February 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Gabby Silva's roller skating journey started at an unexpected point in life, captivating her well into her thirties. Inspired by mesmerizing videos of skaters dancing, Gabby strapped on her first pair of skates at 36 and headed straight for lessons. Her initial steps quickly turned into leaps and bounds as she navigated the skate park scene, overcoming fears and mastering thrilling tricks. Gabby shares her passion for ramps and the exhilarating freedom they bring, emphasizing how preparation and progression paved her path from novice to adept skater.
As Gabby explored skate parks from Switzerland to the US, she found herself in unique spaces combining culture and skating—from indoor mega ramps to skate park-restaurant hybrids. The sense of community shone brightly as she recounted her experiences in competitions, where the spirit of camaraderie celebrates skaters of all ages. Dreams of "skate BnBs" nestled in the mountains spark her imagination, alongside the supportive connections that the skating world nurtures, proving that passion and community go hand in hand.
Outside of skating, Gabby shares her transition to teaching English during the pandemic, blending her love for language and skating in unexpected ways. With a career flourishing alongside her passion for skates, she reflects on the influential skaters, like Jamaline Flower and Estrogen, who shaped her style. Gabby’s journey is a testament to the power of persistence, the joy of community support, and the thrill of pursuing dreams at any stage in life, with upcoming skating events on her horizon promising more excitement and growth.
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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 iceskating or prefer quads and
skateboarding, we have it allcovered, and we bring you
exclusive interviews withprofessionals, talented amateurs
(00:30):
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 am your host, Sean Egan, andmy guest today is Gabby Silva.
So how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Doing great.
Thank you, Sean.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're welcome, so let's start at the beginning.
When did your skating journeystart?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Two years ago, when I was 36.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Okay, and what made you get into skating Like, was
it just something that came up?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Kind of it was a mixture.
I always wanted to skate andever since I'm using social
media I've been getting videosabout things I like.
You know the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And, like two, three years ago, I started watching
videos of girls dancing inskates and like cruising and I
love that.
And I was like, oh, I want todo it one day, I want to do it
one day.
But you know, life happens andyou got to do stuff.
So at some point I had sometime and money and some skates
(01:39):
came into my feed and I was like, oh, my God, those are for me,
I need to buy them now.
And I did like it was theperfect timing and then I
started skating.
I found a roller skating schoolbecause it was kind of
intimidating for me just to goalone at my age, you know I even
(02:00):
though I do feel very fit it'skind of challenging, right.
You remember your skates like ahard thing and you falling when
you were little.
Yeah, because I I did skatewhen I was a kid.
So, yeah, I bought my skates,found the school and I started
skating.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now did you feel once you started skating?
Did you feel the same way thatyou did when you were a kid?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's just kind of having that freedom where you
feel like nothing can stop youkind of, because I was expecting
something else, you know, likea flat ground and the skating
just uh, rolling, just cruising.
But when I got to the school itwas in a skate park and I was
like what are we doing?
(02:42):
What are we supposed to do here?
And I didn't have knee pads oranything.
So it was scary.
It was scary.
I kind of did my best.
I even did a 180 on the run andI was like, wow, I got some
talent.
But I did fall and it hurt.
So it was like, okay, I likethis, but I think I need to be
(03:03):
better prepared for this.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It was something new.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I wasn't expecting that at all.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You weren't expecting to fall.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I wasn't expecting the skating at a skate park.
I never imagined myself doingthat.
I was looking for rollerdancing, yeah you know.
But then I found it and I waslike, wow, I think I like this.
This is kind of cool.
Yeah, it was scary, it wasscary.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Trying anything new is scary, and when I first
started to skate, the guy thattaught me kept knocking me over,
purposely making me fall.
And then you get to that pointwhere you're not afraid to fall,
where it's just part of theprocess, and I think a lot of
people miss fall.
Where it's just part of theprocess, and I think a lot of
people miss that, is thatfalling is part of the process.
But doing ramps, um, I'm prettysure you got your knee pads,
(03:52):
your elbow pads and all thatstuff now, right, yeah, by the
second time I went to theclasses I had knee pads okay,
and I kind of like ask.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It was a an instinctive, an instinctive
question like how do I fallsafely?
Because no one told me I waslike dude, how do I fall safely?
Oh yeah, well, and I kind oflike got it the you know the
technique to fall in on rampsand on the floor yeah and then I
kind of rehearsed a lot.
I I had this image of myself ofI'm a bit too old for this, so I
(04:28):
got to be careful.
Yeah, that changed through time, but at the beginning it was
like that because I was skatingwith teenagers.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I was the only one, my age 30 plus, yeah, so I kind
of asked the logic questionsyeah, how do I fall safely?
What is the progression on this?
How can I get there safely?
Because I totally fell in lovewith it.
I wanted to jump, I wanted todo the hardest tricks, but I
(04:57):
knew in my mind to get there youneed a progression.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
How do I get there?
And yeah, so I got prepared.
Yeah, from the second class.
I kind of like whoa.
I feel like I'm very fast andthat helped me also.
Yeah learning.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So now do they start you off, kind of like getting
the basics down before theythrew you on the ramp, or did
you just go straight to the ramp?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I went straight to the ramp because I was good, you
know.
I put on my skates and I couldalready roll, uh, front or how
you say that, forward, forward,backwards, like turn.
I could do 180, I could jumplike I.
I started from the verybeginning but I could do all of
(05:43):
that in the first class.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I dare yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So you're a natural.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yes, yes, yes, I think so.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's kind of cool.
So now it's like you're mostlyramps and pools and whatever
else you can find that has aslant or some kind of ramp.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yes, I'm more of the skate part.
I like streets, but I find thema bit challenging and dangerous
.
I like ramps better.
Yes, yes, I like jumping anddoing the big airs, although I
can still do big, big airs.
I can do some air.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Nice, some air, nice.
Now.
I know with a lot of the peoplethat I follow on social media
that skating is huge in columbia.
So and I know the speed skatingscene is really big how is the
what would you call itaggressive skating scene?
How is that down there?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
well, we have yes, it is huge, especially in medellin
.
It's a very sporty city.
We have sports centers that areamazing.
Uh, we have two scenes, theaggressive ones we call them
inliners aggressive and then wehave the roller skaters.
I'm part of the second one and,uh, the aggressive ones, a lot
(07:03):
of amazing people like real pros.
I've seen some incredible stuffI can share and I don't know if
they are champions of anything,but they are really good.
You can find a lot of peoplethat is really good and I can
send some videos so you can seethe caliber.
(07:24):
The caliber we say oh, oh, mygod.
The other day I saw like thishuge transfer.
The guy flew literally.
He said he did like in a bowl.
He just went from one side tothe.
I was like, oh my god.
But the roller skating sceneit's, uh, mostly girls, mostly
girls, and there are a lot ofgirls, a lot of good ones.
(07:48):
Uh, last year there was afestival at milano, okay, in
italy, and a couple ofcolombians went there and, yeah,
it was uh, we were very proud,it was very popular.
