I've always gotten that creepy youth group religious vibe from Braille's videos, but kind of assumed it was because they were more kid-friendly. Finding out that he's a scientologist explains _a lot._

Being a Scientologist is a huge red flag. He’s never gonna do anything for the right reasons it’ll always be to make money for Scientology

"Historians will argue..." 😂 bro there's no Historians arguing over braille 😂😂😂

Love him or hate him, but Aaron Kyro, the professional skateboarder from the San Francisco Bay area, has taught lots of people how to skate.

Besides Lance, there were other skaters who left as well, like Chris and Mogely. I believe Aaron didnt want to pay enough to keep them, as both their contracts were ending and up for renegotiation when they left. Its hard to watch Aaron give away $750k to Scientology, but not want to pay his employees squat.

“Fast food type videos” nailed it when it comes to braille videos

as someone who watched braille back in 2015-2018 i can say fully that one of the biggest reasons people stopped watching the braille channel was due to the departure of Lance. Lance was easily one of the biggest reasons the common person who wasnt good at skate boarding or someone who didnt even know how to skateboard could connect to the channel as Lance was someone who was learning along with the rest of us. Lance's dynamic with Aaron was easily the highlight of the braille channel along with the wacky ideas they came up with. Lances departure made the channel feel like it was missing something. Gabe who then filled in the position of camera man never really filled the shoes left behind by lance and for that reason, I personally stopped watching the braille skateboarding channel all together. Of course there were others who left aswell such as Chris and Mogely and Nigel which did ultimately kill the original fanbase on braille

Yeah, Scientology will often lead to the downfall of everyone.

Lance was hugely influential to the channel. he was the average man among all the skaters. for non or new skating viewers, he was like the same level friend people could relate to. i remember his personal skate progress videos were pretty great. but yeah just became a content mill and weird controversies with some of the guys that put me off and i stopped watching several years ago

people stopped watching and unsubscribed to braille when they found out aaron is a scientologist

Lance left for the scientology reasons apparently. Aaron wasn't paying the braille members adequately because of his huge donations to scientology. This is also why members keep leaving including Mogley. He hinted that he wasn't getting paid enough in his goodbye video. and its because of Aarons mishandling of the channels money, a large portion of which goes to scientology. which isn't fair to all the members of the team. This is just the rumors in the LA area with some influencers close to the situations. this among MANY other rumors and drama involving Aaron. which is why he has now stepped back from the videos. at least that's part of the word going around among the creator community in LA that is closely related to braille including people who have been featured on the channel.

i think braille was bound to this downfall sooner or later. every cool idea with a skateboard was already done by them and all they can do now is add a little variance to it or do the same video that once went viral and hope for the best. literally what else can you do at this point. i think what they're doing now is correct: accept the downfall and make sure the community that's still there is not gonna go away as well. i feel like they now care about their audience - they're reading and responding to all the comments and actually listen to them, like gabe finally stopped yelling, Aaron started to show up more often etc

As someone who watched alot of Skateboarding youtube, the reason why 23 has sucked for them is they havent had anyone go to their skatepark like in years past. They lost 2 employee's this year that people liked. Plus all the Skaters now are getting a bit older outside of JD so they dont push the limits on doing jackass'ish things.

“My space is so big and so clean, and my flows are wide open. I got rid of messes that had been in my space for trillions of years. I truly uncovered my basic goodness and rightness as a being” - Aaron Kyro, upon diverting enough 10-year-olds’ parents’ money to his cult that he earned a cult social ranking of “L-10”

It all went downhill after Lance left and Gabe started getting camera time

it's the same for a lot of channels. it starts with a bunch of friends having fun doing silly things but then it becomes a business and they just do it like a work without passion.

Honestly I feel it all went downhill the moment they left the outdoor parks and went to the braille house indoor park. Like there is literally never anyone really there, it's the same few staff members and an empty park when it used to be lively videos at a park with tons of people just in the background having fun.

