1. Please introduce yourself, where you from are and what are you been up to lately.
My name is Vincent Morretino. I live in the heart of the Midwest of the United States in Indianapolis, Indiana. What have I been doing lately? Just trying to be the best husband and father that I can be (plenty of room for improvement), and staying busy with work as a graphic designer, photographer (photojournalism, commercial property, portraits and weddings) and now video production work.

2. Most people may know you more as Fast-Eddie from Be-mag Message Board – if you would need to describe Be-mag board in few sentences – what would it be?  How long are you active member of this board?

The Be-Mag message board was implemented to provide a place for people to transcend time zones and cultural differences to talk about all things rollerblading. Like many online forums and communities, the temptation that anonymity offers users to voice their pent-up negativity as loud as they possibly can is incredibly powerful, and it’s an easy trap to fall into. Admiral Ackbar warned me; he warned us all.

I’m actually quite ashamed that most people would know me as Fast-Eddie from the Be-Mag message board, but there it is; that’s how most people know me.

I’d like to think I contributed something to rollerblading through the message board in the 10 years that I have been a registered user, and I suppose that I did with Balance and the 30+ edits. But, I was a spiteful and falsely arrogant asshole to many people online that I did not agree with, or felt threatened by, and I had too much pride to admit that other people’s opinions are valid even if they are not in line with mine.

I’m very embarrassed about that. It’s not a particularly good feeling going to Bitter Cold Showdown and seeing the occasional “fuck you” eyes thrown my way by people that I don’t know, but I’m known to them by my online actions and the fact that I did not hide anonymously behind a user name; people on the board knew my real name because I put it out there. Getting “fuck you” eyes from people I do know was even worse.

Rollerbladers tend to be non-confrontational in person, but being an asshole online is an excellent way to alienate you from not only our industry, but also other people who share a passion for rollerblading.

Is the Be-Mag message board a bad place? Absolutely not. When used in a positive way, it’s an invaluable resource. It’s just not a place for me to be an active member anymore.
I’m still registered, but I’ve had a co-worker change the password to my account, as well as delete the email account linked the fast eddie account so I’m not tempted to reset the password. I still read the forum on occasion, but wading through all of the bullshit posts is tiresome and depressing. I don’t like what I see when I look into that mirror.

3. You have edited last two 30+Edits for be-mag – could you elaborate on this topic? Was it your idea and are there many people willing to take part each year? Do you think it`s important to show youngsters that OG`s are still blading etc? 

I did not think up the idea to create an edit featuring Be-Mag message board users aged 30 and up. The credit for that goes to Shawn Carter from Washington state.

I did offer to organize the effort and edit the footage when no one else seemed eager to accept the responsibility, but I apologized up front for whatever I produced. Due to my limited experience with video editing at the time, I was uncertain that anyone would even like the final result.

A lot of mistakes were made in post production, but I learned from those mistakes and improved my organization and work flow process, studied up on more efficient techniques, watched some helpful tutorials and promised to do better with the second edit.

In the end, it was a success and people were stoked on it. 22 skaters submitted clips for the first edit, and 27 submitted clips for the second edit. My hopes are that even more will submit something this year.

I honestly don’t know if it matters if the younger and newer generation of rollerbladers sees us old farts still skating. On the one hand, I imagine that what the older generation does on skates is too far removed from what the younger skaters have the attention span to focus on, especially if the style and substance isn’t to their liking. This sounds plausible: “Well, his landing was a sketchy, and his feet weren’t touching on that topside mistrial… but look how old he is! Not bad at all, old man!”

On the other hand, I can see how it would be inspiring to a certain degree for a young skater to see someone 15-20 years older than themselves still have a strong love for rollerblading, and still able have fun on skates. I know that when I was young and new to skating, I felt that I would skate for however long my body would hold up.

What I did not do was develop any good habits to insure that my body would hold up in my declining years, like eating better, quitting smoking sooner or being just a bit more kind to my joints and muscles, until I was in my late 20s.

4. Let`s focus a little bit on Balance Mag. I always loved grass-roots publications like this, it was great outlet for up comers and AMs – 9 issues online with quite impressive content! You did it alone? Is there anything new coming up in this topic, why have you quit to do that?

Thanks, I really appreciate the kind words. A lot of hard work and tough decisions went into each online issue, and there were many long nights fretting over content. Nothing would have been possible if it wasn’t for the featured skaters, contributing photographers, writers and Michael and Stefan at Be-Mag who supported Balance with exposure until the very end.

But yes, I recruited new contributors (and nagged them when deadlines were ignored or forgotten) and laid out Balance by myself in InDesign. Two years, eight and a half issues. 400 pages of content, hundreds of photos, dozens of contributors. More than 70,000 readers in 64 countries. The best compliment I ever got about Balance was that it reminded some readers of how Daily Bread was when it first came out in the early 90s, relying on reader contributions and not giving a fuck if someone was sponsored or not to appear in the magazine.

