Camilo Echeverri's European Experience

You might recall a little while ago, I talked about Camilo Echeverri and his quest in being the first Colombian to compete in the ISU’s World Cup (see Colombia's First Go At Long Track World Cup). It ends up that Camilo was not allowed to skate in the world cup. He is looking at the possibility of competing next year after discussing his situation at length with the president of ISU.


Camilo with his sponsor- Perry Van Caspel from Van Caspel & Roselle B.V. He is also sponsored by KIA/YACTH
He is now spending time in the Netherlands- he is training with Argentina’s Jose Fazio who is currently competing in the B division of the world cup. About being in Europe, Camilo says it is a lot like being in Colombia for inlines; there’s people everywhere training and they are fast. The skating is very professional; you can see that there’s a lot of money, focus, and preparation that goes into the sport.


At the start...ready and focused
Camilo has had many great opportunities to network and talk with skaters, coaches, and officials. He skated with the legendary Chad Hedrick during the warm ups for the world cup. He had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Shelley- the current USA all round team coach- who helped guide Camilo in when he started long track in the ‘Own the Podium’ program.


Camilo and his coach
In comparing Europe and North America, Camilo says it's very different. He says 'In Europe, there's a lot of history in everything that you see'. For example, Camilo went to the Berlin Wall and found it quite unique considering all the history and events surrounding the wall. Just crossing from the east of Berlin to the west was different. He found Hamburg to be a very special city. There are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam and in Utrecht. The people in the Netherlands are very friendly and the speed skating community is very open.


Camilo in a corner
So what about Camilo’s plans? He is getting very good support, so it looks like he won’t be doing much inline in 2007. In fact, Camilo will soon return to Canada to finish up school, head over to Milwaukee to train and prepare to head back to Europe in September 2007 to take on the ice marathons circuit and world cup scene.

Cat's Out of the Bag, MSI Season Opens, Other News

The Cat is Out of the Bag: I've always loved that expression. It is clever and witty. To me, it means that if you're walking around with a cat in your bag, and the cat gets out of the bag, then you can shout 'The cat is out of the bag!'. Don't worry, I know it means something else too...

In the last post, I talked about Brian Jalbert and his race series and also about Eric Gee is his attempt at making a set of boots. It turns out that a few Candians from Toronto will be making waves of their own next season. They will follow in the footsteps of Gabriel Girard and Meaghan Buisson and take on the World Inline Cup.

According to Andrew Hegarty's website and a post by Bill Begg, Aaron Arndt, Andrew Hegarty, and Sigrid Ziegler will give the world inline cup a go in 2007. I look forward to hearing of their experiences and what they can take back to Canada so that we can be more successful as a racing nation.


Sigrid Ziegler (in 2nd behind Tatia Wallace) will be one of the few Canadians (likely though record breaking number of Canadians) on this year's WIC circuit
MSI's Season Under Way: This past weekend, the north american ice marathon season started with Marathon Skating International's Quebec City Marathon (25km and 40km races) in Ste-Foy, Quebec. The top male and female finisher for the 25km were Gabriel Girard and Suzanne Dionne. [25km results] The top finishers in the 40km race were Bob Lawrence and Suzanne Dionne. [40km results] You can find photos here and a report here.

In Other News: Don't you love the Inline Planet? It's usually the first website I check (after I've tackled my e-mail). The Inline Planet is reporting that the IOC will make it easier for new sports to be admitted into the Olympics. This is great news for me because if roller sports is indeed included in the Olympic programme, I will be in the prime of my career for 2016 at 39 years old! Hehehe.

Skatefarm- the name itself makes me drool- I have this image of all these skates growing out of the ground, tasty skates that we can cook any manner we like. Yummy un-worn skates, all sorts of them just growing from the ground, sprouting up, glimmering in the sky...waiting to be picked, ready to be raced on. Just check out the site.


The 24 Hours Inline was dominated by SkateFarm- most of the team pictured here.

Ok, here are a few pictures from the Greensboro Thanksgiving Meet for you to look at. Looks like a few big names made it down to the event! It's nice to see Derek Parra and Joey Cheek making it out to races.

Skaters, Ice Stuff, Results, and Skate Tips

Skaters: Andrew Hegarty's blog had a recent post where he examines being competitive versus being successful. It's in interesting distinciton.