I started watching Braille videos about 2 years ago and wasn't a fan of Aron, but all the skaters on the team seemed fun. Then I saw JD and that little dude is awesome and I can't wait to see him in the Olympics this summer

No mention of Fetty getting busted for being a pedo.. Might be reaching here, but Scientology doesn’t exactly have a good track record with that type of thing either.

When you allocate a gigantic percentage of Braille's content income to your own personal belief in Scientology, it's bound to go bad. Lance, McNug, Mogley, and a couple aren't very far behind partially because they weren't getting paid enough, and I'm sure they became privy to Aaron's "donations" to the Church of Scientology. I've always been weary of Braille, but more so Aaron. It just seems like the perfect scenario to groom young people with a hidden agenda. Once the younger guys grew up, they realized what was going on and jumped ship.

Missed opportunity to introduce Aaron Kyro as a sponsored skateboarder from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Braille went downhill when they started their own skatepark. Their og videos were way more entertaining at the parks riding crazy boards and playing silly games of skate and add on. Funny thing is in their prime Kyro used to be on a billboard for Scientology out here in Clearwater FL.

Companies pay thousands for audits like this. Braille would be wise to use this "free" analysis to their advantage.

I just got into skating at age 42 last year, and Braille was my go-to YT channel for learning how to skateboard. After learning about Aaron's ties to Scientology, I've started to become very leery of Aaron and Braille, in general. I've also noticed that he's in like ZERO of the main channel's videos, and has been MIA for quite a minute now.

2016 was such a gold mine for Skate KZfaqrs (which was the year I was skating the most myself). It’s weird to see where all that went.

Was bound to happen eventually. With the scientology thing and also imagine coming up with 7 ideas a day like Gabe does and the other guys dont really help. Lost a lot of good characters along the way, not just Lance, also Doug, Fetty, Carlos, McNug, Mo etc. The energy used to be higher and they would just have fun with videos. They have an entire skatepark which they hardly ever use to its potential. Not as much actual skating, no custom ramp builds anymore, no floor is lava. The guys left are still cool but does seem like sometimes they dont try in videos or dont want to do them. Probably because the ideas are worse than ever. Maybe they should upload less but come up with better ideas. Weird boards and flat ground games of skate get boring af. Just my thoughts.

I started skateboarding kind of late in life, when I was 22. This was in 2016. I subscribed mostly for the videos with Lance. They were superb. Lance was a person I could relate too, i.e. an older dude, who's just learning how to skate. When he quit the channel quickly degraded into dumb monotonous videos for 12 y.o. kids. Certainly it wasn't appealing to an adult person. So I unsubscribed in circa 2018. And the whole scientology situation was part of the reason, too. So no wonder the channel went downhill at some point.

For me, the biggest problem that Braile currently has is the quality of the video editing. The episodes are too long and boring. This may sound a little strange, but that's not why I watched Braille to watch someone ride a board for 90% of a 30-minute episode. I watched them for the people who participated in it. That's why the Skate Everything Wars series was my favorite. You could spend time with these guys and the riding itself was limited to a few minutes at the end of the episode, or series where they tried completely new things like the drift bike episodes where it was all about having fun. Currently, the editing of episodes is a disaster. Times have changed and no one wants to watch 30-minute episodes on YT, where most of the time it's "boring" and the people appearing in the episode behave as if they were recording to complete the task, not to have fun. Besides, these are also no longer the same people as before, the lineup has changed a lot in a short period and the current Braille has little in common with the one from 2016, although I think that even with a changed team with better scripting and editing it would still be possible to make this channel something better.

Losing Fetty and Carlos were big hits to the channel as they were heavily featured in "learning to skate" videos and were the most relatable personalities on the channel. Lance was the main filmer and producer, so there was a big style shift in the videos after he left.

