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Week 13 - Curate Yourself


Trying to find content that interests me is pretty difficult, because usually when I’m done with homework I’ll try to meet up with friends and get out of the house as soon as possible. One format that I watch occasionally are inline skate videos, though! I skate, and the way I learned to do so was by practicing a ton, plus watching skaters who are better than me. At home in Colorado, I have friends who play hockey and regularly inline skate, but here in Florida it’s a little rarer. Because of that, I’ve found communities for inline, online. The community is actually really great because roller skating has hit a pretty massive slump from it’s dominance in the 80’s to 90’s, so the people who still skate are the most passionate, skilled, and do it mainly for the fun of it. Everyone in the community really takes a lighthearted approach to skating and don’t take themselves too seriously, and because so little people inline skate, the groups you form are tight. Nobody cares about image or appearing ‘cool’, everyone is in it for their love of skating.
One figure in the community is Bill Stoppard, a Toronto native (inline is much more popular in Canada), who makes youtube videos. Usually it’s just him skating, trying new tricks or new skates, or giving tips and tutorials to newer skaters. He narrates over the footage of him skating, and it’s pretty relaxed with some deadpan comedy. The guy is weird, but what’s great is that he doesn’t care in the slightest. He keeps his brand of weird consistent, and the videos are fun to sit back and watch. He’s also a very talented skater, so I’ve picked up a lot of my form and technique from watching how he skates. Here's a sample video of his where he skates around Toronto and gives a tour on the graffiti in the city.
Another kind of video I enjoy are speed skating. Again, it’s just fun to watch people out enjoying the same things you enjoy, and a group of people at that. They’re going insanely fast down these hills, balancing on one leg essentially, and they’re pretty goofy about it the whole time despite being one slip-of-the-ankle away from continuing down the road face-down.
This downhill skating video is just crazy.

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