Photos and write-up by Robert Guerrero
This is a photo I took at the airport in Zurich Switzerland. It was an ad for a credit card but I felt the message summed up the entire European trip David Sizemore, Greg Mirzoyan, Sven Boekhorst and myself were about to embark on. Within the span of a month, we will be going to such countries as France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK and a couple others that I can not remember at this moment. It will be the first time I have ever gone on a trip this long before, but I have made many preparations for this trip and as long as I stick to them I will be fine.
David Sizemore is extremely talented with musical instruments. Here is he playing the guitar of our host the first day we arrived. I am looking forward to Davids positive musical influence as I also am trying to be musically inclined via my newly bought instrument the Melodica. There will definitely be musical updates captured by videographer Greg Mirzoyan.
Right before I left NY where I was filming with Lonnie Gallegos for an upcoming Rollerblade edit, I bought some New Balance minimalist Running shoes. I was actually looking to buy some Vibram 5 fingers, but they did not have the ones I wanted and the New Balances were very comfortable. The following morning after my arrival I decided to go for a run in my new shoes and after some time running down the road I found this gravel Trail. I thought it funny that the wall next to it had Graffitti on it which said “bert”. I decided to go down this trail, but not because it said bert, but because it was gravel.
After following this trail for some time taking in the beautiful surroundings that Switzerland has to offer, I came upon another trail and also decided to go down it into the woods. After going into said woods I realized that there were many other trails and decided to just freestyle it seeing as I had a lot of time before the Mind The Gap event because I woke up early.
On the trail there were many excercise stations with benches and other things. Seeing these immediately brought out the youth in me and all I could think of was hanging from them upside down some how. After some tinkering around with the rings, I gently figured out a way to slide my legs through them individually and by using my muscles hang from them for some time. I was actually surprised by how long I could hang and at my strength in general. It has been a long time since I have tested my strength and it was nice to see that my last couple months of focused yoga, stretching and exercising had yielded some positive results.
I am unsure what this size is in reference to, I think the altitude, that is not why I took it. I took it because it had the number “13” in it. I see this number quite often in my everyday life and some time ago started taking pictures of it with my phone whenever I see it. So here it is, in Switzerland. Be prepared for more photos of this number that is a reoccurring consistency in my life.
This is a picture of Rollerblade Switzerland rider Maxime Genoud’s eye. He came from Lausanne to attend and skate in the Mind The Gap Event. I noticed his eye and how it had different colors in it. He told me that it has 3 different colors and I had never seen this before so I took a picture of it. Another thing I have never seen before was Maxime do a flat spin 540° on Rollerblade Twisters (Recreational Skates, 76mm flat) after only 5 minutes of skating. Maxime is an extremely talented skater and the control he had in such a short time of skating these skates on such a big launch set up was remarkable.
Here is a picture of David Sizemore pre stale 360°. I say “pre” because I want to let you know that this picture (taken by me) was not taken at the peak performance of his stale grab. I also let you know this because David is very particular with how his professional work is displayed. He was blasting these during the show over and over and following these up with switch 360°’s and 540°’s on the quarter pipe that follows the Launch box.
This is a picture of me enjoying the sun rays during a big blade session we all went on around Zurich. We all decided to put on recreational skates and explore around to see what we could find. These are the skates I have right now which are called the Rollerblade “Tempest.” They are super comfortable and extremely fast as they have 110mm wheels. David and Maxime were skating the “Twisters” and were skating as if there were no difference between their Aggressive Skates and the ones they were riding. In fact, it made them look at their terrain in a different way and they were doing sick wall rides and multiple variations of stair rides which you will see in an upcoming edit soon.
A cool picture of David and Greg with his very serious business visage.
Professional Speed Skater and Argentinean Tamara Llorens with Greg Mirzoyan, taking a break from the events festivities.
Sven Boekhorst and myself. I am excited to be on the Road with Sven for the next couple weeks. It has been a pleasure to get to know him as I used to see him in videos and magazines growing up as a youth. He has sooo many achievements in skating that span sooo many years and is still skating at a very high level even though I’m sure he does not think so. The Sven of today skates with the same confidence of his younger years, but with a more relaxed style that translates to extremely difficult tricks made to look extremely easy. Aside from this skating, he is also easy to be around and I often find myself getting into conversations of high quality for many hours.
Stay tuned as David, Greg, and myself drive from Zurich, Switzerland to Barcelona, Spain to spend 3 days filming the infinite street spots Barcelona has to offer. Adios!
-Robert Guerrero
Thinking of joining Team Rollerblade on one or more of their tour stops to hang out and skate? Find more info about the tour over here.
