How Do You Sk8!
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How Do You Sk8!
From Skateboards to Rollerblades: Nel Martin's Journey of Passion and Business in Urban Sports
Skating fans, get ready for an exhilarating ride with our special guest, Nell Martin—the first Spaniard to bring his story to our podcast. Imagine shifting gears at age 13, moving from skateboarding to rollerblading, all because skateboards became scarce in his homeland. Nell's journey showcases a tenacious spirit, as he reminisces about the less specialized days of rollerblading, filled with variety and thrill. His enduring love for urban sports not only fuels his passion but also drives his event and marketing company, keeping the spirit alive and kicking.
From mental health to business endeavors, we explore the transformative power of skating. Discover how a contract with Cirque du Soleil offered mental balance and how running Secret Spot, a leading rollerblading school, brings joy beyond measure. We touch on the vibrant scene in Las Vegas and Spain, where skate culture has grown more inclusive. With nods to the legends that inspired us—Chris Edwards, Arlo, and Cesar Mora—we share insights into sustaining a niche business and the joys of teaching young champions. This episode promises a blend of personal stories, industry wisdom, and an unwavering love for the sport.
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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. 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:Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you Skate. I'm your host, sean Egan, and my guest today is Nell Martin, and he is out of Spain, so he's my first person from Spain I've had other international people, but no one from Spain yet.
Speaker 3:So you're my first, and welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Hello, I'm happy to be here. So now, how old were you when you started skating?
Speaker 3:Where did your whole skating start. Yeah, when I started rollerblading I was about 13 years old. I would say.
Speaker 2:Okay, and was it just you got your first pair of skates or was it? Because it's always, the story is behind. So it's like what made you start, what made you decide? What was the?
Speaker 3:Well, honestly, being really honest, I was a skateboarder, I was a skater.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And in Spain, for some reason, you couldn't buy any more boards Like a skateboard, was that and all my friends become rollerbladers and at some point I was like, no, I want to keep skating, I like skateboarding. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But I couldn't get another war. My world was dying. So we have in christmas in spain as a tradition, we have something that is called the three kings. Three kings and those kings bring presents to the kids right in christmas. So one of my, one of my presents, was a pair of rollerblades, and actually from the rollerblade brand, and then once I tried them, I never, I never stopped.
Speaker 2:That was the thing I found the gold yeah so how old were you when you started skateboarding?
Speaker 3:So I can't remember exactly Probably, I was probably, I would say, around nine, nine years old when I started skateboarding.
Speaker 2:So why did they stop selling skateboards? Was it just like did? They outlaw it or.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no, no, no, not really Just the industry of the skateboarding. Now we all know the industry is pretty huge. The skateboarding industry is is massive, but back in the day was pretty pretty, so it has it had like a big, fast grown and then kind of died, at least in europe, even in usa, because big, big names. I remember when I started row Riding when I was, when I become pro a lot of the pro big names, like I was doing shows with Tony Hawk and nobody knew.
Speaker 3:Tony and almost nobody knew in Tony Hawk back in the day. You know what I'm saying. Like it was just one. I don't know how to say this without getting no one offended, but so we were doing the show and he was joining our rollerblading show.
Speaker 2:Okay, Does that make sense? Yeah?
Speaker 3:So it kind of. Actually he has a really good book where he's talking about his life and it talks about that Like he was surviving, doing show for rollerbladers and also doing video camera for surfing.
Speaker 2:So anyways, long story short, sure, skateboarding kind of died okay, and then, like no manufacturers kept selling there, they just kind of all pulled out of spain yeah, exactly, I think.
Speaker 3:No, no one shop. No shops were interested in selling skateboards anymore in spain, not in many shops in spain. I'm sure you still could find a shop, but I was living in a small village, I was a kid, so I couldn't go to Barcelona city.
Speaker 2:So it was.
Speaker 3:It was hard.
Speaker 2:So now has skateboarding come back at all in Spain.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, skateboarding has probably. You know it's massive, it was pretty huge, especially the last 15 years, all over the world. So skateboarding, even if now it's a little bit slower, it was huge in Spain as well too.
Speaker 2:And so you transitioned from skateboarding to rollerblading and you kind of haven't turned back since, or do you still pick up the board every once in a while?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, I mean yeah, it was a long time ago when I was training, I would say, or skating more hours than I'm doing right now. I was warming up a little bit with skateboarding. I like skateboarding Also. I had my own events and marketing company here in Spain and I was always taking care of all the action sports, all urban sports skateboarding, rollerblading, snakeboarding, bmx, breakdancing so I like all the urban culture sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very cool. Now, with the rollerblading, how long before you got into so you basically started skating and did you have pretty good balance because of your skateboarding background or did it transfer over pretty easily? Yeah?
