Life Plus goes on

Remember that post I made about the skateboard video last month? I was watching part of it today, and was confronted with quite a coincidence:


On the obstacle this guy is skating is a giant symbol for Life Plus, the (now defunct) rollerblading video magazine, part of which I offered as a response to the same post! Like a modern day pyramid, it stands there, a monument to a time when it seemed that rollerblading (media, at least) had nowhere to go but up. Now it sits forgotten, trod upon by uncaring urethane, while the nostalgic ones of us gaze upon it like an old timer watching the demolition of the last drive-in. How the creative have fallen.

This particular obstacle, a Norcal ditch called the Hook, was first skated by bladers in an article for (also defunct!) Daily Bread magazine. Among the people skating it were Norcal legends like Nick Riggle, Erick Garcia, and Kell Mckenzie.

Life Plus, for those who don't know, was a video magazine like Videogroove and Rejects that lasted from 2001 until around 2005. It embraced the possibilities of DVD technology by creating "articles" that a viewer could pick and choose instead of watching the entire video. They also embraced creativity through the way sections were edited (Drew Bachrach, Sean Cullen, etc.) as well as in the skating being presented.





These sections, plus articles like House Skating, Competition coverage, and looks into the real lives and personalities of skaters, gave kids watching it more of a connection to the rollerblading community than the monolithic, scripted, too-cool-for-school attitudes of the team videos that were available at the time. My favorite parts of the Life Plus series include all the James Reetzki edits and the wilderness adventures of the Carlson-Wee brothers.




Now that Life Plus is gone and dead, however, there is no reason for us to dwell on it. The times it was around were awesome, but we have to remember they cannot be relived. Most likely this symbol and others like it will be seen by passers-by who don't know and don't care what it means, and the paint will fade away and eventually disappear. If we really want these times, places and people remembered, give your Life Plus dvds or any other older skate videos to young bladers you know. By passing on the memory those who bladed before us, we help to keep them and their accomplishments alive.