Speaker 1: 0:09

Hey there, welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate destination for all skating enthusiasts. We cater to everyone, from beginners to pros. Whether you love inline and ice skating or prefer quads and skateboarding, we have it all covered, and we bring you exclusive interviews with professionals, talented amateurs and influencers in the industry. So sit back, relax and get ready for an exciting journey into the world of skating.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Welcome to episode four of how Do you Skate. My name is Sean Egan, I'm your host, and my guest today is Luke from Luke's Skate Lessons, and he's going to pronounce his last name for you because I'll butcher it. So how do you pronounce your last name again for the audience? Yeah, man, luke.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Sprelgovich, here you can give it a try if you want, though no, I'm not even going to touch it because I don't want to embarrass myself. So so now, born and raised in santa cruz, where did you start skating? I know santa cruz is a big surf spot and skateboarding is actually pretty huge in santa Santa Cruz because I myself have been there several times. So how did you get started in the sport?

Speaker 3: 1:29

I actually started when I was two years old. My dad had found a skateboard in a bush and I just took a liking to it. I guess I just hopped right on the main place. I started. I lived on the west side, right next to the 7 to the 7-11. If people know where that is, uh, it's right next to Derby skate park. So Derby, one of the most historical parks in California. I was lucky enough to grow up skating that very cool now skating all through high school, did you?

Speaker 3: 1:59

and you started skating at Derby, is what you said yeah, I started skating at Derby because we lived on the west side until I was about six and then I moved down to the mountains in Ben Lomond so I was skating Highlands Park in Ben Lomond a lot. I skated a lot of Highlands and Sky Park and Sky Park is in the Scotts Valley. That's actually where I teach the skate lessons for the most part.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Okay, now skating all through high school. Did you ever do competitions or anything? You know, I did a handful of them.

Speaker 3: 2:26

It was more for fun Skating. I never did compete with myself and my friends, but I never took on the competitions. I was trying to get sponsored. I got a couple sponsors growing up when I was like 13, 15. But for the most part skating has always just been more fun and more of my getaway, rather than like this is what I need to do. It's more of this is what I want to do, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:48

Yeah, and I know from talking to a few other people about skating that it's been really good for not just my mental health but other people's mental health too. Have you found that to be, when you're going through tough times, to help you get through things?

Speaker 3: 3:04

A hundred percent, dude. My board was always there for me whenever I needed it, especially the most, and it never talks back. It never talks back, man, but it will put me back on the ground, so that's one way of talking to me.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Definitely, I've had my fair share of falls also. So now, what made you decide to?

Speaker 3: 3:25

actually start a skate school, similar to one of your past interviewees. It started came straight out of the pandemic. I was living in LA at the time. I, you know, I was getting government money. I was sitting inside all day playing video games, bored as hell, hell, just really just not leaving the house at all, like just not doing anything with my life. And I was like I had a.

Speaker 3: 3:53

I had a good handful of jobs, um, in la for a lot of different people ballet, um, working at togos for a day, and then quit because I was like I can't do this. You know, um I it came out to the fact of I don't want to work for anybody else. What do I know how to do the most? Like, what have I put the most time of my life into? And I just landed on skating because I put so many years into it and I didn't feel like I needed to learn a new skill when I could just use one I already have equipped over the years. So really, I just I sat down, I put down a little list of, like, what I could do in skateboarding. I put down going pro and I was like you know, I don't really want to throw my body down 20 sets of stairs just to get a clip, just to maybe land on my face, just to get a bigger hospital bill. And then I, and then I put down, um, making a brand, you know, like doing shirts and clothing, and I was like you know, that's so saturated, everybody wants to do streetwear these days. And then I just kind of thought like you know what, I'm all right with kids, you know they're funny. Uh, I think I'll just work with kids, you know.

Speaker 3: 4:54

So I kind of started it out in LA, um, probably like three months into the pandemic, and, uh, as, as we all know, like we didn't know what was going on, three months in, four months in, I was like I got to get out of LA, I'm just going to go back home, where there's a lot less stigma around everything and a lot more chill. So I came back to the little hometown of Santa Cruz and worked one other little job doing deliveries. That was super like a side hustle and I was like you know, I just need to get my thing going. Um, it was like a side hustle and I was like you know, I just need to get my thing going, you know. So I took the last 200 that I had through my name and created a website and got some business cards and it's been history ever since nice.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Now how many kids do you teach per class?

Speaker 3: 5:36

it ranges, man, like uh, for instance, we just did summer camps for poppin. We had like 14 kids a day, uh, just in that couple hours, three, usually about three hours. So uh, it just ranges, you know, but for average I do one kid per hour and I do private lessons and we really work on specific things to their needs. Um, but it just depends. We do groups, we do camps, we do privates, we do after school, we throw uh events, we throw little like pizza parties for the kids to come and just skate and have fun and we just give them pizza and we're starting to do a lot more of that stuff and uh, yeah, we're super stoked as many kids as we can. On average, we work with about uh, probably like 30 to 40 kids a week okay, and is it expensive to sign up for lessons, or is it pretty reasonable?

Speaker 3: 6:26

I try to be reasonable. I charge 65 an hour for a private and 25 an hour for a group, so I try to keep it in a range where most people can afford it. But you know, skateboarding, skate lessons, is not a what do they call driving. It's not a right, it's a privilege.

Speaker 2: 6:44

So it's, it's not a right, it's a?

Speaker 3: 6:45

um privilege it's a, so it's privileged to get these lessons.

Speaker 2: 6:47

So now, what's the youngest kid you have when you start teaching them?

Speaker 3: 6:55

two and a half has been the youngest I've ever worked with. I've probably worked with about five, five, two and a half year olds in my time, uh, but four or five is the starting age that we get to, about 12.

Speaker 2: 7:09

Okay, and then with I know what I was going to say With what's the oldest you teach Like? Do you teach adults at all, or is it just primarily kids?

Speaker 3: 7:22

Absolutely. We just had someone recently, this last week I believe.

Speaker 2: 7:26

he was 59 59 years old nice, and that was his first lesson yeah, first lesson.

Speaker 3: 7:36

He said he skated a bit before but just wanted to work on some things and he was super stoked. He left a really good review. Yeah, people love it. Man, it's super fun okay.

Speaker 2: 7:44

So what is the first trick? If I came to you, what would be the first thing that you teach me how to do?

Speaker 3: 7:50

if you're a beginner, completely from scratch and never stepped on a board I've stepped on a board and fell off a board and yeah so so if you so, if you were to be a beginner, are you talking about you specifically?

Speaker 2: 8:04

let's say me specifically, where I mean mean I haven't done tricks, I don't even know if I could do an Ollie, so I was very basic and just wrote it for transportation.

Speaker 3: 8:14

So, first things first, I would just, you know, have you do a couple of things that you think you could do, kind of see where you're at and then just work from there. If I see that your balance balance is a little off, we'll work on some balancing techniques, such as what I call flat, flat ground drop in, you put the tail on the ground, lift up your foot, just getting used to that motion, stomping it back down, kick turns. Of course, pushing, getting a good stance on pushing, because that's the ultimate foundational move that you need for literally everything. Skateboarding, um, believe it or not, right? So pushing is definitely like the main thing, because people love to put their feet together and they slip right out to their ass. Um, but it's, yeah, it just depends where you're at and where you want to go, you know yeah, so and then.

Speaker 2: 8:56

So let's say I'm asking all these questions so parents can get a good idea of what to expect, or what to do even out here. Um, so if I come to you and I say, hey, I want my kid to start learning how to skate, what? What do you recommend as far as gear goes for him to get?

Speaker 3: 9:15

the whole whole shebang dude. Definitely helmet, of course. Number one. I will never do a lesson with someone without a helmet, that's for sure. Um, but we prefer everything else, of course, the wrist guards and the knee pads and the elbow pads. You can get the butt pads if you want. The hip pads, you know you can get. You can add your soccer shin guards in there if you want, you know you could do. You can get some pillows and wrap them around your body.

Speaker 3: 9:37

You know I don't care, but as long as you have something that's actually going to protect you, I say the wrist and the knees are the most important next to the helmet, because if you're going to fall, if you're going to fall forward, you can use those and slide out straight to your wrist and knees. You know you go to your hands anyway. And if you don't have the wrist guards, like myself, if I fall without them, I've fallen on my wrist so many times that even just a little fall and just landing just wrong, my wrist is messed up for like a day or two because I've broken, broken my wrist a good handful of times. And, um, of course, if you're falling backwards, there's not a lot of hope. You're just you're going down, that there's nothing to protect you on that.

Speaker 2: 10:12

But if you're wearing a helmet, at least the back of your head isn't split open, you know or if you have the butt pads on or if you have the butt pads, you're not breaking the tailbone now are these pretty thick pads, because I know someone that won't skate because she's afraid of that yeah, I mean, are you talking about the butt pads that?

Speaker 3: 10:29

yes some thick ones, because I don't know, I don't I personally don't know if they even make any specifically for skating, but all the ones I've seen are for mountain biking, so you can kind of get the gist of that. So, okay, um there, there are specific pads too for for wrist, uh, knee, elbow. There are some that you just kind of strap on and I noticed those have very, very little padding and they fall off almost every time because there's nothing really holding them in. The straps are usually not holding it tight enough. You know, the wrist guards are kind of loose and the knee pads are slipping off.

Speaker 3: 11:05

But if you get the, I totally recommend the pads, especially knee and elbow, the ones that slide on and then they have the straps on top, because those aren't really going anywhere. You've got the slide on, they're sticking to your skin better. If you land on them. They're not just going to slide right off. You're not going to have like a scraped up elbow you might still hit it, but it's not going to be all scraped up and you're not going to be like, oh, my pads fell off, you know yeah, so what are some of the the issues that you found running your own business, and especially around skateboarding?

Speaker 3: 11:39

issues running my own business man, I think um, as most businesses. One thing that's not an issue I found, actually, is that I've been able to get pretty consistent clientele. I know most businesses. It's hard, but mine's been pretty good right off the bat. I think an issue that I would have is maybe not providing as much value as I feel like I could. I feel like I could do more, maybe using a better program as well, for what I mean by a software program for my website. I think having a solid website would be better. Mine's getting better as I've been working with it.

Speaker 3: 12:20

There's not as many issues I feel like I've had, besides kids getting hurt and I have the liability waiver and the insurance for that. But because my business isn't like most businesses, like most businesses have a lot of overhead and you have to put a lot of money down to start it up. It was like mine. Like I said, I had $200 in my name. All I did was get a website and some business cards. I already had a skateboard, I already had my helmet, I already had the experience, so I haven't had. I haven't ran into too many issues besides the issues with myself. Really honestly, I haven't had that many. I'm pretty stoked to say.

Speaker 2: 12:55

That's awesome. So now I know for me over the years, even with skating, you have just that moment where you feel like everything is coming to an end the world's over and all that kind of stuff, and you just feel like giving up. Have you had those moments at all?

Speaker 3: 13:13

Of course we all have right and many different aspects of life. But yeah, there's plenty of times where I felt like I've been trying this trick forever. I'm not getting it. Those are the times that you have to just sit back and self-analyze a little bit, just like most things, things in life, you know. You got to just sit back and analyze, like, oh, if this isn't going my way, why is that? Like, what could I do? What's something I could do to change the outcome? Because you don't like the outcome. Now you got to sit back and think, like what, what is the change? Oh, maybe you just have to move your foot a little bit over here. You know, move your foot this way and then the trick flicks easier and then it stays under you and then you land it. So there's a lot of things that go into skateboarding, just like regular life. You know there's a lot of little things, that if you change little things, it becomes a bigger outcome.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Yeah, exactly. So now, especially with working with kids, how do you deal with their frustrations when they're trying to get? Because I mean my one kid, my 17-year-old, he used to wrestle and at wrestling tournaments I would see other kids when they don't win or they can't do something. They would actually get emotional. How do you deal with that, when kids get emotional about not being able to do something or try it 50 times and it's not working?