In here we did a projection andeverything.
So we have events, competitions.
We even painted a ball pink.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
To make it a female space because, yeah, sometimes
it's a very masculine space andwe want to skate, we want to be
there too.
So, yeah, we did that thing andtogether we raised money to
paint the ball and nice did ahuge event competitions um gifts
for the girls, yeah okay, Ihave won myself some stuff, some
(08:35):
knee pads which are important.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Okay, sorry about that.
You might need to pour somecoffee into your internet, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
It pisses me off because I recently paid for a
better plan.
It doesn't happen often, and ithappened to me yesterday with a
student and I was like oh myGod, I'm so embarrassed Now you
said it with a student.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Do you teach, then?
Yes, I teach Spanish.
Okay, yeah, I might beconnecting with you on that one
to learn more too, sure?
Sure, even the girlfriends.
He only, uh, speaks a littlebit of spanish, so okay, sure,
yeah, I can teach you too thatway I can show her up oh nice,
(09:23):
yeah, you can show off like holami amor.
Yeah, you can show up like holami amor, and I'm not even going
to tell her.
It's like the shooting rangethey said don't tell her that
you're learning to shoot.
So when you go for the firsttime you look like you're just a
natural and I'm like that'llwork.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, and you can also understand what she's
saying.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I was like, really I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
But now she's going to know when she listens to the
episode.
So now with the Italy, did youend up going to Italy?
Or you just said some peopleit's in your future plans though
isn't it Of course it's in yourfuture plans though, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Of course you know I saw I got to see a lot of skate
parks because one of the girlsdid go.
She raised funds to go and sheshowed us all the journey and
she, she went to Spain andFrance, Switzerland and Italy
(10:25):
Okay, and things that areamazing skate parks, amazing
skate parks.
In Switzerland, there is thishuge skate park, indoors skate
park that has mega ramps and haslike a huge bed so you can fly,
you can go, like, do this stuff, and yes, so good, yes, so good
(10:47):
, but I couldn't go.
Yeah, but I watch everythingand and, together with the
school, we organized aprojection, a screening, okay
and we saw it on a restaurant.
That is also a skate park, sowe saw the screening and started
skating you have a restaurantthat's actually a skate park
that, yeah, a restaurant thathas a skate park that's awesome
(11:11):
it is, it is.
But you know, on in unitedstates you have air bmbs that
are that have skate parks, sothey are called skate bmbs uh, I
did not know that either.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I learned something, I so want one.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I so want one here.
It would be amazing, like inthe mountains, having a huge
cabin or mansion With a skatepark and a pool.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Just a cabin with a skate park in the back.
You don't need a lot of living.
You need a kitchen, you need aTV and you need a bed.
That's all you need and ashower.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We have one.
We actually have one like that,but it's an hour and a half
away, so I want one closer tothe city and with a pool.
Yeah, we need the pool becausesometimes it's very hot, so you
start skating.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You can have a bunch and then you go back.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
There you go, future business plans for you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, yeah.
So anyone that wants to sponsor, here I am.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We gotta get mvs in columbia we gotta get our word
out somehow yes so now yourprogression.
And you said you've donecompetitions and won some yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, I participated in a an event.
It was like a roller skatinggame, you know, you have to do a
trick, the other one has to doit, and like that, uh so kind of
like a trick battle yeah, yeahit was crazy because I I
competed against a very pro girlbut, she couldn't do one trick
(12:48):
I did, so I stuck with thattrick, the fakie stall and
variations, yeah, and she waslike how come you can do that
and you're beating me?
Then she did like supercomplicated tricks and won.
It was a good event, a goodparticipation, yeah.
(13:09):
The second one was indeed acompetition and we divided it in
levels and I went inintermediate and, yeah, I
rehearsed like for two weeks theline because I couldn't do a
complete line at the ball.
The ball is the hardest thingfor me.
Balls, rams I'm good, but theball is kind of like challenging
(13:32):
.
So I put together a line.
And yeah, they were surprisedLike wow, you could do that.
Oh God, yeah, I did.
Like a handstand drop in, butyou know not the dead drop.
Yeah, yeah, they were like wow,nobody did that the handstand
(13:53):
drop in.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Nice Now with your skating.
When you first started at theskate school, you said you were
the oldest and everybody elsewas teenagers.
Did they just welcome you inlike you were one of the guys,
or did they kind of tease youabout being old?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
No, they welcomed me.
Like the rest of them, theynever guessed that I was that
old.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, well, you look pretty young, so.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, they were like, oh, you must be 25 or something
.
I was like, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You're like, yeah, close enough, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No, they treated me like the rest of the girls.
Yeah.
Now is the skating communitypretty supportive of each other
down there.
Yes, yes, very much yes.
Recently we had a girl doing avideo and she did an event and a
screening and everybody went.
We went to support her and sheactually had a piñata for us
(14:53):
with prizes.
I was like, oh, that's so cute,did?
it have like bearings and wheelsand yeah, bearings, wheels,
knee pads, helmet tools thatmust have been a big piñata no
it was she put like papers,papers, oh, okay, yeah, so on
the paper you oh, I want andcandies oh, there we go yeah, no
(15:18):
, we're very supportive.
An example was the ball.
You know we raised money yeahit was like maybe I don't know,
I'm guessing more than onethousand two thousand dollars,
something like that we raisedthat money all together to paint
the ball.
And then we went on thescheduled date and took turns to
paint, and under the sun, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, it's kind of like you have to start with one
side and work your way back toone spot so you can get out of
the pool.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yes, but yeah, the community is pretty supportive
in here.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, that's one thing I've noticed about just
the skating community in generalit doesn't matter where you're
at.
It's kind of like it's thatlanguage.
No matter what language youspeak, if you skate you're
family, so and it just doesn'tmatter.
So I think we break down morebarriers than a lot of other
stuff, because every once in awhile you have a few egos, but
(16:17):
for the most part everybody youknow we're at the roller rink
and we help people that don'tknow how to skate.
We have a thing called flow,flow motion, which is for, like
the jam skaters and my friendwill.
He's pretty good he was acouple episodes ago and he gets
out there and helps people andand learn new stuff about jam
skating and stuff because he'sbeen doing it for a long time.
(16:39):
But it's just amazing how wehave such a awesome community
and you can go anywhere, even byyourself, and still feel
welcome.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yes, totally, I was thinking about that the other
day.
I have people from Japan andTikTok that skates and I know if
I go to Japan I'm going to havepeople to skate with.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Nice.
I've got a few people inEngland because I'm actually
planning on going to germanythis year and doing a race.
So it's it's, you can go toengland.
I know people, uh, germany,columbia now, yes, please.
So it's just, it's just amazingthat I can turn it into a
(17:24):
business, and the nice thing isis I can use it as a tax
write-off.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, and it's going to be a satisfying business.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, exactly, I mean as a pro you don't get paid
like you do in, like the NFL,the NBA or Major League Baseball
out here, but we have longercareers.