I got the opportunity to skate on the Braille channel at the end of September in 2022. I basically played the “girl” card bc they claimed they were looking for a female to add to the channel. Which ultimately seemed to be more of a lie than a truth. I cannot speak into Aaron bc wasn’t there although I was under the impression he would be, (in fact when I emailed him after the fact he had no idea that I was coming organization there seems to be quite poor) I can say that all the other guys were extremely nice and kind. When I asked questions or brought up ideas of improvement I could see in their eyes and timid answers that they didn’t have much choice in most matters. That being said I wish the best for Braille, would definitely visit again if asked, and still hope one day they add a woman to their squad.

I stopped watching Braille the second I found out he was a scientologist. I'm not going to help fund that violent cult. Miscavige is an absolute monster, and the same goes for Tom Cruise. Plenty of other skate channels out there worth watching.

I don't think filming almost everything in a private skatepark helps them bring in new viewers either. Some of the earlier videos were so successful because beginners wanting to get into skating could see how much fun you can have with your friends and meeting other people at your local skate park, or even just filming learning new tricks together in an empty parking lot. 99.9% of people, especially beginners, don't have access to a private park and it isn't an experience they can can relate to. Sure, it works for brands like Primitive, because their target audience is more experienced, core skaters who want to see super tech tricks on a.perfect indoor park ledge or whatever. I just don't think it works for the audience Braille is trying to appeal to.

Imagine someone getting "into" scientology after the South Park episode aired? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

As a hardcore Scientologist who absolutely knows all the ins and outs of the cult, from the Xenu story at OT3 level, to the truly horrific death of Lisa McPherson, to brutal policies such as disconnection, Aaron Kyro is an incredibly dangerous individual. If you reach OT3 and STILL believe everything you're being told, you're either completely brainwashed or know it's all bullshit but you've put so much money and time in to it, you have no choice but to carry on. This man should NOT be around children. Aaron considers anyone not a Scientologist to be a "Suppressive Person" and does not view the world like normal human beings. He got lucky with skateboarding but his is ABSOLUTELY using it to fund a dangerous cult.

It's funny how you say his controversy was "unavoidable" but as someone who only really watched the big videos that got recommended, I never knew about any of the controversy. Learning about his scientology connection is a major turn off.

All that may be, but in like '18-ish i was a homeless heroin addict. Aron, chris, and all the braille dudes were at the fremont park. They let me borrow a board, skate for like ten minutes, and didnt look down on me or treat me as anything but a fellow skater. It meant a lot then and now.

Skateboarding used to be so punk rock... You don't have to be partying, doing drugs, and drinking... But you don't also have to be the "Disney channel" of skateboarding. Pew pew shots fired!

amazing informative. i would’ve never got all this info in one sitting if it wasn’t for ur work. i’m new to skating, so it’s good to be informed, thank you!

I Miss the days when they would find the kid with the most fucked shit in the skatepark and hooked them up with a new set of wheels, a deck, or a pair of shoes for doing a trick.

This is interesting to me, since I only found the channel (or really started watching much of youtube, really) in 2020...for obvious reasons. Some of the team and guests I like, and some I don't. Sad to see some skaters go, I don't dislike Gabe the way most of the commenters here do, but I still watch the videos and usually enjoy them...literally clicked on this after watching the latest! Watching them inspired me to start learning last year (at the age of 45). I had considered buying my next board from them instead of my local, as a thank you/support of folks that got me into it. Though I have to say the Scientology thing definitely gives me pause. Anyway, rambling, good data dive here!

So you really had Ricky take down a video for "stealing your content" when 100% of your content is made up of stolen videos that you don't get permission to use?

Some of these trends are unique to Braille, some are indicative of falling views for skateboarding and other content in general. A good deep dive! Love them or hate them, Braille was an introduction to skating for thousands of people of all ages. At the end of the day, more skateboarding is a good thing for all of us.