Andrew Hegarty sitting in 3rd place with Steve Robillard in the lead at the 2006 RSC Canadian Championships
The Inline Planet's Robert Burnson recently proposed to created Annual Skate Awards named 'Eddy Awards'. I like that idea and I like the name; Eddy Matzger is a great ambassador for inline skating. In fact, he is fighting the Good Fight- he is headed off to court for using his inline skates in a national park which has rules against inline skating. You can write a Letter to Eddy Matzger for his trial which is taking place on December 6th.

Ice Stuff: I linked to this site (SBS 6: Essent Cup) which broadcasts long track ice speed skating marathons. Here's Da Nedarlandese Marathon Schaatssite which compliments SBS 6: Essent Cup with photos and results.

Just a quick FYI- On the ISU World Cup Result website, you can dig up the names of the likes of Alexis Contin (inline world champion), Pascal Briand (inline world champion), and Jessica Smith (inline world champion).


France's Pascal Briand racing in the ISU Long Track World Cup
In a recent post on Hyper's Message Board about inline to ice transitions, Jim White has agued that Intense Training, Not Olympic Gold is what attracts skaters to ice. Having experience both inline and ice, I have to agree- In my experience, scientifically based and sound training opportunies with dedicated facilities and coaches are deliver personalized programs very effectively on ice. At the same time, as much as training for ice is difficult, I find it equally if not more difficult to excel in inline speed skating. Plus I think the racing dynamics are better and more exciting in inline races.

Results: Here are the results for the Publix Family Fitness Weekend from the Fort Lauderdale, Cypress Gardens, and St Augustine races. Click here for a report on the Rattlesnake Invitational on Inline Planet's Forum. Texas Roundup report. Waco results.

Skate Tips: The Inline Planet has been publishing weekly skate tips with topics ranging from staying in shape during the off-season to rocking the cones.

Canadian Creations & News

Canadian Creations: The great white north- the country which I live in, Canada- is full of wonderful and unique places and people. One of those people is Brian Jalbert. Brian is the creator of the Quebec Cup. The track race series set for the summer of 2007 will take place in Montreal. You can expect top-level skaters like Steve Robillard to be racing in the series.


Steve Robillard in the front at the RSC National Marathon
Another unique Canadian is Eric Gee. I met this guy back in 1993 and I consider him one of my best life-long friends. We've been through many adventures together ranging from being teammates at the world championships to being wedding photographers (FYI- a wedding we were shooting was slated for 5pm and we arrived AT 5pm because Eric thought that that's when people got together and the wedding would just kinda start 'whenever'. Ends up we missed the walk down this aisle). We even made the drive from Toronto to Orlando for the Disney Marathon and came back pretty much in one shot, about 5000km in one weekend with maybe 4-5 hours of sleep. Well, Eric is taking up a new project: Eric Gee is making some boots. Check them out. Buy some from him when he sells them so that he could sponsor me.


The only words I have is that Eric loves the smart car...
In the News: Dan Archambeau and I shot a lot of video at the 2005 Northshore Inline Marathon. The material is sweet and has been made into a DVD- Here is the 2005 Northshore Inline Marathon DVD.

A couple of other points of interest: Skater Boy Matthew is a Star.

Want to be a webmaster?Looks like the About.com Inline Skating position is available.

I wish I made my way out to this one, but I am sad to link to this: Tahiti is cancelled. On the bright side, USA Roller Sports is helping some USA events, and has put out some information ont the Palm Beach Challenge.

Links and Today's Update

A Few Links For You: En premier, commencons en Francais: Club D'Enrainement Stamina de Victoriaville, Quebec. Apres ca, il y a Roller Estrie. Re-voici VRL Le Club; le club de patin qui s'entraine au Récréatheque a Laval. Finissons la partie francaise avec La Fédération Francaise de Roller Skating.


Club D'Enrainement Stamina skaters in 6th (behing organge and blue of TISC) and 10th (2 spots behind Jim White) during this year's Roller Sports Canada marathon in Montreal
...back to English now; the last site, La Fédération Francaise de Roller Skating, is the France's federation website. In their speed section, they've got a bunch of resources. Follow this link and it will take you to a map of France. From there, you can view the regions and the deparments.


French coaches at worlds
I LOVE Nistevo LLC's website (Luigino, Matter, Powerslide)- just look at that magnificiant picture of Joey Mantia; again, like I said before, must be a really cool guy who took that picture. Here are some nice boots from Australia: SS Boots. This one I love: Team Slacker.

