| I agree with you 100%. I remember the days when I skated in ASPO, which was a contest serious here in Southern California. We had skateboarders, mens and women's rollerskating, and I think BMX. I can't remember because it was so long ago. I was about 12 years old and remember skating a capsule pool with Tony Hawk. He was riding a little freestyle board for fun and he was doing frontside rock 'n' rolls. This capsule had a huge channel and I remember both of us trying to cross it. I can't remember if either did. I would guess he did. lol The reason I got Martins last name wrong was because I hung out with him in Munster Germany and he gave me his address and could not read his writing. I was fortunate to skate with him at an indoor park and he took me too the famous pool, which I am sure I will be wrong, but think it was the monster bowl or something. This guy was skateboarding this huge pool with no pads and barefoot. He took me out to a club one night and it was quite and experience. First he was kind enough to let me share a home cooked meal made by his mother. Then we went to a club. Let's just say I was hurting the next day. The way you talk about him is as if he is no longer alive. Is this true? I remember him being a really nice guy, but if you got on his bad side, he was pretty intimidating. lol I just remember driving in his old mercedes and getting pulled over by the police. I was a little freaked out because I don't speak German and after it was over, he said it was no big deal and we hit the club. This was during a Europe trip I took with my inline skates. I met so man cool rollerskaters. I met the coolest and most talented rollerskaters in Spain. They were very gracious to me and one younger kid took me to his house and showed me a video of the best rollerskater I have ever seen. I can't remember his name but he was doing every flip variation I have ever seen. Have you been to Marsaille? I hope I did not screw up the spelling again. I was staying at a little pension and had it was quite hard to find at first. That place was amazing. I was a bit old at that time, but there were at least 40 kids hanging out on the grassy hills and some really cool rollerskaters. That was the best trip of my life. It was pretty tiring carry my back pack and all of my skate equiptment. I must have broken about 5 wheels skating that pool. That is the first place I ever landed a Mctwist or 540 flip. I never had the opportunity to really ever skate with other rollerskaters. I had heard about Duke Rennie, but never saw him skate. I saw Fred Blood twice, but other than that it was just me with all skateboarders. I always thought after the skateparks all died that I was one of the only rollerskaters left. It is great to know that through web we can all connect. I had my third day rollerskating today after 14 years and it is coming back. I imagine that I will hit the skateparks with in a month. My tricks are a bit old, but I assume that i will still do front and back flips and layback airs. I can't wait to get back out there.
Robert
: In my experience the relationship between skateboarder and roller skaters (I insist on this term and refuse to use the term quads) has alway been more relaxed than the relationship between roller skaters and inline skaters. It is a bit strange since the first generation of inline skaters in Europe consisted mostly of roller skaters riding the hype and switching to inline skates. There was a second generation of inline skaters without roots in roller skating or in skateboarding who got in because of the hype and a third generation of inline kids with parents who had no connection to skate culture whatsoever. That's also the reason why I don't like the term "quad". Although descriptive, it beacame popular by inline skaters using it to destinguish the old fashioned roller skates from their new and hip inline skate. The inline skating hype came and went too fast to gain any roots (well, not true entirely, but I definitely believe the market had been heated up too much artificially so that it just had to collapse). Maybe it will come back and develop its own culture which would be nice. We will see. Maybe we will find back to an attitude were fun and respect are more important than hype and dissing people using some different device to ride a ramp.
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: Maybe you can explain the term "fruit booters" to me? I have the impression that it is disrespectful, but why?
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: I also remember the times when the scene here consisted of skateboarders, BMXers and roller skaters, when it didn't matter if you were a litte kid, a youth or a grown up and when you could do "add a trick" contest among skateboarders and roller skaters and just have plain fun.
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: BTW.: The city in France you were writing about is called Marseille and the German roller skater is Martin Broich. He definitely was a very influential roller skater in the old days who ripped very hard.
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