Alli Tong: Been Good

Alli Tong and I met for the first time on a skate trip in Vegas while filming for the Fast Forward video back in 2022. Her quirkiness and general pep she maintained through hard slams and team turmoil led me to believe she was not of the human form. I’m still not convinced otherwise, but regardless, today we talk about industry woes, skate culture concerns, and breaks—the injury and emotional kind.

Photography by Erick Garcia

How are you? What’s new in your world?
Everything’s been good. I’m single. I’ve been single for a little while now. Forget if we’ve talked about that.

We have not. The last time we talked relationship stuff was when I was in San Francisco for Issue 2.
Oh my God. It’s been a long time. Well, my ex and I broke up with each other in April-ish, but nothing bad though. We became distant towards each other. And then I just felt like my mental health wasn’t in check, and I couldn’t really figure that out while I was with him. So, I’ve definitely figured it out better this time.

Are you single and ready to mingle, or are you still wanting to take a break from all that?
I was checked out for a couple months but then I was like, “You know what? I’m chilling.” I still feel like I’m not wanting anything serious. Just keep it casual, or at least go on dates with people I feel worthy of. But yeah, no, nothing super serious. There’s someone who I’m talking to that’s not a skater, they don’t do anything, they’re totally not the kind of person I go for, but they’re really into me and I’m like… “Oh, wow.”

Yeah, dating can be a double-edged sword. For people that don’t know you, how did you get into skating in the first place?
I was just driving with my family, we were in a typical area that we would frequent, and there was a skateshop. I saw these really pretty colored boots, and I was like, “Whoa, those are bright. Wait, they’re roller skates?”

That’s crazy.
I found them naturally. I had never seen any videos prior. I just saw a shop with colored boots and I was like, “Yo, that’s dope. Why don’t we have more of these?” I found out later they were like $300.

So you didn’t buy the pair on the spot?
Mm-mm. I have a better story for that.

What is it?
Okay, so I was digging around on Facebook Marketplace. This was in 2019. I found a pair of pink Lolly’s for like $200. I was begging this lady, mind you, I’m a college student at this point. So she’s like, “Oh, I don’t know if I could trust you. You seem really young. I know rumors of people getting scammed for lower prices.” And I’m like, “I am simply just a college student trying to see if you can make a deal.” Finally, she was like, “Okay, yeah, we’ll meet on this day.” And we settled on $150.

I was somehow finding ways to make money because I was a lifeguard or a swimming coach back then. We eventually met for the transaction. I was with my mom and dad and I brought $150, and she was like, “Keep the $50. I’ll sell them to you for a hundred, because you brought cash.” I was like, “What? Really?” She’s like, “Yeah. Happy Birthday!” Then my mom said to her, “Thank you so much for agreeing to that.” And I was like, “Wait, what?” So, it turned out my mom messaged her on the side and said, “Hey, my daughter really wants this for her birthday. It’s kind of a graduation/birthday gift.” So that’s why the lady agreed to sell them to me. I went off to San Jose State that same summer fall, and I started riding them. So yeah, that was how I found out about roller skating, and that’s how I got my first pair.

Okay. So that’s crazy. Your mom stepped it up and made it happen.
Yeah, exactly. I really wanted them, but damn.

That’s awesome though. When you got your skates, when was the first time that you saw people at the skatepark or street skating or whatever that made you say, “Wait, I want to do that”?
Well, I think since I was skating around campus, someone actually showed me Estrojen’s Bones video. It must’ve been a random skateboarder or one of my friends that showed me, but I was like, “Oh my gosh, she’s jumping huge gaps in the street. What the hell?” I saw her just having fun and rolling around. I think I also remember seeing that Moxi edit of them skating with their friends. Actually, I think I saw you in it, too.

Yeah, there was a team video. Bambi and I had a duo part in it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also remember seeing your tutorial videos teaching people how to skate.

Wow, that’s kind of crazy to think about because you’re such a great skater. I can’t imagine my tutorials had been part ofyour journey.
Oh yeah. I was like, “Oh, this is cool. That’s how you do it. I mostly just learned by myself though. And sort of just seeing what people did on the internet and trying it.

So, if you got your skates in 2019, you’ve only been skating for around five years?
Mm-hmm.

I remember you telling me you had a break pretty early on when you first started, right?
Yeah, my ankle. I did that twice actually.

Oh my God. I don’t think I realized that you broke your ankle twice. Was it the same ankle?
No, it was first my right ankle because I think I switched feet. I was all wobbly because I wasn’t comfortable with my left foot dominant. So I switched feet, thinking, Oh, maybe this way is better. I had my Lolly’s then, so you can imagine how unstable I was the whole time. It’s like fucking slipping in socks. I was going fakie, not looking at all. Which is another thing. I don’t understand how people don’t fucking look backwards.