Yeah, yeah, I mean like look atTonyk, because he's been doing
it since he was a kid and he's,I think, what 50 right around my
(17:54):
age.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So 52, 53 so still young I'm trying but no, I think
that's a good time to be human,a good stage.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, exactly.
So now, where do you seeyourself taking skating now?
Do you plan on going morecompetitions or turning pro, or
what's your goal?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
I want to become pro.
I want to fly.
As I told you before, I alwayswanted to do those spins in the
air.
I mean ever since I saw itright, because I didn't know
practically it existed until Istarted doing it.
So I really want to get to dothose tricks.
I want to do a good handstand.
I want to do the dead drop.
(18:44):
Maybe I want to do a spin stall.
I know the tricks.
I want to do the dead drop.
Maybe I want to do a spin stall.
I know the tricks I want to do.
So I would like to continue myjourney and at some point become
pro.
But I have a lot of anxiety,like I want to do the tricks
right away.
And it has built patient, yeah,so, yeah, I'm not.
(19:05):
I'm trying not to be in a rush.
Yeah, so I want to take it, uh,as it comes yeah and I would
like to develop more projectsrelated to it.
I had a a project called epicscape which was about taking the
girls on trips roller trips, Icalled it so trips to visit
(19:26):
other skate parks and nature.
Okay, uh.
Yeah, it was very ambitious, soit's kind of like on hold right
now, but we did our first tripto a skate park that is five
hours from here okay, one of thenewest in the country.
It's beautiful and it's rightaside of hot springs.
(19:47):
So you go skate your life outand then you get into the hot
springs.
That's cool, so it's a reallynice plan and we have a lot of
skate parks, like in the middleof nowhere, and Bogota has so
many skate parks.
So, yeah, colombia is a gooddestination to come for holidays
and skate Nice yeah, my uncleis a good destination to come
for holidays and skate Nice.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, my uncle is a yoga instructor and what he was
doing for a while is, twice ayear he'd have a week-long
retreat for yoga, yes, andpeople would pay to do it.
So like that would actually becool for you to set it up that
way, where it's like, okay, thisis how much the trip's going to
cost Exactly, and then you likelike get all the room and board
and all that kind of stuff hecamped.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
But I mean that's always an option too yeah, I
know you have it in in the uswith moxie.
They have uh roller camps andstuff, but it's way bigger, way
bigger yeah, the camps that theyhave.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Um, I know a guy he was one of my guests.
He teaches skateboarding inSanta Cruz, california, and it's
one of those things where it'slike a day camp type thing, so
you go home afterwards.
But I think it would be cool totravel and do like a retreat
somewhere for a week.
Yes, especially with hotsprings right there, skate all
day and then just go recover atnight.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Oh yeah, it was amazing.
Yeah, it was amazing.
It was kind of like a bit animprovisation, hectic thing
sometimes yeah you know, but itwas our first trip.
Uh, we had like eight peoplesigning up.
We meant to have 15, but yeah,so we we did when we did go and
(21:29):
uh had some videos done andlearned some tricks.
Yeah, it was super fun.
So I do see myself, uh, workingin those kind of projects in
the future and skating, yes soyou're planning on making it a
business also eventually makingit part of my life.
I'm already in in it, yeah yeahthis last year.
(21:51):
I'm not working in an office,I'm working on my own, because
when I started skating I waslike dude, I never have time to
skate and my progression wasslow.
Yeah yeah slow.
I would skate like every twoweeks, every week, once every
week and I was like I want moreof this.
So, yeah, I changed jobs.
(22:12):
Then I was unemployed for along time and skating helped me
to manage that stress and stayfocused.
So I said to myself, how can Imake this part of my life like a
bigger part of my life?
Okay, I'm going to becomeindependent for good you know,
(22:35):
and now I'm working on it and Ihave more time to skate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yes, nice, because you were talking about skating
today.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yes, yes, I made time to skate today in the morning.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I love skating in the morning time okay, yeah, for me
it's whenever I get theopportunity and I usually skate
three or four times a week, sobut I do the speed skating side,
so I don't yeah, at my age, thelast thing I need to do is fall
into a bowl and can't get outwell, you know, I I know this
(23:06):
guy from tiktok.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
He is I think he's my asian.
He started with aggressiveskating in balls okay yeah, and
he records this process and Ithink, wow, that's very brave.
Yeah, it's.
You require a lot of bravery,courage to get into a ball, yeah
, um, but practice makes it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Practice does the trick exactly, and that's the
one thing I see.
It's like in some of the skategroups I belong to on social
media.
They're like how do you getbetter at this?
How do you bet?
It's like, just, you keepskating, you can't.
You can't go once and expectthings to, um, be the way you
want it or be able to land atrick the first time you try it.
That's like going to the gymand leaving and wondering why
(23:48):
you're not buffed so yeah it'slike why don't I have an awesome
body?
I worked out once, so what we do.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
We get together with the best ones.
Yeah, yeah, oh, this girl doesthe trick I want to do.
I'm going to skate when sheskates and we have a lot of uh
whatsapp groups, we use that.
Okay, and it's like I'm goingto skate when she skates and we
have a lot of uh whatsapp groups, we use that okay and it's like
I'm going skating today.
Anybody wants to go and sopeople join and nice skate
together or take the lessons,yeah yeah, and that's the one
(24:19):
thing about like especially yourstyle, like my style has rules.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
the only thing I can get better at is my physical
fitness, um, but like aggressiveand skating ramps and stuff,
there's new tricks that haven'tbeen seen yet.
So you've got the possibilityof creating a trick that
someone's never seen before.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Like.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I was at the X games when Tony Hawk hit the first 900
.
Wow, so it's it's.
There's always stuff, and nowpeople are doing just amazing
stuff that I've never seenbefore and they do a new trick
and that stuff goes viral.
So and that's the nice thingabout what you do is you've got
that opportunity to come up withnew stuff.
(25:04):
There is no end to the stylethat you do.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yes, infinite possibilities.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Infinite combinations .
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Now, when you go to do a competition, do you put a
routine together or do you justgo out there and do what you
feel?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It depends on the competition.
We usually have to put aroutine together.
We call them lines.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
What you do.
The path you roll on the parkor the bowl is called line.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
The merrier the tricks you do on your line, the
better.
Yeah, so you do have to put ittogether.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And do you have a time limit, then yes, sometimes
we do have.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
And in that competition, uh, where I
competed in the intermediate, Igot third place.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Third place, uh, it was one minute, uh, one minute
line oh wow one minute yeah, itdoesn't seem like a long time,
but when you're actually doingsomething it seems like a long
time yes and that's like my kidswrestled.
And you know a three-minutematch doesn't sound like a lot,
(26:13):
but when you're watching themyou're like why isn't this over
yet?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
yeah, three minutes it's eternal forever so, but
then?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
so, now that you're independent, like what did you
transition like?
You went from working in anoffice to being independent?
Like what was your line of workthat did that and I know being
unemployed can be extremelystressful and how skating helped
you.
So what was that transitionlike?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Well, I'm bilingual.
