In the Dark - An Inline Skating Documentary

I stumbled across this short documentary on inline skating and the state of the industry by Kyle Couture recently, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it (for what its worth).


The video is filmed very well and the interviews are very good. The pace seems to be a little bit slow though, due to the use of a lot of slow-mo. Although, I think the quality and interesting shots make up for it. The biggest problem I have is the lack of captions naming the skaters as they speak and/or skate. He lists them all at the beginning and that is it. I am not good at recognizing people by face unless they are really well known. Plus, I was out of the scene from around 2004 to the beginning of the summer this year, so I am still catching up on who's who. If you are a skater who has kept up on everyone skating, you probably wouldn't have this problem.

Overall, I think the opinions expressed in this video pretty much match my own personal feelings on our sport almost exactly. There are a few things said that I don't quite agree with (they are just opinions, I know). One example being: "There is more freedom that any other 'action' sport." Maybe what he is trying to say, is that our sport may still have a lot of progressing to do, and there is somewhat of an openness of "uncharted territory" that gives us that freedom, but saying that we have more freedom than any other sport seems a bit arrogant to me. I certainly feel skating is an art more than a sport and being an art gives a ton of freedom. But, I feel that is true of skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding, and surfing. They are all about expressing yourself, overcoming challenges and fears, pushing your limits, and most importantly enjoying life.

Another thing I have a problem with at all is the statement that "it's not difficult to ride a bike or push around on a skateboard." Man, this statement could start a war. I know that he is talking about how difficult is its to get started in the sport, but come on, learning to ride a bike, if you don't know already, is very hard. Learning to roll around on a skateboard and control where you are going is not easy either. I don't see much difference with learning to rollerblade. It may seem like I am just being diplomatic and defending the other sports, but it is very important for us to communicate what we mean, because most of the people outside our sport will not give us any slack and they will take that the wrong way.

Aside from those minor nit-picks, the video is absolutely spectacular, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Please share it with people who don't skate. It should help them better understand why we do what we do and may even give them a reason to start. Thank you Kyle and everyone in the video for putting it together.


In The Dark from kyle couture on Vimeo.