Speaker 3: 14:26

Yeah, skating's hard man. I let them know. I say skateboarding is hard. You're doing this because you want to challenge yourself. I, I, I try not to go too easy on them. I let. I want them to feel what they feel, but I want them to realize that they can change what they want and the only way to do that is by progressively trying more, trying different things. Really, really, I just try to um, let's think of a way to explain it. If they're going through it, they're being emotional, I sit them down and say hey man, if this was easy, everybody would be doing it. You're exceptional because you are trying this that most people won't do. So don't be too hard on yourself, because the fact that you're even trying this is pretty amazing, you know. I try to get them to understand that it's all in their own head and they have the ability to be able to change it Exactly.

Speaker 2: 15:17

I mean, you had to learn how to crawl before you learned how to walk, so that's right. And then you learn to skate Exactly. And now I can't walk, so it's terrible. So you get so good on balancing on skates and then just trying to do something normal like walking, it's like why am I having such a hard time? Right? You gotta? You gotta get those sea legs back you know, exactly.

Speaker 2: 15:39

So now do you have other coaches working with you, or is this something you plan to expand, where you have to hire other people to help you teach, or I have some people help me out.

Speaker 3: 15:50

I've had a couple of people come and go. It's not solidified yet, it's mainly me, but I do have some people helping me out every here and there, especially during the camps, when there's too many kids. There's 14 kids and just me. That's not going to work out well right, so I always have someone kind of help me out. We just recently started offering scooter lessons as well. I hired some people to help me with that, because I don't scooter, but it's a market that's not tapped into and I feel like could be something. And, um, I also roller skating instructor, to add that, so I can expand in that realm as well. So I can get a little roller skate, because there's roller skating at the rink but there's no roller skating uh, lessons at the park.

Speaker 2: 16:26

You know what I mean yeah, so you're looking more like the freestyle skating with the ramps and the and the tricks and stuff, exactly okay, so now is that with inlines and quads, or either, or either, or preferably, most likely, quads.

Speaker 3: 16:45

I'm looking to hire a female instructor because I don't have any other female instructors right now. I think it'd be awesome and I see more than less females that are on the quads, so I feel like it just makes sense and I think it'd be a really cool, beneficial addition.

Speaker 2: 17:01

Yeah, very cool. So now I have not got to skate in Santa Cruz yet, but when I do make my visit back to California I plan to make it up your way. So cause, right on the key, the keyword was yet. Yeah, my girlfriend has not been to Santa Cruz, so she needs to see the spot where one of the greatest movies ever made was.

Speaker 3: 17:23

Yeah, which one was that?

Speaker 2: 17:24

Lost boys.

Speaker 3: 17:25

Yeah, that's it, that's a good handful. So, yeah, lost boys. Yeah, that's it, there's a good handful. So, yeah, you gotta see, you gotta see the bridge, you gotta walk across it and you gotta walk right on it where there's uh, no, uh railing and stuff.

Speaker 3: 17:35

You gotta put yourself through it yeah, and then so have you been to the beach when they're showing uh, lost boys on the beach of course I love it because they do it every summer, so I think it's that that's like the first movie they show out of all the movies they show during the summer.

Speaker 2: 17:51

It's just because it takes place there, and so it just makes it awesome. So now have you skated on the boardwalk?

Speaker 3: 18:00

Yeah, and I don't. They don't like it, they are not a fan when you put four wheels down on the boardwalk concrete.