I'm bilingual since a long timeago, so I I knew the
possibilities of working onlinefor me yeah and I did some
research and applied for somejobs, but at some point it
wasn't working.
so I decided to go freelancewith my skills.
(27:04):
My, my main skill is mylanguages.
There are the two languagesthat I can speak, and maybe my
charisma, I don't know.
So a few years ago, when COVIDhit, I decided to teach because
another friend told me like hey,you have a good English, why
don't you start teaching?
You can charge whatever youwant.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah, and not being in a job 10 hours getting $1 per
hour, yeah.
And I was like, oh, I like that, I think I like that, and I
started teaching.
But then I got an office job soI stopped.
So this past year I decided,yeah, maybe I can go back to
teaching with what I gather.
Yeah, with all the experience Ihave gathered these years and I
(27:50):
started doing it and using alot of tools different tools
Also.
I took a course on how to teacha language and that kind of
gave me structure.
Yeah, I did like I like doingresearch.
I'm a researcher, so I lookedup for my possibilities and I
also took a voiceover course.
(28:11):
So I was doing voices and stuffand I was like, okay, the
voices thing is not soprofitable because you have to
be connected or I have to havethe right project.
So I'm going to go for teachingand it went well.
Now I have like 30 students.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Nice, and you can make a pretty good living at
that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yes, totally, because you don't earn a minimum salary
.
You earn what you consider.
Yeah, and I just raised my ratethis month because so many
students and I was like, okay,well, if you want to have
lessons with me, I think this iswhat it's worth.
(28:54):
Yeah, all that I offered, Ithink, is this price.
There you go and yeah, it'sbeen going good.
I think they like it.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
There you go, and it's like skating the
possibilities are endless.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yes, and actually learning a language is like
skating.
The possibilities are endless.
Yes, and actually learning alanguage is like skating yeah so
like I have more tools to teachnow because I went through that
process nice so now, who is oneof your biggest influences for
skating?
jamaline flower okay, yeah Imean obviously estrogen, uh,
(29:28):
michelle yeah uh, she's theinfluence of one of the biggest
roller skaters in here yeah whenI saw that girl is called she's
called, her name is danny dannyatom uh, she told me, yeah,
this girl estrogen.
I was like I think I know herand I saw her and I was like,
wow, that's awesome.
(29:48):
But also jamaline.
I think more jamaline becauseshe has a particular, particular
style yeah, and she eats withher dog and she does the sickest
, the sickest tricks andgnarliest tricks she and she has
like this hippie style that isso cute.
(30:08):
Like I don't understand how shekeeps the hat on with a hat,
yeah, but she's so sweet andshe's crazy.
It's like the perfect combo andall the tricks she does Like.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I want to do them all , yeah, my biggest inspiration.
And it was those two and oneother that at least did the
first round of roller jam.
So, yeah, it's my biggestinspiration.
And it was those two and oneother that at least did the
first round of roller jam.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
So yeah, I saw that I , I I sign up to HBO just
because of them, the monthlycrew.
I wanted to see them.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Michelle Jama, and the other girl, big booty girl.
I don't remember her name.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
There's no word if there's a second season yet.
I asked.
I asked Terrell when I had himon the show, but he said he does
not know.
And then when I had Honor rollon, I asked them I'm like, if
they ask you to come back as ajudge, like as a group, be one
of the judges, would you guys doit?
And they're like in a heartbeat.
So it's, they love the show andthey were actually the ones I
(31:11):
picked to win the show from thebeginning.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Nice.
I would love to go and see itlive one day.
It's just amazing what they do.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
We have an event in April coming up.
It's called Mile High Rollersand it's more of like the jam
skating.
So you would like probablyfreak people out doing flips and
stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
No, but I do like jam skating.
I'm learning too.
It's just for me it's harder.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I do.
I do have some tricks of rollerdancing and and well, there you
go.
Yeah, I like it too.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
You can come to Denver and kind of hang out and
hang out with everybody, becauseI think we're getting Honor
Roll skate crew there.
So Honor Roll and Terrell,it'll make for a fun weekend.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, for a season for short holidays.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Exactly a fun weekend , but, yeah, they've got a
season for short holidays,exactly.
And then uh, now what is yoursetup like?
What do you use like boots?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
wheels bearings.
What's your?
Uh, I actually have my babiesaround one second.
Yeah, I always have my babiesaround, like my cats.
They are my support artifact.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Mine are always in my car, because you never know.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So these are my skates.
They are like the traditionalboot and it's a boot made in
here in Colombia.
Okay, it's a Colombian boot.
So far I have narrow trucks.
I haven't been able to changethem them just yet and I'm not
sure.
I try, I've tried them and itfeels like a bit weird, you know
(32:56):
like, but it helps you withtricks like grinding and that
kind of stuff.
I have hard wheels.
These are 101 uh, okay.
I have these local sliders too.
Nice I recently got them, LikeI've been sliding for two months
now two months and a half- Okay.
(33:16):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
That's it.
What about bearings?
What kind of bearings do youuse?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I won on the competition.
I won the this super popularbearings bone bearings bones.
Yeah, so I got.
Yeah, I want some bonesbearings.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
and look at this they , they are good bearings.
Yeah, Look, it doesn't stop.
Nice, yeah, I have a lot offriends out here that when the
cause I do inline but they usequads and when they switch over
to bones they end up goingfaster.
Yes, Sometimes they get toomuch speed and they kind of
(33:55):
freak out and I'm like I lovespeed.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's like butter.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, I love getting close to the walls when you're
going around.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, but with this hard wheels you slide, yeah.
Going around, yeah, but withthis hard wheels you slide, yeah
, you like, you can, uh how youcall that when you do this, uh,
when you try to stop and youslide, slide like a hockey stop
or slide or yeah, yeah thesewheels allow you to do that, so
sometimes it's, it's tricky,it's dangerous, you can fall
(34:24):
they have like really tinywheels that they call sliders,
that are just designed forsliding across floors.
Oh, yes, yes for aggressiveones, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so I mean it's pretty interesting.
But now what's your advicetowards anybody coming into
skating, Because I know youpretty recent with a couple of
years ago, so what's your adviceespecially, um, I'm older,
you're not exactly a young,young kid or teenager anymore,
(34:55):
so what's your advice thatpeople that want to try it and
kind of freak out?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Well, I would tell them right off the bat skating
makes you younger, Definitelymakes you younger.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Skating makes you younger.
You should try it.
If you want to do it.
Maybe find a community.
The right people will help youto have a good start, without
injuries, most likely.
Yeah, to have some consistency,to keep doing it, because it's
(35:26):
not a thing that you're going tolearn on on the first day or
the second day, unless you'resuper talented.
Yes, you can get it, but thoseare exceptions.
Most people have a process toget to a trick, so you gotta
start developing patience andhang out with the right people.
(35:47):
I think that uh injects a lotof motivation yeah, not going
alone.
I mean, if you can do it withothers, that's better, that's
best.
