EWNB Orignal Design t-shirts by Kathy Kilgore

It all started in 2006 when Rob Cusmano was throwing ideas around with Kathy of Rollermagic. The first event was simple, have a skating event to bring skaters back to the rink. The first session had 80 people as a reunion skate for all the closed rinks in NJ.  Rob held an EWNB event three times a year in the winter months through 2006 & 2007, each time more skaters came out.

 Rob wanted more,something bigger,better & to last for future Generations.

It was time to take a break & figure a way to take this to the next level.

Not long after the last EWNB in 2007 a new Rink was set to open in the Summer,Rollerjam USA was a fresh new & different idea for the Skating community.

Rob decided to take that break in 2008 from EWNB to enjoy Rollerjam's opening.

In 2008, Facebook really took off in popularity. Rob started many groups for the past rinks in the NJ/NYC area looking for that way to take EWNB to the next level, This allowed many people to find each other and talk about days past in our youth skating 3-5 times a week. At the same time, Michael Southworth was doing the same thing on Facebook with groups. Some of the groups Rob and Michael had started were combined to one group. Rob’s home rink was United Skates of America in Edison, NJ, and Michael’s was America on Wheels in Livingston, NJ.

All of the roller rink groups on Facebook were growing rapidly, many posting pics and comments about days past. In the Livingston group, many had suggested a reunion. Michael had some conversations with Rob via email about planning a reunion for Livingston and was looking to Rob for pointers since he had done sessions in 2006 & 2007. Rob suggested that Michael get a feel for how many wanted a reunion session. So a simple announcement to meet in May of 2009 at the monthly adult session at the rink in Hackettstown, NJ, was put out to the Livingston group. Michael met Rob at the session and they spoke about how many would show up, and talked more about doing a reunion. For being on a Thursday night there were 30+ people who showed up from Livingston to skate. Everyone had a great time.

Rob and Michael talked more about doing a reunion and decided to do something larger, a session for all of the closed rinks in NJ. They figured with everyone on Facebook they would have a good turn out. But when and how soon could it be planned? With the opening of Rollerjam USA 2 years in the rear view & the Novelty wearing off Rob called Michael on July 2, 2009 and said, “Let’s do this!” Rob had a date, September 20th, and they both had 75 days to plan the event and get people there. And so it began.
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 2009
EWNB Date: September 20, 2009 1st annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

This was the first Skating Reunion for rinks closed in NJ. It was a semi-party type event, the official EWNB in 2009. Rob and Michael knew that music and a live DJ were going to be key to the success of the event. Rob suggested DJ LEFTY (formally of RollerJam) for this event. DJ LEFTY kept the skating floor moving all night.  People were encouraged to bring food and come and skate with a live DJ. Who knew Rob and Michael would arrive at the rink at 4pm to start the setup and find 120 people tailgating in the parking lot. For the first year, EWNB had 350+ skaters. Most of these skaters had not skated in years. This was a huge, successful event. At one point, Rob,Michael & Kathy were standing by the wall looking at the floor of skaters shuffling, happy with the success of the session.

Kathy ,manager of Rollermagic,was a huge part in the creation of EWNB.

They were just getting started.

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2010
EWNB Date: September 19, 2010 2nd annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

This was dubbed another reunion event, much the same theme as 2009. People were once again asked to bring food, and DJ LEEFTY kept the floor moving all night. Since word had gotten out about the success of the 2009 session, more skaters made an appearance at this reunion event. Three different T-shirts from some of the rinks plus a memorial shirt for the closed rinks were offered this year. The event was, once again, a huge success.