Today's Update: I'm now going to make a couple of connections with music and movies. Some of you know that I play music (guitar, sing, piano) and that I used to play some small shows. Well I've been practicing a ton and writing lots of material, and soon I will make a CD and sell it to try to raise funds for skating. I've got this grand plan of becoming a billionaire...well, I'll settle at being a millionaire.


Ready to rock before a show: Left to right: Bruce, me, Allan
The plan goes this way: I make a brilliant album, make tons of money, and then build a couple of indoor banked tracks and sponsor races and teams.

Andrew Love recently put up a kick-ass video of Derek Parra and Ashley Yamborough doing some slideboard in Salt Lake City. The video consumed his bandwidth so he had to spend more $ on his site. In response, he is asking for help- he put up a Virtual Tip Jar on his website. I love how Andrew explained his reasoning: 'Musicians play because they love to play, not for the tips; I do this website because I fundamentally love this intersection in my life between writing, skating and the good folks I am blessed to know through this sport'.

If anybody knows about musicians, skating, and good folks, it's definitely Andrew. A little less than a couple of years ago, I got a call from Andrew while he was driving out to Salt Lake City. He asked me to go to a concert in Toronto. His brother's band was playing and they needed a photographer. I got confused with the venue and unfortunately, I didn't make it out.

I really like how Andrew explained the reasoning behing Virtual Tip Jar. I've got my own little one on this website (see upper right) that I put up about a month ago and couple of people have already donated. Thanks a ton for helping out the likes of Andrew and I. We've got dreams and we need help.

Being a musician myself, I stumbled across a band called 'Broken Social Scene'. Angela Zehr from Toronto got me into them when I drove her to a BSS concert in Montreal a bit over a year ago. I stumbled upon their video for Major Label Debut. It's a song and video VERY well put together:


In other news, be prepared to be majorly inspired: my father passed away in 1979. The night before he passed away, he went to see the first Rocky movie with my then 5 year old brother. Well, as the Rocky website lets us know, 'the greatest underdog story of our time...is back for one more round'. December 22nd is opening night for Rocky Balboa. How many of us have heard that un-mistakeable song 'Eye of the Tiger'? How many of us have gotten pumped up and excited over this song and over the Rocky movies?

Interviews, RSO/ Scooter's, and MISC Stuff

Interviews: SpeedSK8rs.com has posted a good interview with Aurelie Bouvet. Bouvet is the Salomon team manager and she takes good pictures and writes good reports. You can view an article on the Salomon website called Massi Presti is Definitely the Skating Superstar...


Aurelie Bouvet is all business at the world championships in China
RSO and Scooters: Playing catch up a little bit; The RSO Outdoor Speed Points Series' last race was in the middle of October. I put a report up on the Toronto Inline Skating Club's website. You can view my pictures and Candy Wong's pictures.


Ready to start the race at the October 15th RSO in Toronto- left to right are Gillian Clarke, Candy Wong, Sarah Hopkins, Eric Maas, Morgane Echardour, and Phillip Morris.
MISC Stuff: Invisibility cloaks, can you imagine what you can do with one of these? Hitch50: Scotty and Fiddy are trying to hitchhike to all 50 state capitals in 50 consecutive days or less. This is one of those 'out there' cool & crazy things people do. I remember last year, I started to follow Kyle MacDonald's goal of starting off with red paper clip. He bartered and traded all the way up to a house. [one red paper clip]

Videos Galore

There's a whole bunch of videos on YouTube. You can experience the Great Esskate, or check out a video on yahoo about Roller Night in Paris. The Ottawa Inline Skating Club recently had their 2006 awards. They created a multi-media show which can be viewed below (or here):


If this isn't enough videos for you, then go to this link (from KNSB) which has a bunch of sweet long track ice skating videos.

Again, it long track is your thing, and you love marathons AND watching complete live races with the best marathon skaters in the world racing in the Netherlands, then SBS 6 is your home as of right now; they're broadcasting the Essent Cup races and the races that you've missed have been archived.

Finally, let's finish off today's post about videos with this set of videos from Send the Best: Until I Collapse (dirty version, clean version), Speedskating Bloopers, Rink Promo 1 and Rink Promo 2, and World Team Slideshow (part 1 & part 2).

Caution When Training in my Neighbourhood: Dogs are Angry Between 7pm and 8pm

I've taken many pictures of dogs while at inline skating races. I usually enjoy these personable animals. In fact, there’s a few websites with information about inline skating with your dog. [Blading Central]


In good company at the Northshore Inline Marathon
I was running today between 7:00pm and 8:00pm as part of my training regimen. I noticed there were a lot of people walking their dogs along the route that I was using. I passed someone with this tiny little dog and the dog suddenly became enraged...at me. I couldn’t figure out what I did to make the dog angry, so I darted out of its way. I could hear the dog’s owner’s voice over the music from my mp3 player, calling off her dog.

I also heard these clicks coming from one of those extendible leashes that are supposed to stop the dog from running any further. I heard click after click- which to me meant the dog was succesfully getting closer in its pursuit of me and the owner was making the leash 'longer' so the dog's range of attack, it's radius of rage if you will, could increased. I managed to get away.

I'm the kind of person who sees humour in many situations, but after the 2nd and 3rd encounter with angry and pissed off dogs within a few minutes, my good humour was replaced with an 'I want to punch out that dog' attitude.

I guess dogs- especially those tiny little dogs that would stand NO chance in a fight with one of the local squirrels that inhabit my neighbourhood- have an angry hour, and I think that when I was running today, I was right smack in the middle of dog angry hour.

Perhaps when I decide to run in my neighbourhood next time, before 7pm or after 8pm, I will not be a dog’s moving target, but rather a friendly 'running by' object that the dogs could calmly ignore.

The Cost of Going to World, News for Today

The 2007 World Roller Speed Skating Championships will be taking place in Cali, Colombia. I'm planning on competing at the championships- but I will need sponsors to help me get there. Roller Sports Canada usually gives each skater $250 and last year's fundraising added no more than half of that amount to the total. Seeing that it costs about $3500-4000 to get to the world championships, I need to find another $3000 or so.


Junior men on the track at the 2006 world championships in Korea- who's turn will it be to shine in Cali, Colombia in 2007?
On top of that, I am planning on qualifying for and competing at the Pan American Games, which are taking place in Brazil. I understand that for Canada, Roller Sports athetes will receive no funding to attend the games. That means I'll have to tack on another few thousand dollars for the Pan American Games. Racing only at worlds and Pan Ams already makes for an expensive racing season.

Below is a general outline of how much I paid to attend the 2005 world championships in China-

-World Team Trials- $135
-Nationals entry- $50
-Hep immunization- $65
-WT training camp- $60
-Airline ticket- $1550
-Hotel for Shanghai- $89
-More immunizations- $135
-Visa to enter China- $50
-Travel; food & drink- $50
-Suzhou Hotel/ food- $1000
-Wheels- 200$
-MISC food- $50
-Touristy stuff- $150
Total... $3584

News For Today: This past weekend, the Silver Strand Half Marathon took place in San Diego. The InlinePlanet has a nice write up on the event. If you're a Herb Gayle watcher, he placed in the top-20 overall (you have to scroll down to find the results). Here's some pictures that you can view. Since I've mentionned the InlinePlanet, might as well link up to a couple of good news articles: Hayward Goes Long (good A2A prep) and Sqiggy Expansion.


Herb Gayle finishing the Roller Sports Canada Canada Day Marathon in July 2005 in front of Rhett Cappleman and Nick Zacchia- Herb competed in the Silver Strand Half Marathon this past weekend
In other news, if you've got a sanction for your event, you can get some publicity courtesy of USARS. I hope the Roller Sports Canada website gets something like this- I guess it would have to be updated from the 2003 stuff.

Who is Barry Publow & The Mean Lean

Who is Barry Publow? There's a thread on Bont's Message Board where dancanskate75 asks that very question. The thread is originally about Barry Publow's 2007 SpeedCamp Mallorca. More site's about Barry Publow include BarryPublow.com, SkateETrain.ca, and SpeedCamp.ca.


1999 Pan American Games marathon: Barry in 5th, following fellow Canadian Mike Murray and USA's Chad Hedrick
Here's a website that I've enjoyed exploring in the last couple of days: Jorge Botero. Lots of stuff from South America. Another skater website for you to explore is Mau Pan Lau's website. Pan lives in Montreal's old port (you know where it is if you've skate the Défi de L'Ile de Montreal. Pan does it all: inline, ice, and snowboarding.

Pictures: Here's a few for us to drool over: Ice short track from Quebec's elite circuit in early October [click]


I call this one Mean Lean: It looks Like Montreal's Rémi Beaulieu
Next up are photos from the Nestea Fort Lauderdale race [click]. Redline Speed's speed photo gallery is worth exploring. I found some sweet pictures from the world championships there. Here are a few pictures from TBN's Hallowe'en Skate. Let's finish off the pictures with some from the most recent National Team Clinic and the Banked Track Clinic.

