Lea Dobrowski: I Did Not Fall Off, I Never Stopped and Never Will Stop Riding

[oldmanjoe]

short and sweet...
 
respect is earned, not given.
riding should be more about skills and character, than "x's and o's, penis' or holes.
 
Lea, keep up the good work on the bike but don't let fame or popularity take over.
 
sorry if you're having personal issues but we all have them...
(my house flooded 2 yrs ago, matt thomas' house was hit by the tornado last yr).
 
 your boobs and female trials are not that relevant in the overall picture, there IS such a thing as "TMI" and if you haven't figured it out yet...FORUMS LIVE FOR DRAMA!
 
hope all is better now and stays that way.

John -
I appreciate your take, and it does make a bit of sense, to a point.

I, personally, try to treat everyone with respect, up until the point where they show me they are not worthy. For example, I do not call my son's friends losers, even though some appear to be. However, after they show me their character flaws, I will.

Just because most of the women i know with fake boobs have character flaws, I'm not going to assume Lea has the same inflictment, as I have not met her. So I'll show her respect as a human being for now.

The TMI statement is likely spot on though. Talking about injuries, and managing school, work, and riding time are all valid subjects. But I really don't think anyone on this board cares about her boob doctor or anything even mildly related.

But I think it is unfair to say she shouldn't have a forum becuase she doesn't fit someone else's mold. Will she get more attention because she is a woman? Yes. Is it unfair? Maybe. Is life fair? No!

I'm willing to bet that there will be haters for Tony Hawk's son, Riley. It's not fair that he gets put on a skateboard at such an early age. It's not fair he will have the best ramps to ride and coaches to help him along. It's not fair that people will be looking at him before he has accomplished great things. But in the end, it's Riley who skates, and puts in the work.

I just find it bad form to be hating on other people who may have been lucky to get the breaks they got. Life happens, we need to worry more about ourselves, and less about others successes.

[johnu773]

short and sweet...
 
respect is earned, not given.
riding should be more about skills and character, than "x's and o's, penis' or holes.
 
Lea, keep up the good work on the bike but don't let fame or popularity take over.
 
sorry if you're having personal issues but we all have them...
(my house flooded 2 yrs ago, matt thomas' house was hit by the tornado last yr).
 
 your boobs and female trials are not that relevant in the overall picture, there IS such a thing as "TMI" and if you haven't figured it out yet...FORUMS LIVE FOR DRAMA!
 
hope all is better now and stays that way.

John -
I appreciate your take, and it does make a bit of sense, to a point.

I, personally, try to treat everyone with respect, up until the point where they show me they are not worthy. For example, I do not call my son's friends losers, even though some appear to be. However, after they show me their character flaws, I will.

Just because most of the women i know with fake boobs have character flaws, I'm not going to assume Lea has the same inflictment, as I have not met her. So I'll show her respect as a human being for now.

The TMI statement is likely spot on though. Talking about injuries, and managing school, work, and riding time are all valid subjects. But I really don't think anyone on this board cares about her boob doctor or anything even mildly related.

But I think it is unfair to say she shouldn't have a forum becuase she doesn't fit someone else's mold. Will she get more attention because she is a woman? Yes. Is it unfair? Maybe. Is life fair? No!

I'm willing to bet that there will be haters for Tony Hawk's son, Riley. It's not fair that he gets put on a skateboard at such an early age. It's not fair he will have the best ramps to ride and coaches to help him along. It's not fair that people will be looking at him before he has accomplished great things. But in the end, it's Riley who skates, and puts in the work.

I just find it bad form to be hating on other people who may have been lucky to get the breaks they got. Life happens, we need to worry more about ourselves, and less about others successes.

not hating at all joe, and i agree about "benifit of the doubt" with people until they prove themselves otherwise.  never said she doesn't "deserve a forum, thread or column" just suggesting to keep it about riding and riding related experiences since it was given to her because she's a rider (not because of her looks).
 i also dont know what you read or are assuming about saying "she doesnt deserve it because she doesnt fit the mold" because i said NOTHING like that either...please re-read what i wrote!   
 
i never assumed she had flaws because of fake boobs (never said that), what i DID say is it's really no one's business if she has fake boobs or not and she should just keep info like that to herself ( i personally dont care if they're fake, real or stuffed with tissue) it's just not riding related.
 i didnt see any "hate" i my post, so i don't know how you are seeing hate...

[Lea Dobrowski-Silva]

I obviously have to make some things clear because a lot of people don't understand what I was doing in my first column or why I did it that way, and let me make some other things clear.

I wrote that first article the way I did to air out what I knew would be said about me. There was a lot of sarcasm in that first article that quite a few people didn't grasp. I pointed out things like my boobs for instance to get it out of the way. If I call it out myself with an air of sarcasm then it means it shouldn't be a big deal, it was to acknowledge that I already know what people think of me, and have personally said to me. To be honest I wrote it out like that because I was sick of hearing about it, so my way of responding was to joke about it. If you look at the comments you will notice that the people that have rode with me tried to point out what I was doing... yet no one seemed to realize it. so I let it be, but obviously others can't either see what I was doing or let it go.

