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: 0:41

Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you Skate. I am your host, Sean Egan, and my guest today is Tavis Trozen, who we actually met at the St Paul 11 Mile Skate. Yes, so that's where we actually met, and of course he also runs the Miami Inline Marathon, so I had to have him on. So how are you doing today?

Speaker 3: 1:06

Beachy Thanks.

Speaker 2: 1:07

It's good. So now tell me how skating started for you. How old were you? What was your like? Did you start off with the metal quads, like I did, or I'm from.

Speaker 3: 1:18

I'm from Grand Forks, north Dakota, so I don't know if you're familiar. It's home of the fighting Sioux hockey. So I mean, it's hockey's a god there, right? It's like the whole town shuts down when the college hockey team would play. So I grew up, so I was actually a late skater for North, for Grand Forks. I didn't learn to skate until I was five and most people were already skating when they were two, so I learned ice skates, um.

Speaker 3: 1:44

And then you know, going to elementary school and you'd have your backpack on one shoulder, you'd have your stick with your skates through it on your other. As soon as school got out, you would go and skate. Every elementary school had three ice rinks um, so it's just yeah, so like outside you have like a rink for, um, no sticks, a rink that you could have hockey sticks and then the boards, a rink with the boards which is like serious hockey yeah so yeah I grew up hockey skating never, never organized, never like competitive.

Speaker 3: 2:17

So I grew up, yeah, hockey skating, and then my grandma got me some god, I think they were Bauer rollerblades actually Like you know, the hockey people make, and really tiny, like the Fred Flintstone wheels, you know, like not like neoprene, but like as you skated like the wheels were chipping off, kind of a deal.

Speaker 2: 2:39

I remember those.

Speaker 3: 2:41

Yeah. So I was probably I don't know I was. I was probably like eight or nine or something, and then I got a net for my birthday so I would play kind of like street hockey and shoot around and just skate around the neighborhood. And then I didn't, um, I didn't skate for a long time really, uh, in line at all. I didn't even know it was called in line until um. After like high school I'm a big track guy and I have stress fractures in my shins I found out I couldn't run anymore. I went off to college and got put on a lot of weights. One day I was back at home and I just found some old skates and started skating. I was like, oh, this is cool, I get that feeling like when I was running again. You know, it's like just the wind and well, I used to have hair same here I know what you mean that's okay.

Speaker 3: 3:32

I can feel the wind way more now with just a scale um, so yeah, so I just started skating again and then I got um. I think there were solomon or2, and they were 584 millimeters, so it was like ooh 84, and everyone had 80 millimeters. I had five of them and it was like you know a hard shell boot with like the soft liner, but it had like this quick lace system. It was like whoa.

Speaker 1: 4:00

So I was probably like yeah, 18, 19 there.

Speaker 3: 4:01

So I was probably like yeah, 18, 19 there. And then I did my first North Shore. It was my first ever event, Probably when I was around like 20. So that's probably like 24 years ago. My aunt found out. She's like hey, did you know there's marathons for skating?

Speaker 1: 4:17

I was like no, I never heard of such a thing, and so, yeah, me and my little cousin went.

Speaker 2: 4:26

And then it's just been crazy. Since then I can relate to the five wheel, because I had the roller roller blade five wheel back in the day. So that was 91 92. So yeah, yeah, I'm probably a little older than you oh, that's okay.

Speaker 3: 4:40

You were way ahead on the on the five wheel. I mean, the five-wheel was crazy at the time.

Speaker 2: 4:46

Yeah, you can actually still get them Columbia. They use them a lot, especially for a lot of the slalom downhill stuff too. Really, I'm not going to try that stuff. I'm okay with falling, but I'm not a fan of falling downhill at 70 kilometers an hour. I'm just saying.

Speaker 3: 5:04

Yeah, for the downhill craziness. I actually found, quite a few years now, this guy, richard Nett. I don't know if you've ever met, heard of him, nett Racing.

Speaker 3: 5:15

He's the one I used to get all my stuff for when I lived in North Dakota you could call him up and just say, here's the type of skater I am, here's what I do do, and he tries like all the skates, and I think he's a boot maker, so he'd be like, oh, here's the skate you need to be, here's the wheel setup. But anyways, a while back I was like you know, I was on, uh, you know, carbon fiber race boots at that time but I was like, hey, what about it's like? Are there any like old five wheel frames that you can still mount? You know, because they I can't remember like what the millimeters were, but you know, never. A while ago they changed so that the mounting was different.

Speaker 3: 5:52

I think it's like further apart now instead of close together and he's like oh yeah, there's this one, it's mojima or something like that makes this the five wheel frame and has like two slots. If you drill out this, you can put a five wheel on a new boot and I did that and it was yeah, and I put on some 584s and I was, I was trying, I was learning to double push and then it was like at first you're like this is crazy, right, you're so small, but they're like oh my gosh, like I can, like get my edges like nobody's business yeah but you I mean, it's not fast enough.

Speaker 3: 6:24

There's no way you can like use them anymore, but it was.

Speaker 2: 6:26

It was fun to play around it because the five wheels actually had smaller wheels. They didn't have like the 110s, like we do now, or 125s your frame would be like two feet long.

Speaker 3: 6:37

Yeah, yeah, right, you'd look like one of those crazy downhill skaters exactly extremely crazy downhill skaters.

Speaker 2: 6:44

So yeah, the theely crazy downhill skaters. So yeah, the the marathon that we just did. Or the 11 mile. That was my first race in 33 years, so it was uh it, it was fun, I'm.

Speaker 2: 6:55

I'm like I said I'm not doing the uh, apostle islands, but next year that's in the game. And then I'm going to be doing the, the, the next two for the rollerblade series, but I'll have to put miami on for next year. So now, what made you start like what? What was the whole concept of like starting miami marathon, and how did that come about?

Speaker 3: 7:16

so like the short answer or like the long answer dude give me the detailed answer people want to know, in case somebody else wants to like hey, I want to do a marathon in my area you gotta be careful asking me a question ever, because I'm going to take like the longest way and then, especially skating, I'll just never shut up, so um I got so I got more and more into skating right over the years and then, um to the point you know, learned that there was like technique went to skate, which we should talk about skate farm sometime.

Speaker 3: 7:45

But eventually I joined the North shore board. I was asked I had some former teammate on there and she's like hey, we're looking for some people on the board. So I served on the North shore board for three years.

Speaker 1: 7:59

And so, and again, I've done.

Speaker 3: 8:02

I don't know how many races I've done. I've done over 50 for sure Outdoor, between marathons, half marathons, 24 hours, le Mans I don't know if you know Athens to Atlanta.

Speaker 2: 8:17

I was actually going to ask you about that one. Have you done that one?

Speaker 3: 8:20

Yeah, so I did the 87 one year, except there was road construction so I actually did 89. And that was freaking awful. But the A to A people are so amazing that I came back and then I did the 49 the next year and I won the 49 mile and that wasn't bad.

Speaker 1: 8:39

So yeah, I've done a bunch of races.

Speaker 3: 8:41

So I had done a lot, a lot of races and I met. I was, I was at 88, one year actually, and I accidentally 88. Pride is in Atlanta, right. So Athens, atlanta, or sorry, athens, georgia, to Athens, atlanta, 87 mile road skates. On Sunday, friday night, they have a group skate, uh, and it's really fun. You have a police escort. It's in Atlanta. You go downtown with the police escort, it's a really fun time. Well, it was. Unfortunately it ended. Now I actually went skating. I elbowed this girl. We just started talking. Her name's Naomi Weinberg.

Speaker 1: 9:23

She was from Miami.

Speaker 3: 9:24

We became friends and then she had met, I think right around that time, a woman named Doris Casabona from Miami. They met on the trail skating in Miami, and so we just started like hey, I'm going to this event. Oh, I'll be there and we used to joke around. Naomi was like my skate wife and I was her skate husband, because we would stay together at all these events and like we never dated or anything like that.

Speaker 3: 9:51

But yeah, so we just like we go to all these events together and Doris was there, and so the three of us just became friends. I mean, we're in Berlin together and all the Midwest races here, and so yeah, and so, yeah, so, and then about they might kill me here. Eight to 10 years ago, they started an event called Skater Migration in Miami. Okay, are you familiar with Skater Migration?

Speaker 2: 10:13

No.

Speaker 3: 10:15

So it used to be around something called the Great Escape, and so some really old school skaters will know the Great Escape. But they brought it back to life and it's's just. It's like a rolling party in miami. It's not speed, it is just like thursday night and then like two skates, I think friday, two skates, saturday and maybe sunday and they just take over the streets of miami and they just okay, we're gonna skate to this beach ring or whatever.

