Monday, March 15, 2010
Season MOVING
What's up everyone. I was sitting at home for like 4 months with nothing going on and then BOOM. Suddenly I'm everywhere. It feels good to be getting back into the swing of traveling. I forgot how much I really just love racing and hanging out with people. I'm in washington right now for a few more days, which is always cool. I actually got to skate outdoor while i was here, once. I think it was the only time i've been here and the weather was good enough to actually go skate. I guess next stop is Georgia followed by a quick trip to Mexico and then Tampa. By the way if you didn't see the NSC, when the video comes out... BUY IT.. seriously the racing was crazy. Well you guys be good, remember to check out my stuff on www.luiginoracing.com Talk to you sooon
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
January
Soooo is it crazy that January is already almost over. So I just wanted to touch on a few things. There has already been 2 pretty big competitions that I didn't get the chance to go to, but thanks to technology I got to watch them. There was West Palm that had a really good live feed the first day on the track(unfortunatly do to weather and previous engagements not the 2nd day). I really liked it b/c there were a lot of skaters online chatting during the race. So, I got to talk for a few hrs while watching racing. I seriously sat on my computer and watched the live feed and talked for like 7hrs or something. The racing seemed pretty good to me, and it was really cool for everyone to see Son from Tiawan race. He was so strong at worlds, and its good that a lot of people got a foreign star so young in his career.
Next I got to watch the 2nd NSC event. I've heard people complaining about little things, but to me it was sick. I got to watch 6 events of some of the best guys battling. The racing was so good. If you are a fan of skating, and you haven't watched an event, jump on it. I honestly think if you really enjoy skating, and aren't being really picky.. you will love watching the NSC events.
As far as my skatings going, I'm getting in to pretty good shape early in the year. I switched back to training on Atom Burns for practice. I had to wait for the roll on to wear a little bit before I got on them for training. To me they aren't great for your ego when you train, but they are good for getting better. Also we are putting the finishing touches on the iQ wheels. I know everyone thinks i'm biased, but i promise you if you try these wheels you will be super impressed. One more thing, I'm teamates with Stephen Carter this year. I think it's really cool to be on the same team as one of the people I really looked up to coming up in the sport. He's one of the people that really enjoys the sport and is always having fun, so i'm super pumped about it.
Ok everyone remember to check
WWW.Luiginoracing.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luigino-Racing/105126978062?ref=mf
I have a few new things that will be coming out on the web site from me, and trust me, look for iQ's they're coming soon. Thanks you guys talk to you soon..
Next I got to watch the 2nd NSC event. I've heard people complaining about little things, but to me it was sick. I got to watch 6 events of some of the best guys battling. The racing was so good. If you are a fan of skating, and you haven't watched an event, jump on it. I honestly think if you really enjoy skating, and aren't being really picky.. you will love watching the NSC events.
As far as my skatings going, I'm getting in to pretty good shape early in the year. I switched back to training on Atom Burns for practice. I had to wait for the roll on to wear a little bit before I got on them for training. To me they aren't great for your ego when you train, but they are good for getting better. Also we are putting the finishing touches on the iQ wheels. I know everyone thinks i'm biased, but i promise you if you try these wheels you will be super impressed. One more thing, I'm teamates with Stephen Carter this year. I think it's really cool to be on the same team as one of the people I really looked up to coming up in the sport. He's one of the people that really enjoys the sport and is always having fun, so i'm super pumped about it.
Ok everyone remember to check
WWW.Luiginoracing.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luigino-Racing/105126978062?ref=mf
I have a few new things that will be coming out on the web site from me, and trust me, look for iQ's they're coming soon. Thanks you guys talk to you soon..
Friday, January 8, 2010
NSC Tribulation
So, here's what's going on with me and the NSC. At the current time there's just lots of things going on. For anyone who hasn't been following; Miguel Jose, the owner of the NSC, basically invited me to come skate the NSC. I replied saying that I would skate the NSC as long as we were using Atom Wheels that I provided. Miguel countered that he would be willing to do a deal, saying they would rotate competitions between Atom and Hyper. The catch being I would have to commit to skating all events regardless of what wheels were being used. Which brings us to now....
