Magnificent Skateboarder Poet Reveals The Story Of His Father

The poet is Mike Vallely. The time is 1996 and I was making a feature-length documentary on the aggressive rollerblader revolution that was taking place at that time. It was a rainy night in Los Angeles and some of the skaters were going to a store to hear a skateboarder share his challenging relationship with his father. I was blown away by the clarity and brilliance of Mike Vallely. What he said related to my experience with my father. Difficult for us to speak to one another and really say how we felt. And back at this time, skateboarders were known to be less than friendly to rollerbladers (inline skaters). But Mike clearly didn't feel that way and understood that he was talking to a group of boys and young men and some women who were like-minded as inline skaters. They loved to skate and they loved the culture. To a large extent (although not totally) the era of aggressive rollerblading is over but the skateboarder culture continues. Thank you Mike Vallely.