Speaker 3: 10:44

They're not closing down roads, they just have a group of skaters there from the local soby rollers and they go out and they'll skate ahead and they'll just stop traffic and, um, I think their largest year. They have 800 skaters. Oh wow, world like quad skaters, recreational skaters, like colombian, like national, you know world champion type people, everyone. But it's just a really slow group skate and just like a rolling party.

Speaker 1: 11:11

So anyway, so um, they're like hey you have to come to skater migration.

Speaker 3: 11:15

So I came there and so we just kind of got talking. A while. Back is especially as we're seeing races ending right like we're just talking. Athens to atlanta is just done. This year is the last year of rolling on the river in my hometown, in grand forest. Um, and it was a great event, like the second you cross the finish line, you've got your time that literally handed to you. It's like amazing timing. You have really good food.

Speaker 3: 11:42

Um, so we've seen these races and, um, we, we all love berlin. Berlin is my favorite race, and then there was always rumors of berlin ending, and then last year they dramatically changed berlin to save the events. Um, and there's still rumors that maybe this is the last year berlin. So we love skating, right, they do the skater migration thing, and then I do all these other races and I'm on the north shore board helping to grow north shore again, and so we just like we should start a race yeah we should and we're like we know all these people again from skating all over the world and all over the country.

Speaker 3: 12:23

All of us have all these contacts. Doris is like a rollerblade ambassador. Um. So again, we just know all these people like, yeah, let's, let's do this, like I'm about the races.

Speaker 3: 12:34

You have a lot of industry contacts let's get together and so our first one that we're going to do is actually guadalajara in Mexico. Oh, so that's where I'm at, that's where my wife is from, so we had all the permissions, like everything in Guadalajara. So it was going to be pretty. It was going to be a point-to-point 26-mile race through Guadalajara, finishing through it's called the Arcos de Guadalajara, which is just a big arch, right kind of like berlin does. Yeah, amazing. And then they had elections and in mexico.

Speaker 3: 13:10

I don't know if you know how it works, but when elections happened everything is just like kind of shut down, postponed so yeah so we had done everything and, yeah, the elections happened and just kind of killed us, but in the meantime we kept working on the Miami idea, especially since they have so many people there, so many recreational skaters, and so we're like, let's do this.

Speaker 3: 13:36

And we just started looking for a company we could work with like a production company, a timing company. We found a company called Race Time and they do primarily running events, some cycling, but like every month, and so they have contacts to help us with getting all the permitting and everything, yeah and so, yeah, so we made a deal with them and, like right now, we just signed a three-year contract, so our goal is to keep this growing. So that's how we got into Miami. Our goal with Miami is really again. So we're all speed skaters, right, but we also love rec skating, and Miami has so many rec skaters, and Skate of Migration is all about rec skaters, right, and so we wanted to create an event that is like really fun, that's welcoming, and it's not just like a race, it's like a whole weekend thing.

Speaker 3: 14:31

We do a group skate friday night, skating migration style, just going out through the city. Um, super fun. We had, you know, world champion with us from colombia. We had two, uh, olympians from peru, like the rowers, like world crew type of guys yeah so we have like all, and then we have like derby girls and just rec skaters jam skaters aggressive skaters and we're all just skating together.

Speaker 3: 14:57

And then a lot of us, you know, for our town, we're staying at the same hotel and so our goal is just to get like all these rec skaters, especially in Miami area, who have never done an event.

Speaker 3: 15:07

They've never heard about North Shore. You know all of our events now outdoor events are in the Midwest so most of these people didn't even know that there was marathons or half marathons. So we want to get like all these rec people into an event. Try not to call the race. Like tell people like hey, most people are not wearing skin suits, most people do not have speed skates, you know?

Speaker 3: 15:29

like most people are just like you they're wearing floppy shorts, they're wearing T-shirts. They're wearing recreational boots, they're trying to do a half marathon or they're trying to skate a marathon. So that was our goal is like we want to keep skating alive. We want to keep skating alive, we want to help grow the sport and we want to help get, like, all these recreational people into these events so they can see, you know, like just the community runs right, there's a lot of cyclists, and I'm the cyclist too, and I'll say cyclists are jerks, right.

Speaker 3: 16:02

They're horrible human beings. Lance Armstrong Right, but like like skaters, if you show up, we love you already it's like welcome.

Speaker 1: 16:12

It doesn't matter if you're an olympian or this is your first time on skates, like it's just such a niche sport.

Speaker 3: 16:17

They were all just like, yeah, let's grab all these people, let's just love on them, get them here, get them connected, and then we'll say, hey, by the way, there's this race in the roof, there's this race on an island in wisconsin, you know.

Speaker 3: 16:31

And so that's our goal and hopefully, if they want that, they'll get into maybe speed skating right and doing more of these events or they can stay recreational skaters and quad skaters, whatever, but yeah, that's kind of our mission with miami is just like get people in there and get them introduced to people, and then they'll really get that thought and just start traveling and skating well.

Speaker 2: 16:54

Once you get that whole sense of community and you feel like you're part of something, it makes it a lot easier. 100 because, I was gonna say I went to the saint paul one with like not knowing anybody that was going to be there, and then I met you and a couple other people until I actually had to leave quickly, but so yeah, I feel like a reason.

Speaker 1: 17:16

It's probably good that you left quickly.

Speaker 2: 17:18

But so now you said, rolling on the river, that's the North Dakota one, right.

Speaker 3: 17:24

Yeah, that's Grand north dakota. One right, yeah, that's grand forks, north dakota. I can't remember 16 or 20, some years. Yeah, this is the last.

Speaker 2: 17:31

It's the last year so I'm like doing the historic one for the first time and it's like so do you know anything that's going to go on with the rollerblade series next year? Then, if they do four races and they don't have rolling on the river, are they gonna?

Speaker 3: 17:43

it's like miami marathon gonna be race number four now well, that's what works like hey, because we know the rollerblade, people too like again doris, my, our founders, my partner yeah, she's a rollerblade ambassador, so that's kind of what we're hoping is like hey, let's, let's just make miami the fourth stop, and so I don't know. I don't have any insider information. But, it's true, because I mean we have the Sobe. Roller crew. Down there they have the rollerblade band all the time down there and they go out.

Speaker 3: 18:17

They even go in front of Doris, like she'll take some of the Sobe crew, which is South Beach. They'll go to even running events with the Rollerblade band. They'll be like hey let's run.

Speaker 2: 18:29

Does anyone want to?

Speaker 3: 18:30

try skating. It's really cool. It's a really cool idea.

Speaker 1: 18:35

They're out there.

Speaker 3: 18:37

One of the Sobe Roller women. She even teaches a learn-to-skate class. She has a bunch of kids and stuff.

Speaker 1: 18:45

Anyway, it's.

Speaker 2: 18:46

Roller rollerblade, if you're listening exactly well, they were one of our sponsors last year too, so I think it would be a natural fit.

Speaker 3: 18:53

But yeah, we'll see what they want to do definitely.

Speaker 2: 18:56

And then you mentioned skate farm. I keep notes in my head, so you mentioned skate farm. What is skate farm?

Speaker 3: 19:02

oh my gosh, have you ever heard of skate farm?

Speaker 2: 19:04

no, that's why I'm asking, oh have you heard of eddie metzger? Absolutely, yeah, he was the one that originally set the the one mile. Was it one mile record or for skating?

Speaker 3: 19:17

so many things that eddie has done. It's like he's done running on the bowls on skates okay he's skated the great wall of china like, I'm assuming, not the entire length, but knowing eddie, maybe. Um, supposedly he skated up the great pyramid in giza. I don't know how high, but apparently before they're locking that down, I don't have that confirmed, but I've heard a lot of people say that. I do know he skated mount kilimanjaro on skates oh wow, and so he said yeah at some point you're just walking.

Speaker 3: 19:49

He said but and I know there's a youtube video out there, think of him skating on the highest road in the world. Okay, and then the video is him going down and passing semis like passing trucks I mean. So I've seen him going 55 miles an hour down a mountain and just forward T-stopping to like it, just so he's like anyway. So Eddie Metzger is like a legend.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:15

So he, he, I believe uh, I don't know I might get it wrong, but I believe his mother is Dutch. So when rollerblades were first coming out, I think the world championships and stuff were still on quads, and so he went and got some rollerblades and I believe he went back to the Netherlands and I think he said he did some training there.

Speaker 1: 20:39

I know he trained with.

Speaker 3: 20:41

I believe it's Diane Holm, I think is a US speed skating coach. Okay, I believe. So I know he. Anyways, he went and he learned with ice skaters right, and he took all the ice skating principles, all the drills, and then started doing them on inlines and I believe he went to the world championship and destroyed, like everyone so bad he crossed the finish line, going backwards. It's like his story.

