February 7, 2025 • 26 mins
Skating fans, get ready for an exhilarating ride with our special guest, Nell Martin—the first Spaniard to bring his story to our podcast. Imagine shifting gears at age 13, moving from skateboarding to rollerblading, all because skateboards became scarce in his homeland. Nell's journey showcases a tenacious spirit, as he reminisces about the less specialized days of rollerblading, filled with variety and thrill. His enduring love for urban sports not only fuels his passion but also drives his event and marketing company, keeping the spirit alive and kicking.
From mental health to business endeavors, we explore the transformative power of skating. Discover how a contract with Cirque du Soleil offered mental balance and how running Secret Spot, a leading rollerblading school, brings joy beyond measure. We touch on the vibrant scene in Las Vegas and Spain, where skate culture has grown more inclusive. With nods to the legends that inspired us—Chris Edwards, Arlo, and Cesar Mora—we share insights into sustaining a niche business and the joys of teaching young champions. This episode promises a blend of personal stories, industry wisdom, and an unwavering love for the sport.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey there, Welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate
destination for all skatingenthusiasts.
We cater to everyone, frombeginners to pros, whether you
love inline and ice skating orprefer quads and skateboarding.
Whether you love inline and iceskating or prefer quads and
skateboarding, we have it allcovered, and we bring you
(00:30):
exclusive interviews withprofessionals, talented amateurs
and influencers in the industry.
So sit back, relax and getready for an exciting journey
into the world of skating.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you
Skate.
I'm your host, sean Egan, andmy guest today is Nell Martin,
and he is out of Spain, so he'smy first person from Spain I've
had other international people,but no one from Spain yet.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So you're my first, and welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Hello, I'm happy to be here.
So now, how old were you whenyou started skating?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Where did your whole skating start.
Yeah, when I startedrollerblading I was about 13
years old.
I would say.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, and was it just you got your first pair of
skates or was it?
Because it's always, the storyis behind.
So it's like what made youstart, what made you decide?
What was the?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, honestly, being really honest, I was a
skateboarder, I was a skater.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And in Spain, for some reason, you couldn't buy
any more boards Like askateboard, was that and all my
friends become rollerbladers andat some point I was like, no, I
want to keep skating, I likeskateboarding.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
But I couldn't get another war.
My world was dying.
So we have in christmas inspain as a tradition, we have
(01:58):
something that is called thethree kings.
Three kings and those kingsbring presents to the kids right
in christmas.
So one of my, one of mypresents, was a pair of
rollerblades, and actually fromthe rollerblade brand, and then
once I tried them, I never, Inever stopped.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That was the thing I found the gold yeah so how old
were you when you startedskateboarding?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So I can't remember exactly Probably, I was probably
, I would say, around nine, nineyears old when I started
skateboarding.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So why did they stop selling skateboards?
Was it just like did?
They outlaw it or.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, not really Just the industry of
the skateboarding.
Now we all know the industry ispretty huge.
The skateboarding industry isis massive, but back in the day
was pretty pretty, so it has ithad like a big, fast grown and
then kind of died, at least ineurope, even in usa, because big
, big names.
(03:01):
I remember when I started rowRiding when I was, when I become
pro a lot of the pro big names,like I was doing shows with
Tony Hawk and nobody knew.
Tony and almost nobody knew inTony Hawk back in the day.
You know what I'm saying.
Like it was just one.
I don't know how to say thiswithout getting no one offended,
but so we were doing the showand he was joining our
(03:24):
rollerblading show.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Okay, Does that make sense?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So it kind of.
Actually he has a really goodbook where he's talking about
his life and it talks about thatLike he was surviving, doing
show for rollerbladers and alsodoing video camera for surfing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So anyways, long story short, sure, skateboarding
kind of died okay, and then,like no manufacturers kept
selling there, they just kind ofall pulled out of spain yeah,
exactly, I think.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, no one shop.
No shops were interested inselling skateboards anymore in
spain, not in many shops inspain.
I'm sure you still could find ashop, but I was living in a
small village, I was a kid, so Icouldn't go to Barcelona city.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So it was.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was hard.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So now has skateboarding come back at all
in Spain.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah, skateboarding hasprobably.
You know it's massive, it waspretty huge, especially the last
15 years, all over the world.
So skateboarding, even if nowit's a little bit slower, it was
huge in Spain as well too.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And so you transitioned from skateboarding
to rollerblading and you kind ofhaven't turned back since, or
do you still pick up the boardevery once in a while?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, no, no, I mean yeah, it was a long time ago
when I was training, I would say, or skating more hours than I'm
doing right now.
I was warming up a little bitwith skateboarding.
I like skateboarding Also.
I had my own events andmarketing company here in Spain
(04:55):
and I was always taking care ofall the action sports, all urban
sports skateboarding,rollerblading, snakeboarding,
bmx, breakdancing so I like allthe urban culture sports.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Now, with the rollerblading,how long before you got into so
you basically started skatingand did you have pretty good
balance because of yourskateboarding background or did
it transfer over pretty easily?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I think so I was pretty good on every single
sport that I was trying.
So I was decent onskateboarding, and as soon as I
got my rollerblades on, I wasdoing pretty okay too and I
progressed really fast.
My progression at the beginningwas really really fast, so I
got super excited about it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Nice, and now you skated, and then was it just
street skating or did youtransition into ramps and stuff
like that with skate, with theinlines, or bro, when when we
started rollerblading wasrollerblading.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now it's fun because which is pretty cool you have
different wheels, differentframes, different blah,
different everything is soprofessional.
Back in the day you have like apair of whatever skates fitness
skates or whatever you want tocall it.
Yeah, and we were doingeverything.
Like same day I was doinghockey game, then I was jumping
the stairs, then I was trying togrind, then I was doing
(06:22):
downhill and then I was going tothe rhymes.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That's, that's one of my regular days back in the day
, and was that all in the samepair of skates?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, all the same, of course, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And now it's like you've got skates for speed
skating, you've got skates forartistic, you've got slalom
skates, you've got wizard skatesand you can even put together
your own skates, and a lot ofpeople do that.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Do you put together your own skates now?
Well, yeah, exactly.
Look how it was even back inthe day.
So we were kind of at thebeginning of everything.
So there were no grinds, it wasso pure and so beautiful too,
because we were discovering alot of things while we were
trying and killing ourselves.
So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Now, what year did you start skating?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
because I started skating in 88 so I was kind of
there at the beginning too.
So so I I start.
I will say it's like all inrollerblading on 92, end of 92
okay.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So yeah, just still in the beginning stages, back
when chris edwards was on teamrollerblade and doing x games
and um and remember.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Remember.
This is really importantbecause sometimes I talk with
some american friends and theywill say, no, but we were
already grinding and all that,yeah, could be, but remember, we
were overseas on the 90s yeahoverseas on the 90s.
No social media, no dvds, nointernet at all.
So we had to wait until someonebought a video of the first.
(08:00):
You know grinds chris edwardsdoing the first I can.
I can't remember which was.
Which one was the first video,but anyways.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, chris Edwards was actually my first guest on
the podcast, really.
So episode number one has Chrison it Could have been a
different way.
It was just a cool era to start.
Then you had movies likeAirborne and all that kind of
stuff that came out, and ChrisEdwards was in that.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
And just to be able to, when you talk about
rollerblading and you talk aboutthe beginnings, you got to talk
about Chris, like I'm, I'mskating because of Chris and you
know, but especially especiallyChris for me changed my mind
about rollerblading, changedeverything.
Like it was amazing how he wasskating back in the day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, and he's still in the skating good yeah, and
you're still skating and I'mstill skating, and we started
way back in the day, so it'sit's cool to see how even we've
evolved with skating too.
So now do you do competitions,or did you do competitions in
the past?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I know you're an event planner and and set
competitions, or uh yeah, I'vebeen competing a lot, even if
wasn't my probably my passion,to be honest, but I I like it
too.
I like it.
I did a lot of competition, alot of exams, a lot of whatever
you know like asa pro tour.
Yeah, I have a good memories.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
The best part of the memories is the friends that I
made during the tours absolutely, because I mean the skate
culture, we kind of cometogether and it's a it's a small
but very tight community.
It's like we really unlike someother things I've been involved
with that you don't have theenemies like you normally would,
so it makes it so what's theskate culture like in spain?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
it's.
It's cool.
It's cool it was.
It was a little bit roughbefore, to be honest, but now
it's way better.
Now.
The skate culture that we haveit's more open.
Back in the day was a littlebit more close, like if you were
doing a street.
You were like a street and yougotta be that look of a streeter
, like smoking weed and blah,blah, blah and, and you know it
(10:14):
was more, more like that andnowadays is way different.
Everyone is more like you cando whatever you want and you're.
If if you don't skate thestreet but one day you want to
hang out with the guys, you arewelcome.
If you're gonna skatetransition and you wanna you
want to hang out with the guys,you are welcome.
If you're in a skate transitionand you want to come to any
skate park, you are welcome.
Right now, at least under myopinion, it's way more healthier
(10:36):
than before in Spain.
I like it way better.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, because even for a long time here in the
States, skating in the streetswas kind of like you were a
troublemaker or whatever.
And now they've got skate parksand they've got.
They've got actual places wherepeople can go, and I've even
seen videos of cops jumping onskateboards and hitting the
skate park too.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
So yeah, I like it.
So what I like from now is thatit's more similar.
When I started back in the 90s,like it was more the skaters in
spain they skate almosteverything kind of they like to
skate everything.
The youngest skaters in Spainthey skate almost everything
kind of they like to skateeverything.
The younger skaters they can goand do a handrail but they also
can hit the halfpipe, which forme is pretty amazing, because
(11:18):
that's how I grew up.
That's what it means to me,rollerblading Like of course,
when you are getting olderthere's something that you like
better, but at the beginning yougot to be open and try
everything, right?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So that's how the skating is seen right now in
Spain, and I'm in love.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
By the way, I live in Las Vegas, though.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Oh, you live in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, right now I'm in Spain, but my home is in Las
Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay, so yeah, and I know the skating community is
getting really big there too.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh man, I don't know, honestly, it's the best skating
scene I ever met, like in LasVegas.
It's crazy, because they arenot only a pretty good amount of
skaters, they are superorganized, like they do a lot of
things together.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and I'm just a few hundred miles away from you,
near Denver, colorado, and theskating is just how many rinks
we have here.
You could always find a nightto go skating if you're an adult
, without having to deal withkids.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, that's awesome man, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So how long have you been in Las Vegas then?
So you're originally from Spainand then moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah, I'm from Spain.
I was doing my whole careerliving in Spain.
I always had indoor skate bars,my show company, as I said, but
at some point I was prettystressed out.
I was doing a lot of projects.
Maybe they were a little bittoo big for me.
I didn't know how to manage abigger company.
So, long story short, theyoffered me a contract in a show
(12:53):
in Las Vegas, in a single-personshow, and I thought it was
perfect for my mental health.
So I took it.
I took it only for a year.
I just wanted to detox from thestress, and it's been over nine
years that I'm living there.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Nice.
Now, what was the show?
Because I know, uh, I had someof the the crew that won roller
jam, uh, the honor roll skatecrew yeah, no, no, no, tony from
that show is doing a show invegas now too yeah, no, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I was in a Cirque du Soleil show, the.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Beat of.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Slums Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
At the Mirage Hotel.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Nice.
That had to be pretty fun,because Cirque du Soleil I can
never pronounce it right is anamazing, just an amazing show,
so that had to be really fun foryou.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it was.
It was pretty cool.
It was a beautiful ride.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So now, when you're going through, like just to get
your mind right and everythinglike, did you stop skating at
that time, or was skating youryour kind of mental health
therapy?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, always skating.
I love skating a lot of.
Whoever who knows me, they knowthat I need to skate every day.
I really like it.
And it's not only that I like,it is my therapy.
It's been always my therapy.
When I'm in trouble, when I'mhaving problems, it's the best
thing that I can do.
And, of course, the reason whyI moved to Las Vegas is because
(14:21):
I was thinking that I would havemore time to skate Because the
job was a skating job.
I got a skating position, sonot taking care of all the
business that I had in spaingive me more free time to skate.
So that's what I took it.
It wasn't a it wasn't a moneysituation, it wasn't not not
like that.
It was more like I want toskate more hours.
(14:43):
I think it's going to be betterfor my mental health and it
helped it helped definitely.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I've noticed a lot with a lot of my past guests
that skating always seems to besome of the best mental therapy
that you can do.
Not only is it good mentallybut it's also good physically
because it kind of keeps you inshape.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
I think they go together.
You know, Like, when youexercise, I think you give to
the body some chemistry, youknow some gimmicks.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I don't know, it helps.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So now are you just visiting back in Spain?
Are you back there for a while?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, I was visiting, but I keep staying a little bit
longer.
I keep staying a little bitlonger.
So all together it's going tobe a good couple of months, but
I'm going to be in Vegas prettysoon though.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, now that you're back in spain for visiting, are
you teaching any of the newkids uh, young kids some new
tricks?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
yeah, I was.
I I always had the indoor skateparks in spain, as I said, and
even while I was in vegas, I hadmy indoor skate park here in
spain and a school and actuallybecome one of the biggest
schools I will say in the world.
We have an amazing kids here,like they just won the world
championship.
One of the kids, though in twodifferent disciplines a skate
(16:01):
park and park sorry, escape park, a park on a street and another
, the on, where they got third.
Another girl got third from myschool.
So I have a huge school here inLas Vegas in Spain.
It's called Secret Spot.
Okay, secret Spot on Instagram.
So, answering your question,yes, I'm always teaching.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I love it.
Nice Now, are you like, have itas a business that you're
teaching, or you just do it outof the kindness of your heart?
No, have it as a business thatyou're teaching, or you just do
it out of the kindness of yourheart.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, no, I mean, it wouldn't be fair if I say that
I'll do it just for my hair,because they have to pay.
But the money that they pay hasnever been because the rent is
expensive.
We have a warehouse, so rightnow at least, I'm not losing
money.
Back in the day, for the firstyears, I was losing money.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Okay so it's kind of cool that you can take your
passion and actually turn itinto a business.
So a lot of people say you know, take your passion, turn it
into a business.
But some of the businesses Isee people do, it's like I don't
really see how you can bepassionate about something like
you know.
Well, okay, demolition, I cansee blowing up stuff, that's one
(17:16):
thing.
But like construction andbuilding houses, I mean I can
see enjoying it, but I can neverbe passionate about it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I get lazy sometimes it has to be hard, man.
The only thing about about oursport is really hard to make a
living because the numbers arenot quite there on the market.
But, I never took it like thatman.
I think Royal Breeding saved mylife.
I think it gave me so much thatI will never pay back.
(17:44):
So I always thought that how Icould contribute to the Royal
Breeding War is to put myknowledge, my rams, my indoor
skate parks, on the on the on,on the need of other skaters,
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
So that's what I'm doing, that's awesome.
So now, when you go back toVegas, like when you plan on
coming back, because I'm gonnaeventually make it out there, at
least next football season.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So definitely would love to meet up with you, man
that would be great.
Yeah, so I have.
I have also on my backyard onmy house there in vegas.
I have a huge ramp.
Okay, a smaller street park, Iwill say a box ledge.
I don't always try to also getsome kids there and and skate
(18:31):
with them, teach them a littlebit, so I'm always involved when
doing something very cool and Iknow like usher's got a roller
rink there and it's like a bunchof different people have roller
rinks right in vegas too.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So yeah, but I heard his.
Have you been to his rink yet?
No, I haven't.
I heard it's kind of small andexpensive to get into.
So to me that just kind oftakes the fun out of it.
I mean I don't need to skatesomewhere just because someone
famous owns it.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Well, you have a couple of famous people owning
the rings there, because youhave also Mayweather, you know
the boxer.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And, of course, the one that you are talking about,
but that one man, of course, theone that you are talking about,
but that one man it's.
Of course it's expensive, it'son the street, it's in a you
know, in a location that, butyeah, there's many others that
you can go inexpensive.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's true.
So now do you hit the rinksthere too, or is it just like
skate parks in your ramp?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
No man.
At the beginning I was so intotrying to get the time back on
the ramp that I bought.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
You know the the ramp that I put on my house, that I
was.
I was obsessed.
I was skating every single dayas much as I could on that ramp.
And when, after a couple ofyears, I was like now it's time
for me to get out on escape bars, rings and I got the injury
pretty bad, which I've beendealing the last three years
with injuries.
So I'm not, but yeah, I will, Iwill.
(20:06):
Now I'm starting to feel better.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, we're no spring chickens anymore, but we can
still hold our own.
Exactly so now, who was some ofyour biggest influences?
I know we talked about ChrisEdwards earlier.
Who was some of your biggestinfluences in skating?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
So when I was younger , I would say Chris and Arlo.
When I was younger, I would sayChris and Arlo.
Okay, and later on I think thebiggest and probably one of my
best friends on skating and allthat is Cesar Mora.
Okay, very cool Cesar Mora.
If you have the opportunity andyou have the time, do a podcast
(20:44):
with him, because he's a greatguy.
He has so many stories.
He's a, he has, he's a prettygood.
Uh, he is an amazing humanbeing.
You're gonna enjoy a lottalking to him very cool.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And now some of the other follow-up questions I like
are what is your uh setup now,like boots, bearings, wheels,
frame?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
so, yeah, look, that's pretty interesting too,
because, as I said, my firstrollerblades, my flits, my first
blades always were rollerblades, right yeah and since then I've
been skating on rollerblades.
So I tried uh, I tried a coupleof other different brands, but
skating like daily skating I'vebeen always on Rollerblade brand
(21:32):
.
So right now I'm skatingRollerblade blanks with solar
frames and famous wheels.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay, very cool.
And now what is some advicethat you have to give to this
younger generation?
Because even from the time youand I started, we've seen this
sport evolve so much, and thenice thing about aggressive
skating is that it evolves.
It's like it's not like speedskating or hockey, where you
(22:04):
have rules that you have tofollow with skating, figure
skating, skating, artisticskating, aggressive skating,
freestyle Things are beinginvented as tricks, new tricks
all the time, so it's kind ofgiving the advice.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
You are kind of giving the advice that I'm
giving Like be you, Don't try.
So what I tell to the kids it'sdon't try to be cool, Try to be
you and have fun.
Because sometimes you look allthose Instagrams, especially now
, and you want to be like them.
You want to be like what yousee the most street skating
ledges and you want to be likethem, having the same style, the
(22:41):
same tricks.
No man, Think out of the box,Try crazy things.
Be you, Be whatever.
You like to do flips, do flips.
You like to do flips, do flips.
You like to do transitions, dotransitions.
Don't try to be one shape moreof the group.
You know Like get outside, Doyour thing.
(23:01):
That's the advice that I give.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
That works Now.
How can my listeners follow you?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Instagram.
I'm trying to be on Instagrampretty active right now, so my
Instagram is Nel Martin N-E-LMartin.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
And then I will post that link in the show notes so
people can click on it.
So well, I appreciate youcoming on the show today.
Thank you for the time amigo.
And definitely, and Idefinitely look forward to
hooking up with you when I'm inVegas, oh yeah, I was waiting
for you.
All right, brother, have a goodday, take care.
Bye-bye, Bye, thank you.
(23:41):
Thank you, we'll see you nexttime.
Hey there, Welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate
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(00:30):
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So sit back, relax and getready for an exciting journey
into the world of skating.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you
Skate.
I'm your host, sean Egan, andmy guest today is Nell Martin,
and he is out of Spain, so he'smy first person from Spain I've
had other international people,but no one from Spain yet.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So you're my first, and welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Hello, I'm happy to be here.
So now, how old were you whenyou started skating?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Where did your whole skating start.
Yeah, when I startedrollerblading I was about 13
years old.
I would say.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, and was it just you got your first pair of
skates or was it?
Because it's always, the storyis behind.
So it's like what made youstart, what made you decide?
What was the?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, honestly, being really honest, I was a
skateboarder, I was a skater.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And in Spain, for some reason, you couldn't buy
any more boards Like askateboard, was that and all my
friends become rollerbladers andat some point I was like, no, I
want to keep skating, I likeskateboarding.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
But I couldn't get another war.
My world was dying.
So we have in christmas inspain as a tradition, we have
(01:58):
something that is called thethree kings.
Three kings and those kingsbring presents to the kids right
in christmas.
So one of my, one of mypresents, was a pair of
rollerblades, and actually fromthe rollerblade brand, and then
once I tried them, I never, Inever stopped.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That was the thing I found the gold yeah so how old
were you when you startedskateboarding?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So I can't remember exactly Probably, I was probably
, I would say, around nine, nineyears old when I started
skateboarding.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So why did they stop selling skateboards?
Was it just like did?
They outlaw it or.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, not really Just the industry of
the skateboarding.
Now we all know the industry ispretty huge.
The skateboarding industry isis massive, but back in the day
was pretty pretty, so it has ithad like a big, fast grown and
then kind of died, at least ineurope, even in usa, because big
, big names.
(03:01):
I remember when I started rowRiding when I was, when I become
pro a lot of the pro big names,like I was doing shows with
Tony Hawk and nobody knew.
Tony and almost nobody knew inTony Hawk back in the day.
You know what I'm saying.
Like it was just one.
I don't know how to say thiswithout getting no one offended,
but so we were doing the showand he was joining our
(03:24):
rollerblading show.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Okay, Does that make sense?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So it kind of.
Actually he has a really goodbook where he's talking about
his life and it talks about thatLike he was surviving, doing
show for rollerbladers and alsodoing video camera for surfing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So anyways, long story short, sure, skateboarding
kind of died okay, and then,like no manufacturers kept
selling there, they just kind ofall pulled out of spain yeah,
exactly, I think.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, no one shop.
No shops were interested inselling skateboards anymore in
spain, not in many shops inspain.
I'm sure you still could find ashop, but I was living in a
small village, I was a kid, so Icouldn't go to Barcelona city.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So it was.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was hard.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So now has skateboarding come back at all
in Spain.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah, skateboarding hasprobably.
You know it's massive, it waspretty huge, especially the last
15 years, all over the world.
So skateboarding, even if nowit's a little bit slower, it was
huge in Spain as well too.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And so you transitioned from skateboarding
to rollerblading and you kind ofhaven't turned back since, or
do you still pick up the boardevery once in a while?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, no, no, I mean yeah, it was a long time ago
when I was training, I would say, or skating more hours than I'm
doing right now.
I was warming up a little bitwith skateboarding.
I like skateboarding Also.
I had my own events andmarketing company here in Spain
(04:55):
and I was always taking care ofall the action sports, all urban
sports skateboarding,rollerblading, snakeboarding,
bmx, breakdancing so I like allthe urban culture sports.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, that's very cool.
Now, with the rollerblading,how long before you got into so
you basically started skatingand did you have pretty good
balance because of yourskateboarding background or did
it transfer over pretty easily?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I think so I was pretty good on every single
sport that I was trying.
So I was decent onskateboarding, and as soon as I
got my rollerblades on, I wasdoing pretty okay too and I
progressed really fast.
My progression at the beginningwas really really fast, so I
got super excited about it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Nice, and now you skated, and then was it just
street skating or did youtransition into ramps and stuff
like that with skate, with theinlines, or bro, when when we
started rollerblading wasrollerblading.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now it's fun because which is pretty cool you have
different wheels, differentframes, different blah,
different everything is soprofessional.
Back in the day you have like apair of whatever skates fitness
skates or whatever you want tocall it.
Yeah, and we were doingeverything.
Like same day I was doinghockey game, then I was jumping
the stairs, then I was trying togrind, then I was doing
(06:22):
downhill and then I was going tothe rhymes.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That's, that's one of my regular days back in the day
, and was that all in the samepair of skates?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, all the same, of course, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And now it's like you've got skates for speed
skating, you've got skates forartistic, you've got slalom
skates, you've got wizard skatesand you can even put together
your own skates, and a lot ofpeople do that.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Do you put together your own skates now?
Well, yeah, exactly.
Look how it was even back inthe day.
So we were kind of at thebeginning of everything.
So there were no grinds, it wasso pure and so beautiful too,
because we were discovering alot of things while we were
trying and killing ourselves.
So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Now, what year did you start skating?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
because I started skating in 88 so I was kind of
there at the beginning too.
So so I I start.
I will say it's like all inrollerblading on 92, end of 92
okay.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So yeah, just still in the beginning stages, back
when chris edwards was on teamrollerblade and doing x games
and um and remember.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Remember.
This is really importantbecause sometimes I talk with
some american friends and theywill say, no, but we were
already grinding and all that,yeah, could be, but remember, we
were overseas on the 90s yeahoverseas on the 90s.
No social media, no dvds, nointernet at all.
So we had to wait until someonebought a video of the first.
(08:00):
You know grinds chris edwardsdoing the first I can.
I can't remember which was.
Which one was the first video,but anyways.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, chris Edwards was actually my first guest on
the podcast, really.
So episode number one has Chrison it Could have been a
different way.
It was just a cool era to start.
Then you had movies likeAirborne and all that kind of
stuff that came out, and ChrisEdwards was in that.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
And just to be able to, when you talk about
rollerblading and you talk aboutthe beginnings, you got to talk
about Chris, like I'm, I'mskating because of Chris and you
know, but especially especiallyChris for me changed my mind
about rollerblading, changedeverything.
Like it was amazing how he wasskating back in the day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, and he's still in the skating good yeah, and
you're still skating and I'mstill skating, and we started
way back in the day, so it'sit's cool to see how even we've
evolved with skating too.
So now do you do competitions,or did you do competitions in
the past?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I know you're an event planner and and set
competitions, or uh yeah, I'vebeen competing a lot, even if
wasn't my probably my passion,to be honest, but I I like it
too.
I like it.
I did a lot of competition, alot of exams, a lot of whatever
you know like asa pro tour.
Yeah, I have a good memories.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
The best part of the memories is the friends that I
made during the tours absolutely, because I mean the skate
culture, we kind of cometogether and it's a it's a small
but very tight community.
It's like we really unlike someother things I've been involved
with that you don't have theenemies like you normally would,
so it makes it so what's theskate culture like in spain?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
it's.
It's cool.
It's cool it was.
It was a little bit roughbefore, to be honest, but now
it's way better.
Now.
The skate culture that we haveit's more open.
Back in the day was a littlebit more close, like if you were
doing a street.
You were like a street and yougotta be that look of a streeter
, like smoking weed and blah,blah, blah and, and you know it
(10:14):
was more, more like that andnowadays is way different.
Everyone is more like you cando whatever you want and you're.
If if you don't skate thestreet but one day you want to
hang out with the guys, you arewelcome.
If you're gonna skatetransition and you wanna you
want to hang out with the guys,you are welcome.
If you're in a skate transitionand you want to come to any
skate park, you are welcome.
Right now, at least under myopinion, it's way more healthier
(10:36):
than before in Spain.
I like it way better.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, because even for a long time here in the
States, skating in the streetswas kind of like you were a
troublemaker or whatever.
And now they've got skate parksand they've got.
They've got actual places wherepeople can go, and I've even
seen videos of cops jumping onskateboards and hitting the
skate park too.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
So yeah, I like it.
So what I like from now is thatit's more similar.
When I started back in the 90s,like it was more the skaters in
spain they skate almosteverything kind of they like to
skate everything.
The youngest skaters in Spainthey skate almost everything
kind of they like to skateeverything.
The younger skaters they can goand do a handrail but they also
can hit the halfpipe, which forme is pretty amazing, because
(11:18):
that's how I grew up.
That's what it means to me,rollerblading Like of course,
when you are getting olderthere's something that you like
better, but at the beginning yougot to be open and try
everything, right?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So that's how the skating is seen right now in
Spain, and I'm in love.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
By the way, I live in Las Vegas, though.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Oh, you live in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, right now I'm in Spain, but my home is in Las
Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay, so yeah, and I know the skating community is
getting really big there too.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh man, I don't know, honestly, it's the best skating
scene I ever met, like in LasVegas.
It's crazy, because they arenot only a pretty good amount of
skaters, they are superorganized, like they do a lot of
things together.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and I'm just a few hundred miles away from you,
near Denver, colorado, and theskating is just how many rinks
we have here.
You could always find a nightto go skating if you're an adult
, without having to deal withkids.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, that's awesome man, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
So how long have you been in Las Vegas then?
So you're originally from Spainand then moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah, I'm from Spain.
I was doing my whole careerliving in Spain.
I always had indoor skate bars,my show company, as I said, but
at some point I was prettystressed out.
I was doing a lot of projects.
Maybe they were a little bittoo big for me.
I didn't know how to manage abigger company.
So, long story short, theyoffered me a contract in a show
(12:53):
in Las Vegas, in a single-personshow, and I thought it was
perfect for my mental health.
So I took it.
I took it only for a year.
I just wanted to detox from thestress, and it's been over nine
years that I'm living there.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Nice.
Now, what was the show?
Because I know, uh, I had someof the the crew that won roller
jam, uh, the honor roll skatecrew yeah, no, no, no, tony from
that show is doing a show invegas now too yeah, no, I was.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
I was in a Cirque du Soleil show, the.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Beat of.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Slums Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
At the Mirage Hotel.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Nice.
That had to be pretty fun,because Cirque du Soleil I can
never pronounce it right is anamazing, just an amazing show,
so that had to be really fun foryou.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it was.
It was pretty cool.
It was a beautiful ride.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So now, when you're going through, like just to get
your mind right and everythinglike, did you stop skating at
that time, or was skating youryour kind of mental health
therapy?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, always skating.
I love skating a lot of.
Whoever who knows me, they knowthat I need to skate every day.
I really like it.
And it's not only that I like,it is my therapy.
It's been always my therapy.
When I'm in trouble, when I'mhaving problems, it's the best
thing that I can do.
And, of course, the reason whyI moved to Las Vegas is because
(14:21):
I was thinking that I would havemore time to skate Because the
job was a skating job.
I got a skating position, sonot taking care of all the
business that I had in spaingive me more free time to skate.
So that's what I took it.
It wasn't a it wasn't a moneysituation, it wasn't not not
like that.
It was more like I want toskate more hours.
(14:43):
I think it's going to be betterfor my mental health and it
helped it helped definitely.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I've noticed a lot with a lot of my past guests
that skating always seems to besome of the best mental therapy
that you can do.
Not only is it good mentallybut it's also good physically
because it kind of keeps you inshape.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
I think they go together.
You know, Like, when youexercise, I think you give to
the body some chemistry, youknow some gimmicks.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I don't know, it helps.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So now are you just visiting back in Spain?
Are you back there for a while?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, I was visiting, but I keep staying a little bit
longer.
I keep staying a little bitlonger.
So all together it's going tobe a good couple of months, but
I'm going to be in Vegas prettysoon though.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay, now that you're back in spain for visiting, are
you teaching any of the newkids uh, young kids some new
tricks?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
yeah, I was.
I I always had the indoor skateparks in spain, as I said, and
even while I was in vegas, I hadmy indoor skate park here in
spain and a school and actuallybecome one of the biggest
schools I will say in the world.
We have an amazing kids here,like they just won the world
championship.
One of the kids, though in twodifferent disciplines a skate
(16:01):
park and park sorry, escape park, a park on a street and another
, the on, where they got third.
Another girl got third from myschool.
So I have a huge school here inLas Vegas in Spain.
It's called Secret Spot.
Okay, secret Spot on Instagram.
So, answering your question,yes, I'm always teaching.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I love it.
Nice Now, are you like, have itas a business that you're
teaching, or you just do it outof the kindness of your heart?
No, have it as a business thatyou're teaching, or you just do
it out of the kindness of yourheart.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, no, I mean, it wouldn't be fair if I say that
I'll do it just for my hair,because they have to pay.
But the money that they pay hasnever been because the rent is
expensive.
We have a warehouse, so rightnow at least, I'm not losing
money.
Back in the day, for the firstyears, I was losing money.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Okay so it's kind of cool that you can take your
passion and actually turn itinto a business.
So a lot of people say you know, take your passion, turn it
into a business.
But some of the businesses Isee people do, it's like I don't
really see how you can bepassionate about something like
you know.
Well, okay, demolition, I cansee blowing up stuff, that's one
(17:16):
thing.
But like construction andbuilding houses, I mean I can
see enjoying it, but I can neverbe passionate about it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I get lazy sometimes it has to be hard, man.
The only thing about about oursport is really hard to make a
living because the numbers arenot quite there on the market.
But, I never took it like thatman.
I think Royal Breeding saved mylife.
I think it gave me so much thatI will never pay back.
(17:44):
So I always thought that how Icould contribute to the Royal
Breeding War is to put myknowledge, my rams, my indoor
skate parks, on the on the on,on the need of other skaters,
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
So that's what I'm doing, that's awesome.
So now, when you go back toVegas, like when you plan on
coming back, because I'm gonnaeventually make it out there, at
least next football season.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
So definitely would love to meet up with you, man
that would be great.
Yeah, so I have.
I have also on my backyard onmy house there in vegas.
I have a huge ramp.
Okay, a smaller street park, Iwill say a box ledge.
I don't always try to also getsome kids there and and skate
(18:31):
with them, teach them a littlebit, so I'm always involved when
doing something very cool and Iknow like usher's got a roller
rink there and it's like a bunchof different people have roller
rinks right in vegas too.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So yeah, but I heard his.
Have you been to his rink yet?
No, I haven't.
I heard it's kind of small andexpensive to get into.
So to me that just kind oftakes the fun out of it.
I mean I don't need to skatesomewhere just because someone
famous owns it.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Well, you have a couple of famous people owning
the rings there, because youhave also Mayweather, you know
the boxer.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And, of course, the one that you are talking about,
but that one man, of course, theone that you are talking about,
but that one man it's.
Of course it's expensive, it'son the street, it's in a you
know, in a location that, butyeah, there's many others that
you can go inexpensive.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's true.
So now do you hit the rinksthere too, or is it just like
skate parks in your ramp?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
No man.
At the beginning I was so intotrying to get the time back on
the ramp that I bought.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
You know the the ramp that I put on my house, that I
was.
I was obsessed.
I was skating every single dayas much as I could on that ramp.
And when, after a couple ofyears, I was like now it's time
for me to get out on escape bars, rings and I got the injury
pretty bad, which I've beendealing the last three years
with injuries.
So I'm not, but yeah, I will, Iwill.
(20:06):
Now I'm starting to feel better.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, we're no spring chickens anymore, but we can
still hold our own.
Exactly so now, who was some ofyour biggest influences?
I know we talked about ChrisEdwards earlier.
Who was some of your biggestinfluences in skating?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
So when I was younger , I would say Chris and Arlo.
When I was younger, I would sayChris and Arlo.
Okay, and later on I think thebiggest and probably one of my
best friends on skating and allthat is Cesar Mora.
Okay, very cool Cesar Mora.
If you have the opportunity andyou have the time, do a podcast
(20:44):
with him, because he's a greatguy.
He has so many stories.
He's a, he has, he's a prettygood.
Uh, he is an amazing humanbeing.
You're gonna enjoy a lottalking to him very cool.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And now some of the other follow-up questions I like
are what is your uh setup now,like boots, bearings, wheels,
frame?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
so, yeah, look, that's pretty interesting too,
because, as I said, my firstrollerblades, my flits, my first
blades always were rollerblades, right yeah and since then I've
been skating on rollerblades.
So I tried uh, I tried a coupleof other different brands, but
skating like daily skating I'vebeen always on Rollerblade brand
(21:32):
.
So right now I'm skatingRollerblade blanks with solar
frames and famous wheels.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay, very cool.
And now what is some advicethat you have to give to this
younger generation?
Because even from the time youand I started, we've seen this
sport evolve so much, and thenice thing about aggressive
skating is that it evolves.
It's like it's not like speedskating or hockey, where you
(22:04):
have rules that you have tofollow with skating, figure
skating, skating, artisticskating, aggressive skating,
freestyle Things are beinginvented as tricks, new tricks
all the time, so it's kind ofgiving the advice.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
You are kind of giving the advice that I'm
giving Like be you, Don't try.
So what I tell to the kids it'sdon't try to be cool, Try to be
you and have fun.
Because sometimes you look allthose Instagrams, especially now
, and you want to be like them.
You want to be like what yousee the most street skating
ledges and you want to be likethem, having the same style, the
(22:41):
same tricks.
No man, Think out of the box,Try crazy things.
Be you, Be whatever.
You like to do flips, do flips.
You like to do flips, do flips.
You like to do transitions, dotransitions.
Don't try to be one shape moreof the group.
You know Like get outside, Doyour thing.
(23:01):
That's the advice that I give.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
That works Now.
How can my listeners follow you?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Instagram.
I'm trying to be on Instagrampretty active right now, so my
Instagram is Nel Martin N-E-LMartin.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
And then I will post that link in the show notes so
people can click on it.
So well, I appreciate youcoming on the show today.
Thank you for the time amigo.
And definitely, and Idefinitely look forward to
hooking up with you when I'm inVegas, oh yeah, I was waiting
for you.
All right, brother, have a goodday, take care.
Bye-bye, Bye, thank you.
(23:41):
Thank you, we'll see you nexttime.
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