Speaker 2: 18:09

I can see that. It's funny how, like, skating used to have such a bad stigma behind skateboarding and stuff, because when I was growing up in high school, we had the chicken ranch, which was a half pipe on someone's land, and that was really the only place you could skate without getting in trouble, right? So it's nice to see that now you have skate parks all over the place, because there's a bunch here in Denver. There's skate trails, and that's one of the things I love about this state is that there's so many places to skate, including rinks, right. And I think they do have an indoor skate park, which I would like to to eventually check out. So have you ever thought about doing something like that in the future, like indoor skate park, for future lessons and teaching? I know Absolutely, because I know the weather in Santa Cruz and it's not always perfect, right.

Speaker 3: 19:05

When winter hits, you know, that's exactly when we need it and we've been looking into that kind of thing. We're going to start by doing renting out community centers. I've recently been looking into purchasing some equipment and then bring it to the community center so we can do that. That's going to be our first kind of test this year and we're just going to kind of go from there. You know, I've been looking at places but it's expensive to be renting out here.

Speaker 3: 19:31

Especially like to have a place. Going year long would be tough because, like you said, the weather isn't always nice, but for three, fourths of the year it's pretty great. So it's hard to be able to convince people to come inside when the sun is shining and you're by the ocean, you know.

Speaker 2: 19:47

Yeah, exactly, I mean, I love Santa cruz, monterey, all that area. So now is this something that you plan on expanding on in the future, like making it bigger and expanding to other areas too, like northern california, like further north or in more into the bay area, or even southern cal?

Speaker 3: 20:08

Yeah, you know, I want my next step to be San Diego. I think that once I get a little bit more situated here, I'd go down to San Diego and then try to work in between that after, or maybe somewhere not as far, maybe Santa Barbara, somewhere around there, la maybe again, but LA is very big so it's kind of hard to get something going there. Yeah, I do. I would love to expand as we go and, uh, at that point I'd probably be changing the name. Um, but there, yeah, I have all kinds of ideas that I want to do with that. Right now I'm just trying to get this fully solidified here, make this a, a statement here. You know, you can look it up and you'll see it on the maps at Sky Parks in Scott Valley. I want to make it very official here, first so that everybody knows about it, and then that's when I have more people helping me out, hire more people to run it for me. That's when I'll be able to kind of bust down to the next spot, nice.

Speaker 2: 21:05

Now, are you working on setting up, like you said earlier, that your program, that you can be, like, more solid in certain aspects of the program? Are you working on designing a more efficient and more how do you put it? Like how you have an itinerary in school, like a more, uh, detailed plan, like, okay, first three weeks, we're working on this. Second three weeks, six weeks. You know that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3: 21:33

Yeah, we usually do that for the groups.

Speaker 3: 21:36

It's it's a little different with the privates because, like, these kids could be progressing a lot. So, for instance, the privates, there's some kids that will come to me once a week for one hour and that's the only time they skate, and so it's kind of hard to be able to have them actually progress when they're only skating one hour a week, whereas I got other kids that will come to me once every three weeks for an hour but they skate for four hours every day at the skate park. So then it's, you know, it really just ranges. So it's hard to get an exact thing going unless it's a group where kids are all different levels so they all have to be kind of working on the same thing because or or be different as well. But for instance, like if if we have a beginner and then we have an intermediate and there's like five of each, we have them all doing ollies, you know, for to warm up, because the beginners get to learn the ollies and then the intermediates get to practice a bigger ollie. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 22:30

So yeah, it's just the groups is a lot easier to have an itinerary, whereas the private is a little bit more sporadic just because it's more based off singular or individual rather than a whole, you know yeah, exactly as far as, like, the kids that want to compete, are you going to start doing like little contests and everything and that way they can start seeing what it's like to compete?

Speaker 3: 22:54

yeah, that's absolutely. And right now we're actually training a couple kids for there's contests coming to janet cruz, so we're training some kids for those specifically at the moment. I'm gonna be starting to do my own contest soon. Um, like I said, the events kind of are gonna tie into that the the parties. That was just a test that we were doing this past year. So what I want to do is pretty much the same thing but make it more of an event, like throwing a little contest and maybe even just a game of skate stuff like that. But making an actual contest definitely will come with it, and I really want to train kids to be able to win contests. All that good stuff. Yeah, For the future, that that's. I would want to train kids to be able to win contests. All that good stuff. Yeah, for the future, that's. I would love to train an Olympian man. That's the main thing.