Speaker 3: 21:08

Right, and then after that all the Colombians threw away their quads and went and bought water blades. But so he has a farmhouse, kind of old farmhouse in the Blue Ridge.

Speaker 2: 21:22

Hills, blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Okay.

Speaker 3: 21:26

Up in the mountains it's just trees. It's like Bob Denver territory, you know, and he has this big farmhouse and you go up there for like five days and it costs like nothing. I don't think he's barely raising the price. It's like $500 or $600.

Speaker 3: 21:40

Okay, you go up there for like five days and they feed you 600 bucks. Okay, out there for like five days and they feed you and you work on drills with Eddie and the other like campers there and so like you'll have breakfast and then after that you'll go out, especially at first aid. He doesn't like a lot of like drills where he's going to see like can people stop right? Like you know, he's engaging like where everyone is and then he's putting together like a course for you, right?

Speaker 3: 22:07

so you're doing like dry land drills which is for those people who don't know, that's anything in like your tennis shoes, and then on skate drills the entire week, like in the morning and then the evening, um, for like five days, and he is the double push master, right? Like, if you want to learn to double push, you go to eddie, he has you doing all these drills and then at the kind of the end, he, you start putting them together and he's like oh, so this thing I was doing in my shoes and that was the underbrush pants under push, regular push, so he builds it up and you're hanging out and it's so much fun.

Speaker 3: 22:43

Um, his wife, jai, and his daughter used to come, so he married a thai woman okay he was coaching, like the chinese national team or something. They went over to thailand. He met this thai woman, so he also has skate farm thailand. So virginia is where you go when you want to learn technique right.

Speaker 3: 23:02

And then Skate Farm Thailand, which I think now he's calling it Total Thai Adventures. It's a skatecation, it is like light changing. So you go for a week in Thailand and you're in this little village, you fly into Bangkok and then they like you spend the night in this hotel and then they pick you up in a van. I think it's like a three or four hour drive out of bangkok and you're like in the jungle in this little village and they have like this whole compound of all these little cabins, like kind of huts, that's all made from reclaimed teak and then like and like marble, because they're like marble mines.

Speaker 3: 23:36

So he just gets like free marble and yes and stuff. So it's like it's incredible thing there's like a handmade pool like with like little stones, it's like. And incredible thing there's like a handmade pool like with like little stones, it's like. And then they feed you. So again, his wife, Jaya, is in the zoo. So you wake up in the morning, you all have breakfast and then you take like a skate right.

Speaker 3: 23:54

So you skate to like a waterfall and then you go swimming around and they have like food for you and a picnic, and then every like mile or two they stop Like they have like uh trucks and they pull over and they call chairs and they fan you off and they give you beverages and then you get to like a waterfall or like the river and you go swimming and they have like a picnic if you want to skate back.

Speaker 3: 24:18

You can, otherwise a lot of people just take a ride back and you basically just do that for a week and then every you come back and you shower, and then they have this big house, the main house, they have all these rooms set up with like curtains, and then Jai has all these masseuses that work for her, and so every night you get a Thai massage.

Speaker 2: 24:38

Nice.

Speaker 3: 24:39

So it like keeps you going and like that first night have you ever got a Thai massage. So it keeps you going and that first night have you ever got a Thai massage?

Speaker 2: 24:45

I have. I actually went to a massage school, so I've learned various techniques.

Speaker 3: 24:49

It's like the most painful thing. They twist you around and you're like, ah, ah, ah, and you're dying. And then, by the end though, you're like, are you taking it?

Speaker 1: 24:59

easy on me this doesn't hurt at all.

Speaker 3: 25:05

And you're like no now, no, you're loose, now you're good, you feel good like your body's supposed to be. Yeah so, um, that's my bad giant impression, but yeah so, it's just, it can't bring you like all the food they have like a garden, right, so all like the vegetables come from the garden. Nice, they go and get from like a local fisherman that morning. It's just, it's just life-changing, like it's not the big city, like bangkok.

Speaker 3: 25:27

You're, you're in these little villages and then you're skating, you know these other little villages, and just there's kids running and taking pictures with you and yeah like so happy um, yeah, it's, it's, and they have nothing compared to us, but they're so happy and, like you buy something from them and they're just so thankful that you came and shopped with them. Yeah, unbelievable. I can't recommend either of them.

Speaker 2: 25:55

Yeah, it's funny because in 1991, when I was starting to do racing, eddie Metzger was already a name. We knew the name Eddie Metzger already back then yeah, yeah yeah, but I mean I, think he still wants to 88.

Speaker 3: 26:10

Right, it's 87 miles deep.

Speaker 2: 26:12

I he won when he was over 50 okay, so there's hope for me is what you're saying yeah, you just have to like become the most efficient skater.

Speaker 3: 26:23

I think in his I mean eddie.

Speaker 1: 26:24

If you watch eddie, too, like do drills and stuff.

Speaker 3: 26:26

He's like a salsa dancer, his hips like everything you know, like he would tell us too. And we're like ah, yeah, we're skating. We're like rubbing our quads. He's like, oh, what's wrong? Are your quads sore? Your muscles are like yeah, it's like your legs shouldn't get sore when you skate, you don't need to use your muscles, just use gravity, you know, like in his kind of berkeley voice.

Speaker 1: 26:48

Yeah, it's just. Yeah, he's so efficient that the longer the race the one year I was at 88.

Speaker 3: 26:54

He won one of the years there was like a french national champion, like 20 year old kid yeah and he torched him. There's like he bombs every hill you know it's like 55 miles an hour downhill and then zooms right up to the next one. He's a maniac.

Speaker 2: 27:59

Yeah, the 11-mile wasn't set up like that. It was like you got up the hill, you went down and then the next hill wasn't until the other side. So not a good setup. I didn't like that.

Speaker 3: 28:09

Even there, so that used to be my favorite race. It used to run the other direction.

Speaker 2: 28:14

Okay.

Speaker 3: 28:15

Back in the Minnesota half so you would start off going the other direction. So it was like a longer, like flats you start off pretty flat, and then kind of just a little gradual, a little hill.

Speaker 1: 28:26

And then it's pretty flat on the other side.

Speaker 3: 28:29

And then it was a long hill which was like to separate the men from the boys hill. Right, yeah, you get to the top of the hill, you turn and it's like where did everyone go, you know? And then it was downhill to the finish. I, I liked it the other way.

Speaker 2: 28:46

Yeah, yeah, that sounds better, so we actually have a what was that starting off uphill is like come on why?

Speaker 3: 28:54

I don't know why they changed it, but I'm sure there's a reason I heard duluth's got some good hills too they do, but it's mostly. It's like a rolling downhill.

Speaker 3: 29:03

The first seven and a half miles is all a rolling downhill okay yeah, so like every year, like when I hit the um, um, the half marathon point, like my watch will beep and say like new record for half marathon, you know, so the first half of North shore would be like the fastest half marathon you've ever done. Okay, so it's going to feel like it. It just goes downhill.

Speaker 2: 29:30

Yeah, so what app or what watch do you use to track your skating? So I have a polar yeah a what polar oh, polar, yeah, like the old heart rate monitors.

Speaker 3: 29:46

Yeah, yeah, exactly so, yeah, I don't know, I got one a while ago and then, um, now that that I have the app and all my history is in there, it got me, I upgraded. Now this can tell my heart rate variability, all this ECG and all this stuff built in. I geek out about too. It can tell you what's your tolerance. Are you overtraining? Are you overtraining? Are you undertraining? Should you back off? So yeah, nice, I have something to tell me. To back off.

Speaker 3: 30:20

Yeah, because I have a tendency just to overtrain, so yeah, you and me both. Yeah, I mean you might be at like a clinical issue.

Speaker 2: 30:29

Yeah, we're like, yeah, you're having a heart attack and you're still skating yeah, well, yesterday it's like we went, uh we did a hike, so that's like my rest day. We go hiking and in colorado with the altitude and everything, because I actually started off in california, so I've only been in colorado for three years, but we actually have a trail between louisville and boulder which is a gradual incline, so I'm like that's where I got to go to start training for the hills and stuff. So you know, do part way up and then come down and just do that a couple of times and just build the tolerance until I can get up all the way. So I think that'll help, strategy wise at least.

Speaker 3: 31:06

So you definitely have to get some hills in. You know, because even even after like that rolling downhill, there's one kind of like kind of slow climb that most people don't think it was a hill, but to me that's the worst people normally think of. There's a hill called lemon drop.