Secondly
I would like to refute the comment about how women aren't entering contests or putting out videos, because that is not true. Paula for one put's out videos throughout the year, and you can find vids of aude at contests. I have never met Erin but I respect her and her riding. She is much better than me, I have no clue if she still rides but I hope she still rides because she is an awesome rider. Monica Hinz (sp?) also goes to contests, and put's out vids, and has interviews also. Where IriNa went I am not sure, I haven't seen any new vids from her lately, but i know she too went to contests.

Third
I do my best to put entertaining articles or interviews up. Like I said I would love people to send me messages about the riders they look up to, or think deserve to be recognized. My goal is not to promote myself it is to simply promote riding, and riders. I help who I can, and I give the advice that I KNOW works for me. I will never give advice on a trick I don't know... that would just be ridiculous.

Lastly
I love my bike. Truly it kept me sane. I have had plenty of convos with riders this last year, not only did they help me cope with everything, but I have been lucky enough to say that I have helped a few get through some tough spots too. Helping a rider get motivated is a really amazing thing and pretty humbling. I appreciate all riders. I appreciate what riding does for a person, how it helps people cope, regain a sense of control, use their imagination, and appreciate the love and dedication that goes into riding. I may not be nearly as good as a lot of riders, but I sweat my butt off trying to get there. With a hectic schedule I ride as much as I can trying to get the longest sessions I can. I work my ass off on that bike I don't sit around and fiddle my thumbs. I break toes and fingers too, I tear tendons for christs sake. If that doesn't show my dedication I'm not sure what will. I care about flatland and the riders who ride flatland. I hope EVERYONE progresses even the people that talk sh*t about me.

[slcflat]

I sincerely apologize about my comment on erin.  She is an AWESOME rider and although i've never met her, I've met ed and he's got nothing bad to say about her. My post in no way was supposed to be directed at her.
it was everytime a comment was made about female riders, someone would immediately compare them the erin--like they are not worthy of anything unless they were better than "erin".  it would be awesome if you weren't allowed to write articles on flatland unless you were better than "chase" if you were a guy.

[johnu773]

Lea, all i was trying to say in my post was "keep it more bike and riding related and less girl and "girl rider" related.  that way people can respect you as a rider, not as a "female rider" or a sideshow freak.  people here tend to make the biggest deals out of the littlest things so don't feed them anything...
that was my point!

[Lea Dobrowski-Silva]

I always want to keep it about bikes, or what riding does for a person! and when I do mention female riders it is because they too deserve some recognition! If anything I want to promote it to more women so it wont be so subjective. I think that since females riding is a smaller, much smaller, minority, that sometimes those riders get talked about in the wrong way. The simple fact remains though... ROB ROE  lol... can we lighten the mood in this forum now lol

[johnu773]

i guess im the 1%  i see riders as riders, not guy riders or girl riders.  i rode with a bad ass chick from kevin porter and chris langs trails for years and respected her cuz she could jump bigger doubles than me.  yes, 99% of people freaked when i brought her to comps, jams and skateparks but oh well.  hell she actually lived with me for a year to finish school.

[Lea Dobrowski-Silva]

I think it should just be about the rider... but this is not a perfect world. It is always awesome to see a girl giving it her all and not having that thing inside that says don't do that like most women. I think women's mentality is quite different, which is proven, but I think that is why it is always rad to see a woman get out there and go head to head with the testosterone ya know. And there are some pretty awesome ramp riders that are female out there that just go nuts. It is definitely cool to see. I'm guessing your friend doesn't ride anymore?

[johnu773]

she still has her sta, but she's gotten married now and has a kid on the way.  we all still tell her that she's getting thrashed if she doesnt start riding again, but i guess it's gonna have to wait about 5 more months until the baby drops...lol

[Lea Dobrowski-Silva]

HAHaHA yeah I don't see her doing dirt jumps with a prego belly.

[johnu773]

JENNY LANDS HARD, BABY POPS OUT AND ROLLS AROUND IN THE DIRT...LMFAO!!!!!
 

[wookie]

So I've ridden with Lea quite a bit in the past couple years.  She is there to RIDE.  I know plenty of "riders" that show up and just kinda hang out and fool around but never really focus on what they are doing or really TRY to progress.  That is not Lea.

Do her articles stir up controversy?  Yep.

Why?  Because she shares too much of what she has going on and opens the door for people to pile on and start hating.  Perhaps some people feel she hasn't EARNED the right to voice her opinions and share her life outside of riding.  Well guess what....this is an internet forum and you ALL have the opportunity to start a thread about whatever the hell you want.  You also have the choice whether or not to read what she has to say.  Go ride.

Brian

[Da Jorg]

BOOM SHANKAR

[Burd]

Just for the record, I have always loved Erin's style, and it has nothing to do with her being a girl.  She has some really original stuff and is a fantastic rider IMHO.  I can't believe anyone would crack on her.

[Rad255]

TITS BRAH? FLATLANDTITSBALANCEBRAH? f*ck