Speaker 3:I think so I was pretty good on every single sport that I was trying. So I was decent on skateboarding, and as soon as I got my rollerblades on, I was doing pretty okay too and I progressed really fast. My progression at the beginning was really really fast, so I got super excited about it.
Speaker 2:Nice, and now you skated, and then was it just street skating or did you transition into ramps and stuff like that with skate, with the inlines, or bro, when when we started rollerblading was rollerblading.
Speaker 3:Now it's fun because which is pretty cool you have different wheels, different frames, different blah, different everything is so professional. Back in the day you have like a pair of whatever skates fitness skates or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, and we were doing everything. Like same day I was doing hockey game, then I was jumping the stairs, then I was trying to grind, then I was doing downhill and then I was going to the rhymes.
Speaker 2:That's, that's one of my regular days back in the day, and was that all in the same pair of skates?
Speaker 3:Yeah, all the same, of course, yeah.
Speaker 2:And now it's like you've got skates for speed skating, you've got skates for artistic, you've got slalom skates, you've got wizard skates and you can even put together your own skates, and a lot of people do that.
Speaker 3:Do you put together your own skates now? Well, yeah, exactly. Look how it was even back in the day. So we were kind of at the beginning of everything. So there were no grinds, it was so pure and so beautiful too, because we were discovering a lot of things while we were trying and killing ourselves. So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Now, what year did you start skating?
Speaker 3:because I started skating in 88 so I was kind of there at the beginning too. So so I I start. I will say it's like all in rollerblading on 92, end of 92 okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, just still in the beginning stages, back when chris edwards was on team rollerblade and doing x games and um and remember.
Speaker 3:Remember. This is really important because sometimes I talk with some american friends and they will say, no, but we were already grinding and all that, yeah, could be, but remember, we were overseas on the 90s yeah overseas on the 90s. No social media, no dvds, no internet at all. So we had to wait until someone bought a video of the first. You know grinds chris edwards doing the first I can. I can't remember which was. Which one was the first video, but anyways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, chris Edwards was actually my first guest on the podcast, really. So episode number one has Chris on it Could have been a different way. It was just a cool era to start. Then you had movies like Airborne and all that kind of stuff that came out, and Chris Edwards was in that.
Speaker 3:And just to be able to, when you talk about rollerblading and you talk about the beginnings, you got to talk about Chris, like I'm, I'm skating because of Chris and you know, but especially especially Chris for me changed my mind about rollerblading, changed everything. Like it was amazing how he was skating back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's still in the skating good yeah, and you're still skating and I'm still skating, and we started way back in the day, so it's it's cool to see how even we've evolved with skating too. So now do you do competitions, or did you do competitions in the past?
Speaker 3:I know you're an event planner and and set competitions, or uh yeah, I've been competing a lot, even if wasn't my probably my passion, to be honest, but I I like it too. I like it. I did a lot of competition, a lot of exams, a lot of whatever you know like asa pro tour. Yeah, I have a good memories.
Speaker 2:The best part of the memories is the friends that I made during the tours absolutely, because I mean the skate culture, we kind of come together and it's a it's a small but very tight community. It's like we really unlike some other things I've been involved with that you don't have the enemies like you normally would, so it makes it so what's the skate culture like in spain?
Speaker 3:it's. It's cool. It's cool it was. It was a little bit rough before, to be honest, but now it's way better. Now. The skate culture that we have it's more open. Back in the day was a little bit more close, like if you were doing a street. You were like a street and you gotta be that look of a streeter, like smoking weed and blah, blah, blah and, and you know it was more, more like that and nowadays is way different. Everyone is more like you can do whatever you want and you're. If if you don't skate the street but one day you want to hang out with the guys, you are welcome. If you're gonna skate transition and you wanna you want to hang out with the guys, you are welcome. If you're in a skate transition and you want to come to any skate park, you are welcome. Right now, at least under my opinion, it's way more healthier than before in Spain. I like it way better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because even for a long time here in the States, skating in the streets was kind of like you were a troublemaker or whatever. And now they've got skate parks and they've got. They've got actual places where people can go, and I've even seen videos of cops jumping on skateboards and hitting the skate park too.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I like it. So what I like from now is that it's more similar. When I started back in the 90s, like it was more the skaters in spain they skate almost everything kind of they like to skate everything. The youngest skaters in Spain they skate almost everything kind of they like to skate everything. The younger skaters they can go and do a handrail but they also can hit the halfpipe, which for me is pretty amazing, because that's how I grew up. That's what it means to me, rollerblading Like of course, when you are getting older there's something that you like better, but at the beginning you got to be open and try everything, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's how the skating is seen right now in Spain, and I'm in love. I like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:By the way, I live in Las Vegas, though.