Speaker 3: 31:20

Okay, I don't know if it's like 22, 23 miles in or so, but like it's, but it's just a it's just a quick bump and you're up right, so like you just hustle up it and then afterwards there's a long downhill when you go into the tunnel. So it's just like just get up to the top, especially like go up fast, be the first one up there. So then the whole group comes behind you, pushes you down the hill and there you go.

Speaker 1: 31:48

So that's like a pro, that's like a yeah, yeah, a tip, a veteran tip for North Shore Raise up lemon, drop.

Speaker 3: 31:53

Okay, let the group catch up to you and then let them just push you all the way you get like I don't know, we might get like a mile ride, like for sure like a half mile ride down, but to me the worst is the on ramp. So at the I don't know, have you done North Shore?

Speaker 2: 32:13

No, like I said this, last one where I met you was the first one in 33 years. Okay, yeah, no north shore.

Speaker 3: 32:17

You then go into these tunnels, right? Yeah, uh, if you're like, if you're racing, the tunnels is where everything happens, like that is it? That's where, like, people are making moves and if it's like a wet year you know you get to the tunnels.

Speaker 3: 32:31

That's dry right and so then everyone's like chop, chop, chop, go, chop, go, go, go. And then there's spaces like two or three times spaces between the tunnels, but then it's wet. So then everyone's controlled and you get to the tunnel, but at the end of the tunnel you go up an on-ramp because it goes over the highway, because you're on the highway and you exit.

Speaker 3: 32:56

And to me that is by far the worst. Okay, you're at the end. There's only like maybe like a half mile or something left for you to go, so you have to go up this on-ramp and then you get a little ride down there's a corner and then you got like a quarter mile sprints there but that's last on-ramp. It's just the worst because you want to be done.

Speaker 2: 33:11

Yeah, that's the way I felt last weekend, especially it being the first one, so it really tested and the way I look at it is like all right, I set my time next year I'm going to beat that time. So I was racing myself, I didn't know, but I thought it was really cool. The one guy that skated it with his son in the wheelchair he had like that sports wheelchair. I thought that was really cool.

Speaker 3: 33:39

And he's on North shore every year too, does he? Yeah, like every year they're there.

Speaker 2: 33:45

Okay.

Speaker 3: 33:46

Everyone claps when you see it, Like it's just amazing.

Speaker 2: 33:49

Cause I would actually love to get him on the podcast and just find out his story with his son and everything.

Speaker 3: 33:55

I'm assuming it's his son, so I believe so I someone had told me like the situation a while ago, but I I don't remember enough to be able to speak of it I know one year I was at north shore and I mean it's crazy I might get choked up like I was in. I can't remember what wave I was in it was before. I was like a faster amateur, like a faster normal person.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 34:19

I was back a little ways and there was a guy who was kind of like looking you know you look around for those skates. All of a sudden I was like he has no legs. It was like a double amputee Uh-huh, skates and like I'm like oh my gosh, and so in turn, and it was like a slow clap kind of moment where, like, all these people started clapping. I don't know his story either, like, but oh my gosh, that was the only year that I I saw him, but like that was the most amazing yeah, thing

Speaker 2: 34:49

ever I actually saw a video of a guy that is in a wheelchair and he long boards. He has like a special setup on the long board to balance his wheelchair on, so I'm trying to get him on too that would be awesome.

Speaker 3: 35:04

I have a friend I don't know, she's super busy, she's a doctor, her name is Britt and she was from Florida. So she did North Shore one year so she had got cancer and so I think she if I remember right she hadn't skated until she got cancer and so she was doing chemotherapy and she came and did North Shore. She got special permission from her doctor. She had like a chemo treatment right before she got there and like her skates broke so she had to buy like skates at the expo the day before at the end of the night, she bought these skates that didn't fit her.

Speaker 3: 35:39

She fell down like three or four times but did her first marathon like on chemo and skates. That didn't fit her like.

Speaker 2: 35:47

There's just so many amazing yeah, stories, and now whenever she gets a break her thing is.

Speaker 2: 35:53

She goes around the country doing like the rails to trails okay you know, like the the old uh railroad tracks that they make into like uh kind of bike trails yeah yeah, so she just looks for a new one of those and just yeah, she doesn't skate very fast she just goes forever and ever, you know nice and now I think in our previous discussion before the show um, you talked about how you run clinics and you had one with victor thorcrup yeah, yeah, victor thorup, yep, uh, so yeah, we I met, so I brought them uh into north shore when I was there.

Speaker 3: 36:31

Um, because, yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, victor's a two-time Olympic speed skater from Denmark. His wife, sophia, is a three-time Olympic short track. Victor's long track she was short track. She was originally from Russia and now she skates for Denmark. I believe he also started off inlining and actually Pascal.

Speaker 3: 36:57

Brand from you know, former world champion, and he's like the head of like the power slide team. He was actually one of his coaches when he was a kid. He has a Victor has this awesome YouTube channel and like mods and stuff on social media and so he has this amazing content for everything from beginner skater inliner. So, like you know, a veteran elite person, just lots of I mean. So I saw him because I started doing he has a thing called the dry land Bible.

Speaker 3: 37:26

He didn't like that video much because it was in his early days.

Speaker 3: 37:30

But it's a super good deal. I'll be in North Dakota, I would do it in the winter, right days. But it's a super good deal, I'll be in north dakota, I would do it in the winter, right. And so it's like it's like 20 some minutes straight of dry land drills. Well, my, my legs would die. So I made it into like a 45 minute workout where I would do like dry line drill, hit, pause, and then I would like do some abs and pushups, do another drill.

Speaker 1: 37:52

So anyway, so I was a big Victor fan of all his videos.

Speaker 3: 37:56

So I reached out to him and I was like, hey, would you ever come to the North Shore Marathon?

Speaker 1: 38:00

I just DM'd him on Instagram. I'm like there's no way he's going to answer and he actually answered. It was like oh that sounds really cool, let's talk.

Speaker 3: 38:08

And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm talking to this Olympic ice skating guy, and so yeah we worked out a way for him to come to North Shore and him and Sophia came.

Speaker 1: 38:18

And they did like a clinic and they showed up and they just like they're like yeah the night before.

Speaker 3: 38:23

they're like skating around. They're like, yeah, I haven't been in lines in like three months, you know, because it's during their ice season. Yeah. Roll out the plane and then I don't remember who plays. They both place sofia. It was her first ever marathon. Now she's a short track person, you know, and yeah yeah, they're just insane humans.

Speaker 3: 38:44

So, anyways, um, then my wife is from guadalajara, so we're down here and guadalajara has an amazing skate scene. I've never been anywhere where there's this many skaters. Um, so they have most big cities in Mexico have like like a bank track and they have like state-sponsored speed skating, right, yeah, so here they have. It's called uh okay, I'm gonna screw it up uh, via de Recre recreation, right, so, like the day of recreation and downtown they have they shut down kilometers and kilometers, because I'm actually like asking kilometers, uh, and like like three lanes and stuff, uh, uh, avenida guadalajara that has the big arch so you can skate through the arch and it's all closed to traffic for like runners, cyclists, skaters, and there's, there's like skate schools down here.

Speaker 3: 39:39

I'm friends, uh, with a group called Erodar which is, I believe there's, roller in Spanish, or wheel, one of the two like teach people to skate. They're like slalom skaters and stuff. But they just teach people to skate and then, when they get to a certain point, their graduation is they bring them out. Uh, the day of recreation and we all skate at 9 am in this huge group like no skater left behind style.

Speaker 3: 40:05

So anyways, on any given sunday down here is at least 100 skaters oh, in any every sunday, and you can go and you see all sorts of skaters just having fun, and so I told Victor.

Speaker 3: 40:18

I was like, hey, you know, we have all these skaters down here in Guadalajara like would you ever want to come and do a clinic? I'm sure like a bunch of people would love to do it. So yeah, so they came and we made a deal with them. They came and they stayed at our house. My wife and I picked them at the airport and it was super fun. We went on a Friday night. We had a couple hours just some on-skate stuff, and then we went out to eat. So part of the whole thing is you sign up for the clinic and you get to hang out with them too, and a lot of people here kind of watch their videos on YouTube.

Speaker 3: 40:55

And then, like Saturday, we had dry land and then lunch and then on-skate drills and then we went downtown to Alahara and there's this huge area where there's like cathedrals and opera houses and museums, and there's all this amazing street food and all this stuff outside, and so we went down there again just hanging out with a guy from Denmark, an Olympian from Russia, you know, hanging out and there's this whole like super nice, fun people, yeah, and then we had like another skating session Sunday, and so again, this is a long way but it's really funny because victor has this thing whenever he goes somewhere he does like a video of him doing like some dry land drills and it's like guess where I am, and so we were in the cathedral and they still have like church services there at the cathedral.