When I realized he was a Scientologist is when I stopped watching Braille. I’ll never forget his video on their channel. Absolutely wild

Also all the best skaters are gone from the channel, Chris Mcnug, Mogely etc.

I remember watching Aaron’s first KZfaq video in my English class back in the day. Crazy that it’s already been 18 years. He had a unique and interesting style. I showed that video to several of my friends too.

I really appreciate that you describe the skateboard tricks accurately.

7:29 Does anyone know where that skate video called Mijos is? I used to have it but now don’t see it anywhere at all.

The fact that Aaron Kyro is a scientologist was a massive deal breaker. i already got weird vibes from the dude once his channel stared getting bigger past the original tutorial videos, but i had a bad feeling that it went deeper than that on a more insidious level. when i learned he was a scientologist a few years back i was like "i knew it! i knew something was wrong with that guy!". It makes me sad knowing how much money he gets from kids who buy stuff from his site and that a large portion of that goes to scientology. dude has brainwashed these kids and their parents into funding a super abusive and creepy cult.

Giving $1 to Scientology is crazy. But giving $1,000,000? Holy fuck that is mind blowing.

When Fetty and Carlos was on the channel those were the good days.

I started watching braille around it’s prime and they got me back into skating after a 10 ish year hiatus from it. I will always appreciate that part of braille. Lance was awesome too.

As much as I hate scientology ( I didn't know about the association until ~2021), the videos where he taught the camera guy to skate were very inspirational. He clearly didn't skate much outside these clips, but he'd learn the tricks through persistence and tuition, which made me try harder myself. Kyro's personality was also positive - he didn't take himself too seriously and laughed a lot, which was quite endearing. There were also great interactions with kids at the local park, teaching tricks and giving away boards etc. I mostly switched off when they got their own skatepark. The guy behind the camera shouting "Oh" all the time is the worst.

people can say what they want but man, aaron taught me how to skate no other way about it and ill always be grateful for that

My childhood best friend Julio Prieto was also in the video Mijos. Him and my other homies Evan Kuhn, Drew Tibbitts, and Matt Escamilla all died in a car crash together in 2005. Crazy to hear that video being brought up so many years later.

as a skater who grew on the chanel it is amazing to me to see I was born exactly one month before it was created.

I think you nailed the 3 major reasons why the channel is floundering: - Too much of the OG crew left. Lance was the biggest loss but also people like Nigel, Mowgli, Carlos, etc were very skilled skaters and had great personalities too. - No real direction in the videos mixed with low energy personalities. No hate against the new crew, they're good skaters but not good on camera. Again, totally nailed it by saying most of their modern videos are improvisational in nature, or at least come off that way. - Focus on quantity over quality. At this point Braille has completely exhausted all of their classic formulas. Right now their videos feel like content for the sake of content. Viewers aren't interested in the same old thing every day, especially as the KZfaq landscape has shifted towards very bombastic videos in the last few years. Of course the scientology thing will always be a shadow lurking over Aaron and his company. While I don't think it's a major cause for decline, it definitely rubs people the wrong way and has led to many viewers abandoning the channel.

Very detailed, I loved their skate everything series when it started. You should analyze AndrewSchrock from Revive skateboarding because the skating industry is following a downward trend.

bro forgot to mention the fetty potter situation!!!

Two important things to mention are the skateboarding boom in 2020 due to Covid and the inevitable leveling out shortly after when everyone realizes how difficult skateboarding really is. This no doubt plays into the channel's parallel boom and leveling out. Maybe equally as important is KZfaq's introduction of and intense focus on Shorts, which have left many KZfaq channels with sharp decreases in their long-form content views and watch time as the platform rewards shorter, bite size content.

giving money to scientology is like paying for friends in a frat. what the actual fuck bro A MILLION DOLLARS??????????????????????????

Thumbnails like that should carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison

As is the song by NOFX, I too, believe in The Separation of Church and Skate

Great video and analysis my guy 🤝

Ever since Lance went off the channel, it died

Some of you guys don't realize how insane Scientology is.

