Get to Know San Diego's SloMo

As we celebrate San Diego Magazine’s 75th anniversary, we’re reflecting on our history-blading the down memory lane, if you will. Each month, we’ve partnered with San Diego icons to reimagine our old covers. And SloMo may be the most universally beloved icon of them all.
You can usually find the slow-rolling, suntanned philosopher (whose real name is Dr. John Kitchin) floating one rollerblade at a time down the Pacific Beach Boardwalk. A neurologist and psychiatrist, @slomosandiego took up skating in retirement as a way to mellow out.
“Since then, I’ve been living freely,” he says. “And skating literally everyday on the boardwalk for 24 years.”
For September’s cover recreation, we pay homage to our August 1972 cover (which is in itself an homage to Lippencott Magazine’s 1895 cover, dubbed “Tennis”). Here, a stately gentleman finds a moment of repose on his way to a friendly game.
In our new version, SloMo pauses in his garden-reading, daydreaming, hidden away like the San Diego treasure he is.
“There are two things that we all have,” he says. “One is the world of objectivity. What’s back in the other world, that of subjectivity, is where dreams are.”
To see more SloMo, follow his Instagram, @slomosandiego-or just head to the boardwalk.
Video: Jeremy Sazon
SloMo Cover Design: Casiel Sanchez
Photo: Christian Sampson
Contributing Producer: Alex Ott
Story: Mimi Le