Speaker 3: 41:51

They were having a wedding, and so I'm like, hey, how cool would it be if you were doing dry land drills, like in the aisle at the cathedral and behind you is like a wedding going on in the cathedral and sofia was so embarrassed she's like I am leaving, I am not a part of it, so and my wife was like this this is embarrassing.

Speaker 3: 42:11

So I videotaped Victor and he's doing like one-legged, like up-down dry land drills in the middle of the cathedral. And then later after dinner, we were eating at a restaurant that's right outside the opera house and there was a graduation ceremony going on. So I said, hey, do you think they would let Victor do a dry land thing with their graduation?

Speaker 1: 42:33

So our Mexican friends went over there.

Speaker 3: 42:34

They talked to them they said, oh, there's this, he's a Libyan from. Denmark and. I'm like, oh yeah, so it turned out it was a bunch of like EMTs graduating like university and they're in caps and gowns and like the professors were like can we be in the video? And then Victor, then dry land drills in front of the graduation. Uh, so it was a super fun time. And then they just said like hey, you know, this worked out really well and you, you know, tavis, you like took care of, like all the arrangements.

Speaker 1: 43:04

Would you want to like just kind of work with?

Speaker 3: 43:06

us and maybe we can set up some drills when we have or some clinics we have free time and yeah. So I say, oh, that's just a regular dude from north dakota and now I know olympians and I'm working with them on skating stuff that sounds amazing, so we did one recently in minneapolis and roseville, okay, where they have like long track skating. Uh, roseville, people were amazing. They let us use their facilities, um, advertise and stuff, so we have a clinic there. And then, uh, another one or two in the works for next year.

Speaker 2: 43:39

But you definitely gotta let me know, because I will be there oh, yeah, I will, yeah, yeah, well, you know.

Speaker 3: 43:46

The other thing too is, yeah, this guy victor to advertise yeah, big time on his, on his socials and stuff, but again it's great because, um you know, victor's whole philosophy is like it's technique right, we're gonna learn technique.

Speaker 3: 43:59

It's not to be like super physically demanding and be like a huge workout. There's definitely things that test you right, because most people don't spend half a day being on one leg, you know, or working on their edges and stuff, but but the big thing is it's like, it's really fun. You can ask them questions and they both have so much training. Yeah, they can just like whatever your technique issue is, like, oh, try this or try this and do this drill. And then also you know you're not just going and taking a class and leaving. You know again, we went out to eat like every night whoever was free, and you just really get to hang out and know them. And now you know we have a bunch of people who can watch the olympics and hopefully victor, I think he, I think he almost has to do barely anything to qualify yeah, he should be at the olympics again, I guess I think based off his.

Speaker 3: 44:53

I think it's like the world cup standing from last year or something like that, but so hopefully yeah, I mean, they just got to know victor and they're gonna see him in the olympics, so how cool is that, you know?

Speaker 2: 45:03

it's very cool. Yeah, my biggest influence has been dan jansen, like way back in the day, and he was actually I had him on episode number eight so so I got to have Dan Jansen. I've had Bonnie Blair, I've had David Kruikshank, so I mean I'd like to get some of the older ones too, just like, especially since skating has evolved so much, and some of the other skaters that I've had on for like jam skating and stuff, just to find out how skating was in the fifties and then the sixties and the 70s. So it's just that whole history is just, it's just amazing to to listen and learn from everybody. So, but by the time you do your thing, I'll, I'll have my portable uh, portable um podcast set up, so I'll just bring that with me I think dan and bonnie were they both before clap skates.

Speaker 2: 45:55

Yes, I was actually.

Speaker 3: 45:57

That's crazy. I've done long track.

Speaker 2: 45:59

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:00

Age group national championship under my belt for being an old guy on long track. But like I can't imagine being on fixed blades and doing long track, that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 46:11

Well, dan actually tried the clap skates and he actually talked about it a little bit in the podcast episode. So how nowadays how the clap skates is, like shaved he goes. You know, point tenth of a second is huge in the skating world as opposed to so, and how much time. Just the new design I've actually seen. I don't know if they actually exist. It could have been ai generated but a clap inline skate I I talked to I haven't seen anything that?

Speaker 3: 46:40

um, I talked to a guy who used to be a bootmaker and he told me he'd think eventually there will be a frame that, yeah, that will be either, like, even though not a clap, but will adjust.

Speaker 3: 46:53

I don't know how he's explaining it, but he had this design. I don't know how to do it yet, but it would adjust in some way underneath you. I don't know if it would maybe help you be on your edges better or something. I haven't seen it, I don't know. Unless you're on a bait tracker, I can't imagine a clap in line or do anything, because they're road skates. They're just running up corners.

Speaker 2: 47:18

Yeah, I'll actually find the picture and send it to you. You'll trip when you see it. I saw it and I'm like, but I haven't seen it like inline warehouse, like none of the main places have had it. So I'm like, okay, maybe it really doesn't exist, maybe it was like a prototype.

Speaker 3: 47:33

Have you seen those like off-road skates? Yes, off-road skates. Yes, I want to get a pair. I'm in denver.

Speaker 2: 47:41

Hello, oh yeah and there's like a handbrake, I think, on a cord or something right? No, those are actually the electric ones. They actually make electric inline skates now and then you push the button and it gives you. I was like, dude, give me the the speed skates, I'll just cruise through the marathon, like that yeah, no, I had a friend that tried the off road ones, and he said it's pretty tough, so he lives in by the loose and he does a lot of mountain biking.

Speaker 3: 48:10

I think he said if you have a really hard packed trail and you were starting up and mostly going downhill, he said it was super sketchy and there's just times that it just like didn't roll. But I haven't tried it.

Speaker 2: 48:26

And they're bigger wheels. They even have wheels bigger than 125 millimeters and they're inflatable. They're rubber, yeah.

Speaker 3: 48:34

They're not solid, I don't know. Yeah. But, I mean you couldn't have meal-free meals and be doing that?

Speaker 2: 48:44

Have you seen the ODR skis? It's just like the boot.

Speaker 3: 48:53

So if you're a skater, it'd be perfect because it's just the boots, the bottom of the ski. Oh, it's like a skate ski, like with wheels.

Speaker 2: 48:58

No, no wheels, it's designed for snow yeah there's a company called odr skis where it doesn't stick out past the boot.

Speaker 3: 49:10

It's just the bottom of the boot so I think I an old version of that, because people were like doing like tricks and stuff and I do want to get a pair.

Speaker 2: 49:19

So you need to come out here next year um next winter, because we're actually planning on doing ice skates on the? Um lakes up in the mountains oh that.

Speaker 1: 49:29

That would be amazing.

Speaker 3: 49:30

I see videos all the time uh, because you know you need it to freeze yeah really kind of quick and then like no snow and I've seen people skating where it's just like it's glass there's a guy I don't want to say his name he's a former like Olympic medalist. He lives in Milwaukee area and I think it's called Wild Ice he has like a go on Facebook or something Wild Ice and that's what he does in the winter.

Speaker 3: 49:57

Now, I think, he mostly like kids and stuff, but then in the winters he goes around and when there's like a good freeze or something that's what he does he takes his skates out and skates like lakes and there was.

Speaker 3: 50:09

I was bummed out because there was one year when I was living in Madison I showed the Madison scouts for five years and I think he came out and he skated like across lake monona. Okay, you know, and then normally, there's just too much like snow and bumps and stuff, but yeah, so I think he posts like hey, this is the lake at this time, like, yeah, that would be, that would be amazing.

Speaker 3: 50:31

The only thing I think I'd have to get. I think it's called like a nordic skate but I would be worried, like I have long track and short track blades yeah this Madison Speed Skating Club in Wisconsin.

Speaker 1: 50:41

I would just be worried, especially my long track blades. They're so thin that. I think you need, I think you call it a Nordic skate or something.

Speaker 3: 50:49

It's like a thicker blade, okay, or something right.

Speaker 2: 50:53

Not sure. I haven't done it, so we will get more details and we will put everything together for next year.

Speaker 3: 50:59

So we will get more details and we will put everything together for next year. There's like some of my German friends. They met when I do Berlin. I've been to Berlin like five times, so I met a bunch of German people and one of my German friends there.

Speaker 3: 51:12

I can't remember where they're it's like where they skate the canals. I think it's like a hundred kilometer ice skating race the canals. I think it's like a hundred kilometer ice skating race, um, and I think it used to be held actually like on a frozen river and canals, but now climate change or something like they do some of it in some canals or something in other parts they they freeze a big sheet of ice or something kind of like the racing.

