To make it as a pro skater, you have to be a little bit fanatical. You spend hours perfecting a craft that deals with so much nuance and lots of hyper-fine details in order to make it in skating, which means the odds you are like that about something else in life are pretty high. That’s why we decided to launch this series and find out what other things skaters secretly fan out on.

Today, we’re taking a look at Eli Reed. Truthfully, we were a little surprised when we heard that a white guy from Massachusetts was so deep into dancehall culture, but Eli is truly in it and committed. He’s visited Jamaica and immersed himself in the local scene, attends and throws dancehall parties in New York, and has made friends with lots of credible dancehall figures who happily vouch for his authenticity.

We met up with Eli at his place in Manhattan to learn about how he got into dancehall in the first place, then headed to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to watch him work on some dance moves, and finally followed him to his late night party at Pianos in Manhattan.

Let us know if you know any other skaters with secret hobbies that you want us to feature in the comments below, or if you hate this segment, tell us to burn the hard drive that houses these video files instead.

Filmed by: Ian Michna and Wilson Lucas
Edited by: Henry Willette
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