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2011
EWNB Date: September 25, 2011 3rd annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

With the success of the two years prior, Rob and Michael knew they needed to make some changes. There was some concern, however, that changes might alter the event in a negative way. One change they knew had to be done was bringing in a different DJ. They needed a DJ that knew about music that you could skate to, but also about skating in general. It was decided to bring in America on Wheels, Livingston Roller Rink’s own DJ, Chris Camsuo. It was also decided not to promote the event as a reunion. Not that it wasn’t still a gathering of old friends, but many of the people that had come to the first two years were now skating at their local rinks more. They were, in a sense, becoming regulars again.  The first official event T-shirt was offered with many sold. Most of the skaters were even wearing the shirt to the event. DJ Chis Camuso kept the floor rolling all night! This year turned out to be an even bigger success.

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2012
EWNB Date: September 23, 2010 4th annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

This year the planning started early, because Rob and Michael knew more changes were needed.

The changes were small overall, but made a big impact, moving away from the reunion status completely. This was now an annual skating event that was bigger than a reunion. Since many are now traveling to the EWNB event, skaters are looking to skate more than just EWNB on Sunday. RollerJamUSA is a great rink with a great atmosphere, imagine a night club that is a skating rink. Rob and Michael recommended everyone go to RollerJamUSA on Saturday night as a warm up skate to EWNB. Now for the biggest change and really, quite frankly a scary one, were the changes in the DJ booth. It was obvious that a single DJ playing for 4-5 hours was a long time for one person. The DJ needed a break. So Rob and Michael went with two DJs, yep two. Again with DJ Chris Camuso with the addition of DJ Justin Klassner. The event had gotten so big that Rob and Michael were too busy to keep everything running and the DJs were busy playing the music that kept the floor moving. What Rob and Michael needed was a voice for EWNB. Enter lifetime skater, DJ and MC, Michael DelTufo, also known as DJ Michael D or, in this case, MC Michael D. Michael is a DJ, who has a weekly show online. Michael skated at America on Wheels, Livingston, working at that rink for many years. MC Michael D was super excited to do this session. Again, an event T-shirt was designed and it was the most successful T-shirt to date. This session was absolutely amazing. The DJs kept the floor moving. MC Michael D kept everything flowing. With the success of this event, Rob and Michael knew they were perfecting this annual session.

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2013
EWNB Date: September 22, 2013 5th annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

More changes were needed when Rob and Michael realized that they had been doing this for four years and this year five. Wow! Where did the time go? The real question was what else could they change? Unsure on what needed to be changed, planning started for 2013 less then 30 days after the 2012 session ended. With the addition of MC Michael D and his enthusiasm for the annual session, it was easy to see he was a hit. But Rob and Michael felt they were still off in the music. Close but off. After much conversation and searching, a solution was found. DJ Chris Camuso is a great DJ, and knows old school music and can mix it like no other. But a different edge was needed. Enter DJ Chilly Willy (Joe Martin). Joe, like Chris, has been in a rink all his life, working, managing, and as a DJ. Now for this to work, MC Michael D, and both DJs had to make to work together. Guess what? HOLY SHIT did it work. These three guys were just incredible bringing what each of them does well and made it better. A huge change and a huge success!

 Lets not forget 
Patrick J Guice helping set up and use of he Awesome Audio equipment.
Next scary thing, EWNB went full private party, that means Rob and Michael had to provide everything; drinks, food, plates, knives, cawfee, ice, napkins, etc, and unless you’ve done it once for 500+ people, you have no idea how much and how daunting a task it is. But they did it and hit it out of the park! Food for everyone was now covered under the single admission price, another successful T-shirt for the event, door prizes, giveaways, 50/50, and stickers. They had local cable channel 12 News come and do a story on the event and a film crew to interview skaters and document the event. For the first time, with so many out of state skaters coming, an official hotel for was designated for the EWNB event. A discounted block of rooms provided an official place for everyone to stay coming to the event from out of town. This hotel was chosen specifically for it's location to South Amboy RollerMagic and RollerJamUSA. With skaters going to RollerJamUSA on Saturday before EWNB, it made sense to have everyone located between the two rinks. This is just some of the changes.