Speaker 2: 51:34

I don't know because I mean like I remember, like seeing. I don't know if you remember seeing like old posters, like hans christian anderson having like a speed skating race and stuff oh no, I never saw that, but I mean that's, it's somewhere like.

Speaker 3: 51:48

It's somewhere like northern europe yeah, scandinavian country, I think where they go to yeah so I think she did it last year okay all my friends, I are faster than me. It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 52:01

I know all my friends are At my age and, with my issues, I skate to stay as healthy as I possibly can. I'm the only one I got to beat. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to stuff.

Speaker 3: 52:15

I was just talking to a friend because we were talking about Apostle my.

Speaker 1: 52:21

thing was like let's get a good group together the possible.

Speaker 3: 52:23

Like normally, it breaks up pretty, pretty quickly and yeah, and you just like, if you start like in a pro or like advanced wave, like there's like someone that's going like 30 miles, 30, some miles an hour and I can look down like yeah, like I can't go 33 miles an hour, so I'm just gonna like fall off now. So we kind of fall off in stages, right, yeah, and I was talking to him because I was like, let's just get a good group from the beginning let's just be like everyone skate 20 miles an hour.

Speaker 3: 52:51

As soon as you slow down, just rotate out the. Front and uh, you know he's like, oh, but he skates for a place, right? He's like I care about places. Oh, I said I don't care I just want.

Speaker 3: 53:02

I want a good ride, I want a good time, like I want to get my best time or get under a certain time. I just I plus I go to the marathon so I don't skate alone. Right, that's what I mean berlin used to be so amazing at. That's what duluth is so good at apostle. Now they've made some really nice changes that keep people together longer and it's been growing. So I mean, yeah, like especially.

Speaker 3: 53:25

North Shore there'll be times like advance one a one wave. Sometimes we'd have it must be like 100 people. So like you'd have this big train of people and like the front of the of the group of the draft line is going up a hill and the back is still going down and so you're just like train cars getting squished and it's all like finally awesome. It was so much fun and you know like berlin it used to be, you're never alone yeah go off the group.

Speaker 1: 53:55

You didn't wait a minute.

Speaker 3: 53:56

You waited seconds and there was another group to pick you up and that's why they always have such consistently fast time. It's just, it was just bang, bang, bang. But, like again, you can do a whole marathon and never pull. You know you can never leave your pack and do the whole marathon and have, like, your best time just by hanging out in the middle of the draft line so yeah, I, I want a good ride, I want a a good time. So yeah, just when I skate alone.

Speaker 2: 54:24

I just, I just want to get better every year. That's my goal.

Speaker 3: 54:28

Well, that's one of the great things about skating Like, unless you're like one of the like a really elite level person right that learning or young and you're like a freak in your twenties most people are the fastest, I think their 40s, 50s and sometimes 60s a lot of people because you just if you keep learning, technique.

Speaker 3: 54:46

You keep getting more and more efficient right and then and if you do races you learn kind of better strategy and stuff. Um, you also get to know people, you get in good groups. But then also I think one thing that happens there were some women I always used to. I escaped like two years in a row when it was the Minnesota half, like the 11 mile escape now I escaped with women and they left, let me draft with them and they were super nice and afterwards we're talking and they're like well, yeah, like most of them.

Speaker 1: 55:18

I think they had some in their 40s, 50s and like one or two in their 60s and they said well, when you're in your when you're younger.

Speaker 3: 55:24

If you have a family, you have kids you don't have enough time right yeah you should get that, but then, by the time you're 40s, your kids are graduating, they're off to college. You have more free time and your 50s and 60s you get like retirement and so like. If you keep working on your technique, eventually you get more and more free time and just bam, all of a sudden you're faster.

Speaker 3: 55:46

I just don't know too many sports where you can consistently get faster as you get older, like just and with no impact. You know, we don't need problems like yeah, our backs get sore, but that's 95 percent of the time it's because we have a technique issue right, so we improve our technique. My back never doesn't hurt, but it hurts less right, Like the better my knee yeah.

Speaker 2: 56:10

I've got a really good massage therapist. She's also a pro boxer. I always say she's the one woman I love. That can make me cry without saying a word. But then at the same time, it's like love, hate.

Speaker 3: 56:26

I hate her and I love her at the same time. So now, what do you do? Like dry land drills or on-skate drills? Have you learned any drills that you do besides like just going on speed?

Speaker 2: 56:34

yeah, I've actually been doing following Victor, learning from him, and then Joey Manchia, manchia, manchia yeah, he puts some out too. So I kind of combine it and then I've kind of come up with my own stuff. I call them skater squats. You take the BOSU ball and you flip it upside down. So I have a thing called a gym boss. So it's an interval timer.

Speaker 3: 57:01

So I'll put one minute down, like in, like all the way in the position for one minute, like the ball is down and you're standing on the flat part, right yeah?

Speaker 2: 57:10

And I do most of that for ankle strength and I can't tell you it's greatly improved my ankle strength.

Speaker 3: 57:16

Oh, that's, that's true. I used to do that too. I did that and then I also do like one way and balance on. I put the flat part down and balance on the top part of like the okay one leg, because then I'm constantly having to flex because it's the stability.

Speaker 3: 57:33

It's basically half a stability ball, so you got to get your own stability yeah, or like what you just said, where like the ball parts down and the flat parts down I would try to do like one-legged squats, okay, like I tried to like, and you just learn like I have to go really slow to maintain my stability, but also the slower you go, the more it's burning and yeah, all that stuff is like super good.

Speaker 2: 57:57

And then I have a thing called a mass suit, which is like the elastic bands, but it wraps around your wrist, it wraps around your elbow, it wraps around your knee, it wraps around your ankles, so, and it has different resistance bands. So you can actually use it doing dry land stuff. But it's in storage in California and I'm waiting to get back there to get it out and you can actually put it on while you skate. So it's like skating with weight training.

Speaker 3: 58:21

Is that the thing?

Speaker 1: 58:22

Victor uses? Have you seen that In some of his videos he has these bands and he hooks?

Speaker 3: 58:26

up on his waist and stuff and he does dry land and some woodwork it might be.

Speaker 2: 58:32

It's a full harness so it connects everywhere. So if you do weight training you can add extra resistance from bands for like bench press and different stuff like that. So I mean, I actually know the owner of the company, became friends with him, I met him at a fit expo many years ago and finally got the suit and then when I moved out here I had what I could load in my car and the rest is in storage. Now that I'm back to skating, it's like I need to go back, get it and bring it back here. So and Then I have the iron neck, but as far as skating goes I won't have a lot, but it'll actually build really strong neck muscles.

Speaker 3: 59:05

Oh, that's how I think.

Speaker 2: 59:06

MMA fighters and stuff, yeah, and it'll get rid of the double chin as we get older, so just got to bring it out here just for the record that's funny.

Speaker 3: 59:16

That's the thing that most skaters don't do, like for tips for people who are like getting into skating. You know, most people just want to put on their skates and just go out right like that's why we all started skating we'd like trail or go on this quiet road or whatever, and we just meditate in the wind. But like man, if you can get people to do some dry land, but like, go to again, go to Skate Barn, go to a Victor Clinic, like you know, or just even just go online.

Speaker 3: 59:45

You know, I mean when I was starting out again, there was nothing online.

Speaker 2: 59:48

The internet was like brand new kind of I didn't even have internet, so you were ahead of me.

Speaker 3: 59:53

Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, like I know again, um, richard met from that racing. He had some gifts right of, like these step-by-step thing showing his feet on, like how he can learn to do double push and like I tried doing that, and then, um, but yeah, but now there's so much good content. Especially victor has so much. You just go to his and just learn so much.

Speaker 3: 1:00:13

But like people need to if you want to get a, better skater or even um, I taught a speed skating class a couple of them here in kawalahara and um one of my friends later we were skating and I said you know, did that, do learn anything like that help you at all? He said oh, he said actually I used to get really bad back pain, but now my back doesn't hurt like and he's like a recreational skater. I was like that is amazing, like that's the best thing ever, like you don't have to do the drills just because you want to be this insanely fast speed skater, right.

Speaker 3: 1:00:46

But yeah learning to be on one leg, having that stability like yeah, getting you know the either. The show the shoulder, knee, toe triangle like just learning.

Speaker 1: 1:00:58

You know weight transfer, and then, yeah, just you know having your nose or your your knees over your toes, like all those little things.

Speaker 3: 1:01:05

It's amazing if you just take some time do some drills and then you're skating, take some time to go slow, right and just even victor. The last clinic he said like how long can you really focus a hundred percent on one thing? It's's like I don't know. It's like for me is it maybe 50, some seconds right.