I watched Braille for many years starting back in 2016. It was refreshing to watch skateboarding that was more about fun and progressing, instead of only gnarly parts. I think I started watching less as people started leaving, discontinuing of segments I enjoyed, and spending all their time at their warehouse instead of local parks.

excellent video! You content is consistently great!

The guy is overworking his employees. Those guys need some rest

I subscribed to Braille for a short period there because it was nice to see him giving random kids some time on camera and it looked like he was using that indoor park for in person teaching, but I just got tired of seeing the style of videos they were uploading. That snippet at the end "don't go full youtube" really nails it I think, Braille's style always seems like it's one video away from a "I bought a million orbees" video. I didn't even know about the glass skateboard video, and honestly that makes me like the channel even less. Just a personal thing I suppose but I don't at all like that side of skateboarding (the death defying putting your body on the line for a 12 second video that will be forgotten about in a month kind of stuff).

I’m surprised you didn’t look into other YT skate channels to see if they are experiencing the same decline over the last few years. The decline might be more related to skateboarding’s loss in popularity overall and a saturation of skate YT content and less about Braille itself. I do agree about the lack of energy and personality in their videos as of late. They’ve lost the fire that they once had.

I think everybody in the skate community thinks of Aaron as a KZfaqr and not skater. In Skateboarding there are so many factors to make a successful skate company, Aaron has a huge following on KZfaq but branding and what you focus on for content is the most important. And what he did worked to build a business but skateboarding is very competitive and having a cool factor, good skating as the main focus and the name is really what people wanna get behind.

Let’s not forget about the drama with Fetty (who was one of the better skaters and a fan favorite) being exposed as a pedo.

You killed me with that whole "historians" thing. Too funny lmao.

He’s a Professional Scientologist from the San Francisco Bay Area

Thank you for another impressive analysis.

Giving the money to Scientology instead of paying employees fairly for grinding 1-2 videos per day... That's why there's an exodus.

The end haha "never go full youtube"

As a Braille viewer I think they lost a lot of their shine woth loosing a lot of their cast along the years and with Aaron being less on camera as well. I think Braille really needs to evolve their editing structure, and find a young enthusiastic cast that is more relatable to new viewers. I love all the guys that are still there but unfortunately I think they have lost their energy with age and I think Braille needs to rebrand to adapt to the new generation.

He is Scientology personified. Streets is destroying this organization in LA

Damn, this doc has pulled in more views in the first 24 hours than any videos Braille has put out in the last month. That must say something…

I don't know about anybody else, buu I stopped wayching Braille stuff because of the Scientology link.

Carlos also caused for drama by being a pedo according to insiders.

21:30 Ngl I did get less interested in Braille when Lance left. Lance felt the most relatable at the time when I was trying to skate and he was genuinely funny.

I would say it's clear that Scientology played some role in the success of the channel. Since I found out about it years ago, I stopped viewing them all together. This was around the time Fetty and Carlos left. Their quality went way down the drain since then. A lot of their current subs must also be legacy subs from years ago. If you have 6 million subs and not hitting 1 million views a video, you are clearly not understanding your audience.

bro Aaron is a scientologist???

I gave them a chance when i got back into skateboarding (i started 95 n skated for over 10yrs before taking a break) but it was hard to accept them as i had no idea what had happened to all the brands i knew but eventually i did, then i saw them inviting pro skaters only to be condescending to them there was no respect, ontop of that i accepted lance was not a skater so he didnt know better but still liked the guy. He leaves and u can tell gabe wanted that so bad to be the one closer to aron and be the front man, i found it so annoying that i stopped watching but would every now and then, but couldnt stand him, his laughter went from so many styles until he found it and his inability to blend in he stood out as a sore thumb trying to be a leader too poor guys u can tell he was bossy to all skaters. Fetty happened they didnt cover it, carlos also didnt want to go in depth as why, mogley and mcnug but they didnt even acknowledge him, if u commented ur opinion n it wasnt what they wanted they would be passive aggressive. Bottom line theyre just skaters not pro skaters or business ppl.