Yeah, and just have in mindwhat you want to accomplish,
because any trick you want to do, you can do with practice and
(36:08):
consistent and maybe support ofother people.
You can do it alone too, butother people's support is gonna
boost the process and make it,make you get there faster
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now, how can my listeners you?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
oh, thank you yeah, I'm on tiktok uh, I think it's
wanderingmaga and I'm oninstagram too.
That's the main platform I useto communicate with people.
It's also wanderingmaga atwanderingmaga, yeah so you can
(36:44):
follow me there and, yeah, youcan see what's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Awesome.
Well, I appreciate you comingon the show.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Thank you, sean, I had fun today.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
All right Cool, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Thank you, bye you, thank you, thank you.
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 iceskating or prefer quads and
skateboarding, we have it allcovered, and we bring you
exclusive interviews withprofessionals, talented amateurs
(00:30):
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 am your host, Sean Egan, andmy guest today is Gabby Silva.
So how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Doing great.
Thank you, Sean.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're welcome, so let's start at the beginning.
When did your skating journeystart?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Two years ago, when I was 36.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Okay, and what made you get into skating Like, was
it just something that came up?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Kind of it was a mixture.
I always wanted to skate andever since I'm using social
media I've been getting videosabout things I like.
You know the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And, like two, three years ago, I started watching
videos of girls dancing inskates and like cruising and I
love that.
And I was like, oh, I want todo it one day, I want to do it
one day.
But you know, life happens andyou got to do stuff.
So at some point I had sometime and money and some skates
(01:39):
came into my feed and I was like, oh, my God, those are for me,
I need to buy them now.
And I did like it was theperfect timing and then I
started skating.
I found a roller skating schoolbecause it was kind of
intimidating for me just to goalone at my age, you know I even
(02:00):
though I do feel very fit it'skind of challenging, right.
You remember your skates like ahard thing and you falling when
you were little.
Yeah, because I I did skatewhen I was a kid.
So, yeah, I bought my skates,found the school and I started
skating.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now did you feel once you started skating?
Did you feel the same way thatyou did when you were a kid?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's just kind of having that freedom where you
feel like nothing can stop youkind of, because I was expecting
something else, you know, likea flat ground and the skating
just uh, rolling, just cruising.
But when I got to the school itwas in a skate park and I was
like what are we doing?
(02:42):
What are we supposed to do here?
And I didn't have knee pads oranything.
So it was scary.
It was scary.
I kind of did my best.
I even did a 180 on the run andI was like, wow, I got some
talent.
But I did fall and it hurt.
So it was like, okay, I likethis, but I think I need to be
(03:03):
better prepared for this.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It was something new.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I wasn't expecting that at all.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You weren't expecting to fall.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I wasn't expecting the skating at a skate park.
I never imagined myself doingthat.
I was looking for rollerdancing, yeah you know.
But then I found it and I waslike, wow, I think I like this.
This is kind of cool.
Yeah, it was scary, it wasscary.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Trying anything new is scary, and when I first
started to skate, the guy thattaught me kept knocking me over,
purposely making me fall.
And then you get to that pointwhere you're not afraid to fall,
where it's just part of theprocess, and I think a lot of
people miss fall.
Where it's just part of theprocess, and I think a lot of
people miss that, is thatfalling is part of the process.
But doing ramps, um, I'm prettysure you got your knee pads,
(03:52):
your elbow pads and all thatstuff now, right, yeah, by the
second time I went to theclasses I had knee pads okay,
and I kind of like ask.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It was a an instinctive, an instinctive
question like how do I fallsafely?
Because no one told me I waslike dude, how do I fall safely?
Oh yeah, well, and I kind oflike got it the you know the
technique to fall in on rampsand on the floor yeah and then I
kind of rehearsed a lot.
I I had this image of myself ofI'm a bit too old for this, so I
(04:28):
got to be careful.
Yeah, that changed through time, but at the beginning it was
like that because I was skatingwith teenagers.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I was the only one, my age 30 plus, yeah, so I kind
of asked the logic questionsyeah, how do I fall safely?
What is the progression on this?
How can I get there safely?
Because I totally fell in lovewith it.
I wanted to jump, I wanted todo the hardest tricks, but I
(04:57):
knew in my mind to get there youneed a progression.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
How do I get there?
And yeah, so I got prepared.
Yeah, from the second class.
I kind of like whoa.
I feel like I'm very fast andthat helped me also.
Yeah learning.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So now do they start you off, kind of like getting
the basics down before theythrew you on the ramp, or did
you just go straight to the ramp?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I went straight to the ramp because I was good, you
know.
I put on my skates and I couldalready roll, uh, front or how
you say that, forward, forward,backwards, like turn.
I could do 180, I could jumplike I.
I started from the verybeginning but I could do all of
(05:43):
that in the first class.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I dare yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So you're a natural.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yes, yes, yes, I think so.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's kind of cool.
So now it's like you're mostlyramps and pools and whatever
else you can find that has aslant or some kind of ramp.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yes, I'm more of the skate part.
I like streets, but I find thema bit challenging and dangerous
.
I like ramps better.
Yes, yes, I like jumping anddoing the big airs, although I
can still do big, big airs.
I can do some air.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Nice, some air, nice.
Now.
I know with a lot of the peoplethat I follow on social media
that skating is huge in columbia.
So and I know the speed skatingscene is really big how is the
what would you call itaggressive skating scene?
How is that down there?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
well, we have yes, it is huge, especially in medellin
.
It's a very sporty city.
We have sports centers that areamazing.
Uh, we have two scenes, theaggressive ones we call them
inliners aggressive and then wehave the roller skaters.
I'm part of the second one and,uh, the aggressive ones, a lot
(07:03):
of amazing people like real pros.
I've seen some incredible stuffI can share and I don't know if
they are champions of anything,but they are really good.
You can find a lot of peoplethat is really good and I can
send some videos so you can seethe caliber.
(07:24):
The caliber we say oh, oh, mygod.
The other day I saw like thishuge transfer.
The guy flew literally.
He said he did like in a bowl.
He just went from one side tothe.
I was like, oh my god.
But the roller skating sceneit's, uh, mostly girls, mostly
girls, and there are a lot ofgirls, a lot of good ones.
(07:48):
Uh, last year there was afestival at milano, okay, in
italy, and a couple ofcolombians went there and, yeah,
it was uh, we were very proud,it was very popular.
In here we did a projection andeverything.
So we have events, competitions.
We even painted a ball pink.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
To make it a female space because, yeah, sometimes
it's a very masculine space andwe want to skate, we want to be
there too.
So, yeah, we did that thing andtogether we raised money to
paint the ball and nice did ahuge event competitions um gifts
for the girls, yeah okay, Ihave won myself some stuff, some
(08:35):
knee pads which are important.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Okay, sorry about that.
You might need to pour somecoffee into your internet, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
It pisses me off because I recently paid for a
better plan.
It doesn't happen often, and ithappened to me yesterday with a
student and I was like oh myGod, I'm so embarrassed Now you
said it with a student.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Do you teach, then?
Yes, I teach Spanish.
Okay, yeah, I might beconnecting with you on that one
to learn more too, sure?
Sure, even the girlfriends.
He only, uh, speaks a littlebit of spanish, so okay, sure,
yeah, I can teach you too thatway I can show her up oh nice,
(09:23):
yeah, you can show off like holami amor.
Yeah, you can show up like holami amor, and I'm not even going
to tell her.
It's like the shooting rangethey said don't tell her that
you're learning to shoot.
So when you go for the firsttime you look like you're just a
natural and I'm like that'llwork.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, and you can also understand what she's
saying.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I was like, really I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
But now she's going to know when she listens to the
episode.
So now with the Italy, did youend up going to Italy?
Or you just said some peopleit's in your future plans though
isn't it Of course it's in yourfuture plans though, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Of course you know I saw I got to see a lot of skate
parks because one of the girlsdid go.
She raised funds to go and sheshowed us all the journey and
she, she went to Spain andFrance, Switzerland and Italy
(10:25):
Okay, and things that areamazing skate parks, amazing
skate parks.
In Switzerland, there is thishuge skate park, indoors skate
park that has mega ramps and haslike a huge bed so you can fly,
you can go, like, do this stuff, and yes, so good, yes, so good
(10:47):
, but I couldn't go.
Yeah, but I watch everythingand and, together with the
school, we organized aprojection, a screening, okay
and we saw it on a restaurant.
That is also a skate park, sowe saw the screening and started
skating you have a restaurantthat's actually a skate park
that, yeah, a restaurant thathas a skate park that's awesome
(11:11):
it is, it is.
But you know, on in unitedstates you have air bmbs that
are that have skate parks, sothey are called skate bmbs uh, I
did not know that either.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I learned something, I so want one.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I so want one here.
It would be amazing, like inthe mountains, having a huge
cabin or mansion With a skatepark and a pool.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Just a cabin with a skate park in the back.
You don't need a lot of living.
You need a kitchen, you need aTV and you need a bed.
That's all you need and ashower.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We have one.
We actually have one like that,but it's an hour and a half
away, so I want one closer tothe city and with a pool.
Yeah, we need the pool becausesometimes it's very hot, so you
start skating.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You can have a bunch and then you go back.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
There you go, future business plans for you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, yeah.
So anyone that wants to sponsor, here I am.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We gotta get mvs in columbia we gotta get our word
out somehow yes so now yourprogression.
And you said you've donecompetitions and won some yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, I participated in a an event.
It was like a roller skatinggame, you know, you have to do a
trick, the other one has to doit, and like that, uh so kind of
like a trick battle yeah, yeahit was crazy because I I
competed against a very pro girlbut, she couldn't do one trick
(12:48):
I did, so I stuck with thattrick, the fakie stall and
variations, yeah, and she waslike how come you can do that
and you're beating me?
Then she did like supercomplicated tricks and won.
It was a good event, a goodparticipation, yeah.
(13:09):
The second one was indeed acompetition and we divided it in
levels and I went inintermediate and, yeah, I
rehearsed like for two weeks theline because I couldn't do a
complete line at the ball.
The ball is the hardest thingfor me.
Balls, rams I'm good, but theball is kind of like challenging
(13:32):
.
So I put together a line.
And yeah, they were surprisedLike wow, you could do that.
Oh God, yeah, I did.
Like a handstand drop in, butyou know not the dead drop.
Yeah, yeah, they were like wow,nobody did that the handstand
(13:53):
drop in.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Nice Now with your skating.
When you first started at theskate school, you said you were
the oldest and everybody elsewas teenagers.
Did they just welcome you inlike you were one of the guys,
or did they kind of tease youabout being old?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
No, they welcomed me.
Like the rest of them, theynever guessed that I was that
old.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, well, you look pretty young, so.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, they were like, oh, you must be 25 or something
.
I was like, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You're like, yeah, close enough, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
No, they treated me like the rest of the girls.
Yeah.
Now is the skating communitypretty supportive of each other
down there.
Yes, yes, very much yes.
Recently we had a girl doing avideo and she did an event and a
screening and everybody went.
We went to support her and sheactually had a piñata for us
(14:53):
with prizes.
I was like, oh, that's so cute,did?
it have like bearings and wheelsand yeah, bearings, wheels,
knee pads, helmet tools thatmust have been a big piñata no
it was she put like papers,papers, oh, okay, yeah, so on
the paper you oh, I want andcandies oh, there we go yeah, no
(15:18):
, we're very supportive.
An example was the ball.
You know we raised money yeahit was like maybe I don't know,
I'm guessing more than onethousand two thousand dollars,
something like that we raisedthat money all together to paint
the ball.
And then we went on thescheduled date and took turns to
paint, and under the sun, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, it's kind of like you have to start with one
side and work your way back toone spot so you can get out of
the pool.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yes, but yeah, the community is pretty supportive
in here.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, that's one thing I've noticed about just
the skating community in generalit doesn't matter where you're
at.
It's kind of like it's thatlanguage.
No matter what language youspeak, if you skate you're
family, so and it just doesn'tmatter.
So I think we break down morebarriers than a lot of other
stuff, because every once in awhile you have a few egos, but
(16:17):
for the most part everybody youknow we're at the roller rink
and we help people that don'tknow how to skate.
We have a thing called flow,flow motion, which is for, like
the jam skaters and my friendwill.
He's pretty good he was acouple episodes ago and he gets
out there and helps people andand learn new stuff about jam
skating and stuff because he'sbeen doing it for a long time.
(16:39):
But it's just amazing how wehave such a awesome community
and you can go anywhere, even byyourself, and still feel
welcome.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yes, totally, I was thinking about that the other
day.
I have people from Japan andTikTok that skates and I know if
I go to Japan I'm going to havepeople to skate with.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Nice.
I've got a few people inEngland because I'm actually
planning on going to germanythis year and doing a race.
So it's it's, you can go toengland.
I know people, uh, germany,columbia now, yes, please.
So it's just, it's just amazingthat I can turn it into a
(17:24):
business, and the nice thing isis I can use it as a tax
write-off.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, and it's going to be a satisfying business.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, exactly, I mean as a pro you don't get paid
like you do in, like the NFL,the NBA or Major League Baseball
out here, but we have longercareers.
Yeah, yeah, I mean like look atTonyk, because he's been doing
it since he was a kid and he's,I think, what 50 right around my
(17:54):
age.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So 52, 53 so still young I'm trying but no, I think
that's a good time to be human,a good stage.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, exactly.
So now, where do you seeyourself taking skating now?
Do you plan on going morecompetitions or turning pro, or
what's your goal?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
I want to become pro.
I want to fly.
As I told you before, I alwayswanted to do those spins in the
air.
I mean ever since I saw itright, because I didn't know
practically it existed until Istarted doing it.
So I really want to get to dothose tricks.
I want to do a good handstand.
I want to do the dead drop.
(18:44):
Maybe I want to do a spin stall.
I know the tricks.
I want to do the dead drop.
Maybe I want to do a spin stall.
I know the tricks I want to do.
So I would like to continue myjourney and at some point become
pro.
But I have a lot of anxiety,like I want to do the tricks
right away.
And it has built patient, yeah,so, yeah, I'm not.
(19:05):
I'm trying not to be in a rush.
Yeah, so I want to take it, uh,as it comes yeah and I would
like to develop more projectsrelated to it.
I had a a project called epicscape which was about taking the
girls on trips roller trips, Icalled it so trips to visit
(19:26):
other skate parks and nature.
Okay, uh.
Yeah, it was very ambitious, soit's kind of like on hold right
now, but we did our first tripto a skate park that is five
hours from here okay, one of thenewest in the country.
It's beautiful and it's rightaside of hot springs.
(19:47):
So you go skate your life outand then you get into the hot
springs.
That's cool, so it's a reallynice plan and we have a lot of
skate parks, like in the middleof nowhere, and Bogota has so
many skate parks.
So, yeah, colombia is a gooddestination to come for holidays
and skate Nice yeah, my uncleis a good destination to come
for holidays and skate Nice.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, my uncle is a yoga instructor and what he was
doing for a while is, twice ayear he'd have a week-long
retreat for yoga, yes, andpeople would pay to do it.
So like that would actually becool for you to set it up that
way, where it's like, okay, thisis how much the trip's going to
cost Exactly, and then you likelike get all the room and board
and all that kind of stuff hecamped.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
But I mean that's always an option too yeah, I
know you have it in in the uswith moxie.
They have uh roller camps andstuff, but it's way bigger, way
bigger yeah, the camps that theyhave.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Um, I know a guy he was one of my guests.
He teaches skateboarding inSanta Cruz, california, and it's
one of those things where it'slike a day camp type thing, so
you go home afterwards.
But I think it would be cool totravel and do like a retreat
somewhere for a week.
Yes, especially with hotsprings right there, skate all
day and then just go recover atnight.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Oh yeah, it was amazing.
Yeah, it was amazing.
It was kind of like a bit animprovisation, hectic thing
sometimes yeah you know, but itwas our first trip.
Uh, we had like eight peoplesigning up.
We meant to have 15, but yeah,so we we did when we did go and
(21:29):
uh had some videos done andlearned some tricks.
Yeah, it was super fun.
So I do see myself, uh, workingin those kind of projects in
the future and skating, yes soyou're planning on making it a
business also eventually makingit part of my life.
I'm already in in it, yeah yeahthis last year.
(21:51):
I'm not working in an office,I'm working on my own, because
when I started skating I waslike dude, I never have time to
skate and my progression wasslow.
Yeah yeah slow.
I would skate like every twoweeks, every week, once every
week and I was like I want moreof this.
So, yeah, I changed jobs.
(22:12):
Then I was unemployed for along time and skating helped me
to manage that stress and stayfocused.
So I said to myself, how can Imake this part of my life like a
bigger part of my life?
Okay, I'm going to becomeindependent for good you know,
(22:35):
and now I'm working on it and Ihave more time to skate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yes, nice, because you were talking about skating
today.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yes, yes, I made time to skate today in the morning.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I love skating in the morning time okay, yeah, for me
it's whenever I get theopportunity and I usually skate
three or four times a week, sobut I do the speed skating side,
so I don't yeah, at my age, thelast thing I need to do is fall
into a bowl and can't get outwell, you know, I I know this
(23:06):
guy from tiktok.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
He is I think he's my asian.
He started with aggressiveskating in balls okay yeah, and
he records this process and Ithink, wow, that's very brave.
Yeah, it's.
You require a lot of bravery,courage to get into a ball, yeah
, um, but practice makes it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Practice does the trick exactly, and that's the
one thing I see.
It's like in some of the skategroups I belong to on social
media.
They're like how do you getbetter at this?
How do you bet?
It's like, just, you keepskating, you can't.
You can't go once and expectthings to, um, be the way you
want it or be able to land atrick the first time you try it.
That's like going to the gymand leaving and wondering why
(23:48):
you're not buffed so yeah it'slike why don't I have an awesome
body?
I worked out once, so what we do.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
We get together with the best ones.
Yeah, yeah, oh, this girl doesthe trick I want to do.
I'm going to skate when sheskates and we have a lot of uh
whatsapp groups, we use that.
Okay, and it's like I'm goingto skate when she skates and we
have a lot of uh whatsapp groups, we use that okay and it's like
I'm going skating today.
Anybody wants to go and sopeople join and nice skate
together or take the lessons,yeah yeah, and that's the one
(24:19):
thing about like especially yourstyle, like my style has rules.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
the only thing I can get better at is my physical
fitness, um, but like aggressiveand skating ramps and stuff,
there's new tricks that haven'tbeen seen yet.
So you've got the possibilityof creating a trick that
someone's never seen before.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Like.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I was at the X games when Tony Hawk hit the first 900
.
Wow, so it's it's.
There's always stuff, and nowpeople are doing just amazing
stuff that I've never seenbefore and they do a new trick
and that stuff goes viral.
So and that's the nice thingabout what you do is you've got
that opportunity to come up withnew stuff.
(25:04):
There is no end to the stylethat you do.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yes, infinite possibilities.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Infinite combinations .
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Now, when you go to do a competition, do you put a
routine together or do you justgo out there and do what you
feel?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It depends on the competition.
We usually have to put aroutine together.
We call them lines.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
What you do.
The path you roll on the parkor the bowl is called line.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
The merrier the tricks you do on your line, the
better.
Yeah, so you do have to put ittogether.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And do you have a time limit, then yes, sometimes
we do have.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
And in that competition, uh, where I
competed in the intermediate, Igot third place.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Third place, uh, it was one minute, uh, one minute
line oh wow one minute yeah, itdoesn't seem like a long time,
but when you're actually doingsomething it seems like a long
time yes and that's like my kidswrestled.
And you know a three-minutematch doesn't sound like a lot,
(26:13):
but when you're watching themyou're like why isn't this over
yet?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
yeah, three minutes it's eternal forever so, but
then?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
so, now that you're independent, like what did you
transition like?
You went from working in anoffice to being independent?
Like what was your line of workthat did that and I know being
unemployed can be extremelystressful and how skating helped
you.
So what was that transitionlike?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Well, I'm bilingual.
I'm bilingual since a long timeago, so I I knew the
possibilities of working onlinefor me yeah and I did some
research and applied for somejobs, but at some point it
wasn't working.
so I decided to go freelancewith my skills.
(27:04):
My, my main skill is mylanguages.
There are the two languagesthat I can speak, and maybe my
charisma, I don't know.
So a few years ago, when COVIDhit, I decided to teach because
another friend told me like hey,you have a good English, why
don't you start teaching?
You can charge whatever youwant.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah, and not being in a job 10 hours getting $1 per
hour, yeah.
And I was like, oh, I like that, I think I like that, and I
started teaching.
But then I got an office job soI stopped.
So this past year I decided,yeah, maybe I can go back to
teaching with what I gather.