Speaker 2: 23:40

I really would like to do.

Speaker 3: 23:41

I'd love to just at least give that kid the spark to be able to train himself even Stuff like that, you know, because that would just that would really make it a whole for me. My life would be complete right there, you know, there you go.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Now, speaking of the Olympics, are there actual coaches for skating for a lot of these skateboarders or is it something they do on their own and they compete like X Games and stuff like that to advance into like Olympic competition?

Speaker 3: 24:08

I guess it depends, because I'm not fully sure, right but I have a feeling they definitely have some people that got them on a resume because you don't get that good, just deciding to hop on a board one day and just, oh, I'm going to do this, even if it's themselves coaching themselves. It could be, but there's, more than likely, someone that's on their side that's pushing. It could even be their parents just being like no, you got this, so you can keep going. There could be a lot of different factors that it could be, like I said themselves that they just have, they might have everything on the line and they have to. So it's a it's a good question.

Speaker 2: 24:45

I'm not fully sure, honestly because when you brought that up, it just made me start to think. It's because, like with wrestling, you have coaches with you have a coach Apparently not with Australian breakdancing you don't have a coach. But it's like all these different competitions, you have coaches. And when it comes to skating figure skating, speed skating, short track you have coaches for everything that have been there and passing on their knowledge and trying to get them ready for such a large competition. So and cause, skateboarding has not been in the Olympics that long. It's only been over, like the last decade, hasn't it?

Speaker 3: 25:30

Yeah, just a couple of years, three or four, I feel like, maybe five at the most.

Speaker 2: 25:36

Okay, so yeah, so it's relatively new. So I mean, I know Tony Hawk was at the in Paris, so I'm wondering if he might have coached some people. So it's just one of those things where it's like you got these generational skaters that are now, I hate to say, at my age or older, that have like paved the trail for what's going on now, and I'm wondering if they're, you know, coaching people and passing their knowledge down to make them olympic ready I'm sure they are.

Speaker 3: 26:10

I'm sure they are, I'm sure I'm sure they have someone in their corner that's helping them, because that it's a big, a big responsibility to have to be in the olympics or even the x games. I'm sure all those guys have someone in their corner helping them out yeah, it's, it's, you got it.

Speaker 2: 26:25

I know, chris. He was part of team roller blade and that's why when he went to the x games he was already on a team and I'm sure they had people and trying different tricks and bouncing things off ideas off each other. So, but so.

Speaker 3: 26:40

It could even just be their friends too. You know like, oh, your foot was right there, maybe you should put your foot over here, maybe, maybe give it a little bit more air. You know, just hanging out with their friends and helping each other out Could be Definitely.

Speaker 2: 26:53

So now you run the, the, when you run the summer camps, is it like five days a week, or is it?

Speaker 3: 27:03

yeah, we do five days a week, monday through friday, usually 9 30 am to 12 30 pm. A good three-hour session, that's.

Speaker 2: 27:11

That's the average summer camp we have, okay, so you don't run two sessions in a day. It's just one session. At this time, yeah, usually just one. Okay, because I know even me skating three hours. You realize I've been skating for a while. You just start to get tired. It does take stuff out of you, especially when you're outdoors doing it with it, depending upon the temperature outside and stuff too it gets hot here, man.

Speaker 3: 27:33

We got no shade in our skate park, so I don't by friday.

Speaker 2: 27:39

I'm trying to get these kids to skate and they're just laying down on their boards taking a nap you got to bring the misters and set them up around the skate park so they can all yeah off now do you, I bring, I bring a little spray bottle.

Speaker 3: 27:50

Sometimes, you know, there you go.