What a success for 2013.
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2014
EWNB Date: September 21, 2014 6th annual Eight Wheels No Brakes Event
Location: South Amboy RollerMagic

 EWNB Pre-Party date: September 20, 2014 RollerJam Skaters session
Location: RollerJam USA

Rob and Michael were amazed at the 2013 session, but they had a huge problem they needed to fix. The entry line. It took over an hour for everyone to get in the rink in 2013. Selling tickets, ripping tickets, signing waivers, etc…. People were missing up to an hour of the session. Keep in mind that when people got to the rink they skated the whole session. So as planning started less than 30 days after the 2013 session, they knew that a new entry system was needed. But how to do it? After a few months of investigating, a solution was found. Online VIP ticket sales that would scan at the door just like concert style ticketing. But this infrastructure had to be built, purchased, and managed. Michael spent a few months working on the web side and deign while Rob worked on the back end. In a few months, everything was ready to go. On August 11, 2014 at 8pm the online VIP ticket sales site became active. In the days leading up to the event, 180 people purchased online VIP tickets. Next big change, everyone that comes to NJ for this event usually skates Friday night and Saturday night at RollerJamUSA prior to EWNB. This year with the help of RollerJamUSA on Staten Island, NY the first official pre-party to EWNB was started. This was a skaters only session, no rental skates were available, no parties during the session, just skaters. RollerJamUSA house DJ Tito Ramirez was amazing all night along with, for the first time in RollerJam, a MC for the session. MC Michael D hosted the night. For five hours MC Michael D and DJ T kept the floor moving and everyone pumped up. At the 2am closing there were still over 100 skaters on the floor after 5 hours. Come Sunday at 5pm, it was time to open the VIP line door and test the VIP ticket scanning. Michael went outside and saw the 180 peeps in line and was very nervous to see how this was going to work.  The ticket girls were able to scan VIP tickets, ticket swap, collect the waivers and get everyone in the door in 20 minutes. 180 people in 20 minutes. For the first time MC Michael D had to keep people off the floor till 5:30 when the session started. VIP tickets sale was a huge success.  Music this year was a repeat, DJ Chris Camuso, DJ Chilly Willy (Joe Martin) and MC Michael D. Some changes in the music for the session, the entire session was recorded including ambient mics on the skating floor.  MC Michael D provided radio style voiceovers to announce the session and DJs.  Comments this year about the music? All great. Most were, “This was the best music of any session I have been to.” Not one negative comment on the music.  Again this session was a private party with food and drinks provided, and the EWNB event hotel was even bigger on booked rooms. EWNB saw groups of people traveling from 17 states to attend the session.

 

The 2014 event was the most successful of all.  Even though the key players involved got all the thanks, this session could not have been done without all the help from everyone behind the scenes.

The South Amboy Rollermagic staff was amazing. Year after year they continue to impress the EWNB team and most importantly the skaters.

Paul Emerson has always been the biggest supporter of the event and has also turned into a great session photographer. We may have to add him to the EWNB staff as the photographer. But as an avid skater at EWNB we would never ask that of him.

The T-shirt team every year consists of Jenn, Wendy, and Kim.

Jackie Cusmano, one of the biggest cheerleaders of EWNB as well as her newly skate addicted best friend Krysten. Andy Bruckner as the NC Skater Dudes voice and major supporter of EWNB. Ron Goldsmith and Helen Nixon of the Boogie Down skaters in Atlanta GA is also another huge supporter.

Jim, Darlene, Mark, and Jessica Lynn for just helping wherever a hand was needed.

The VIP scanning team; Becca, Lynn, Lori, Ally, and Veo.

Plus everyone else that assisted at the event that wasn't specifically mentioned above.

Rob and Michael have much gratitude for all of you who have attended over the years.

2013 & 2014 were interesting to say the least.

Thank you all & let's see what changes are in store for 2015 for all the skaters. Oh, by the way, planning for 2015 EWNB started with Rob and Michael at the diner immediately following the 2014 EWNB session. Yep, it started within an hour of the 2014 session ending.

Keep Rollin Everyone!