He is the loved mascot of the beach community although most people do not know anything about him.
His Slomo T-shirts, bumper stickers, postcards and self-published books – " The Trial of Slomo," " Slomo and the New World," and " Portraits in Slomovision" – once sold briskly at the Swings n' Things at the Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach (as well as on ). Kitchin has embraced the stardom of his Slomo alter ego. Kitchin's philosophy of " the Zone," is where Slomo lives and where he meditates on eternal questions. Kitchin uses the Slomo character as a sort of meditation device/social experiment. He spends his days writing, creating art, mixing music and, of course, dressing in the Slomo outfit and skating for hours into the cosmos. Years later, those fears have dissipated into the morning mist. Kitchin wondered if his obsession with oceanfront skating might be the manifestation of a psychological breakdown, fueled by the heady essence of the boardwalk.
He moved into a "monastic" studio a half-block from the boardwalk and took to skating the length of the boardwalk seven days a week. He began to see slow-motion gliding to music as a portal to religious ecstasy. He already had taken to skating with headphones at Dana Junior High School in Point Loma. If he wants to go out, get exercise and sunshine while being the icon he is, the city should allow it. But to true locals, he is a sign of normalcy and the personification of San Diego's laid back beach atmosphere. To many, Slomo is just a strange old man balancing on one skate with his arms outstretched, a huge smile on his face, brightening the day of all those he slowly, and I mean slowly, rolls by. One man alone on the boardwalk is safe social distancing and he would be an inspiration to the thousands of people walking, running, swimming and surfing along the more than 2 miles of coastline. As such, we have launched a petition asking San Diego leaders to allow Slomo to do his thing. This may be a slight inconvenience for a lot of locals, but for one of San Diego's most well-known local celebrities, this alters the fabric of his life. It has been nearly 2 months since San Diego's Ocean Front Walk connecting Mission Beach and Pacific Beach was closed to the public as a precautionary measure to battle the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
And we need him! Please sign our petition to FREE SLOMO! We are asking San Diego County & City officials to open Ocean Front Walk to Slomo, San Diego's most well-known celebrity-on-wheels! He needs it. It’s worth 16 minutes of your time, especially to watch Slomo skate at the end.For many San Diegans, the picturesque "boardwalk" known as Ocean Front Walk between Mission Beach and Pacific Beach makes for a welcome respite from the daily grind, but for one man that space is life. I found this documentary short to be utterly captivating and Slomo to be truly inspirational. Anything where you can get this lateral acceleration feeling, you can use that for meditation, because it puts you in the zone.” In his own words: “If you keep constant, the feeling of expansion continues to build. Kitchin, or Slomo, as he’s known now, it was in a New York Times article featuring Josh Izenberg documentary short on the neurologist who dropped out of the life he had built to rollerblade in a super-slow glide down the boardwalk as a means of finding bliss. Much like the way skating on the Pacific Beach boardwalk in San Diego does for Dr. Flowing through Surya Namaskar gives the feeling of lateral acceleration. But my favorite benefit of Surya Namaskar is the way it becomes meditation in motion for me, and consequently roots me in the present moment, energized and ready to move forward. It combines nearly every group of poses (standing, forward fold, backbend, and even a mild inversion with Adho Mukha Svanasana) and combined with Shirsasana (headstand) and Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) and their variations can constitute a complete yoga practice. It strengthens the arms and core, opens the hip flexors and chest, and stimulates the thyroid gland through the continued flexion and extension of the neck. Yesterday was the first International Yoga Day as well as the Summer Solstice and Father’s Day, and to celebrate all three, I decided to do 108 rounds of classical Surya Namaskar, the oldest known physical practice of yoga.