Falling & Crashing

I surf the net for hours on end when I am not training or working. My hours of surfing are mostly spent looking at skating stuff. Lately, I've been viewing many videos (here, here, here, and here) and pictures with crashes.


Italy falling due to a push from Colombia during the relay heats at the 2005 world championships in China- Italy did not qualify, Colombia was disqualified, Chinese Taipei and Venezuela moved on to the final
Last Wednesday's Scooter's Indoor Speed Club practice had about 20 skaters in attendance. Between the warm up, the track pattern drills, the starts and, the relays, there must have been about 15 or so falls. One of them hapenned when Andrew Hegarty and I were hawking at the end of a 100-meter race. He lost his balance and flipped and rolled few times. Jacky Schu was a skater who was plagued by many falls during the practice- taking down a few skaters a couple of times!

While falls can be exciting, funny, or scary to watch, I find falls are either a symptom of how competitive a group is, or they are an indication of skills that are lacking. Many of the falls at Scooter's happen at a higher speed because the skaters are more competitive and skate close to each other. I've seen very few skaters get hurt though. The falls at Scooter's practices are more of an indication that we are pushing ourselves, skating at a threshold where if one little thing goes wrong, then we go down.


Martine Charbonneau crashing at the CITC after a 300-meter start
Usually when I fall (I fell the other night at Scooter's and all I saw was a whole pack of skaters careening towards me), I don't get hurt. I get up in a hurry and I'm usually excited that I fell- Why? Because I realise that once it's over, falling wasn't that bad and that I usually don't get hurt.

I've seen the best of the best go down- hard. Real hard. And they get back up. I've seen the most of beginner skaters fall- fall as if they were in slow motion- as if I could do a play-by-play and give them suggestions of what to do while they're falling- and they get back up.


Grounded at the finish of the 2005 Long Beach Inline Marathon
It's happened to me where I fell and my first reaction was to look around to make sure that nobody noticed my fall. If someone did see me fall, I would then try to convince them that my fall really looked spectacular and amazing and skillful when in fact, I looked like a dork.

Wether it is indoors out outside, on a track or on a road, crawling up a hill or screaming down a mountain, falling- or the potential of falling- is one of the many things that we as skaters of all countries and abilities have in common.

But really, as much as watching falls can be exciting, falling really sucks.

The Cool Thing About Skater Blogs

The cool part about having transormed my website into a blog-style site is that you can leave comments. I like possibility of interactions and it makes for more information and more entertainment.

As times go by, we're all moving along and discovering the new technologies. Many skaters are realizing & harnessing the power of communication that the internet allows. When I started skating back in 1993, my club, the Toronto Inline Skating Club, Speed Skating Times, and going to races were the only way to get news from the outside world. Today, we can view results live, see pictures of the races before they're even finished, and view archives of news.


Yep, that's me in the tiger stripes front at the 1994 Junior North American Championships in Cambridge, Ontario. Sitting in 5th place is Chad Hedrick- and I had NO idea who he was. I remember talking to him the night before this 20k race, telling him that I was probably going to win because I was good at cross country skiing...
When it comes to the world of sports, the internet plays an even more imporant role in inline skating when compared to many other sports because roller/ inline speed skating as well developped in a number of ways; There are few magazines, little television coverage, conferences and expos are fare and few between, facilities are sparse, and massive events that the skating and racing community could use to network are in their infancy. The skating and racing community is learning to harness the power of the internet to create a stong community that communitcates, shares, promotes, and develops the sport.

Get ready to bookmark these links: The people who are in the trenches of inline/ roller speed skating- at the fore-front- sharing their first-hand experiences, are the skaters. They have blogs- and more and more are springing up. I've already linked to quite a few in the past, and I might re-link to some that you already know.


Andrew Love, in white, during the 2003 TIIRW
The alpha-blog- this one's by far my favourtie: Zen and the Art of Speedskating (Andrew Love). This blog is fantastic. If I could eat a blog for breakfast, this would be it. I would also eat it for lunch and dinner. I'd save my site for snack and midnight snack. Don't forget about Arjan Smit; this guy is blazing fast on wheels and on ice blades.


Scott Alridge in the thick of the action on the right wearing New Zealand's black during the senior men's 3000-meter relay on the track at the 2006 world championships in Korea. New Zealand earned the silver medal.
New Zealand's Scott Alridge is using Windows Live Spaces to share what he wants to share with the world. A few Canadian blogs: Andrew Hegarty, Sigrid Ziegler, and Candy Wong.

