| My title was very deceiving. It was such a coincidence because I was thinking how inline skaters and skateboarders have this huge rivalry. I remember skating with skateboarders from the beginning. You could only find a few vert rollerskaters and the rest were skateboarders. They were always my friends and very supportive. I had the privelege of skating with Eric Grishim a pro with Variflex. I skated with Burt Lamar who was really good. There were many locals that just ripped, but if it were not for skateboarders, I would have never had a place to skate. I did plenty of skateboarding in college, but never did the vert thing. I wonder where this comes from? It seems we are all old enough to remember the good old days where nobody judged and we all had fun. I am writing this because I read an old forum from a year ago about a guy bashing inline skaters. He called them fruit booters. I have rollerskated and inline skated and that is just so odd to me. It is all about the love of getting extreme or just having fun. I am sure everyone on here will agree because you are all oldschool. I was twelve years old skating vert on my rollerskates while some of you were a few years older. Back then, the age difference seemed huge. I was this young kid and skated with 16 and 17 year olds. It is funny how once you get older the age difference is nothing. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have great memories skating with skateboarders. There are also a few guys out there that can roller/inline and still rip on a skateboard. I skated with Martin Broice in Germany and he ripped on a skateboard and on rollerskates. I remember Micky Alba who was a pro skateboarder got on skates and ripped. I met Toto Ghali Ten years ago in Marsaille France and he was ripping on a skateboard. He did not use his quads because he had a huge hole in his knee. Well, he did skate with me for a bit and he ripped so hard. He was wearing no pads and doing 540's. I think the new generation of kids are respectful and are having fun. I think there is that generation right behind us that don't have a clue. I am so proud that my godson who is six is skateboarding and is dropping in. His dad is my bestfriend from junior high. He never ripped, but he is out there with his son. I think the kids now are different then we were and a lot different than the generation before them. We now have kids being mentored by people like us. It's really cool. I love seeing young kids skateboarding and trying to olly. I love skateboarding, but I just happened to be better and rollerskating. Obviously, I don't have to preach respect to anyone here. It seems the oldschool skaters have experienced the best of times and none of us have that lame hatred. I guess I am a fruitbooter, quad skater, and old school street skateboarder. It is all good and I am glad to be here. Thanks for all of the great advice I have gotten on here. I never really had the opportunity to skate with other rollerskaters so just had to learn by myself. I did learn from Paul Votava and he was probably the only one. I would guess he is out there somewhere.
Robert
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