Perfect world, everything is cool, and I'm on the line skating in 2 weeks. Unfortunately it's not a perfect world. First issue before I ever decided to skate on a wheel that wasn't Atom I would have to see huge improvement than what was skated on the first NSC. I'm not here to bash products, everyone feels different on different wheels. However, when you have 12 out of 13 top skaters falling(some more than once) in 3 races, something is wrong. Assuming that was fixed, which hopefully it will be, there's still the issue of skating on another brand. It's so easy to for someone on the outside to say, "Don't worry about it just skate on another brand." Without Luigino right now, I wouldn't be skating. I wouldn't have been able to skate for the past few yrs. It would be very hard to handle skating an event on another brand. I would feel terrible if I ended up on a picture, ad,or anything like that wearing a brand other than Luigino. I support the NSC and hope it grows to be huge. If i thought me skating would push the NSC to the mainstream I would be all over it. It's just that in the long run, me skating or not skating will neither make nor break the league.
I know a lot of people want to see me racing in the NSC, and I'm not saying it's not gonna happen. I'm not even saying it's not going to happen this season. I'm just saying it's not going to happen in 2 weeks. I'm sorry to the people who want me to race, but right now it's just not the right thing to do.
Don't forget to follow me and all of the happenings with Luigino Racing at
http://www.luiginoracing.com
Perfect world, everything is cool, and I'm on the line skating in 2 weeks. Unfortunately it's not a perfect world. First issue before I ever decided to skate on a wheel that wasn't Atom I would have to see huge improvement than what was skated on the first NSC. I'm not here to bash products, everyone feels different on different wheels. However, when you have 12 out of 13 top skaters falling(some more than once) in 3 races, something is wrong. Assuming that was fixed, which hopefully it will be, there's still the issue of skating on another brand. It's so easy to for someone on the outside to say, "Don't worry about it just skate on another brand." Without Luigino right now, I wouldn't be skating. I wouldn't have been able to skate for the past few yrs. It would be very hard to handle skating an event on another brand. I would feel terrible if I ended up on a picture, ad,or anything like that wearing a brand other than Luigino. I support the NSC and hope it grows to be huge. If i thought me skating would push the NSC to the mainstream I would be all over it. It's just that in the long run, me skating or not skating will neither make nor break the league.
I know a lot of people want to see me racing in the NSC, and I'm not saying it's not gonna happen. I'm not even saying it's not going to happen this season. I'm just saying it's not going to happen in 2 weeks. I'm sorry to the people who want me to race, but right now it's just not the right thing to do.
Don't forget to follow me and all of the happenings with Luigino Racing at
http://www.luiginoracing.com
Thursday, January 7, 2010
NSC
Wow, everything is so nuts right now with the NSC.. Promise an answer to all of this really soon. I think we're gonna come up with something that's fair for everyone. It's funny there's so much to talk about, and there hasn't even been a really big race this season. It's kinda cool for the sport tho, atleast in my mind. I love this sport..
WWW.luiginoracing.com
WWW.luiginoracing.com
Saturday, December 26, 2009
2010
So, I haven't been posting b/c i've been waiting for my whole gig with Luigino to go thru. As of now now I don't know how much I'm gonna be writing here, and how much I'm gonna write on the Luigino site. I may use this for just random things I want to say. Everything is still kinda being planned out, so when everything is 100% concrete I'll let you know more. But check back and make sure you keep checking the Luigino site. Talk to you guys soon.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Olympics
I hurt today... And i don't hurt for myself, I hurt for the sport I love. Today our Olympic bid was shot down once again. As far as my skating career it really changes little, except possible sponsor opportunities. By 2016, hopefully I will still have something to do with the sport, but I will be well past my competitive prime. But I'm not gonna lie I wanted it bad.
