An NDN Insight - Geoff Phillip

For this week's NDN Insight, Geoff Phillip!



1. Basic Insight-starter; How long have you been blading? How'd you get into it?

Coming up on 8 years. I got some size 12 Roller Derby Hard-X-Corr blades for christmas and went to the skatepark for the first time on jan 1 2003 so its real easy to keep track of how much time i've invested into this. There was never a blade scene in my little town but after a couple of months i ran into some kids from out of town at the park. They showed me that your supposed to move both feet when you do a switchup and that jumping onto handrails was possible. I literally had no idea because i just sort of taught myself grinds without knowing what they were called.

2. What was it like growing up in the tiny town of Moscow, Idaho?

Haha pretty boring. I skated by myself most of the time or with my skateboarder buddies. The happiest days of my life as a teenager were when kids would come down from Spokane and skate all day. After skating mostly by myself all the time, i would always progress or learn something new when i had kids that were way better than me to watch and learn from. I always felt like i reach my highest potential when i've got a good group of kids to skate with.

3. You've been out there in Denver for a while now and you seem to be doing well. What are some similarities/differences between the scene in Denver and the scene in Boise?

Denver is the craziest skate scene i've ever experienced. it's almost like culture shock to see 35 rollerbladers in the same place after living in such a small town. In Boise you sort of know who you're gonna be skating with that day, but in denver i find myself in a different car full of different people going to different spots almost every day. Its similar in that almost everybody gets along really well and we try to have one big session a week with TNR.

4. How important is a practice rail?

Anybody that knows me is laughing at this question. Practice rails are easily my favorite thing to skate, partially because i grew up skating the same foot tall ten foot long rail. I strongly believe that as long as you have the same obstacle to skate whenever you want, whether its a prail, box, mini ramp or a ledge you will find yourself progressing at a much faster rate.

5. During the 7+ years that we've known eachother, you've always been 100% down to go skating. What keeps you motivated?

Motivation is a pretty big issue when it comes to rollerblading after you turn 18. I used to skate a lot partially because there was nothing else to do, but after a while it just sort of becomes what you do all the time. The years are hard on my body but i can't imagine what i would be doing without skating. Sometimes i'm motivated by my friends that just want to go out and skate a park all day, without trying to film clips or figure out what spot we can go to that makes everybody happy. Sometimes i'm motivated by my friends that want to go out on a clip hunt and try to push you to do bigger and better things. But my main motivation is that feeling you get after you just landed something you didn't think you could do. To me that feeling is priceless.

6. In your recent online edit (view below) you make it a point to spin both ways. (Notice: 3 left, 5 right then 3 right, 5 left) Which is natural? Same with grinds?

I spin to the right and i grind right footed. When i was younger and just started to feel really confident with my skating i sprained my knee and my ankle at the same time. The doctor told me 8 weeks before any kind of strain, but i was going nuts after five weeks so i switched from remz to TRS for the ankle support and hit the skatepark. For the next year i pretty much learned everything i already knew on my practice rail with my left foot. After i healed i noticed that a lot of tricks felt more natural with my left foot (misfits, top-torques, negatives) and had to do some catching up with my right foot. Over the years everything just sort of blended together and there are a hand full of tricks i honestly don't have a natural foot for.

Geoff Phillip SCUMFILE 2010 from mykel fatali on Vimeo.

7. What are 5 things that you've learned through blading?

True friendship.
False friendship.
The value of a dollar.
The value of youth.
Perseverance.

8. Other than Dayshapes & Scumpire online material, have you been filming for anything recently?

Nope, just filming and editing and putting stuff online like i always have.

9. When you aren't out rollerblading, what are you doing?

Shooting pool, annhialting anyone in my path on a nintendo64, driving my drunk friends around and smoking mass quantities of herb.

10. Any advice to kiddies that are just getting into the blade-game?

Skate a lot, don't smoke cigarettes, and skate because you want to and for no other reason.

en dub geoff phillip from geoff phillip on Vimeo.