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INLINE.LV: "American Born Virtuoso w/ Latvian Roots" (TTS Audio)

543 views · Published 12 January 2018 · 13:35 · Indexed 19 October 2026

Channel: RYAN JAUNZEMIS · 2018 · Sports

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"Interview w/ Ryan Jaunzemis - American Born Virtuoso w/ Latvian Roots"
"Intervija ar Ryan Jaunzemis – amerikāņu virtuozs ar latvieša saknēm"

By Robert Punders
November 8, 2014

INLINE.LV: (Question #1/9) What’s up, Ryan! I was visiting one of the biggest rollerblading forums called Be-mag.com and topic with your name brought my attention. Your surname “Jaunzemis” sounded so latvian like. I couldn’t resist to find out more about you and contacted you immediately. Would you please introduce yourself?

RYAN: Sveiki to all you bladers out in Latvia! And thank you Robert Punders for doing what you do. My name is Ryan Jaunzemis. I’m 34 years old, and I’m from Los Angeles, California.

INLINE.LV: (Question #2/9) Pro rollerblader with latvian roots in mid 90’s? So, when exactly did you start aggressive inline skating and what was the time when you became PRO?

RYAN: I started skating back in ’96. Funny enough, I was supposed to be starting on the Varsity football team at El Segundo High School that year. One day on the way home from practice I saw some random dude who was dressed in all black and was flying down the street on a pair of black rollerblades. All of a sudden, this mysterious skater jumps up on top of a nearby picnic-table, and then jumped off of the end of it, busting out a madd 360°—coolest shit I’d ever seen! After I got home, I ran straight to my room, dropped off my football pads in the corner of my bedroom floor (never to be worn again), got my mom to take me over to Big-5 Sporting Goods to buy me a pair of Rollerblade’s Lightnings, and started skating around later that evening. I showed my best friend Danny Lynch my skates and he got a pair of Rollerblade’s Boxcars, and we started skating every day after that (Like 16+ hours a day)—we were addicted! A while later, we found other people who grinded, and the two of us quickly became fully-immersed within the aggressive in-line skating community. The two of us were getting exceedingly good at a remarkable rate; drop-rocket fishbraining 25-step handrails, busting Misty Flips down 8 stairs, and grinding through heart-attack kinks. A few months later, I started filming & editing my own skate videos on an old Hi-8mm camcorder, and begin submitting my videos to different skate companies. One day while Danny was reading through the Manhattan Beach Reporter (a local newspaper) he stumbled upon an ad from a new company called Soap Shoes; a new skate-shoe company claiming that they had just invented the world’s first pair of “grind shoes” and were looking to sponsor aggressive skaters in the local area to begin testing their prototype models. Danny and I both got sponsored by Soap. We started receiving free shoes, free clothes, and were getting paid a salary of $200 p/h for photo/video shoots, and starred in their national & international sales commercials. Soon after that, we ended up touring around the country with them—it was really exciting. We were skating and Soaping on some of the most badass rails on the planet, and were being seen on TV in all of the major retail shoe shops that carried Soap Shoes. Later, Bryndon Smith (fellow pro skater & Soaper), created a new company called Relate Video Productions and sponsored us both on his team. Relate later released the famous full-length Soap videos “oNe” & “tWo” on VHS, taking the sport of Soaping (and the Soaping Community as a whole) to the main stream.

INLINE.LV: (Question #3/9) What was your sponsor back then and how long did you skate as a pro?

RYAN: I got sponsored by Soap in December of ’97. Soap Shoes were skate-shoes, just like Vans, or Etnies. I still rollerbladed, but I got more into Soaping as that was what was now paying the bills. Being only a junior in high school and making $1000 a day for a full video shoot was pretty fuckin’ awesome. I remember when I cashed my first check—I felt like a baller!

INLINE.LV: (Question #4/9) I found out about soaping as a sport only a month ago when I saw your video, although I knew some people were doing it when Rollerblade made their first grind shoes and I think Salomon did some too. Was the sport really that big?

RYAN: Soaping was pretty big back in the late 90s. In many ways, I would describe Soaping as even MORE aggressive than that of rollerblading; simply for the fact that I was now able to grind on objects that were completely inaccessible in the world of aggressive in-line skating. You can’t really session on blades on the tiled fountain in the middle of the Galleria mall, or bust out on the rails inside of a theme park like Disney Land, or Magic Mountain. But with Soaps, I was NOW ABLE to hit ANY RAIL—anytime, anywhere! I was even able to grind on random-ass objects like LOGS, or secret hidden rails on hiking trails like the ones inside Yosemite National Park. You could grind ANYTHING!

Read the full interview here:
http://www.taktika.lv/jaunumi/intervija-ar-ryan-jaunzemis/

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