Few people in San Diego are as instantly recognizable as Dr. John “Slomo” Kitchin, and this week, it wasn’t the rollerblades that gave him away. It was the tan lines. Spotted inside a local Trader Joe’s, the Ocean Front Walk fixture appeared in his familiar uniform, revealing a striking pattern across his lower legs: a distinct white-brown-white contrast created by years of skating with knee pads and rollerblades that leave only a narrow band of his calves exposed to the sun.
The effect is unmistakable. Protective gear covers portions of his legs while the exposed section of calf muscle absorbs constant coastal sunlight, creating sharply defined bands that have developed over decades. The result is less incidental than anatomical – a visual imprint of routine, repetition, and a lifestyle almost entirely spent in motion along the boardwalk.
Now nearing his 83rd birthday this April, Kitchin remains one of San Diego’s most enduring cultural figures. Before becoming “Slomo,” he was a neurologist and psychiatrist who stepped away from medicine in 1998 and began what would become a complete personal reinvention. His slow-motion rollerblading, which is part meditation, part performance, has since become synonymous with the Ocean Front Walk experience in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach…