8 Years And Couting- 8 years happens really fast

8 Years And Couting- 8 years happens really fast: Today’s Trivia Question is brought to you by SpeedSkateWorld.com

What is the reason for Peter’s Inline Racing Web Page/ SpeedSkateWorld.com’s creation back in 1999?

a) After having a few beers, I left the bar with my friend Jason and went to my university’s computer lab- I had nothing to do so I started to mess around with the computer and PIRWP/ SSW was born.
b) I had too many pictures of races and of dogs but nowhere to post them; hence PIRWP/ SSW was created
c) The website was built as a tool for me to post really cool pictures of me with my hairy chest (which is not hairy anymore) so that I court all the wonderful single skating women- sorry ladies, but I now I have my special lady!
d) SSW/ PIRWP was erected as a tool for me to get attention and sponsors
e) I desperately wanted to be a skater-reporter person
f) American skating companies chose to secretly fund a website to promote the north American market
g) I needed to make money
h) I needed to challenge the Inline Planet and PatinCarrera’s market share; they were too strong at the time
i) My cat was pissing me off
j) I was planning on creating a pornographic website, and this creating SSW/ PIRWP is the first step

I won't tell you which one is correct-

8 years happens really fast, especially at the speed of skating.

The last 8 years have seen many things change in my life; I finished university, completed teacher’s college, and switched from being a lifeguard to being an elementary school teacher. I had a few girlfriends- some wonderful and some just downright nasty. I lost some family members and I wrote many songs.

In my skating life, I’ve seen competitors and athletes come to, stay in, and leave the sport for all sorts of reasons, some reasons I understand and some I consider petty excuses. I have seen the Toronto Inline Skating Club change venues numerous times while still remaining a wonderful and very relevant organization dedicated to the sport. I have seen many people use resources like TISC to share what they know about skating, I have experienced the political side of the sport.

I have traveled to many exotic places to skate: Ecuador, Los Angeles, Florida, Colombia, Argentina, Belgium, Italy, Korea, China, Venezuela, and Bermuda just to name a few. I’ve been on multiple ridiculous road trips with great friends and taken many stupid and many awesome pictures.

Skating has changed a great deal since 1999; we’ve witnessed claps come and go, wheels increase in size and go down in number, skates get more colourful and better fitting, the internet become a great resource in sharing news, results, reports, pictures, videos, and information. The world inline cup has grown a great deal, Asia has become a world racing super power, things like tracks and rules have slowly becoming more standardized, and the standards are being raised in the races and distances are changing. Minnesota has seen huge marathons and some classic races and magazines have disappeared. Inline skaters have switched to ice and ice skaters have switched to inline; some now only do one, some keep doing both and some do well at both; how, I don’t know!

I gained the understanding that it is volunteers who are the life and breath of the sport, and those volunteers are far and few between. I’ve volunteered; I have organized races, events, functions, coached, competed, trained, been on boards of directors, web-mastered, and even edited a magazine. I’ve put myself in significant debt, locked myself into living in the basement of my mother’s house all for the sake of doing what I do.

Some people might question how and why, at this point in my life, I am trying to be both an elite athlete and at the same time, share what I try to share via my website.

The truth is that I love to skate and race, and I want to use my website to share my experiences, to share what I can so that those who read my site can understand my perspective: Skating is a wonderful way to be fit & healthy and to meet people & travel.

I am a huge fan of skating- I don’t know how long I will continue to maintain my site, but I think (and hope) that at the very least, PIRWP/ SSW is a testament that I was here; it is an affirmation that our sport is strong and vibrant and worth every stride that is skated; it is an homage to all the hours we spend training, volunteering, hoping, watching, thinking, and sacrificing & giving to skating; it is a small piece of the rich history that we are in the midst of creating and developing; it is the legacy that I leave behind- to accompany the medals and top placements that I am currently training many hours and hurting my body for.

8 years happens really fast, doesn’t it?

EGC Skates, More Grand Fond, TO Road Roller Blading

EGC Skates: Look for the EGC Skates website to be updated soon. Apparently there’s even a nice simple logo that has been designed for EGC Skates. What’s EGC Skates? Eric Gee Custom Skates.


The firrst pair of EGC Skates about to go out for a test-ride
More Grand Fond: In case you haven’t had enough Grand Fond coming at you, here’s some more: click here for a report (in French) which features the perspective of a few racers which has been published on Roller En Ligne.


Nice finish eh?
TO Road Roller Blading: I received this e-mail about 2 months ago- I agreed to post it, but before doing so, I had to re-write a lot of it: An association called TO (Toronto) Road Roller Blading has been created in order to promote inline skating in downtown Toronto. The purpose of the group is to enjoy strolling, visiting, discovering, socializing and to live a healthy urban life. Each Sunday afternoon, the participants will have a meeting spot in downtown Toronto. From this point, they will skate a loop during 3 hours on the road around the city according to the level of participants.

This activity is different from others because it aims to promote the city architectures, monuments, beauties, it creates a community life, it is a reference of riding by rollers inline in North America, and it promotes the safety and healthy practice of inline skating.


Skating (and racing) in downtown Toronto is great! Here, Steve Robillard leads Leonardo Echeverri, Jordan Belchos, myself and the rest of the skaters through the streets in downtown Toronto around Queen's Park circle
Would you like to joint the association to create this event? Some tasks include organizing the event, finding sponsors, getting authorizations to skate on the road, promoting the event, create/host a website, manage the participating crowd, take part into the event. The more people who participate, the more people will be interested. All help will be greatly useful. Please contact Julien at TOroller@yahoo.ca if you are interested. The more people involve the more the event will be great.

Roadskater.Net- Skate Strong & Road Rash, Link, Italy Track Championships, Hegarty’s March 29th Training Update, Disney Is Coming

Roadskater.Net- Skate Strong & Road Rash: Roadskater.net is one of the internet skating hubs humming with activity. A couple of articles that might have you looking the the Roadskater.net direction include a report from the Texas Road Rash by Artem Papkov and a report on the ‘Skate Strong’ Workshop.

Link: G-Skate has a whole lot of goodies for you to buy.

Italy Track Championships: The Italian track championships are taking place Maggio 17th to the 19th (that’s May for you non Italian readers). I love the flyer!



Italian skaters near the front at the 2005 world championships in Suzhou, China
Hegarty’s March 29th Training Update: Andrew Hegarty is sharing a lot of details from the early days of his adventure in Europe. If you can’t be there with him, you can perhaps live vicariously through his posts. I thought I would quote a few of his words from his most recent post March 29th Training Update- about Bill Begg, he writes ‘Bill has this way of making you feel really, really great about yourself and that makes you want to train more and harder and do whatever it takes to get better faster. How much is that worth? Everything in my opinion’ and on the trails, he says ‘There are hills, some steep and short, some shallow and long; this makes things a lot of fun! The trail curves and turns under bridges and through quiet residentail neighbourhoods that have amazing pavement. There are SKATE trail markers everywhere and there are people on speed skates everywhere; you don’t feel out of place here… you belong!’.

Disney Is Coming: Are you excited about this weekend’s Disney Marathon? I wish I could be as excited as you are if you’re going. If you’re not going, well, hopefully you and I will have lot of pictures and stories to read next week. The Inline Planet has published an article about the event Disney Marathon Draws New Skaters.


The guy's red t-shirt says it all: Remove before flight- Ryczard Adamczuk with his arms up, probably shouting something like 'Peter Doucet rocks! Let's all give him our money!' at the start of the 2005 Disney Marathon

Flying through the Disney complex in 2005

Early morning in the lead pack at the 2003 Disney race
For all the bad rap the event has received in the last couple of years, there’s still a lot of buzz and excitement about it in the skating community. Gillian Clarke recently received a free Disney race entry that she won. While we were getting ready to start our indoor practice, she offered it to any takers. I'm not sure who took up her offer, but soon after that, Aaron Arndt tried to convince me to drive down with him to Florida for the competition... I've done that before. Remember my report? The one on the 2004 trip which took place when I left on Friday at 11pm to the time I arrived at my house on Monday at 6am, and which featured about 4500km's of driving, one race, one Friend (Eric 'Hip Hop' Gee), very little sleep?


On the way down to Disney in 2004- Eric Gee sleeps while I show my excitement on having spent the previous 15 hours straight driving- all with my hairy chest (which I now shave), my stupid glasses(that I've thrown out), and my ill-fitting hat (that I only wear when it's really really cold)

In was thrilled in 2004 to come back with a trunk-load of oranges- a whole weekend on a few hours of sleep, but it was worth it, especially when I got to work at 8:30am on Monday and gave fresh Florida oranges to my kindergarten students

Toronto Inline Skating Club News, RSO Speed Series #4 Video, Greg Levian Results, More Grand Fond Pictures

Toronto Inline Skating Club News: TISC held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) this past weekend. The AGM is an opportunity for the political skating beings to come out and voice their opinions and get involved in managing the direction of the club. The 2007 TISC board of directors includes Gillian Clarke (President), Aaron Arndt (treasurer), Munro Foster (secretary), Candy Wong (director) and myself (director).


Ryczard Adamczyk, myself, and Eric Gee at this year's TISC AGM this past weekend
The Toronto Inline Skating Club will open its 2007 season at Christ The King school’s 200-meter track on Tuesday April 3rd. The club will use the West Toronto track on Thursdays. If you’re coming out or wanting to come out to a practice, make sure you check the website www.torontoinlinespeed.com for updates and news at least on a weekly basis- there might be some changes with the venue.

RSO Speed Series #4 Video: Below is the video that I took & made of the 4th RSO Speed Series race from this past weekend- click here or press play to view. Before I go any further, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who helped the series be successful again this year. The indoor series may be small, but a lot of work goes into making the event happen- from opening the rink, maintaining the website, updating the results, taking pictures and videos, doing entries, officiating, lap counting, starting the races, tabulating, timing, cleaning the floor, etc. The series could not be held without anyone’s help.


Greg Levian Results: Click here for the results from the Greg Levian 50km Memorial Roadskate. You will also find a video from the event.

More Grand Fond Pictures: Looking to view a lot more Grand Fond pictures? You can find some on Powerslide Racing (you'll have to scroll down) and 1000’s of photos thanks to Photo91.fr (click here and find the links at the bottom).


Grand Fond- photo from Powerslide-Racing

Las Vegas, Photos, Tabon Interiew, Results From NZ

Las Vegas: Reports & results from the High Rollers Invitational in Las Vegas are starting to trickle in slowly but surely. You can catch up on some results posted on Hyper’s Forum and on Patin Carrera.

Photos: More pictures for you to check out: Grand Fond and RSO Speed Series #4.


Championnat de France Grand Fond- photo from Roller Numerique

Championnat de France Grand Fond- photo from Roller Numerique

Championnat de France Grand Fond- photo from Roller Numerique

RSO: Jesse Pauley during his 300-meter time trial

RSO: The young ones between races

RSO: Scott Pauley leads Sarah Hopkins and Eric Maas during the 500-meter race

RSO: Jesse Pauley in front of Jade Pauley and I during the 1000-meter race

RSO: Candy Wong during the 500-meter race

RSO: Having fun with the cones after the race- it's all about setting them up and playing bowling on skates!
Tabon Interiew: Team Rollerblade has published an interview with Colombian skater Juan Nayib Tabon.


Juan Nayib Tabon at the 2003 world championships in Venezuela
Results From NZ: The 6th post of the 17th page in the New Zealand News topic talks about Kalon Dobbin’s recent victory in the Mansfield Marathon. Top 8 finishers are 1- Kalon Dobbin (Powerslide Phuzon), 2- D.J. Nation (World Inline Center Spyrotiger), 3- Kurt Freeman (Manawatu Club), 4- Raphael Pfulg (Athleticum Rollerblade), 5- Wayne Begg (World Inline Center Bont Europe), 6- Reyon Kay (Athleticum Rollerblade), 7- Scott Arlidge (Athleticum Rollerblade), 8- Peter Micheal (Powerslide Fhuzon).

Results, Pictures, MISC News, Link, Is This The New Hyper Wheel?, Cool Video

Results: Click here for the results from yesterday’s RSO Speed Points Series season finale, click here for the results from the Texas Road Rash Inline Marathon, you can find some results from the Grand Fond Championship (from France). You also have access to a report on the Grand Fond (in Dutch) thanks to Training & News. Rolling-Alliance has a whole bunch of reports, but I can’t link to them individually, so it’s up to you to seek them out. You can find a report with results from the Luguilla Asturiana.

Pictures: Click on the following links: Grand Fond pictures 1 and pictures 2, Road Rash pictures. Mundo Patin has photos from the 4th race of the Luguilla Asturiana.


Notice the official measuring the wheels by the start gate for the Grand Fond time trial? photo from www.cpal.eu

Start of the Texas Road Rash- photo from Skating Photos

Cuarta Carrera de Liguilla Asturiana- photo from Mundo Patin
MISC News: Click here for an interview (en Francais) with Pascalène de Coninck about the Grand Fond race. Patin Carrera has published an article (in Spanish) talking about the automaker SsangYong Motors affiliation with the World Inline Cup. Patin Carrera also has a list of skaters and teams that will take part in this year's WIC.

Click here for a whole bunch of video from the recent coaches’ conference that took place in February in Rome.

Link: Training & News (in Dutch) published by Belgium’s Jelle Spruyt.

Is This The New Hyper Wheel?: Below is a picture that someone sent me; they claim that it’s the new Hyper wheel. I wonder if it really is.



Cool Video: Below is a video from the road elimination at last year’s world championships- you can see me in the back on the right in the red and black Canadian colours.

CITC Update, Link, Inline Planet- Arm Swing, More On Chambery, Hegarty’s First Updates From Europe, 24 Hours Inline Montreal Update

Road Rash Report: The first news from the many races that took place this weekend is in: The Inline Planet has a report from the Texas Road Rash. Tomorrow, I should be including news from the Grand Fond, RSO Series, and TISC AGM. Lots to look forward to!

CITC Update: The CITC’s website has a few updates, including a few pictures of the snow-covered banked track, a van in the ditch, and more importantly, a photo of Paisley Perrie getting her Kitchener/ Waterloo Speed Club Junior Skater Of The Year.


Paisley Perrie receiving her award- photo from CITC
Link: The Toronto Inline Skating Club’s new forum is now working. I was the first one to post in the forum. The next link for you is Coenwesselman.nl.

Inline Planet- Arm Swing: The Inline Planet continues to put out some good articles with lots of advice; the latest one is Go Faster With Arm Swing.

Swinging arms while going up the hill at the Eastern Seaboard Series in Bob Rodale Park, Trexlertown
More On Chambery: Here is another report on the Chambery race thanks to Roller En Ligne.


Photo from Roller En Ligne
Hegarty’s First Updates From Europe: Andrew Hegarty has a number of entries (March 15th to the 25th )about his first few days in Europe posted on his website.

24 Hours Inline Montreal Update: 700-Skaters are slated to take part in this year’s 24 Hours Inline Montreal. This is an impressive number considering the fact that organizers have capped the total number of teams.


Waiting for the exchanges during the 2006 24 Hours Inline

200-Meter Banked Track In Montreal Needs Help

200-Meter Banked Track In Montreal Needs Help: There is currently a plan in to build an indoor 200-meter banked track in Montreal. I am one of the lucky people involved in the project, although my role is peripheral. Recently, I have been trying to help establish contact between key people in Montreal and the powers that be in FIRS so that the planners and architects can get the updated/ latest banked track specifications.

The promoters of the project are prepared to pay the $1000 euros so that they can have a copy of the banked track specs, but there has been no response from FIRS in the last three weeks in communication attempts.

This concerns me; I realize that Canada is comparatively weak when it comes to competitive roller speed skating international standards. Being an avid promoter, fan, and athlete in the sport, I can say with certainty that this indoor facility will not only bolster Canada’s international strength, but it will be a great cultural and architectural asset to a sport that has virtually no home base in Canada save the CITC and a few hours of practice at a few of roller-rinks scattered across the country.


The planners recently got a hold of some of the plans for the track that is being built for this year's world championships in Cali, Colombia
I am very excited about this project. Between this track in Montreal and the track that will be built in Vancouver’s Strathacona Park, Canada suddenly finds itself injected with a great deal of optimism, potential, and excitement. These things are important to Canada, especially when we consider that the sport is operating based on a federation that has no financial backing except for membership fees and has a few volunteers making things happen. This facility is one of the most important and the most expensive components that the sport in Canada needs, and there IS money backing this project!

As a friend said to me in a recent email; ‘can you imagine training sessions during the winter time in between short track practices? It would be wild’. It is not only Canada that needs this facility; Montreal is within an ear-shot of many clubs in the United States that within my opinion will surely venture to train and compete on this world-regulation indoor banked track.


Banked track racing is so exciting! To think that this will be a reality in Canada- let's hope!!
Montreal has a great base of skaters and a lot of enthusiastic people who wish to see the sport grow and who also want also want to help it prosper. I hope this message makes it out to FIRS- We need the track specs so we can have an indoor banked track.

What Were You Doing?, Mantia On The WIC, Links, Report, Wotherspoon, Ziegler Update

What Were You Doing?: Last night, I watched the counter for the unveiling of new wheels on Hyper’s website. When it got to zero at midnight, nothing happened. No new wheels, and as The Major said, ‘I was waiting for my computer to explode with hyper wheels shooting out. Oh well, at least I still have my computer’.


Turn on the lights please! We want to see the wheels!
Mantia On The WIC: According to recent posts on Bont’s Message Board, USA’s Joey Mantia will take on a few key races in the World Inline Cup this year. Don’t try to see any news on Luigono because that’s a restaurant website. Instead if you want to go looking for some news about this, go to Luigino Racing. When you’re browsing around, you’ll find a report from the Pre-Worlds In Colombia from a while ago.


Joey Mantia (USA) behind a couple of Colombia skaters at the '06 world in Korea during the elimination race
Links: Cpal.eu. I’ve been getting some traffic form this thread recently. From what I know about letters and language, it’s not in English. Pretty cool! Speed Skate World truly is Speed Skate WORLD. Yeah!


I don't think this is English
Report: EO Anaeli has a report on the Grand Prix de roller de Chamberi. I’ve been to Chamberi, yeas before my inline skating days, and it’s a really nice place. One of my mom’s friends lives there.


Photo from EO Anaeli
Wotherspoon: The most decorated sprinter in the world, Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon, will be back at it next year after taking this year off of racing. Click for the article Wotherspoon has bigger fish to fry this season posted on Speed Skating Canada.


A couple of great skaters- Jeremy Wotherspoon and I in Calgary. It might look like we're good friends and training partners, but in fact this was the first time that I met him and I was star-struck!
FYI: (EDIT: Jeremy Wotherspoon talks about fishing, so I decided to talk about fish)I hate fish, but let's say that at this moment you and I were in the Caribbean and we were swimming just offshore in the crystal clear water, and let's say I caught a fish with my bare hands, I would cook it over a fire on the beach at night I would definitely eat the fish & share it with you and we could talk about skating for hours and hours!

Ziegler Update: This one goes out to those of you who are following Sigrid Ziegler’s and Andrew Hegarty’s racing adventure; We have a first update from Sigrid Ziegler in Europe.

Lots Of Pictures, Link, Ohno Dancing Video, St-Patty’s Videos, Skating News

Lots Of Pictures: This one’s going to be fun for you today: Pictures from St-Patty’s Invitational, pictures from San Bernardino (day 1 and day 2), and pictures from the Interasociaciones Merida 2007 21km marathons in Mexico.


Interasociaciones Merida- photo from Patinaje De Velocidad

Interasociaciones Merida- photo from Patinaje De Velocidad

Interasociaciones Merida- photo from Patinaje De Velocidad

Interasociaciones Merida- photo from Patinaje De Velocidad

Georgia's St Patty's Invitational- photo from dhuffman2

Georgia's St Patty's Invitational- photo from dhuffman2

Georgia's St Patty's Invitational- photo from dhuffman2
Link: Pinnacle has a forum.

Ohno Dancing Video: If you’d like to view a video of Apolo Ohno and Jullianne Hough in Dancing With The Stars, click here or press play before. It’s actually pretty good stuff!


St-Patty’s Videos: There are currently 6 videos from the St-Patty’s Invitational thanks to Inline Speed Skater.

Skating News: If you’d like to see some more results with times from the recent Colombia National Championships, click here.

A few Canadians will be heading down to compete in Mexico in early-mid April. They are ‘profiled’ in Canadienses en la Copa Internacional Chiapaneca.

Spring Fling Photos, Results, Inline Planet’s Calendar, Love & Tucker Fredricks, 24 Hour Hype

Spring Fling Photos: Click here for 1000’s of pictures from the Bremerton Spring Fling thanks to Mark Virtue's awesome photo-taking skills and poste on Bremerton Speed.


Photo from Bremerton Speed

Photo from Bremerton Speed

Photo from Bremerton Speed

Photo from Bremerton Speed
Results: Click here for results from the St-Patty’s Day Invitational (Novice, Elite, Relay).

Inline Planet’s Calendar: The Inline Planet continues to maintain on of the more comprehensive inline skate/ race calendars on the internet. Featured on the calendar are a few Canadian events including Winnipeg, Manitoba’s North of the 49th Marathon.

Love & Tucker Fredricks: Andrew Love keeps feeding us some great videos and news on his website- his latest post features some really cool commentary from long track 500-meter world medalist Tucker Fredricks. Lots of good stuff for us all! A lot for us to listen in this video- a good perspective from one of the best at his best.

24 Hour Hype: Are you one of the lucky few 6000 or so skaters who will be taking on the Le Mans 24 Hour Race? Maybe you are, maybe you’re not, but there’s a pretty good pump-you-up for the Le Mans video that you can watch, courtesy Tuesday Night Skating Frankfurt.

What A Season, Spain & Mexico, Skate News, Results, Pictures, Links, Ziegler & Hegarty Update,Camrag & SpeedSkate.com, Onho’s Dancing

What A Season: Andrew Love’s latest update on his site- Champions Challenge –Video- features a video with tons of long track footage; my favourite part of the video is the end. What a season Andrew- thanks for everything you put up on your site and everything you do for us fans of the sport. Click here or press play to view the video.


Spain & Mexico: Barry Publow will be running a SpeedCamp in Malorca, Spain from May 5th to the 12th. Barry recently posted some FAQ’s about the SpeedCamp. Also, if you’re interested, he is starting up his SkatEtrain (emarathon) which will run from April to November.



If Spain is not a place that interests you or if May is not soon enough for you to travel somewhere exotic, then you can head over to Mexico for the Copa Mexicanidad Chiapaneca in April. There will me a few Canadians heading down to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico for the event, including from Montreal Martine Charbonneau, and from Ottawa Dominique Lalonde, Jean-Francois Messier, Stephane Tremblay, and Adrien Loewen.

Skate News: I read on the RaceReports Forum that the Hermantown Inline is cancelled for this year. I checked the website, and it’s true; a note on the site reads ‘Due to planned road construction, the Hermantown Inline will not be held in 2007. We look forward to seeing you again in 2008’.

Roller En Ligne has posted some information on this weekend’s upcoming Grand Fond. I’m sure that we’ll be seeing lots of good pictures from this event next week.

Results: PatinCarrera and Rollerblade have each posted a report/ results on the final day of racing from the Colombia Nationals. According to Rollerblade, the next national event will be in 1 month.

The Planet Forum is the source for a report (My first road race) on the Tour De Pike thanks to SmithAtlanta.

Pictures: Click here for last weekend’s pictures from the short track world team championships.


Photo from www.moksz.hu/
Links: I love the look of the Hyper website. And there’s supposed to be a new wheel that will be revealed on March 22nd. The last ‘new’ link for today is Athleticum Inline Team. Check out the latest update Bericht aus New Zealand- I have no idea what it's about, but it does have a picture of Raphael Pflug (Switzerland), Scott Alridge (New Zealand) and a few other people.


Photo from Athleticum Inline Team
Ziegler & Hegarty Update: They’re probably landed in Europe by now- before they left, they each wrote a message; You can read Sigrid’s message It’s after midnight and Andrew’s message Starting over...

Camrag & SpeedSkate.com: Eric Gee redesigned his website Camrag with links to weird stuff, and if you want to purchase the domain SpeedSkate.com, you can do so for $5000.


Photo from Camrag
Onho’s Dancing: I’m not one to watch much television. Thanks to Ohno Zone, I am able to read about what’s going on on television- you can catch up on all the action from the first episode of Dancing With the Stars.