It's possible we were fighting a losing battle from the very beginning. The 2 sports that did get in have money we can't compete with. I've always stated that you never talk down on someones passion, so I'm not gonna start talking badly about rugby or golf. Because if we would have been lucky enough to get in, I would hope for the same from people in other sports. There are things that i didn't ever want to see that the Olympics might have brought. I never would want to see our sport being controlled by people that aren't in the sport. I don't want an outside company to be able to control a lot of the sport like some sponsors would. Call skating mom and pop if you want, but that's part of the thing that makes us so great. The people involved really care. We love our sport, and if you don't love the sport you don't stay in it.
Personally I never craved being an Olympic champion, on a Wheaties box, lime light, or any of the fame that can come with the Olympics. But there are people who deserve that. People like Chad Hedrick, Jorge Botero, Theresa Cliff, Joey Mantia, Cecilia Baena, Kalon Dobbin, Jessica Smith,the Muse brothers, Gregory Duggento, and more and more that we know as common names. These same people that have worked as hard as any Olympian before them. They shed the same blood, sweat and tears that all great athletes do. They deserve that moment to show the rest of the world that they are the best at a sport they love. In a time where our sport is struggling with numbers, this could have been so huge. It would have been great to look at a 12yr old kid who doesn't know if he really wants this sport, and be able to look him in the face and say "come on kid, if you work hard you can become an Olympic champion." Our sport deserves for the whole world to see it. To give them the opportunity to fall in love with skating like we all have.
So where do we go from here. It was like a punch to the stomach to learn we didn't get it, but what do we do. We do the thing we've always done in this sport. We get up and work hard at what we love. We keep skating, b/c that's what we do. Yes we wanted the Olympics, but not getting it doesn't change the sport. If you don't love skating b/c it's not in the Olympics, you probably never did. Will speed skating die b/c we didn't get into the Olympics....No. Because in the end we don't need the Olympics, we don't need FIRS, we don't USARS, we don't need a stopwatch, we don't need anyone watching, we don't need sponsors, we just don't need much..... All we need is our skates.
It's possible we were fighting a losing battle from the very beginning. The 2 sports that did get in have money we can't compete with. I've always stated that you never talk down on someones passion, so I'm not gonna start talking badly about rugby or golf. Because if we would have been lucky enough to get in, I would hope for the same from people in other sports. There are things that i didn't ever want to see that the Olympics might have brought. I never would want to see our sport being controlled by people that aren't in the sport. I don't want an outside company to be able to control a lot of the sport like some sponsors would. Call skating mom and pop if you want, but that's part of the thing that makes us so great. The people involved really care. We love our sport, and if you don't love the sport you don't stay in it.
Personally I never craved being an Olympic champion, on a Wheaties box, lime light, or any of the fame that can come with the Olympics. But there are people who deserve that. People like Chad Hedrick, Jorge Botero, Theresa Cliff, Joey Mantia, Cecilia Baena, Kalon Dobbin, Jessica Smith,the Muse brothers, Gregory Duggento, and more and more that we know as common names. These same people that have worked as hard as any Olympian before them. They shed the same blood, sweat and tears that all great athletes do. They deserve that moment to show the rest of the world that they are the best at a sport they love. In a time where our sport is struggling with numbers, this could have been so huge. It would have been great to look at a 12yr old kid who doesn't know if he really wants this sport, and be able to look him in the face and say "come on kid, if you work hard you can become an Olympic champion." Our sport deserves for the whole world to see it. To give them the opportunity to fall in love with skating like we all have.
So where do we go from here. It was like a punch to the stomach to learn we didn't get it, but what do we do. We do the thing we've always done in this sport. We get up and work hard at what we love. We keep skating, b/c that's what we do. Yes we wanted the Olympics, but not getting it doesn't change the sport. If you don't love skating b/c it's not in the Olympics, you probably never did. Will speed skating die b/c we didn't get into the Olympics....No. Because in the end we don't need the Olympics, we don't need FIRS, we don't USARS, we don't need a stopwatch, we don't need anyone watching, we don't need sponsors, we just don't need much..... All we need is our skates.
Friday, July 31, 2009
indoor nats.. and other stuff
I know I'm in and out of the blog game like Brett Farve, but for right now I'm in. See what had happend was, i went to IDN and a lot of people said, "hey what happened to the blog"..... So i thought.. why not write some this summer... So i'ma do a run down of some things from indoor nationals and a few other things here and there.
