Non, parce que dès fois on en parle pas, alors les gens pensent qu'on a oublié...

The Self-Made Whiner

The Get By

In 1954, Irvin G. Wyllie published The Self-Made Man in America: the Myth of Rags to Riches. The intent of the author was to explain the concept of the 'self-made man' and to see how it could be perpetuated in a world of big corporation where the emphasis was on the group and not the individual. More than 50 years later, HBO published this piece of shit of documentary in which they tried desperately to attach the sociological concept of the self-made man and the American Dream with the snobbish and hypocritical world of skateboarding.



Far from being 'men in gray flannel suit', skateboarders are among the few who do not have to make a choice between their jobs and their lives considering that their jobs is their passion as well. Paradoxically enough, this fauna counts an anormally significant number of whiners, more hypocritical than two white-collars in competition for the same position.
The most poetic of us would say this documentary is an ode to New York, while the most pessimistic would say it is meant to disguise NY skateboarders' lazyness with architectural excuses. No need to precise where I stand. Gino, who basically never had any footage in NY, is one of the first to point out NY's roughness. He's quickly followed by Pops, who used to rip seriously back in the days and who has now found a good exscuse to justify his lazyness. Perhaps, a piece of shit of European skater like me cannot understand what those modern guerillos have to say. Or maybe if they went to other spots than Macba and Bercy during Euro tours, they would have an accurate vision of Europe and know that NY is not the only place with rough spots.
At least, one thing we cannot take away from them is the photogenic quality of NY.



Keeping with the whining part, apparently NY is the only place with clubs, drugs and alcohol preventing you from skateboarding. Here again, though everyone complain about their demons it is interesting to see that some of them such as Fred Gall never fell of the map.

I guess the part I enjoyed the most was when skateboarders talked about their standard of living. It was interesting to see my illusions shattered and to realize that some of them (the less whiners, paradoxically) had a 9 to 5 job. I guessed it would have been interesting to emphasize more on this aspect. The 5 Boro team might have had a lot to say about that.

The self-made man owes his success to no one, and he is proud of that. While we might see it as ironical to see Gino and Pops (who live only thanks to their past fame and faithful sponsors) talking about it, it seems more logical to see 'hardworking' skateboarders such as Eli Reed or Zered Bassett (who actually deserve to be where they are at) sharing their opinion.


The real self-made men of this documentary might be Jahmal Williams, Steve Rodriguez and Billy Rohan, respectively Hopps owner, 5 Boro owner and skate-teacher. Those are the actual ones who seem to have struggled to build something tangible in the skatebaording world. The modesty of their achievements is contrasted by the amount of energy they put in it, and we cannot but admire them for what they built with their own hands and time. It is sad that HBO had such amazing material and concept at hand, and that they came up with such a 'cliché' documentary devoided of worthy content. It would have been interesting to spend more time interviewing the actual persons qualified to talk about being a 'self-made man'. And if the editing were better, perhaps we could have had two full sentences in a row instead of a succession of catchy slogans such as "this is the best city in the world!"

LaLodge would like to point out MC Quim Cardona's amazing performance who definetely gives rhythm and a touch of crazyness to the documentary.

Day in a life with Billy Rohan

Day in the life with Billy Rohan from Jesse Fritsch

So, he is a skate-teacher for high-school and rides for Element. Is it that bad?
I don't know if I say that because I'm a fan of his skating, but it seems that he has found the right balance between mainstream and hardcore skateboarding without compromising himself.
Teaching skateboarding to kids is not that bad if you let them understand that it must be enjoyed outside of any kind of structure as well. From what we see here, the skateboarding class is mostly about putting kids on a skateboard and letting them have fun the way they want. I guess it's better than the GI Joe style: "Alrgith freshers, 20 ollies for everyone!"
And on the other end, Billy is very active in the NY skate community, from taking care of the 12th & A to filming dope parts for the Green Diamond video. Moreover, he is not getting caught into stupid trick and style trends: his 3-6 flips are OG and his ledge tricks are worthy of a 90s Girl video.

Let's hope for a full part in the next Element video now.

Billy Rohan and Rastafarism

Last Update: Mar 13 2010
Sponsors: Element, Acapulco Gold , Supreme, Vans, Harold Hunter Foundation, Open Road of New York
Hometown: NYC NY Stance: Goofy Status: Pro

Whaaaaat? Yes, according to his Skatepark of Tampa profile, the ex-Floridian and currently illustrious NY-skate-teacher Billy Rohan has signed over at Element. That's a harsh one. Especially because many rumors about Lutzka signing on Element are circulating on the web at the same time. But don't get excited because Billy is still producing good skateboarding (see Rich Mahogany) and everyone knows that good OG skateboarding is never rewarded like it should be. So G-Sltuz is still gonna get a bigger paycheck and more ladies. Bummer.

I think that dude has always been in my top 5, or top 7, or 8. Even when he was under the radar, I used to watch that clip and got hyped to skate listening to some Wu-Tang. See that bs noseblunt at the City Hall? Holy shit! (sainte crotte) Maybe a bit sketchy, but that's straight gnarliness. He had an interview in a SugarMag around 00, and I remember not knowing much about what looked good on a skateboard at the time. However I soon as I saw his fs 270 heelflip at Brooklyn banks, I felt like I already knew more about style. Despite the lameness of Element, I'm psyched for him cause he deserves a decent sponsor after Zoo York let him down. I just hope he won't get the full Element package, because we all know it cannot do good to a career.


I guess what would be a good idea for Element would be to split the team in 2, a bit like they did over at Circa, with the C1rca Combat Division. They could recreate Underworld Element, and put all the good "underground" skaters and come up with a sick team that we would be willing to support. Besides this would allow them to go full speed on the corporate and rasta bullshit without hurting too much the ethically-spotless skateboarders' career.
I call team-manager first!