I know. Whenever I see people doing that, I’m like, “Oh, so you just advanced with your tricks, but not the basics?”
Yeah, exactly. I can get more into this, but once you figure out the proper way to do things, it gets so much easier and safer.

When I started skating, the basics were pretty much all we had. How to pump forward and backwards, how to do your shit both fakie and forward. Now I feel like the sport is so much more advanced that when people start skating, they’re like, “Oh, I want to do all this cool shit.” and skip right past the basics. I’m not shitting on people that are skating that way, but I think because the bar has been raised so much higher, people are just excited to unlock all this shit and they’re kind of forgetting about having a really strong foundation.
Yeah, totally. That’s also a reason why I started rollerblading, because I was like, “Well, if I can be comfortable on one, then I should be comfortable doing it on another, and I should be able to practice different variations of balance.” So it helped me, like for one, I used to pump so fucking ass backwards, and just to get to a stall, I would jump to the stall.

I used to do that too.
Yeah, you don’t think about it, but the transition will literally take you where you need to go, as long as you just push at the right time. It’s timing and it’s knowing the right way to use your body. When I first started blading, I was just jumping to everything, and my friend Walter, he was like, “No, no, no, no, no. Just pump all the way to the top, and once you start pumping to the top, then you can move your hips to make you slide, and you don’t have to do anything. You don’t even have to move.” I’m like, “Oh, I’ve never done that before. I’ve just been kind of hoping I get there.” It’s so counterintuitive because you do so much work, and all for nothing.

That’s so true. I feel like a lot of the bad habits I had when I started just created more work for myself. Like, I would jump up to the coping instead of fully riding it. I would step on one foot after the other into grinds on ledges and rails, which is just harder, honestly. Anyway, we got distracted. You were skating backwards, not looking behind yourself. And then?
And then my right foot wobbled, and I got scared and I immediately tripped backwards and sat on it the wrong way.

Ugh. That’s the worst.
Yeah, it was really bad. I got out of the bowl and I was like, “Oh, my ankles flopping. That thing is broken.”

Jesus. And then you broke your other one in rollerblades?
Yeah, I was doing cess slides down the quarter. I went a little too counterclockwise and slipped out. I put my left foot behind me thinking I was going to catch myself but I sat on it wrong. I twisted it, and it broke. And I immediately…

Did you know right away that it was broken?
Totally, yeah. It was like an electric shock in my brain that was like, “You just fucked up.” Then I was like, “No, no, no.”

Oh, no.
I screamed, “I broke it!” It was immediate.

Fuck.
That was a sad time. Thankfully, it wasn’t my right leg. I could still drive.

Yeah, that makes a huge difference.
And it made me really grateful for walking. It makes you realize how much you should be grateful for your body.

There’s some positives that come out of injuries. This is interesting though because you take the hardest slams and always laugh it off. I’ve also never seen you react over not being able to land something. I remember before I got to know you better, I was talking to Megan after a trip and I said, “Alli’s a robot. I’ve never seen her get frustrated or express pain.” I’ve taken photos of your legs multiple times because you’d have crazy road rash or bruises all over, you don’t really wear protective gear and then you’d take the gnarliest slam to your kneecaps and act like it didn’t even happen. I would just leave the trip like, “She might be a robot. She’s AI. I don’t understand.”
Okay, if I had to really think about it, I think it comes from maybe just my culture. It’s like we’re not to express emotion or pain. I try to be seen as a strong person but sometimes it doesn’t look like I have a lot of feelings at all, but I do. I definitely am very emotional. I will cry about something I feel is terrifying, scary, which could be a trick. Like that fucking rail, the rail ender in Fast Forward. That was probably the main one. And just anything really intimidating I’m like, “Oh my God, I probably should be more excited about that.”

When it comes to slams, I think I just enjoy feeling like I’m a little crazy and I just laugh about it because I’m like, “Oh, I just escaped that. That’s cool.” Yeah, it’s a great feeling. So yeah, I don’t know. That’s a very hard question to answer. I can’t answer that well.

