be like for the next couple of years! I was praying for a way out, and in a sudden turn of events rollerblading stepped in. It came as a call from a friend. A once in a lifetime opportunity, which would come to change my life entirely.

It was on a Friday afternoon, and my friend Brian Lofgren called me up. He had heard from a friend of his, Jen, that there was a summer camp called “Muskoka Woods” looking for someone to be an inline instructor. Brian couldn’t go because he had just moved out on his own and needed to have a job to pay his bills, so he instantly thought of me. It was a full-time position, which would entail me moving up to the camp for the next ten weeks to teach kids how to aggressive skate. It paid very little because they would take you room and board directly off your paycheck and give you what was left, roughly $110.00 a week. I didn’t really care though, because it was just the thing I was looking for to get away from Wendy’s.

That weekend Brian and I drove out to Kitchener to meet up with his friend to find out more about the camp. After hearing about how great the camp is, I decided to apply, and did so online on the following Monday. On Wednesday I had an over the phone interview, and on Thursday I received a contract offer via email. The only catch was that the contract started the next day! Sooooo I went into Wendy’s Thursday afternoon, about 2 hours before my closing shift was about to start, and quit. To say the least they were not happy about it, but it was an opportunity of a lifetime and I wasn’t going to let Wendy’s stand in my way. I signed my contract with Muskoka Woods and started to pack for camp. The next morning, I met up with Jen to hitch a ride to camp to start my summer as an inline instructor for Muskoka Woods.

My summer at camp was amazing. I would skate for 6 hours a day teaching kids how to skate and do tricks. On my free time I could skate more or flirt with one of the many hot girls on camp. The food was free and always prepared, there was a lake for swimming on the really hot days, and there wasn’t much “real” work to be done. I couldn’t have asked for more. My skating got exceptionally better, I got to take part in some crazy games and activities, and I met tons of awesome people, including my now long term girlfriend, Katie Demetrious. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because she has helped us at CanadianRoll by taking awesome pictures and helping us with filming and editing. Without Muskoka Woods I wouldn’t be were I am today, and it all came from rollerblading. Rollerblading was the only, and I mean only reason I ended up at Muskoka Woods that summer; and to be honest at times it seemed like I was just suppose to be there. The way I see it, I was simply meant to be rollerblading. All of the best things in my life have stemmed from it and it has made my life better. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be without rollerblading, and all I can picture is me standing alone in a pickup window wearing a gay uniform and head set, asking the fat guy in his huge diesel pickup truck with an engine that is to loud to hear over if, “He wants fries with that?”

- by Roger Wilkinson

yesterday was probably the biggest snow storm of the year, so the natural thing for us in Hamilton to do is go to a skate park. Roger Wilkinson called me in the morning and our conversation went as follows.

Roger: “You rolling today?”

Nick: “It’s the worst storm of the year”

Roger:”I have a car”

Nick:”O.K, lets roll”

Here are some pictures I snapped of Roger. Also, thanks to Marcos Horta for coming out, and finally doing the down box!

-Nick. D

I figured with the site update I would repost the Dirty H (Hamilton, Ontario) edit , that was made by Roger Wilkinson. This gives everyone a little taste of Hamilton rolling. Be on the look for another great street edit some time around April (talk about advanced notice).

-Nick. D

The only thing that makes this funny is that the person in this video is dead serious, and it was shot during a time period where talking about drugs was taboo. Also, this is an advertisement for a drug rehab center. Classic!

-Nick. D

Welcome to another part of my lifestyle, and I would think a part of other rollers lifestyles as well, videogames. This is a look back at the Jet Set Radio series of games. If your a roller chances are you have played, or heard of these games. go HERE if you want to see the look back of the game.

 - Nick. D

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

Me and Roger decided that snow was not going to stop us from rolling. Here are some photos from the short session.

Roger Killing It, Top Soul Style

Roger, True Mizou

Nick Top Porn

Roger Switch Misfit

Our Friends the Boys in Blue Decided to Pay Us a Visit, I Took This Shot As He Drove Away

We Celebrate the Session With Subway…It’s The Only Way

Roger the Grouch…He Never Ended Up Doing This Dumpster, Which Made Me Sad

Roger, Cess Slide In Parking Garage, and No His Hand Is Not Touching

Roger Punching My Girlfriend In the Face…He is Abusive

I Like Eating Car Seats

Roger and I Being Happy

-Nick. D

Me and My Girlfriend, Agnes, decided t take a bus to Inflow skatepark. What we did not know was that it was going to be an expedition that would take a few hours, and resulted in skating the park for about an hour. This day was a disappointment, but we got some cool photos out of it.

Waiting For the Bus…Overexposed Style

Waiting For the Bus, Funny Face Style

This Bus Is One Letter Away From the One We Need…the 5A Passed By Us About 3 Times

Random Art Guy I Liked

We Finally Got to the Park…and Saw Roger Flipping Off Frames (we have a review for these frames coming up, guess how they did…)

Brian Going Down the Box

-Nick. D