“Now I can enter into ‘The Zone’ the first second I take off, and can hold onto it for about a minute at a time.” Slomo is the author of two other books, “Slomo and the New World” and “The Trials of Slomo.” He has a lot to say about it, and that’s why he wrote a book called, you guessed it, “The Zone.” Slomo knows all about it, and his in-the-zone face resembles that of an exhilarated child discovering dancing for the first time. You may experience “the zone” yourself when you’re surfing or doing yoga. Have you ever watched the NFL, and noticed that the look on some players’ faces is far different when they take their helmets off? Tom Brady and Drew Brees look wide-eyed, Russell Wilson looks almost sleepy. Slomo believes that the acceleration he feels when rollerblading, however minute, allows him to tap into a subjective meditative state. “He opened up his life, was honest and funny, and let us spend a lot of time with him.”Ĭheck out the film online and you’ll find a man experiencing a level of divinity he calls “the zone.” To hear him talk about it makes it sound like something spiritual. “He was a great subject for a documentary,” Izenberg says. Three years ago, he was the subject of an award-winning film titled, “Slomo,” created by Josh Izenberg and his team at Only Human Films, and was licensed by The New York Times.
Now, he lives a simple apartment existence and every day he carries out his favorite activity: skating. He said he loved it here, and after he quit his practice in 1998, he moved back to reinvent himself as Slomo. He didn’t live in Pacific Beach at the time, but years back, he did his residency at the San Diego Naval Hospital during the Vietnam War. John Kitchin (his real name) saw his health deteriorating, he realized he had an opportunity to start over and pursue what he truly wanted in life. On the surface this sounds like a pretty good life, but when Dr. Along the way, he acquired a lot of toys including a mansion, Ferrari and a collection of exotic animals. Most people will find it hard to believe that Slomo is a former neurologist, and a very successful one at that.įor 25 years, he worked away at his job, while his personal fulfillment queue slowly dwindled down to nothing. “It transformed the introverted man into a celebrity,” chuckles Slomo. His biggest claim to fame, as far as we know, is giving Slomo his famous name. He’d been shot in the head, which left him almost crippled, and he passed his time drowning at the bottom of a bottle. At that time, there were mostly “drunks and crazies,” and “The Creator” falls into both those categories. He tells me that when he started skating, he spent a lot of time on The Boardwalk at night. “ ‘The Creator’ gave me my name,” says Slomo. Every day for the past 20 years, he skates up and down the PB Boardwalk while listening to music that maestros a euphoric symphony of motions from his body, moving at the speed of slow motion. The man behind Slomo deserves an introduction like a comic book character.
He claims he was made like Batman, “desolate in the streets,” and we know him by his famous name: Slomo. The man in his early-70s is as jubilant as a kid in a candystore flying down The Boardwalk on rollerblades with arms outstretched like wings, and one foot in the air like a tail. He’s a loner in our midst, carrying out his mission right before our eyes seemingly without a worry in the world, and a smile the size of a piano keyboard. He glides down the PB Boardwalk capturing the imagination of children, the hearts of adults and odd glares from those who don’t know of him. Pacific Beachers, please take a minute to meet your neighbor, Slomo. Some you may know and some you will discover. Pacific Beach has its share of characters.
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