No, that does make sense. You also never involve yourself in drama. I think that can be misunderstood as like being aloof but I think you’re actually pretty aware of it all.
It’s maybe a thing from swimming, it’s very sports of me… You want to have excellent sportsmanship and I’ve experienced really shitty sportsmanship where people just like, brush you off and turn away because either I beat them or we were really close and they win. After every race, I would reach over the lane and try to shake their hand and say, “Good race. You did amazing,” and just reassure people and not be overexcited over what just happened, but then show it later and be proud of it later. But that just might be what I’m conditioned to do, is to show a neutral side or just be positive and then the end. When drama happens around me, I feel like it’s better to just keep the peace. And I never really crash out over not getting a trick because it doesn’t do me any good. When I see other people do it, I kinda just laugh inside because that’s a little insane.

My toxic trait is the absolute meltdowns that I have over not being able to land something, but it’s never directed at a person. It’s always directed at myself. But I agree, it’s definitely toxic. So, you skate for Moonshine. How unique do you feel it is to have a sponsor that supports both your blading and quad skating? A lot of the quad and blade brands are very specific to their discipline since there isn’t a lot of crossover with hardware. Unless it’s like bearings.
Yeah, totally. Honestly, I wasn’t really into Moonshine beforehand, but some of my local friends, like Biz, Stephen Babcock are part of it. They’re really, really good skaters and really good people. So I was like, “Oh, well, it would be cool if they included roller skating.” And then they talked about it and were like, “Oh, Alli does both. Why can’t we invite her on the team?” I feel like it’s such an honor to be part of it. I get really good responses from everyone about
being on rollerblades and roller skates. If anything, it just makes them more excited to see what can be possible for us. I wish more people had crossovers.

Speaking of crossover, what are your thoughts on Quad Cup? Obviously Quad Cup and Blading Cup were once together, and then last year they decided to separate. Then, this year we didn’t even have one. I mean, I guess this is a bigger topic, but do you think the industry got a little bit too big for its britches? Acting like we didn’t need the support from other sports anymore. That was a bit premature in my opinion.
Yes. Oh my God, yes. I think we got so hyped up, which ego boosted the Quad Cup brand so much, and then they were like, “Now we could do our own thing.” Roller skating got so big during COVID just because it was so accessible. You would see roller skates in ads. Then it just fizzled out.

I feel like when Quad Cup was combined with Blading Cup, people were flying in from different countries. I think knowing that there was going to be a lot of fucking people attending because the two sports were mixed together created a big draw. I found it to be inspiring sitting there amongst hundreds of other quad skaters watching the bladers compete, and then they reciprocated the same support to us. Since we hadn’t had a Quad Cup before that, we didn’t realize how special the moment was and what their support was really doing for us. When it separated from them, the event became something completely different. I still give a lot of credit to the people that ran Quad Cup because I know it’s a lot of hard fucking work and it’s very difficult to rally people to come out, but personally feel like the separation was a huge mistake. I fear we won’t experience that same energy again, though I hope I’m wrong.
Yeah, I agree. I had barely been rollerblading less than a year at that point. And just everyone knowing I’m not predominantly a rollerblader, I’m a roller skater first, the crowd was so excited to see me do anything. They were just like, well, she’s just having fun and just trying to be who she wants to be. That sparked so much joy, just because I know there’s support on both sides and acceptance on both sides. But I guess two years later when roller skating started branching off to do their own events, I think they really thought there was going to be those massive turnouts, but no rollerbladers were invited to Quad Cup. We just kind of stepped on an existing event.

It feels like we kind of slapped them in the face a bit. It’s not just Blading Cup either. There’s Montreal Cup, The Franky Morales competition, Metro Card. All these events that invited us to have our own section, then we do our events and they’re not allowed. We’ll jump on the opportunity to be a part of something that they’ve created, but then when we create something, we’re gatekeep it. I understand the roller skating industry can do so much on its own and I understand that desire for roller skating to be its own thing, but we don’t need to shut other industries out. Collaboration can still be beneficial.
I don’t find it fair. I judge a lot of my skating based on skill, style points do count too, but that rollerblading mindset made me a better skater. Which is pretty challenging for some people to understand. They’re like, “It’s based off energy.” I’m like, “Yeah, but did they land anything?” I’m one of those people that are like, you can’t roll in. You got to lock in and grind it all the way.

Do you hear this everybody? Make sure you hit up Alli in her DMs and send her death threats.
I’m going to get canceled. But see, this is where you lift up the sport… if you want it to be a sport. I don’t know. Can you repeat the question? Did I go off-topic again?

No, you’re good. I agree with what you’re just saying. I think standards will always be a hot topic. But that’s for another tangent entirely.