If you're at all interested in ice, then Ohno Zone is the place to go. There's tons of news, pictures, results; in short, all the goodies that you can possible want. My Skating Life is another blog that adds onto and shares the richness of ice speedskating. Masters speedskating on ice plays an important role for the sport just as masters races do in inline. Ross Hanham is sharing the master skater's perspective on his blog Master Speedskating News. One last link for ice, well this one's pretty crazy; it is a comprehensive data-base for ice (LT) speedskating times: Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database.

Jordan Malone has been using YouTube to share videos. The Jordan Malone Sponsorhip Promo Video is fun to watch, filled with really cool clips. Blogs and such site are not only reserved for individual skaters; Athens to Atlanta and the Eastern Seaboard Series are two events that are using MySpace.

Of course, you can check out the MySpace sites (like A2A and ESS) to view who's subscribed to them and find tons of skaters such as Joey Mantia (check out the photo he's got of him hawking, isn't it awesome? Hmm, I wonder what good looking/ cool photographer took that picture...oh yeah, it's me!) and Olympic medalist Joey Cheek.

TISC End of Year Awards & Party

The Toronto Inline Skating Club held its annual End Of Year Party and Awards presentation on Monday November 13th at the Scooter's Roller Palace. Many of TISC's old-time and new-age members came down to celebrate the 2006 inline skating season. [click here for photos]

Preseting the 2006 Season Award Winners- The TISC awards have been handed out since 1998 and already have a rich history of wonderful recipients. The following skaters were recognized for performance, service to the club and sport, and improvements.

Rusty Bearing: Gillian Clarke
Rookie of the Year: Sarah Hopkins
Most Improved Skater: Candy Wong/ Jacky Shu
Skater of the Year: Peter Doucet
Junior Skater of the Year: Jesse Pauley


The 2006 TISC Award Recipients (left to right)- Top row: Jacky Shu, Candy Wong, Gillian Clarke, Sarah Hopkins, Bottom Row: Peter Doucet, Jesse Pauley
Many of TISC's members came out for a wonderful evening which included free pizza and delicious deserts by Candy Wong. Even the old timers like Gord Pannell, who is one of the original TISC members from 1991, came out for the evening.

This was a chance that many took to find old friends and to begin the winter season of training with a practice that followed the party. A few of the skaters decided it was time to throw on the quads and jam and dance to the roller-skating music.


Moving like they know: Left to right- Mister Pauley, Morgan Williams, and Jesse Pauley can really move their feet and boogie and get down to the music!
Wayne Burrett broke out the old games from the TISC parties from a few years ago. Paul Ho won one of the games but decided to give his prize to the 2nd place finisher- a young boy. This was the general feeling of the evening; fun, camaraderie, celebrating the past, and looking to the future.

Thunder Bay With Hal Lightwood

This past weekend, my mother and I had the chance to visit with my brother Oliver and his girlfriend Marlene. They are expecting their first child in early December. They live in Thunder Bay.


My brother Oliver with Marlene and I
Thunder Bay, which has about 100 thousand people living there, is about a 3 hour drive from Duluth. Many skaters fly into Thunder Bay and drive to Duluth for the Northshore Inline Marathon. Thunder Bay is home to Hal Lightwood. Hal had a bad crash at this year's NSIM and dislocated his shoulder (for the 6th time!).


This is Thunder Bay's sleeping giant: It looks like a giant that is lying down
Hal and I met up on Saturday and went for a long road skate. He guided me to a very nice new highway which is not yet open to traffic. While we were skating, he tried to convince me that bears may chase us. In reality, that's not true, they don't chase us. Hal was very welcoming just as my brother and his girlfriend were.


Hal and I after our skate

Hal and his son Nicholas
You know, Canada is a massive country with many different cultures. Thunder Bay is in the same province as Toronto, and yet it is a 14 hour car drive or an expensive plane ticket from Toronto. There are many cultural and regional groups in this country, and they are as far apart from each other in distance as they are in attributes.

It is understandably hard for someone from one part of Canada to identify with or understand the values and history and culture of someone from a different region in Canada. The maratimes, the different parts of Quebec, southern Ontario, Toronto, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, the prairies, BC, the Metis, the Native communities, the fly-in reserves all have unique identities that make up a diverse nation.