There were 8 full issues and a special 16 page Bittercold Showdown XI print issue in 2011. Only a handful of print issues of 1-8 Balance exist, and almost all of them were purchased by me and given to contributors as a thank you for their effort. Not every contributor got one, because short run print jobs are expensive, and I had no budget. I know that I still owe a few people back issues, and I am still trying to fulfill those promises 2 years later. Kind of sad, huh? 500 prints were made of the special BCSD XI issue, and it came out between issues 7 and 8. The issue was split into two parts. All of the pertinent scheduling information for the weekend’s events, including a welcome message from Daniel Kinney, a trade show floor plan layout and photos of shot during the previous BCSD, taken by Chris and Michelle Gerard, were the first part. The other part included photos from past issues of Balance, and I put as many photos in of skaters who would most likely be competing, or at least be at the event. If a spectator wanted to grom out for a moment and had the issue in hand when Chris Haffey or Chynna Weierstall was walking by, they could get a quick autograph. That was the hope, at least.

It was also the only issue to have paid advertisers, thanks in part to Daniel Kinney embracing the idea of the issue helping to keep people informed of the timing of BCSD and the Charging! premiere, as well as the exposure value to the advertisers.

I ran several free ads in previous issues due to lack of paid ads. I now understand that, at the time, a free online magazine as a platform proved too difficult for a company to gauge the effect of their ad(s) on the publication’s target market. Thankfully, the advertisers in the special issue completely paid for the production costs of the issue.

Aside from this one time occurrence, my advertisement campaign directed at the rollerblading industry that began at BCSD XI itself was shot down immediately, so there was little hope that Balance would grow beyond an online publication. And the most heart-wrenching thing about that was the resounding silence from the industry. Was my magazine lame? Had I turned everyone in the industry against me somehow? Probably not, but it was time to close up shop.

Thankfully, a new door opened almost immediately after I decided to end Balance in 2011. I had an opportunity to forget everything I learned about photography, which wasn’t much to begin with, and get paid well to work side-by-side with a professional wedding photographer as he re-programmed my brain to see the world around me in a much different way than I had been seeing it. I’ve photographed 42 weddings in the US, and one in Dwikozy, Poland. I also do photojournalism and portrait work for my day job and freelance doing commercial property photography, portraits and weddings.
Surprisingly, I was asked to cover the very last Bitter Cold Showdown for Be-Mag. Had it been known that it was the last one, I’m certain that someone else would have been asked. We’ll see if they publish any of the photos that I submitted.
I really do miss putting together Balance and talking with contributors, but I do not have any plans to resurrect the magazine or start anything new. I don’t have anything to offer rollerblading anymore, either because there is someone out there already doing it better, or because my past immaturity has made anyone receptive to anything that I could offer no longer receptive. And I’m OK with that now.

5. Now a question that I`m trying to ask every US blader that I have a chance to talk with – how is current state of rollerbalding in US in your opinion, let`s say just by looking through your area (Indianapolis). Do you see a lot of new kids getting into it? How is the scene in your city in general? I`m just curious how it looks like in the eyes of random blader. I feel that Europe is now exploding with blading (every kind – aggressive, freeride, freestyle) while all I can hear/read about situation overseas is just the opposite…

What you hear about skating in the US is true. There is no major rollerblading revival to speak of. It is still pretty much a joke here.

To be honest, I am not an ideal candidate to ask about the local aggressive skate scene in Indianapolis. I work too much to keep up with other rollerbladers in the city and my social life is non-existent.

I do not see many younger kids getting into aggressive skating on the local level, either. I am almost always the only rollerblader at the skate park. Around 11pm few Saturdays ago, I was the only rollerblader at the skate park. After a little while, I was the only person at the skate park. Tired and sweaty, I had just decided to leave for home when another rollerblader showed up. He was tall, gangly 17-year old black kid on recreational skates. I struck up a conversation, and asked him if he had ever skated in aggressive skates. He said no. He happened to wear the same size skates as me, so I offered to let him try mine. He loved them! Who doesn’t love Salomon liners and Fiziks frames?

As I flipped around one of his skates to see what they were, I saw that his 80mm wheels were in absolutely terrible shape. Both front wheels on each skate were at 45 degree angles all the way to the plastic. It was unbelievable that he could even skate on them.
I had a flat set of 60mm generic Face wheels that wouldn’t fit in my Fiziks frames, so I spent the next hour talking to him as I removed all of his bearings and put them into the new wheels. I got him to drop into his first half-pipe while I was sitting 50 feet away on some stairs with my hands dirty black from bearing grease, telling him how to lean into the transition, where to place his feet on the coping, etc. He nailed it on the second try. I was really proud.

I probably won’t see him again, though. I had to rush home after looking at my phone and seeing 9 missed calls from my wife. She was near hysterics at home because she had been calling me for over an hour and it was after midnight. She thought I was dead. I almost never skate at night, and stayed 2 hours longer than I had told her, without calling. Any rollerblader that is married and keeps decent hours knows how bad of a fuck up it is to not communicate with their wife.

• Interview: Sebastian ” Basza” Gruba
• Pics: Chris Luca