I first met Steve last year, as he was enjoying a jam during a social skate meet.

I can honestly tell you that Steve is one of the warmest and most open hearted skaters you could ever hope to meet. He's someone that really loves to jam skate. If you've ever met Steve, you'll know that he's always ready to throw down his middle work in his hockey skate conversions, teach you what he knows and learn a new move - so long as it's rhythmic. 

Funnily enough, he wasn't always into the jam skating. He started out as a long distance skater 40 odd years ago, and yep, he went on to set a world record! 

"I'll tell you the experience was amazing, especially Scotland, the mountains, you could just see mountains basically. Yeah, the experience was really good. I was doing like 98 miles a day, you know. Nine days, ten hours, 25 minutes."

~Steve

7 Questions

Q.1 How did you get into roller skating?

 
"I used to watch a group called Roxy Rollers, the professional dance group in Battesea Park. I used to live in Battesea then, and then yeah, I used to go over to Battesea to watch them, and it inspired me to be like them. They were a professional dance group back in the 80s, One of them was in Scum Film, an actor and dancer called Peter Francis. Yeah, so, you know, it was really good. Yeah, so that's what inspired me.

Then on my first skates as a joke, I actually got these blue and yellow skates from Shelly's on the Kings Road. Yeah. Yeah, mad! They cost about, 40 quid, 50 quid, something like that, the wheels are a bit slow, but, you know, I was only at beginning then. I was like 18."

Q.2 Were you a part of a skating community back in the 80's?

"Yeah, I was around with a lot of other skaters, they would all end up in Battesea Park. You had all different street hockey players that used to play at Battesea Park. You know, street warriors, they were the best in Europe. And then that inspired me more so to get better, because I was watching other skaters, you know, skating around, doing their thing. And they used to have cars and music, you know, playing the music, and that was really good. I actually got into street hockey a little bit. I was with Batsy Street Snakes. And then the team sort of faded out and then I got into long distance skating."

 "You know, my first journey was like London to Brighton. So I started doing that, you know, raising money for charities. I was training in a gym, doing leg weights, skipping, you know, all sorts. Yeah, I had a good teacher called Mark Linden. He was the trainer at Battesea Sports Centre."

Q.4 How did your idea to break a World Record come about?

"Well, it's funny, when I was at school, I used to look at all of the world records, believe it or not. Theodore James Coom, skated from New York to Kansas City and back. l always remember that. I wanted to do something like that."

 Q.5 How did you go about putting the record attemp togther?

"I went to my youth leader and he got it in order.  This happened in 1984.

The manager of the Armdale shopping centre Jim Allen, he said, what a great idea. He got all the shops to sponsor me, you know, and Capital Radio. They all donated. David Dimbleby, he got involved as well. I got a certificate from him as well.

So anyway, they all got together and raised the money. Then I was on the journey.

I went up to Scotland before the skate. I went up there as a dummy run. We marked out all the route."

Q.6 What was the record breaking experience like?

"I'll tell you the experience was amazing, especially Scotland, the mountains, you could just see mountains basically. Yeah, the experience is really good. I was doing like 98 miles a day, you know.

Nine days, ten hours, 25 minutes. I could have done it quicker but because it was for charity, you know.

I was the first person to do John O'Growts, Scotland to Lands End, Cornwall. So that was amazing.

I had a good backup team. I had Reg Ben, Crispin Green and Matthew Mann Clark. I had a campa van where Reg Ben cooked for me, I was looked after. When I was 19, Matthew was on the road with me, making sure I was safe. He was marking out all the stoppages. Crispin Green was like more of an artist. He drew all the pictures. You know, and he was like in the background looking out for me. 

Yeah, quite a few people stopped me [to chat on the way]. I heard it on the radio. Scottish television. They come out and interviewed me.  There was John Craven News Round. It was amazing. 

Anyway, we took the wrong route and then I was skating along this road. It was massive. I was coming down the M6, on Spaghetti Junction, not meant to be on a motorway! Then a police Range Rover done the U-turn and escorted us off it. I didn't hurt myself lucky enough!

I had to jump over a cattle grid somewhere in Scotland, it was about six foot long! I just cleared it. My organisors said you shouldn't be doing that because it jeopardised the project. I think that was funny. 

You come home to a warm welcome. I felt really good, ...tight, 19, really physical and fit. Stomache was a bit tight.

After that, I ended up doing all the bridges in London, north to south. It was a group of guy, my friends from Birmingham, like Marvin, Olu, you know, a few other guys. We ended up raising money for the British Heart Foundation. 

That was good."

Q.7 So how did you go from being a long distance skater to being a jam skater?

"So, yeah, I used to go to Vauxhal, you know, roller disco. I used to go Renaisance Rooms [now  Roller Nation]. I'd see skate Lisa, we got together, started doing routines, you know, in the middle. Then I started getting into it more. It was like 11 years ago. So, we're talking about early 2000s. I'd go to Crawley Leisure Centre back in the day out of London. You know, you had loads of places. Jubilee Hall, Covent Garden, Starlight Hammersmith, you know, yeah, it used to be a lot of roller disco's.

➡️ Watch Video: Jam Skating with [Record Breaker] Steve in the Sun

I've been skating probably say about 40 years now, since the 80s. They're coming out with all these funky moves on the floor you know?Yeah, it's all changed, all different moves. I just love it, man. There's loads of moves that you could do. Yeah, like a jazz move, drop-down, come up. I used to do that. (9:33) That was wicked. Everybody knew me from that Hyde Park. But, because I can't do it now, I'm pretty frustrated. But one leg spins, they know me for that as well. I love one leg spins. There's loads of moves.

You know, that's when skating started coming back more so I think, locked down. Wow, since lockdown, it's gone crazy. Everybody's getting skates. 

I think that social media is more connected now. It's connected more people. There's Instagram and back then it wasn't wasn't like that. They're coming in hot and fast, everything's accessible. I think it's better really because it inspires more youngsters to skate. We need younger people, you know, we all got to get old and then some other generation got to take over skating. That's what I think anyway, for the community.

I'd like to see more dance groups on skates believe it or not.

All the youngsters, they're good as well. They're coming up. I've seen a lot of youngsters are really coming on, which is really good for the skating. Obviously, older the lot as well. The older lot are really into it, which I find really, really good.

It's a stress reliever in a way, also more relaxing. You know, you're in the zone, you know. I call it a passion. I've always kept going with skating. Also, I play table tennis in the league. You know, like semi-professional. I've been doing it years as well, but skating somehow is my number one.

It's my thing."

➡️ Listen via YouTube

➡️ Previous interview: 7 Questions With Roland Ramanan

➡️ Listen to the 7 Q's series on Spotify or Apple Podcast

Kelly

Cranial Osteopath | Wellbeing Coach | Roller Skate Instructor

Skate Base London

🗯️ What have you learned from Steve's story? Share them in the comments below or, leave us a lil emoji response.