First, since it's my blog I'll talk about me. I was OK. I wasn't great.. not terrible either. I know a lot of people saw me skate told me how good I looked, and I'm not fishing for compliments(a gold and a silver is very good results). But B/C of trials and living in Colorado, I skated indoor about 5 times the month before IDN. It's sorta like showing up to take a test that you didn't study for. Every time i wanted to go fast, insted of using my hip and weight to generate power and speed, I'd just try and use my legs. Basically I was just technically bad.
When I showed up at the meet, I didn't really want to be there. But the atmosphere at Nationals is always so good you can't help but get in to it once you're there. So, after the first day it was like every other year, and I started having fun. I skipped out on relays this year for a lot of personal reasons. Honestly now I get more excited watching them now than I do skating them. That being said, I'll prolly be back skating them next year, but who knows. After it was all over this year, I sat back and thought how sad it was for me the last 2 yrs not training all summer looking forward to nationals. And before I stop skating I want to have at least one more season where It all builds up for indoor nationals at the end of the year(just might not be next year). Thanks to all the kids who played around, got autographs, pictures, and things like that: it's those things that let me keep young enough to stay in the sport...
Few general notes... I know there was no option, but it really did water down the competition having world team trials 2weeks before indoor nat's(if you don't know USARS had to have it when it was b/c we had to get track time from USOC). There's just no way for everyone to get up for trials and then race 2 weeks later, especially not indoor. Mentally or physically it's just super hard to do. You saw lots of mistakes from top notch skaters; falls for no reason, DQ's just b/c there timing was off, you even saw 2 people ,who are going to worlds, get hit going back into the relay box. It's all just timing stuff that comes with not being able to properly prepare for the competition. I just think it's unfortunate that for the premiere US event a lot of the top athletes weren't at their best.
There was also a lot of talk about the floor.. so I'll give my 2 cents. Everyone knows Lincoln has the fastest grippiest floor. Records get smashed and you win by going out and going as fast as you can. Well the travel floor is different. That doesn't make it any worse. It just makes it different. It's slow so you can't go out and lead hard. And it's not as tight so you cant hit the corners at 100%. I guess most people love going super fast, but i don't think it's always bad to race on a slower floor.
I know i say this a lot, but man there are some talented kids out there. There really are too many to say, but i really watched the elementary and below divisions this year. It just seems like the fastest kids are actually really good at skating. Where as in past years a lot of the top kids were just out there running on skates. I really think that has a lot to do with the bigger wheels. I think it makes kids bend their knees and push a little more. But that's just my theory.
I know he'll never read this b/c he's not a computer guy. But if you want to teach someone how to act towards the people you race, watch Jeremy Anderson. I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone he races and he always tells everyone how awesome they are. I know he had surgery this year and he's getting a little older, but if you ask me he's one of the best indoor skaters that's ever done it.
Quick World Team stuff.. Made the team for the 6th yr in a row, so I'm going to China for worlds. The team is extremely young, but it's good. There's a lot of people going to worlds for their first time, so we're getting a whole new group introduced to worlds. Which is good, b/c they can go home to their clubs and tell them what they learned. When most of the spots were from NC and FL it was cool for us, but I think it hurt a lot of other clubs.
Indoor nat's 1 liners...... Way to go Julie, welcome back.. That being said Erin Jackson was a beast... Kirstyn Scales and Zach Lloyd are so cute, and really fast too.. HAHA i think i passed Joey for loudest ovation when introduced at the meet, take that homie(i know you're way ahead of me for career ovations).. Nick you won elementary, and looked nice doing it, but i still beat you... Huge congrats to Ben Carey, I know Russ is smiling... NSC got everyone buzzin, just wait til it actually pops off...Sullys(or whatever it's called), good times... Harry and Sammy, you know ya'll both my guys, but I for sure laughed after the 500m... Stephen Carter may not have quite the speed he used to, but for a spectators, he may still be the best to watch...
Wow.. too long... sorry..and i was gonna write like 10 more one lines.. I miss all you guys, see you all ASAP... Have a good off season, those going to worlds know the season is just starting...
