Rambles About Soul Skating (and Why Disney Channel Movies Were My Jam)

The year was 1998 and there was nothing I looked forward to more than rushing home and watching the latest Disney Channel movie. My childhood wasn't that awesome, I guess. Then again, it was pretty awesome because these movies were my jam. We're talking classics such as Smart House, Luck of the Irish, and of course Brink! which was all about rollerblading and friendship or something along those lines.

If you don't remember the general plot (I don't blame you if you don't) it's all about a kid named Andy Brinker (such a good name) and his skate crew who were all about just skating for fun. A movie would be boring with just that so enter former friend Val from Team X-Bladz who causes all sorts of trouble for them. He even swooped on their pit time!

The good news is despite their hardship against Val and his crew that there is a happy ending and everyone learns about the value of friendship and skating. When I first watch the film so many years ago, I was inspired to take up rollerblading myself and find my own soul skating crew.

That was about seventeen years ago and I'm here to tell you that I gave up on that dream immediately. As it turns out, I don't have stunt doubles in my life and soul skating actually required work and practice which were two things that didn't register in my nine year old brain. That didn't matter because Brink! was still awesome so I settled for reruns and living vicariously through the characters instead.

That was the effect those movies had on me. As a kid they made me believe that I could probably pull something off if I believed in myself enough (except for being a leprechaun). They were fun and I miss them and as I looked for these clips and relived those childhood memories, a part of me almost wanted to dig up my rollerblades that were two sizes too big at the time, put them back on, and put my soul skating back out there.

Then I remembered that that's a horrible idea and I have to go to work and I can't do that if I hurt myself by face planting on the sidewalk.

Also rollerblading isn't cool anymore. Neither is using a capital 'X' in the word eXtreme.

Good times, though.