I was a pretty dedicated Braille fan a few years ago I dont really remember why I stopped watching.

As far as I’m concerned, there were two moments where Braille took a huge dive: 1) When Lance left, that was the end (as far as I’m concerned). Lance was the one that brought the humor and relatability. He was fun to watch. 2) The controversy surrounding Fetty dating an underage girl. Big ick moment, and a huge break of trust from a company that has a large underage audience.

This video does not answer the most important question: does Scientology actually help with someone's success (ie. powerful industry people working behind the scenes for you) or does it just turn you into a crazy person obsessed with making money?

I still wonder what Lance is up to. I was never a subscriber of Braille, but loved the videos featuring Lance. Huge loss!

Thanks for this my guy 👏

Thx for posting!

I thinks I saw myself! 🙋‍♂️

25:15 I'm a bit older skater and most of my age people don't skate because they are afraid to get injured. Not the injury itself, but mostly because you can't go to work and all the other "grown up" stuff.

Informative vid. Thank you!

Dude people can react to your video as long as they are adding their own thoughts/opinions. Its not stealing your video, it's reacting to your thoughts. This is what happens when you talk about controversial topics - I can give you a thousand examples of this. Be happy people are reacting to and watching your content

JD is the only reason I will click on a Braille video. That kid is sick and I want to see him go places. Ricky Glasser is cool too but not enough draw to watch a Braille video. Gabe seems like a really cool and chill dude that really wants JD to thrive. Uzi and Glo are just there for a paycheck. Aaron Kyro is just obnoxious.

Peak moment...guy dropping in and almost getting his gut slashed open by a shard of glass. A high price to pay for views...

he's the victim of a malicious cult. I think he's a genuinely good person and overall I admire his achievements. I hope he gets out of scientology. those people are relentless manipulators.

I actually used to watch Braille around and for awhile after the peak (2016-2019) I used to skateboard as a kid and watching their videos made me nostalgic in a way (and us millennials, we love our nostalgia). My anecdotal reasons for not watching, and no longer being subscribed to the channel are: 1. I formed an attachment to the personalities they had at the time. They were all unique, everyone had their own flavor and you knew what to expect. Carlos, Lance, Nigel, Fetty, Uzi Dan, Aaron and even Gabe who I thought was obnoxious, but he was kinda like the necessary heel of the bunch and I respected it. I might've missed a couple but you get the point. They all had very big personalities and like with the original Marvel's avengers cast, you formed an attachment to them. As they slowly started going their own direction so did I. I did not connect with the people they brought in and I lost interest. Glo (I think his name is) I found particularly grating and remember exiting a video 3 minutes in just because I found him to be so annoying. To be clear, I'm sure he's a good dude, and he is a solid skater, but I wouldn't hang out with him. 2. Aaron's seemingly increased involvement with scientology I thought was weird, and like you said in your video, the timing of him asking for money, to him achieving whatever rank or merit or whatever with that group didn't sit well with me. 3. This is arguably the biggest reason: They oversaturated their own market. The daily uploads got repetitive, uninspired, boring, and the people in them looked absolutely exhausted and uninterested. ^those are all reasons I stopped watching, the reason I unsubscribed altogether and why I won't watch another Braille video: 4. I assumed with all the views the channel was getting that those guys were eating well, and then stuff from former skaters of the braille team started getting leaked that they barely considered the job to even be worth it and it was just passion for skateboarding keeping them going. I don't know how true this is, and of course it's subjective, but I started connecting the dots for how much of the ad revenue was potentially going towards Aaron's personal ambitions that aren't related to skateboarding rather than his own guys keeping the machine running and the thought of that just made me not want to support them any longer.