So, I’ve been trying to reflect on this… I can’t figure out if we have a skewed or jaded perspective on the industry, or if it’s the reality. Because of the experiences that we’ve gone through and seeing the industry fluctuate, it makes me feel like it’s bleeding. Skating isn’t growing the way that it used to. The energy is not great either. I see people competing more with each other than ever before. Not in a competition setting…
In a personal setting.

Yeah. There’s fractures in groups, there’s tension and toxicity. But is my vision impaired because we’re so “in it?” Because maybe other people don’t see as much of the bullshit, so the skating culture still looks great to them. I don’t know. What are your thoughts?
I think it depends. There are people that want to push the sport technically or love skating for the creativity side, but I think we’ve lost it a bit. And I’ll say, I think some brands are doing a good job. But a lot of skaters and brands have high expectations that take some of the magic out of it. I just do it because it’s fun and I sometimes get money. But I don’t expect anything out of that and I’m not expected to push out content all the time.

I’d say pre-pandemic, basically none of us had paid opportunities. I could count on two fingers how many people were actually getting paid to skate for a brand before. Of course, many of us were like, “Yeah, it would be great if we were paid to skate. What a dream.” but probably didn’t actually expect it to happen so there were more people skating just for the love of it, or to inspire others.

Now that we’ve seen that dream can be possible, it’s like the pressure as well as the entitlement is at an all time high. Maybe this happens to every industry. Maybe these are the growing pains, but I’m not seeing the growth I would have expected.

I started Fantom because not many skaters or brands gave a shit about street skating and I wanted them to care. All anybody wants to do now is street skate. So that’s growth, for sure. There have been more videos released and more skate teams, I always wanted that, that’s growth, too. But I also see brands struggling or even ending. I don’t see many new skaters popping up and I don’t see many innovative products in the works.
I have some sort of news that I don’t know if I’m allowed to say, but I can say to you personally, but not on record.

*secrets told*

What do you think would help the industry and culture get back to a more wholesome, inspiring place?
More local competitions. People get so fucking anal about how we should do competitions. I think if you want to do a competition, just fucking try. Just do it. Just get it going because it’ll bring people together. And then after, if it’s not great, figure out how to do better.

There’s also so much data that we need to grow that people are kind of just gate-keeping. If you think you have a good idea, put it out there, try it. So what, people get mad. This is still new for us to figure out.

Yeah I feel like another thing really hurting the culture is the way people are quick to attack everything. A lot of people are hesitant to host events, start a brand, put out something new, whatever, because there’s so many reactive people. You can’t breathe in the wrong direction without getting backlash. I just feel like we need to chill the fuck out. The toxicity in roller skating could be what kills it.
Yeah, exactly. A lot of people have opinions about shit like, “I need to be heard!” You can be heard but be respectful and mindful. There’s a lot of youngins that act that way, too.

Yeah, for sure. It’s that sense of entitlement. It’s also sometimes coming from a different generation. And when the sport dies and they don’t have any brands left to choose from, they’re going to cry about it later. “I wish there were more events! I wish there were more brands! Why is there only one boot brand for me to buy from?” Well, because of you, you did that. If you don’t put in the effort to help guide the industry in a positive direction, then you’re just being counterproductive and making noise.
Yeah exactly. The people that hate the most usually don’t even know what they’re talking about. They have opinions about standards when they aren’t the ones competing or want to hate on brands but don’t have any experience with running a brand.

Totally. Shifting gears, we haven’t seen much street skating from you lately. Is there something that you’ve been working on or have you been taking a break from filming?
I definitely took a break from street skating. It was taxing on my body, so I’ve just been focusing on re-loving park skating and enjoying skating for skating. I don’t know, I keep seeing lots of the bullshit and honestly, it bums me out a lot. Not as bad anymore, I feel like I’ve grown from that. But it’s definitely a hard relationship to look at. It’s hard to not feel like some people sold out and then other people just kinda gave up. And it’s like, this is not cool anymore.

I think the best way to heal though is to take your break from it and also learn to love it again by just being around people that uplift you and that actually care about you personally. Not because of who or what you’re affiliated with, but because of who you are as a person. And that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been hanging out with people I really love to be around and finding places I like to skate at and relearning how to love transition or just getting my strength back and working on the gym and therapy, talking a lot in therapy.

Same.
It’s almost like a fucking breakup. You have to re-root yourself.

For sure. That’s what I’m trying to do, too. I took three months off skating to sort out a lot of what was in my head. Once I decided to take a few steps away from the industry, I had to go through the grieving process. Skating has made up so much of my identity, stepping away from it in any capacity feels like stepping away from a huge piece of who I am. I was kind of like fucked up over it for awhile. I was lost. Honestly I still am. The last 13 years of my life have pretty much been all about skating. But when I started feeling hollow towards it, I knew I needed a break. Everything you just said is so important. Re-grounding yourself with other activities that make you happy, spending time with people that you feel good around, and releasing that pressure we tend to put on ourselves is really the best way to rediscover the love you have for skating.
We got this. We got to be around the good people.