Yeah, with all the experience Ihave gathered these years and I
(27:50):
started doing it and using alot of tools different tools
Also.
I took a course on how to teacha language and that kind of
gave me structure.
Yeah, I did like I like doingresearch.
I'm a researcher, so I lookedup for my possibilities and I
also took a voiceover course.
(28:11):
So I was doing voices and stuffand I was like, okay, the
voices thing is not soprofitable because you have to
be connected or I have to havethe right project.
So I'm going to go for teachingand it went well.
Now I have like 30 students.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Nice, and you can make a pretty good living at
that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yes, totally, because you don't earn a minimum salary
.
You earn what you consider.
Yeah, and I just raised my ratethis month because so many
students and I was like, okay,well, if you want to have
lessons with me, I think this iswhat it's worth.
(28:54):
Yeah, all that I offered, Ithink, is this price.
There you go and yeah, it'sbeen going good.
I think they like it.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
There you go, and it's like skating the
possibilities are endless.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yes, and actually learning a language is like
skating.
The possibilities are endless.
Yes, and actually learning alanguage is like skating yeah so
like I have more tools to teachnow because I went through that
process nice so now, who is oneof your biggest influences for
skating?
jamaline flower okay, yeah Imean obviously estrogen, uh,
(29:28):
michelle yeah uh, she's theinfluence of one of the biggest
roller skaters in here yeah whenI saw that girl is called she's
called, her name is danny dannyatom uh, she told me, yeah,
this girl estrogen.
I was like I think I know herand I saw her and I was like,
wow, that's awesome.
(29:48):
But also jamaline.
I think more jamaline becauseshe has a particular, particular
style yeah, and she eats withher dog and she does the sickest
, the sickest tricks andgnarliest tricks she and she has
like this hippie style that isso cute.
(30:08):
Like I don't understand how shekeeps the hat on with a hat,
yeah, but she's so sweet andshe's crazy.
It's like the perfect combo andall the tricks she does Like.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I want to do them all , yeah, my biggest inspiration.
And it was those two and oneother that at least did the
first round of roller jam.
So, yeah, it's my biggestinspiration.
And it was those two and oneother that at least did the
first round of roller jam.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
So yeah, I saw that I , I I sign up to HBO just
because of them, the monthlycrew.
I wanted to see them.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Michelle Jama, and the other girl, big booty girl.
I don't remember her name.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
There's no word if there's a second season yet.
I asked.
I asked Terrell when I had himon the show, but he said he does
not know.
And then when I had Honor rollon, I asked them I'm like, if
they ask you to come back as ajudge, like as a group, be one
of the judges, would you guys doit?
And they're like in a heartbeat.
So it's, they love the show andthey were actually the ones I
(31:11):
picked to win the show from thebeginning.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Nice.
I would love to go and see itlive one day.
It's just amazing what they do.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
We have an event in April coming up.
It's called Mile High Rollersand it's more of like the jam
skating.
So you would like probablyfreak people out doing flips and
stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
No, but I do like jam skating.
I'm learning too.
It's just for me it's harder.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I do.
I do have some tricks of rollerdancing and and well, there you
go.
Yeah, I like it too.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
You can come to Denver and kind of hang out and
hang out with everybody, becauseI think we're getting Honor
Roll skate crew there.
So Honor Roll and Terrell,it'll make for a fun weekend.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, for a season for short holidays.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Exactly a fun weekend , but, yeah, they've got a
season for short holidays,exactly.
And then uh, now what is yoursetup like?
What do you use like boots?
Speaker 3 (32:17):
wheels bearings.
What's your?
Uh, I actually have my babiesaround one second.
Yeah, I always have my babiesaround, like my cats.
They are my support artifact.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Mine are always in my car, because you never know.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
So these are my skates.
They are like the traditionalboot and it's a boot made in
here in Colombia.
Okay, it's a Colombian boot.
So far I have narrow trucks.
I haven't been able to changethem them just yet and I'm not
sure.
I try, I've tried them and itfeels like a bit weird, you know
(32:56):
like, but it helps you withtricks like grinding and that
kind of stuff.
I have hard wheels.
These are 101 uh, okay.
I have these local sliders too.
Nice I recently got them, LikeI've been sliding for two months
now two months and a half- Okay.
(33:16):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
That's it.
What about bearings?
What kind of bearings do youuse?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I won on the competition.
I won the this super popularbearings bone bearings bones.
Yeah, so I got.
Yeah, I want some bonesbearings.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
and look at this they , they are good bearings.
Yeah, Look, it doesn't stop.
Nice, yeah, I have a lot offriends out here that when the
cause I do inline but they usequads and when they switch over
to bones they end up goingfaster.
Yes, Sometimes they get toomuch speed and they kind of
(33:55):
freak out and I'm like I lovespeed.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's like butter.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, I love getting close to the walls when you're
going around.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, but with this hard wheels you slide, yeah.
Going around, yeah, but withthis hard wheels you slide, yeah
, you like, you can, uh how youcall that when you do this, uh,
when you try to stop and youslide, slide like a hockey stop
or slide or yeah, yeah thesewheels allow you to do that, so
sometimes it's, it's tricky,it's dangerous, you can fall
(34:24):
they have like really tinywheels that they call sliders,
that are just designed forsliding across floors.
Oh, yes, yes for aggressiveones, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, so I mean it's pretty interesting.
But now what's your advicetowards anybody coming into
skating, Because I know youpretty recent with a couple of
years ago, so what's your adviceespecially, um, I'm older,
you're not exactly a young,young kid or teenager anymore,
(34:55):
so what's your advice thatpeople that want to try it and
kind of freak out?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Well, I would tell them right off the bat skating
makes you younger, Definitelymakes you younger.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Definitely.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Skating makes you younger.
You should try it.
If you want to do it.
Maybe find a community.
The right people will help youto have a good start, without
injuries, most likely.
Yeah, to have some consistency,to keep doing it, because it's
(35:26):
not a thing that you're going tolearn on on the first day or
the second day, unless you'resuper talented.
Yes, you can get it, but thoseare exceptions.
Most people have a process toget to a trick, so you gotta
start developing patience andhang out with the right people.
(35:47):
I think that uh injects a lotof motivation yeah, not going
alone.
I mean, if you can do it withothers, that's better, that's
best.
Yeah, and just have in mindwhat you want to accomplish,
because any trick you want to do, you can do with practice and
(36:08):
consistent and maybe support ofother people.
You can do it alone too, butother people's support is gonna
boost the process and make it,make you get there faster
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now, how can my listeners you?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
oh, thank you yeah, I'm on tiktok uh, I think it's
wanderingmaga and I'm oninstagram too.
That's the main platform I useto communicate with people.
It's also wanderingmaga atwanderingmaga, yeah so you can
(36:44):
follow me there and, yeah, youcan see what's coming soon.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Awesome.
Well, I appreciate you comingon the show.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Thank you, sean, I had fun today.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
All right Cool, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Thank you, bye you, thank you, thank you.
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