Speaker 3: 1:01:24

So like okay, so that's what I took back and so I started doing like one minute intervals, right, where I'm not going fast, I'm just I'm trying to skate, perfect, right, I'm picking like one or two things. Victor said I need to slow down my recovery leg right.

Speaker 3: 1:01:40

So I'm trying to slow down my recovery leg and I'm trying to put it down like a leg right. So I'm thinking about those two things and I'm just skating not very fast but just as perfect as I can be for about a minute right, and then I stand up and I just rest for a minute right, and then I skate for a minute, but like if you take a little bit of time to go slow. After I do that, I then go and I try some Tabata. Are you familiar with Tabata?

Speaker 2: 1:02:03

No.

Speaker 3: 1:02:03

I skate from like.

Speaker 2: 1:02:05

oh, so it was actually invented, I believe by a.

Speaker 3: 1:02:08

Japanese speed skating coach.

Speaker 1: 1:02:10

But like the hip world uses it a lot.

Speaker 3: 1:02:12

It's like 20 seconds all out, 10 second rest, 20 seconds hard, 10 second rest and you do like six or eight or ten, and then you take a break right and do it again so I would do like some technique work, like that victor, like okay, a minute perfect skating. I would do like two sets of tabata and then like like six times of like 20, 10, 20, 10, take a break, do it again. It was amazing.

Speaker 3: 1:02:39

All of a sudden my technique when I'm trying to go fast is like way better and I'm going faster doing less work, just because I spent like all that time focusing on like technique for a short period of time and like not going out for 10 miles you can't be perfect for 10 miles like yeah, or 11 or 26 you know, I heard a good advice one time right to like uh, um, practice doesn't make perfect right, perfect practice makes perfect right, so you have to have. But once you know, and uh, a guy told me one time like when you go out and skate yeah, skate's the best of your ability.

Speaker 3: 1:03:22

But when you feel your form breaking down, right, and you have to start kind of cheating, at whatever level you are, you'll hit that point stop right, because if you're training like that, you're reinforcing those bad patterns as bad habits, right and so um. But when it's a race, then you do whatever it takes to get to the finish line right, yeah if you have a skate on your hands or whatever, like just just get to the end, like you can throw all that out. But I thought that was really good advice yeah, definitely um.

Speaker 2: 1:03:56

So now the important questions.

Speaker 3: 1:03:59

Oh, okay, I hope it's not getting too dark here. I'm losing some light.

Speaker 2: 1:04:01

No, it's fine. What is your skate setup? Bearings, wheels, frame, boots.

Speaker 3: 1:04:10

So I have Simmons Custom Speed Boots. I spent a long time. I don't know if you can pronounce it right, but it's Lugino or Lugino. I have Lugino struts for a long time. Oh, I don't know. I don't. I don't know if you pronounce it right. It was Louie Gino or Gino. I have Louie Gino struts for a long time. I had power slide like C fours back in the day and R twos.

Speaker 1: 1:04:29

And yeah, so I had a lot of power slides and and Louis Gino's, but the problem is I don't have stock shape.

Speaker 3: 1:04:41

I have a really wide toe box, like really wide at the end too, like not always that, and then like my ankle, like my heel back when I feel gets like super narrow, and so I just have time for like I was literally like screaming on the side of the road right and just are like in tears because it hurts so bad I I cannot find boots, no matter how much I keep molding them and modify them.

Speaker 3: 1:04:57

So finally I just I started asking people that I saw custom skates and simmons was like what a lot of people were on and they loved them. So I had. I got simmons boots and saved my life as a skating. You know, uh, pinnacle, I know, uh jimmy blair, and pinnacle is a great friend of miami line marathon. He makes amazing boots as well for ice and for inline.

Speaker 3: 1:05:18

Um, I just you know, the simmons were the first ones I learned about it um, so I have I do have custom boots because it saved my life and I also. If stock boots fit your feet, for the love of god, just be happy. Don't make a change if your feet feel good. Um, so I do have expensive boots, and then the funny thing is now. I used to be a major um snob for bearings. I used to buy like super fancy bearings.

Speaker 1: 1:05:48

Just get ruined all the time because I skate in the rain, or whatever and I'm not I'm not a gearhead, I don't like lube it perfectly, I just so.

Speaker 3: 1:05:56

Now I just get like ilq9, whatever like the 40 50 bearings are like a nice, whatever like the 40 50 swiss bearings are. Yeah, I skate and it gets cruddy and whatever I carry wb40 with me and I just spray them and then when I get home I spray them some more.

Speaker 3: 1:06:14

Uh for the first time ever I actually before that 11 mile skate my bearings were trashed. I skated in the rain, or like right after the rain in Minneapolis, because I was trying to get some time in before the race because I had foot surgery and I hadn't been on my skate spell. So my bearings were barely moving.

Speaker 1: 1:06:34

So I. Wd-40'd them got them to move and then some friend had given, given me the speed lube and I put a couple drops in. I just get cheap bearings.

Speaker 3: 1:06:42

But what I do spend money on is good wheels. I always get the dual durometer or dual core. Black magics, red magics my first one I had was boom magics. I don't know if they make those anymore. I had road reapers, some junk. Those were phenomenal too For me. I'm going to spend the good money on the wheels, the money on the good wheels, but I just I go just bearings get trashed yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:07:11

I bought a pair of like. I got a really good deal like $300 bearings one year and I got them for like 150 bucks and I brought them to Berlin. It was like my first race to use them. It freaking rained. We're in torrential downpour for half an hour before it even starts and then you're stuck in Berlin. We don't have I don't have any WD-40. I don't have any clean. They're trash. I got to use them for one race and it does money out the door. So I said never again. It's just cheap bearings for me. Okay, uh, my helmets I do like rudy project. Uh, both in miami and my marathon we have a discount. But any.

Speaker 1: 1:07:47

Anyone signs up for miami can get rudy project discounts.

Speaker 3: 1:07:51

Uh, the team I skate with team skate hard. We're rudy sponsored um, so they have really, really great helmets I didn't think helmets mattered uh, until I got my first rudy helmet and then I just realized like it's so light. You know, I don't. I don't know if a helmet makes you faster, right, because I think if I just ate one less cheeseburger I'm probably faster, but it's just so light and comfortable. Like sometimes I'll be getting in my car after skating, I'll bump my head because I'll forget my helmet's on yeah, so yeah and then my polar watch and just some polarized sun.

Speaker 3: 1:08:26

I like my. I always skate with sunglasses yeah, me too, you know I just don't air going into my eye oh I agree it's raining it's where you get the good ones, so you can see in the rain too. So I know I'm not that, I'm not that fancy. Again, I'm not a good like gearhead I did skate going on the river one year and we had a fog.

Speaker 3: 1:08:49

The pictures are amazing yeah finish line pictures people coming out of the fog. But yeah, we were like I'll like take a glass off or not, and we started skating and they just got fogged up and wet and then we just had to like shove them in our skin suits and it was like, yeah, really comfortable I do like oakley's, I wear oakley's and they got like a new one that the whole, the whole um lens actually covers your nose too.

Speaker 2: 1:09:16

So you don't have that nose piece and it'll cover. So it kind of makes your face more aerodynamic so I do have both of these as well.

Speaker 3: 1:09:23

I think they're called whole jackets, I don't. I don't like the ones who like the lens kind of sits in your eye and so yeah, and the thing is they wrap all the way around. It's the old school like I don't think they make them anymore. I just keep buying lenses on Amazon.

Speaker 2: 1:09:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:09:39

You know and like, yeah, and new nose pieces. But again, I like, I like the dark and I like I. Just I don't like seeing something coming in from the sides.

Speaker 2: 1:09:47

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3: 1:09:49

So now.

Speaker 2: 1:09:52

So who was your biggest influence for skating?

Speaker 3: 1:09:55

Oh, I mean, yeah, like growing up I didn't have any until, yeah, I went to a skate farm when I was 30, so that was like.

Speaker 1: 1:10:02

So I for me it would definitely be Eddie, just because, like skate farm, for me was like life-changing until then, like I was like kind of more of a things.

Speaker 3: 1:10:09

Person like I like cars and TVs and like. I never took trips, I never spent money on trips, right, and then that was like my first time traveling anywhere really on my own, and I just did it. And then I met these other people who were just like crazy hippie skaters. I love to travel no one's in thailand, and so yeah, probably eddie, and just you know I learned so much technique, but it's also just.

Speaker 3: 1:10:33

You can kind of spot people that are skate farmers. We're just like a, you're just kind of part of a fraternity because they're genuinely people that just love skating, they love travel and they love people. So I just felt like it's just like this really hippie skater love vibe thing and uh.

