Half Million

I started the Blue Tile Obsession because the skateboarding that I saw in the magazines wasn’t the skateboarding I knew and loved. This isn’t a reflection on them. The magazines were keeping up with the ebb and flow of modern skateboarding, as they should. Nothing is exciting and nothing evolves unless it changes. Skating had certainly gone through an evolution. Streets, ledges and rails were what preoccupied the interests of young skaters. I was stuck in about 1978. I loved pools, pipes and the surf-inspired skating of our pioneers. When I ran Woodward Camp in Pennsylvania in the 1990’s, I hired and watched many of modern street skatings heroes come skate. I gained an appreciation for the difficulty and insanity involved. It takes quite a bit of moxie to look at an Arto-sized rail of twenty stairs and think you can hurl yourself down it. From my perspective, you probably only get one or two tries… Courage and pain. That being said, it still wasn’t what I wanted to see. I moved to California to skate pools. I moved to California to write. I decided to do something about it. I started the Blue Tile Obsession. The other day, I went over a half a million page views. I understand that this is nothing compared to a big magazine, but it is quite an accomplishment for me. I’ve had people reach out to me about pools. I’ve had people ask me about sobriety. I’ve been able to help fellow skaters from time to time. I have met skaters from Europe, Japan, Brazil and all over the U.S. I sit in my armchair at night and ponder things. I wonder at the state of our world, human behavior, skateboarding and how things can change so dramatically.

Sometimes, readers email me and say they are coming to California. They ask, “Can we come skate Ridiculous?” If I’m around, the door is open. Street skating is important to our collective evolution, but pool skating and skateboard history are as well. To be what we are, we must know where we come from. Currently, skateboard professionals are becoming hybridized. They can ride everything. They try. Combining old and new. Pools and other types of skating are acceptable. It’s alright to have fun on a skateboard again. I think that the future of skateboarding is in capable hands. Thank you to all of the photographers that contribute to the Blue Tile Obsession and thank you to those that have written guest posts. Most of all, I want to thank everyone that reads the Blue Tile Obsession. What I do… is for you. Thank you to MRZ for these and many of the images. Skate- Ozzie