Thunder Bay once again
I always have the opportunity to explore and discover new things from my country. I hope that many of you have that same opportunity to see both yours and other countries with wonder, with an understanding historical-geographic-cultural perspective, and with a critical eye.

I learned something from my own province that I never knew about. This summer there were tons of forest fires in northern Ontario because it had been quite dry. Within the span of 5 days, 287 forest fires broke out, and many fly-in reserves (communities) had to be evacuated.

This is the thing that blew me away- the communities that were evacuated were allowed back to their homes, but they are very concerned that the fires will re-ignite next year. 'Re-ignite? What does that mean?' I thought. I was always under the impression that when a fire is out and the winter comes, the fire is extinguished for sure, 100%, no questions asked.

It turns out that despite the minus 30 celsius temperature and tons of snow that falls during the winter time, the fires can remain brewing, smoldering underground in the roots during the cold winter months and then start up again when spring arrives and it gets warmer. The reason why it could smoulder is because the snow insulates the ground and the frost cannot get deep. If it gets warmer in the spring, the snow will evaporate rather than melt and go into the ground.

I am proud to say that I didn't know any of that; You might have known about this, but this reminds me that there are still a lot of things for me to discover in this world. I might have had wonderful opportunities to explore parts of the world thanks to skating, but at the same time, I have a lot to discover and learn at home and beyond.

Ultra Long Races: A2A and Défi De L'ile De Montreal

Ok, it's time to catch up on a ton of links, reports, and results. I'll do this gradually. The first events that I'd like to catch up on is A2A and the Défi.


Jonnothan Royer, this year's winner, sitting in 2nd place during the rain soaked 2005 Défi.
Here are the results for the Défi De L'ile de Montreal. Jonothan Royer was the first to cross the line. Jonothan broke some bones his shoulder last September in a crash in an RSO race, so it nice to see him back in action. Mark Sibert has a very detailed account of the Défi on Roadskater.net.


Happy to be finished the 2006 A2A. I completely understand them!
I've dug up a few more things from A2A. Here are some really neat pictures on Emerald Coast Speed. There are also some pictures posted on Roller-Montreal's website...and again, more pictures and even more pictures! Michael Garvin shares his pictures. And finally, a comrehensive wrap-up of this year's event.

Camilo Echverri and a Few Some Photos

Camilo Echeverri Update: Camilo has arrived in the Netherlands but it looks that they (ISU) are still deciding about the World Cup. Camilo says that they will probably let him race next weekend's World Cup in Berlin. Despite this, Camilo will be training in Berlin.

Rememberance Day: Earlier today, I had the opportunity to perform a song that I wrote about Rememberance Day called 'Thinking Of You' with one of my grade 2 classes. The kids sounded very nice during the school assembly. There's about 700 students at my school which means we have to have two assemblies so that everyone could fit.

A Few Pictures For You:

Jacky Shu leads Gillian Clarke and Candy Wong at the RSO Speed Series #4 about 1 month ago. The event took place in freezing and windy weather, it was brutal.

My cat's name is Presti. He is crazy. Here, he could be seen climbin this pole thing that I have in my basement. He has 4 siblings; on who now lives with Morgane Echardour, two who now reside with Andrew Hegarty and Sigrid Ziegler, and the other who belongs to a non-skater. Presti has a difficult time letting me sleep.


You ever seen Martin Scorsese's movie Raging Bull? It's really cool, Robert De Niro plays this boxer who's always pissed off. When I look at the picture above, that movie title comes to mind. We're all a bunch of raging bulls, just going nuts with nothing between us and the start line.

Lastly, I have a zillion things I want to post and I eventually will. But until then, have a good weekend.

Scooter's Speed Club Practice Video From Nov. 8th

The Scooter's Indoor Speed Club season is in its 2nd week. Here's a short video that I made from last Wednesday's practice.



You can also browse through some photos that I took at the practice. Also, Candy Wong has been taking pictures from practice and shooting some videos too (see Candy's video below).

That's it for now. I will try to find time tomorrow to post some more on my website- I've got a lot to do right now. It's report card writing time at work (I teach music and French and cover grades kindergarten to grade 5), plus there's now lots of training to do, and also I am headed out of town this weekend to Thunder Bay to visit my brother Oliver. His girlfriend is expecting their first child in early December- don't you worry, I'll post lots of pictures. This will at last make me an uncle and my mother a grandma! Man are we ever getting old, aren't we? But for now, while we're young and alive, let's enjoy it and make the most of it.