First, since it's my blog I'll talk about me. I was OK. I wasn't great.. not terrible either. I know a lot of people saw me skate told me how good I looked, and I'm not fishing for compliments(a gold and a silver is very good results). But B/C of trials and living in Colorado, I skated indoor about 5 times the month before IDN. It's sorta like showing up to take a test that you didn't study for. Every time i wanted to go fast, insted of using my hip and weight to generate power and speed, I'd just try and use my legs. Basically I was just technically bad.
When I showed up at the meet, I didn't really want to be there. But the atmosphere at Nationals is always so good you can't help but get in to it once you're there. So, after the first day it was like every other year, and I started having fun. I skipped out on relays this year for a lot of personal reasons. Honestly now I get more excited watching them now than I do skating them. That being said, I'll prolly be back skating them next year, but who knows. After it was all over this year, I sat back and thought how sad it was for me the last 2 yrs not training all summer looking forward to nationals. And before I stop skating I want to have at least one more season where It all builds up for indoor nationals at the end of the year(just might not be next year). Thanks to all the kids who played around, got autographs, pictures, and things like that: it's those things that let me keep young enough to stay in the sport...
Few general notes... I know there was no option, but it really did water down the competition having world team trials 2weeks before indoor nat's(if you don't know USARS had to have it when it was b/c we had to get track time from USOC). There's just no way for everyone to get up for trials and then race 2 weeks later, especially not indoor. Mentally or physically it's just super hard to do. You saw lots of mistakes from top notch skaters; falls for no reason, DQ's just b/c there timing was off, you even saw 2 people ,who are going to worlds, get hit going back into the relay box. It's all just timing stuff that comes with not being able to properly prepare for the competition. I just think it's unfortunate that for the premiere US event a lot of the top athletes weren't at their best.
There was also a lot of talk about the floor.. so I'll give my 2 cents. Everyone knows Lincoln has the fastest grippiest floor. Records get smashed and you win by going out and going as fast as you can. Well the travel floor is different. That doesn't make it any worse. It just makes it different. It's slow so you can't go out and lead hard. And it's not as tight so you cant hit the corners at 100%. I guess most people love going super fast, but i don't think it's always bad to race on a slower floor.
I know i say this a lot, but man there are some talented kids out there. There really are too many to say, but i really watched the elementary and below divisions this year. It just seems like the fastest kids are actually really good at skating. Where as in past years a lot of the top kids were just out there running on skates. I really think that has a lot to do with the bigger wheels. I think it makes kids bend their knees and push a little more. But that's just my theory.
I know he'll never read this b/c he's not a computer guy. But if you want to teach someone how to act towards the people you race, watch Jeremy Anderson. I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone he races and he always tells everyone how awesome they are. I know he had surgery this year and he's getting a little older, but if you ask me he's one of the best indoor skaters that's ever done it.
Quick World Team stuff.. Made the team for the 6th yr in a row, so I'm going to China for worlds. The team is extremely young, but it's good. There's a lot of people going to worlds for their first time, so we're getting a whole new group introduced to worlds. Which is good, b/c they can go home to their clubs and tell them what they learned. When most of the spots were from NC and FL it was cool for us, but I think it hurt a lot of other clubs.
Indoor nat's 1 liners...... Way to go Julie, welcome back.. That being said Erin Jackson was a beast... Kirstyn Scales and Zach Lloyd are so cute, and really fast too.. HAHA i think i passed Joey for loudest ovation when introduced at the meet, take that homie(i know you're way ahead of me for career ovations).. Nick you won elementary, and looked nice doing it, but i still beat you... Huge congrats to Ben Carey, I know Russ is smiling... NSC got everyone buzzin, just wait til it actually pops off...Sullys(or whatever it's called), good times... Harry and Sammy, you know ya'll both my guys, but I for sure laughed after the 500m... Stephen Carter may not have quite the speed he used to, but for a spectators, he may still be the best to watch...
Wow.. too long... sorry..and i was gonna write like 10 more one lines.. I miss all you guys, see you all ASAP... Have a good off season, those going to worlds know the season is just starting...
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