Speaker 2: 27:53

So now do you teach like half pipe and stuff like that too pretty much everything you know.

Speaker 3: 27:58

I mean the main thing that I work in is getting just the basics going. But I have worked with advanced kids, like lately I've had a lot of kids want to learn the kickflip. I've been helping with that. I I guess you could call that intermediate more than advanced, but I've had kids drop into 13 foot vert ramps. I help beginners but intermediate and advanced I work with as well.

Speaker 2: 28:21

Nice, all right. So now that we're coming to the end, we got to know what kind of equipment you use. What kind of board is your board of preference?

Speaker 3: 28:32

My board of preference. I'm not going to lie, I use a local skate shop board. That's pretty much the main one I use. It's a bills wheel skate shop I, I, you. I like to use them for a couple reasons. I love to support local uh they. They get it manufactured by the same people that make baker and those boards, so it's professional quality. So I do like those a lot and for the most part the kids love messing with my board. So my board always gets dinged up real quick because the kids love throwing it around and so I don't want to be paying $100 just for a deck to get chomped on by a kid. But I do love all types of decks, mainly real, real skateboards. I love those. I actually have some skateboards, luke's Skate Lessons boards my first set being delivered soon, so I'll be having those. I get to ride those. Those are professional quality as well.

Speaker 2: 29:25

Okay, you'll have to let me know when you get those, because I know I'm going to end up with something from every guest. If they have different kinds of equipment skateboards in inlines, quads, it's I'm gonna end up with a giant collection. I can see it now sick. Yeah, I'll send you one for sure bro definitely, and then. So what kind of trucks do you use?

Speaker 3: 29:49

I stay classic with the independents and I've skated a good handful of trucks, but independent trucks have always been there, always done the best for me. They, they last so long. I've skated like the same pair of trucks, usually every three to five years. So those and I break them in exactly how I like them. I love independent. I can't get enough of them.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Okay, and now wheels and bearings. What are your choices for those?

Speaker 3: 30:15

we actually just did a review on our youtube. Our youtube has been blowing up lately. We've been getting a lot. We're. I think we're at like 17 000 subscribers at this exact moment. We're, um, we just did a product review for bones red bearings and those are the. Those are the bearings. You've probably heard of them.

Speaker 1: 30:32

They're the most common bearings.

Speaker 3: 30:33

Yep, they're the most common and they're like I don't want to say basic, but they're like the ones you're going to see the most and they last the best. I I love them because they're inexpensive and they just do the trick really well. I've always skated bones reds. I'm not saying that just because I did a review, but I've actually since I can remember. Bones reds are the ones I've been using. I've tried a couple others before Bronson and stuff. They're good, but Bones Reds just are the classic. I stick with those. Then on the wheels, I get the Bones wheels too. Bones has always been there for me. I love Bones. It's cool. Actually, they just sent us the wheels to review as well. The X-Formulas the X-Form have been. They've been working on those for like 10 years in the past 10 years just to perfect them. So those are great. Bone bearings, bones red bearings and bones wheels. I just go with those. If not bones wheels, I'll go with spitfires okay, and now?

Speaker 2: 31:30

how do people follow you and find out more about you?

Speaker 3: 31:35

yeah, I mean luke skatelessonscom has a little bit more information on why we started the business and more about me myself. It's where. It's where we got all of our products. It's where our socials are linked to those. Um, that's where you can book the lessons. You can kind of just get more of an idea of what we're about right there.

Speaker 3: 31:52

Luke skatelessonscom for our youtube, it's luke skate world we're doing. We're about to hammer away at uh content. We just did, actually, a video that's going to be coming out in the next month or so. We just made a video of going to every single skate park in the county in a day, and so that's about 10 skate parks in about eight hours. We did, or so. So we it's true we're starting to do way more product reviews. Like I said, um, bones bearings we just did a review for them. That's out right now. I just did a trick tip tutorial on how to kick turn. That's out right now. Um, we got the bones wheels coming. That we're going to do. Product review. Burn helmets just sent us about six helmets and we're going to review those and give some of those away. Uh, we're doing all types of crazy stuff and we're just going to have more fun too we're thinking of all types of crazy ideas.

