We all have a time in our life that we refer to as the “back then” chapter. Whenever this sepia-toned chapter occurred for us, it represents all that is good, simple, and innocent about our past. We return to it occasionally for renewal: a nostalgic revisiting of who we once were in addition to a hopeful reminder of who we can still be.

My “back then” chapter took place in my mid to late adolescence, when the primary worries I faced were pimples and pop quizzes. Outside of my petty stresses, life was magical. I spent my free time pursuing my passions, one of the foremost being inline skating which I enjoyed with a group of friends in Southern California. We eventually channelled our passion into a home-made video entitled Peep Game. 

Released in 2003, Peep Game is an action sports video documenting the aggressive inline skating antics of a group of free spirits from San Diego, CA, circa early 2000s. The video features the tricks and slips of Rocky DeVries, Broc Costa, Steven Zamora, Todd Gruel, Danny Gerrick, Steven Anson, Clayton Espino and was filmed and edited by Broc Costa.

20 years later, I, Todd B. Gruel, a slightly older young man—and hopefully, life being the only advisor, twice the wiser—am grateful to celebrate the passion and memories of this special rolling event in my life. To commemorate the occasion, I condensed my skating section from Peep Game to a one-minute reel with a voice-over reflecting upon lessons learned from my experiences.

Throughout much of its history, the unfortunately titled sport of “aggressive” inline skating has often fallen in the shadows of other action sports like skateboarding and freestyle BMX. Regardless of their differences, participants in each of these sports perform feats of creative athleticism on their chosen equipment, soaring over and sliding across unlikely urban obstacles.

If you want to learn more about aggressive inline skating, check out Tom Moyse’s YouTube channel—and tip the man a quid for his wit while you’re at it. Try “WTF is Urban Skating”; “10 Reasons to Rollerblade”; and “10 Best Rollerbladers Ever”. 

If you’re looking for a quick hit of entertainment focused on big airs and grinds, I highly recommend hard-hitting video sections by some of the sport’s most inspirational skaters:

• Chris Haffey in Drip Drop—a humble, capeless superhero who matches amplitude and ease in an amazing way, and is still launching death-defying stunts on mega ramps in the Nitro Circus; 
• Billy O’Neill in his Haitian Magazine edit—a bad boy who makes skating look cool, in a way that your mother should have warned you about, and is still skating strong after all of these years; and 
• Nils Jansons in Deep Purple promoting his pro model skate—an athlete who performs agile movements powered by a plant-based lifestyle that is as clean as his skating is smooth.

To explore a more light-hearted side of inline skating, consider the creative Canuckery of some modern inline pioneers:

• Danny Beer—an energetic ambassador of all things colorful, instructing the world that life is always more fun when you’re rolling cartwheels in the middle of the street; 
• Leon Basin—an inventor of Wizard skate frame technology that has revolutionized a new language for moving through citiscapes with the poetry of an abstract painter; and
• Mushroom Blading duo Todd McInerney and Joey McGerry—with a camaraderie as vitalizing as their free form skating, they continue testing boundaries with a refreshing sense of humor. 

If you’re just looking for a few wheeled artists who can do it all—merging earth, fire, water, and air—and leave you breathless without a prayer, try Alex Broskow in the Them Skates production Plus One. Alex is a tattooed unicorn with legs of steel bridging the past and future of inline skating with grace and technicality. And then there are the ever-evolving Kelso brothers, Sean and Colin, whose cinematic vision always stuns alongside their swaggy Philly footwork. 

Whether or not you’ve ever tried skating before, or ever will try it, I encourage us all to let our curiosity and courage roll us onward in life…till the very end. It’s never too late to find our way “back then.”