Colombia's First Go At Long Track World Cup

It looks like Camilo Echeverri, a Colombian national living in Toronto, Canada, will be the first ever skater to represent Colombia at the ISU long track world cup. As long as his status as a competitor is approved by the ISU, Camilo will be competing in the long track world cup this weekend in Heerenveen, Netherlands, and the following weekend in Berlin, Germany.

Camilo Echeverri has been a competitive inline skater for years. He moved to Canada in 2003 recently made the transition to short and long track ice. He was an athlete candidate for the 'Own the Podium' program which aims at developing Canadian athletes to compete for Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.


Camilo Echeverri at an RSO race in Aurora (left) and training at the Olympic Oval in Calgary with his brother Leonardo(right).
This will be Colombia's first go at the long track world cup. After his competitions, he will be living and training in Berlin and in the Netherlands for a few months. KIA /YACHT, Van Caspel, and roselle B.V are supporting and sponsoring Camilo. Camilo is not sure how long he will be in Europe because he has to continue with his schooling.

You can follow the long track world cup results at the following websites: Essent ISU World Cup and the Heerenveen ISU World Cup.

The Site's Working

This is super cool; the website is working and it's easy to update. That means I get to spend less time updating the website and therefore more time training or doing whatever- not that I have actually been spending a lot of time working on PIRWP.

I first wanted to re-post the last update and then later on this week, I should have a whole whack of links that I'll post. So until then, have a good one!

October 31st 2006- Happy Halloween! Today is by far the bestest most favourite day of the year for me: it's Halloween! Later this evening, I will be scaring the children who come to my house to trick-or-treat by hiding in the bushes beside my front door- all this while the scary music is playing outside, my fog machine is making my house seem creepy, and the candles burning all around my yard. I will be reluctantly giving the kids candy. I figure for Halloween, my house is the best house to go to in my neighborhood because it's the scariest and I give the best and the most candies.

Today's a good day to give away all my chocolate because tomorrow is the day that I will be starting my training program for 2007. That means I'm going to swear off the junk food- well, really the only junk food that I eat is chocolate. To wean myself off chocolate, I've been eating my breakfast cereal (red river- which is like bird seed- mixed with plain oatmeal) dashed with a little bit of sugar and some cocoa.

Olivier Jean and the Short Track World Cup: Korea- Olivier Jean represented Canada at the world cup short track #2 in Korea this past weekend. Continuing from his success at the first world cup, he earned a bronze medal in the 1000-meter and a gold medal in the relay along with Steve Robillard. View all the results. Olivier shares more of his short track world cup experiences with us:

'Korea is pretty crazy. There are tons of fans who love the sport and come to watch in the stands. Everyone wants photos and autographs. I’ve never seen anything like all the time I’ve been racing, it’s really awesome!! Our men’s relay team qualified for tomorrows final (which Canada won) but unfortunately, the girls were disqualified in the qualifying race.



Check check, look at that champions Oh-Suk, Lee (Korea), Charles Hamelin, and I in the 1000-meters. It was the only podium that Canada earned on Saturday.
Tomorrow, there’s a 1000-meter and a 500-metre. I will be racing the 500-meter and also the relay. Today, Steve Robillard was the only other Canadian skater to make the 1500-meter final, and he finished 5th.

It’s super hot here- it’s really cool because we warm up in shorts and the sun is shining big time. I really am not thrilled to be coming back to the cold-Montreal nightmare!'



USA and Canadian Short Trackers/ Inliners: Kimlery Derrick, Anthony Lobello, Steve Robillard, Olivier Jean, Travis Jayner, Jeff Simon, and Jordan Malone
Scooter's Speed Club Starts Tomorrow: In case anyone from Toronto is reading this, the Scooter's Indoor Speed Club will begin its 2006-2007 season tomorrow.

Folks, I've skated once since Athens to Atlanta, and that's pretty much all I've done other than work and chocolate eat. I've got layers of fat to work off and between training at Scooter's , running for 1/2 hour, stretching, and weights- all this tomorrow, I think I'll be struggling with walking on Thursday.



Meeting to plan the Scooter's Speed Club season: Left to right: Myself, Sigrid Ziegler, Eric Gee, Andrew Hegarty, Wayne Burrett, and Munro Foster. Hidden by me is Gillian Clarke and hidden by Eric is Aaron Arndt.

Test Blog Entry

I am going to start using a blog for this site. It's way easier. Give me a couple of days to set it up and then we'll be ready to go. If you want to access all the older stuff from my website (latest entry was yesteday), then click here.