Speaker 3: 32:42

You know, maybe doing a game of skate wearing a weighted vest. We're going to try to get a little more creative and just do some. Do some fun things. Luke skate world, not just luke skate lessons, right, uh, we're going to be just doing as much as we can skateboarding and just kind of like what you're doing as much as you can skating, which is, you know, ice skating, roller skating, skateboarding. You're doing that all I'm trying to do it all in the skateboard world nice.

Speaker 2: 33:06

So a friend of mine actually owns a company called juke performance and they have a thing called a mass suit. So what it does is it connects to your ankles, so it's the resistance band, but it comes in like a harness, so when you skate you have that resistance and you can add more and more resistance for skating. That would actually be pretty cool to see you guys try to skate with that resistance on your legs too. That could be pretty entertaining. You said it's a mass suit, mass M-A-S-S suit, mass m-a-s-s suit, s-u-i-t. So if you look it up, it'll show you how it's all designed and everything. I actually have one. It's still in storage in manteca in california, so okay, so got to get that out, especially with the speed skating. I want to be able to do the trail skating and wear that for the extra resistance. Just yeah, I'm looking over right now. These look crazy. They're like sport. It's for sports training skating. I want to be able to do the trail skating and wear that for the extra resistance.

Speaker 3: 33:56

I'm looking at them right now. These look crazy. It's for sports training, like all types of sports, I'm assuming.

Speaker 2: 34:03

Even if you go in and just do weight training, it just has that extra resistance too. It kind of hits everything, which is really cool.

Speaker 3: 34:12

This looks crazy. You said the Juke one too right.

Speaker 2: 34:14

I'm looking at their website right now yeah, so that's actually who owns the mass suit wow, that's nuts. This looks crazy so there it takes a little bit getting used to, because having that resistance, especially when you're doing stuff, just something as simple as like box jumps or even just trying to walk- so yeah, I could tell it looks robotic yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 34:38

So. I mean, and of course skateboarders are athletes, no matter what people think of them, but you have to be in shape to to do skateboarding. You have to have, you know, core strength. You have to have leg strength and definitely arm strength when you do the hand plants on the ramps and stuff. So it's definitely like you gotta look at the whole aspect and not just picking up a skateboarding and, you know, do it for your overall health and not just, not just, the skateboarding side of things.

Speaker 3: 35:11

So Absolutely yeah, it's big mental. So, absolutely yeah, it's big mental. Um, like you said, it's great for my cardio. One thing I would say about that too, though, is definitely try to work on riding switch, because you develop an imbalance if you don't practice both sides too, and then it's good, because then you're challenging yourself even more, because riding backwards switch, which is when you switch your stance, putting your original front foot in the back foot position, and then your back foot becomes your front foot, which becomes that just sounds hard, obviously, but once you do that enough and you get both ways going, you just improve overall, like completely, and your motor skills get a lot better. It's just a crazy thing, man yeah, that's awesome it's.

Speaker 2: 35:54

It's like I said, you gotta look at the whole thing and, and especially with the imbalance, like you said, I kind of got a little bit of that just skating in a circle so ended up with a hip that wasn't able to move very well one day. And yeah, my therapist is like well, you got to both sides. You can't just work the one side, because then you, like you said, get unbalanced and it just doesn't work too well for you. That's right, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 36:23

And we love getting those hippers man, a good old slam witch, for dinner.

Speaker 2: 36:27

Yeah, so, but I appreciate you coming on the show today and it will be out this friday if you want to listen. So I'm excited.

Speaker 3: 36:38

Absolutely, man, I'd love to run it back and check it out. Cool and just spread the word. Absolutely, man, I appreciate it a lot for having me on. This is awesome. This is my first one and I'm super stoked that you reached out and you're a good guy, so this is awesome, man. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you.