Speaker 2:Oh, you live in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right now I'm in Spain, but my home is in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 2:Okay, so yeah, and I know the skating community is getting really big there too.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I don't know, honestly, it's the best skating scene I ever met, like in Las Vegas. It's crazy, because they are not only a pretty good amount of skaters, they are super organized, like they do a lot of things together. I like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm just a few hundred miles away from you, near Denver, colorado, and the skating is just how many rinks we have here. You could always find a night to go skating if you're an adult, without having to deal with kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome man, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:So how long have you been in Las Vegas then? So you're originally from Spain and then moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm from Spain. I was doing my whole career living in Spain. I always had indoor skate bars, my show company, as I said, but at some point I was pretty stressed out. I was doing a lot of projects. Maybe they were a little bit too big for me. I didn't know how to manage a bigger company. So, long story short, they offered me a contract in a show in Las Vegas, in a single-person show, and I thought it was perfect for my mental health. So I took it. I took it only for a year. I just wanted to detox from the stress, and it's been over nine years that I'm living there.
Speaker 2:Nice. Now, what was the show? Because I know, uh, I had some of the the crew that won roller jam, uh, the honor roll skate crew yeah, no, no, no, tony from that show is doing a show in vegas now too yeah, no, I was.
Speaker 3:I was in a Cirque du Soleil show, the.
Speaker 1:Beat of.
Speaker 2:Slums Okay.
Speaker 3:At the Mirage Hotel.
Speaker 2:Nice. That had to be pretty fun, because Cirque du Soleil I can never pronounce it right is an amazing, just an amazing show, so that had to be really fun for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was pretty cool. It was a beautiful ride.
Speaker 2:So now, when you're going through, like just to get your mind right and everything like, did you stop skating at that time, or was skating your your kind of mental health therapy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, always skating. I love skating a lot of. Whoever who knows me, they know that I need to skate every day. I really like it. And it's not only that I like, it is my therapy. It's been always my therapy. When I'm in trouble, when I'm having problems, it's the best thing that I can do. And, of course, the reason why I moved to Las Vegas is because I was thinking that I would have more time to skate Because the job was a skating job. I got a skating position, so not taking care of all the business that I had in spain give me more free time to skate. So that's what I took it. It wasn't a it wasn't a money situation, it wasn't not not like that. It was more like I want to skate more hours. I think it's going to be better for my mental health and it helped it helped definitely.
Speaker 2:I've noticed a lot with a lot of my past guests that skating always seems to be some of the best mental therapy that you can do. Not only is it good mentally but it's also good physically because it kind of keeps you in shape.
Speaker 3:I think they go together. You know, Like, when you exercise, I think you give to the body some chemistry, you know some gimmicks.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know, it helps.
Speaker 2:So now are you just visiting back in Spain? Are you back there for a while?
Speaker 3:Well, I was visiting, but I keep staying a little bit longer. I keep staying a little bit longer. So all together it's going to be a good couple of months, but I'm going to be in Vegas pretty soon though.
Speaker 2:Okay, now that you're back in spain for visiting, are you teaching any of the new kids uh, young kids some new tricks?
Speaker 3:yeah, I was. I I always had the indoor skate parks in spain, as I said, and even while I was in vegas, I had my indoor skate park here in spain and a school and actually become one of the biggest schools I will say in the world. We have an amazing kids here, like they just won the world championship. One of the kids, though in two different disciplines a skate park and park sorry, escape park, a park on a street and another, the on, where they got third. Another girl got third from my school. So I have a huge school here in Las Vegas in Spain. It's called Secret Spot. Okay, secret Spot on Instagram. So, answering your question, yes, I'm always teaching.
Speaker 2:I love it. Nice Now, are you like, have it as a business that you're teaching, or you just do it out of the kindness of your heart? No, have it as a business that you're teaching, or you just do it out of the kindness of your heart.
Speaker 3:No, no, I mean, it wouldn't be fair if I say that I'll do it just for my hair, because they have to pay. But the money that they pay has never been because the rent is expensive. We have a warehouse, so right now at least, I'm not losing money. Back in the day, for the first years, I was losing money.
Speaker 2:Okay so it's kind of cool that you can take your passion and actually turn it into a business. So a lot of people say you know, take your passion, turn it into a business. But some of the businesses I see people do, it's like I don't really see how you can be passionate about something like you know. Well, okay, demolition, I can see blowing up stuff, that's one thing. But like construction and building houses, I mean I can see enjoying it, but I can never be passionate about it.