Is there anything that you hope to work on soon? Do you have ideas for any projects? Or are you still re-rooting?
Oh, yes. Well, for this feature with you, I want to try to get some video clips if the spots are cool. We’ll see about that. I’ll have to figure it out by Sunday because that’s the day I’m going out. But I don’t know, I’ve been invited to be in certain parts with people. I have people I could film with. I just haven’t really made the time to do that. I do have this one spot I really, really, really want to skate. It’s a really long rail. I think it’s probably the longest rail, if not second-longest rail I’ve ever done, but there’s a lot of potential for this. I don’t ever see people skate it, and it looks really cool.

I’ve always wanted to do my own video part with both rollerblades and roller skates. So that’s something I want to work on, eventually. I just have to create the list of spots and days that I can get this done. But I have no real
motivation right now just because I am still trying to figure out if I want to continue doing extreme shit or just flow.

Yeah. I’m right there with you. But as someone who loves videos, I feel like it would be pretty epic if you did your idea of the mixed discipline video.
Yeah. If a pro wheel comes out, then I’ll definitely do another video.

Hell, yeah. Are you still working crazy hours or did you find a balance?
I’m getting a second job in San Francisco, and once I start that job and I get more comfortable there, I want to work more in San Francisco. I work in two different cities right now and my schedule might just get even busier, but I still make time to skate on Wednesdays. I still make time to try to take vacations, and if I know at least two or three weeks in advance, I can always schedule up time.

That’s cool. Are you working in the field you went to school for, which is design, right?
Yeah, no, I’m not. I’m working in a restaurant right now and it’s paying really well. It’s fun. I feel like as a busy-body skater, working in a restaurant’s pretty similar. It’s high energy. Customer service is easy for me and I like food. I get good food and I get tips and it’s awesome.

I’m happy that’s working out for you then. Okay, my last question to wrap everything up, since we talked so much about the industry, where do you hope to see things go? Are you invested enough in skating still that you have hopes and dreams for it or do you just not really give a shit anymore?
I do still give a shit about it. When I was at Warped Tour, I was talking to this girl, her name’s Allysha Le, she’s best friends with Lizzie Armanto, and she invited me into the fucking van because we had been messaging each other back and forth, and she was like, “Oh, I’m surprised that roller skates aren’t on the vert ramp right now.” I’m like, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s up with that.” I wish that roller skating was a little bit more popular.

One day, I would really love to see a roller skate demo at Warped Tour or more concerts or festivals in general. Maybe in gaming events too or something. I wish more people from entertainment companies were reaching out to us because there are really hardcore skaters out there, but our industry is just so small and we don’t have enough support or acknowledgement to be there.

And I do think, for one, if we can build better equipment like a universal plate system, a UFP or whatever you want to call it, some sort of technology that will make hardware more efficient for mounting. It’s still so fresh and I do think there are processes that we’re working on to get there, but it’s so slow and we’re putting in so much money with so little return. It doesn’t seem impossible. I think we could get more people into skating if we just start doing more things for it. I keep hearing about shops closing down and I keep hearing about businesses being shut down because they’re like, “I can’t afford this. Nothing’s happening.” The people that do really fucking care about it are doing all they freaking can to keep it alive and the skaters like us that are still around are also doing everything they can to keep it alive. I still think it can do good, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

I want to include more sports too. I want to include scooters. I want to include BMX. I want to include people with their cultures combined with ours, so that we can build more influence around us. So I’ve been really enjoying just doing any kind of skit at the park involving any discipline, whatever you got. I really enjoy doing silly skits and making some sort of engagement on Instagram, because honestly, Instagram algorithms are really fucked. I was interested in getting a microphone to do maybe tutorials or just blogging-type stuff.

I think all of that are pretty good hopes and dreams for the industry and also very achievable. I think we just have to have the right people putting their energy in the right places.
It is a lot of work for everyone to try to do, but it’s not impossible. What if we made a Jackass for roller skates? I don’t know. I don’t fucking know. Also, just saying in general, I think we need to normalize skatepark…

Edits?
Edits.

Although street is mostly my thing, there is something to really appreciate about park skating because you can be so creative and flowy. A legit edit would be cool.
Yes! I got to put together more ideas for park edits because they’re so fun.

Well I hope to see one from you then.