Speaker 3: 1:10:51

So I just think I picked that up and I always just think of like eddie's such a good ambassador for the sport. He'll talk to you know, he can talk to Olympians. He'll talk to whoever. My thing too, is like really even in a race if you're like lacing up your skates. You're like North shore, like you have these like a mile of chairs Right and sorry it's a long explanation, but one of my early races I was tying up my my laces.

Speaker 1: 1:11:17

Right, and so I. I was like 230 pounds.

Speaker 3: 1:11:20

I was a lot bigger, I was like 50 pounds heavier than I am now. I had floppy shorts, t-shirt, an old bike helmet. I'm tying up my skates and my freaking laces break. I'm like, oh my gosh, what do I do? There's this guy next to me. He's like, oh, what's wrong?

Speaker 3: 1:11:39

I'm like, oh my gosh, and like, there's this guy next to me, he's like oh, what's wrong it's like my legs just broke, like I don't know what I'm gonna do, and he is in like a skin suit, right, and so for me, I don't know, he's like an Olympian, right, he is like this whole other. He's got. He's got, you know, the carbon fiber boots, like big wheels, like everything he's like. Oh, I always keep a spare, here you go, and it was just like so cool, and so I always love those moments too. I had a couple where someone's like come up and ask, because I'm a skinsuit person too, right, yeah, super fast, I'm just, but I'm like a skinsuit person with the fancy boots, and someone will come up and like, hey, can I ask you a question, is it okay? I'm like, yeah, absolutely, and so I love. I just think a lot of that. Skate farmers are like that and that's kind of an Eddie vibe.

Speaker 3: 1:12:23

And also, too, I think Eddie's thing is like he doesn't drive somewhere to skate, it's like no, I'll just skate across the grass, skate down a gravel road until I get to the you know, until I get to the trail or the road, and so that was really something that I took with me because I was like I always we drive to like a bike path and put in your skates and has to be perfect and then like you know, after that, my first time in in Berlin, um, I went to, uh I took a train, I think, to um Dresden and I'm in Dresden and it's like, and I just put on my skates and I went skate scene.

Speaker 3: 1:13:01

I was, I drafted behind a cable car, I was just skating, you know, skating over cobblestones and stuff, and like I saw the whole city from my skates. It wasn't for Eddie, like I wouldn't have been that kind of adventurous skater, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:13:17

So yeah, it's gotta be be eddie, yeah, for sure okay, cool. And now what is your advice to upcoming skaters?

Speaker 3: 1:13:26

so is this? Is this just someone getting into skating? Is this a rec person that wants to be?

Speaker 2: 1:13:30

well, you can give any advice you want, but especially for speed skating, because I have so many different styles on here For speed skating. What would be your advice?

Speaker 1: 1:13:42

for someone who wants to do it, I'm going to say instead of speed skating, I'm going to say someone that wants to get better at marathons.

Speaker 3: 1:13:51

So many people jump into speed boots like the carbon fiber, the hard shell, and they shouldn't.

Speaker 3: 1:14:01

Don't get me wrong, I live in my speed skates and I love the custom boot guys. But so many people get a speed skate and then they go out once a week or twice a week and it's not fun anymore. Their feet hurt, their ankles are wobbly and it's like if you're hurt, you know their ankles are wobbly and it's like if you're going to put speed skates on, you need to spend time doing drills. You need to be with dry land and in your skates, even just like being on one leg, try balancing on one leg and like because you don't have any support from that boot. Right, yeah, it comes from your positioning, your balance and your strength and stability and having your body in the right place at all times. So I always say, if you're going to skate at least two or three times a week, and especially if you're willing to go into a parking lot when you get your speed skates and spend 20 minutes or whatever a few times a week in a parking lot doing some drills look at some victor joey drills.

Speaker 3: 1:15:04

Do some drills. Put in some work in a parking lot going slow before you try to go out on the trail because if you just buy speed skates and they're like I'm gonna go skate 10 50 miles.

Speaker 3: 1:15:16

You're gonna have blisters, you're gonna have pain, everything's gonna hurt. So either get a good rec boot you know that a higher boot get a light one, get one. If you're going to do a rec boot, get one that you can take off the frame and move the frame, because as you get better the rec boots that are bolted on, there's going to come a point where you say that's not the right position for me, right. And so if you get one that you can change the frame, that means you can adjust the frame as you get better and more technique and start off on a smaller wheel. Get better technique and now you can keep your nice comfy boot and you can buy a new frame with bigger wheels.

Speaker 1: 1:15:56

So that's what I would say.

Speaker 3: 1:15:58

Try reference first, unless you're really going to be dedicated, get a frame that you can take off, so the skate grows with you. If you're going to go into speed skates, you need to take time in a parking lot or on a trail going slow and doing drills, Otherwise you're going to quit skating. I've just seen so many people that just don't have fun because they were told, especially they're told they have to be on 125s.

Speaker 3: 1:16:24

So the other thing is for people that don't know I skate on 110s. I've tried 125 multiple times. I tested myself. I'm slower on 125s, I have a higher top speed, but eventually I just fatigue faster and my form breaks down. So especially something like a marathon. For me it doesn't work. So if you're someone that wants to try 125s, test them and be honest with yourself. Put a clock to it.

Speaker 3: 1:16:49

You know and see are you faster Because at the you know when we talk about North Shore I see a lot of people, when we get towards limit, drop their ankles, are doing this A lot of like and these are people like an advanced one, or even the back of the elite pack should not be on one 25. They're not losing the race for someone's faster it's. They're getting slower at the end of the race. So, sorry Long answers, but I have too much advice.

Speaker 2: 1:17:16

Not at all, so I actually skated on 125s at the 11 mile. I'm actually going to switch and try the four wheel, because I do have four wheel 110s. So, I'm going to try that at the next one. But, piggybacking on what you said, K2 actually makes a four wheel 110 frame with a boot like the full boot, but then when you get to a certain point you can remove the top part of the boot for lower.

Speaker 3: 1:17:43

Oh, I mean, I have um, so the uh, the owner of FR, I believe, uh, Sebastian, so his wife is from um Guadalajara, so they have here, so I have some fr for, like my for my recreational skates, because also it's not fun to go slow and speed skates.

Speaker 3: 1:18:04

Yeah, cars, I just got the cheap ones, but I know too it's pretty cool. They make um, like the next model up from mine. They have, you know, like the cup, so there's a bolt and you can loosen the bolt and so you can actually adjust the cup forward more. Okay, get into like more speed skating. Yeah, it puts you in the correct position to get lower.

Speaker 1: 1:18:25

So I thought and then it's lighter so again there I roller blade.

Speaker 3: 1:18:29

I know I can't remember it's a twist or whatever. I think you know all the big ones have kind of a boot like that. That's made for someone who wants to have fun most of the time. You know, maybe you want to do some group skate with some friends, but then if you want to try doing a marathon or some more distance, you know they're a little bit more adjustable yeah, so now, how can my listeners follow you?

Speaker 3: 1:18:53

oh so I'm at skate with tabas on instagram. Uh, I don't know about old people, they can just look up my name on facebook.

Speaker 3: 1:19:02

Uh, I should be the only tabas trozen out there you are yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, I'm the only tabas anyone will ever meet, um, but then the big thing is like check out. Uh, you know, the miami inline marathon is like the most important. Like our socials, miami Inline Marathon. You can find us. Our website is just miamiinlinemarathoncom. We're trying to post more and more content. We have a bunch of videos coming out that we took from the 11-mile skate different skill, different ability level, people giving advice for early skaters, which is a lot of people out there. It's really cool. All the races are growing in the united states and they're getting younger, which is really cool. The average age is ours in miami is below 40.

Speaker 3: 1:19:48

It's in the 30s no sure, yeah, it's younger too, so um yeah so yeah, we'll have lots of advice there, and then we also have some videos coming out. Uh, just wait for the send them. But hako mantia, multi-time world champion from colombia, uh is going to be doing some drills and I'm going to be doing some videos with some, uh, elite, elite skaters in north or an apostle, and so we're going to put those videos out too, just like asking them for some technique or some tips.

Speaker 2: 1:20:17

So okay, very cool. And just to toot my own horn, I am in one of those videos giving advice, so all that advice is good advice. So, um well, I appreciate you coming on the show today and it was a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to doing more stuff with you in the future.

Speaker 3: 1:20:38

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Uh, sorry for some long answers, but I know it's good. Those are my short answers. Actually, that was me editing myself, sorry. I get excited about skating.

Speaker 2: 1:20:50

So do I, and that's why I started a podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:20:52

Awesome, awesome you, thank you, thank you.