Speaker 3:I get lazy sometimes it has to be hard, man. The only thing about about our sport is really hard to make a living because the numbers are not quite there on the market. But, I never took it like that man. I think Royal Breeding saved my life. I think it gave me so much that I will never pay back. So I always thought that how I could contribute to the Royal Breeding War is to put my knowledge, my rams, my indoor skate parks, on the on the on, on the need of other skaters, you know.
Speaker 2:So that's what I'm doing, that's awesome. So now, when you go back to Vegas, like when you plan on coming back, because I'm gonna eventually make it out there, at least next football season.
Speaker 3:So definitely would love to meet up with you, man that would be great. Yeah, so I have. I have also on my backyard on my house there in vegas. I have a huge ramp. Okay, a smaller street park, I will say a box ledge. I don't always try to also get some kids there and and skate with them, teach them a little bit, so I'm always involved when doing something very cool and I know like usher's got a roller rink there and it's like a bunch of different people have roller rinks right in vegas too.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but I heard his. Have you been to his rink yet? No, I haven't. I heard it's kind of small and expensive to get into. So to me that just kind of takes the fun out of it. I mean I don't need to skate somewhere just because someone famous owns it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, you have a couple of famous people owning the rings there, because you have also Mayweather, you know the boxer.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And, of course, the one that you are talking about, but that one man, of course, the one that you are talking about, but that one man it's. Of course it's expensive, it's on the street, it's in a you know, in a location that, but yeah, there's many others that you can go inexpensive.
Speaker 2:That's true. So now do you hit the rinks there too, or is it just like skate parks in your ramp?
Speaker 3:No man. At the beginning I was so into trying to get the time back on the ramp that I bought.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know the the ramp that I put on my house, that I was. I was obsessed. I was skating every single day as much as I could on that ramp. And when, after a couple of years, I was like now it's time for me to get out on escape bars, rings and I got the injury pretty bad, which I've been dealing the last three years with injuries. So I'm not, but yeah, I will, I will. Now I'm starting to feel better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're no spring chickens anymore, but we can still hold our own. Exactly so now, who was some of your biggest influences? I know we talked about Chris Edwards earlier. Who was some of your biggest influences in skating?
Speaker 3:So when I was younger, I would say Chris and Arlo. When I was younger, I would say Chris and Arlo. Okay, and later on I think the biggest and probably one of my best friends on skating and all that is Cesar Mora. Okay, very cool Cesar Mora. If you have the opportunity and you have the time, do a podcast with him, because he's a great guy. He has so many stories. He's a, he has, he's a pretty good. Uh, he is an amazing human being. You're gonna enjoy a lot talking to him very cool.
Speaker 2:And now some of the other follow-up questions I like are what is your uh setup now, like boots, bearings, wheels, frame?
Speaker 3:so, yeah, look, that's pretty interesting too, because, as I said, my first rollerblades, my flits, my first blades always were rollerblades, right yeah and since then I've been skating on rollerblades. So I tried uh, I tried a couple of other different brands, but skating like daily skating I've been always on Rollerblade brand. So right now I'm skating Rollerblade blanks with solar frames and famous wheels.
Speaker 2:Okay, very cool. And now what is some advice that you have to give to this younger generation? Because even from the time you and I started, we've seen this sport evolve so much, and the nice thing about aggressive skating is that it evolves. It's like it's not like speed skating or hockey, where you have rules that you have to follow with skating, figure skating, skating, artistic skating, aggressive skating, freestyle Things are being invented as tricks, new tricks all the time, so it's kind of giving the advice.
Speaker 3:You are kind of giving the advice that I'm giving Like be you, Don't try. So what I tell to the kids it's don't try to be cool, Try to be you and have fun. Because sometimes you look all those Instagrams, especially now, and you want to be like them. You want to be like what you see the most street skating ledges and you want to be like them, having the same style, the same tricks. No man, Think out of the box, Try crazy things. Be you, Be whatever. You like to do flips, do flips. You like to do flips, do flips. You like to do transitions, do transitions. Don't try to be one shape more of the group. You know Like get outside, Do your thing. That's the advice that I give.
Speaker 2:That works Now. How can my listeners follow you?
Speaker 3:Instagram. I'm trying to be on Instagram pretty active right now, so my Instagram is Nel Martin N-E-L Martin.
Speaker 2:And then I will post that link in the show notes so people can click on it. So well, I appreciate you coming on the show today. Thank you for the time amigo. And definitely, and I definitely look forward to hooking up with you when I'm in Vegas, oh yeah, I was waiting for you. All right, brother, have a good day, take care. Bye-bye, Bye, thank you. Thank you, we'll see you next time.