Tucked away in the middle of Florida is Gainesville. It’s the town that helped me reluctantly find a love for journalism and the town that Billy Rohan, friend of the mag and early 2000s New York fixture, grew up skating around.
When I first met Billy I was unaware of the long history he had in skateboarding and the mental health challenges that ushered both his return to Florida and retirement from pro skating. However, I was promptly educated on the lore, like the nollie hardflip at courthouse, strong friendship with Harold Hunter and unfortunate arrests (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Billy’s Epicly Later’d).
While a markedly novel dude, through my eyes he has always been a community oriented, kind and important facet of skateboarding in my college town, so on a free day back home I drove up to kick it with Billy and check out his skateshop Samurai.
While there, we skated at a Buddhist temple, got dangerously close to alligators and took in the joys of a free day in Florida. Perhaps said by Billy best “From Tompkins to Swampkins. Wu-tang.”
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March 13, 2024 8:59 pm
I always thought Billy Rohan was a great skater.
Didn’t he have a part in EST 3? Ender was a gap to noseslide in the crowd at MSG. So sick.
March 14, 2024 1:53 pm
Whence came you?