February 21, 2025 • 51 mins
Roller skating aficionado Chuck Birch takes us on a nostalgic ride through his 60 years on wheels. Picture a four-year-old Chuck, zipping around his Detroit basement on metal skates, defying coaches who doubted the sport's compatibility with traditional athletics. Fast forward to his college days at North Carolina A&T, where he orchestrated vibrant skating parties that reignited his passion. Today, Chuck thrives in the rhythm skating scene of Dallas, cherishing a community that spans generations and geographical boundaries.
The pandemic inadvertently sparked a roller skating renaissance, and Chuck Birch was ready to roll with it. His creation of the Chuck Birch Scholarship Fund is a testament to his commitment to the sport and education, funding college students through exhilarating multi-night skating events. With plans to expand this initiative beyond Texas to cities like Atlanta and Detroit, Chuck is galvanizing a nationwide movement, celebrating the resurgence of roller skating and the community bonds it nurtures.
Chuck shares a treasure trove of stories, from group skates that foster spontaneous camaraderie to the thrill of gliding on a cruise ship. He speaks candidly about injuries and recovery, offering sage advice to aspiring skaters: patience, perseverance, and the art of embracing falls. Through initiatives like "Skating for Scholarships," he invites skaters across the nation to showcase their talents and join a supportive, passionate community. Chuck’s journey is a testament to the universal joy and resilience found in the world of roller skating.
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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 (00:40):
Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you
Skate.
I'm your host, Sean Egan, andmy guest this week is Chuck
Birch, and he's got a veryspecial organization which we'll
get into after we find out moreabout his skating.
Welcome to the show.
It's my pleasure to be here.
So how old were you and whendid your whole skating career
(01:01):
begin?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I started skating at the age of four.
Now I'm 64 now, so we arereally celebrating my 60th year
of some type of skating.
But of course every skater hastheir own unique story.
So you know, I wouldn't saythat my four-year-old skating
was something that would benoteworthy, because it was the
(01:27):
time when if you think about theold skates that had the metal
skates that used to fit over gymor tennis shoes, I had those
skates and I lived in Detroit,michigan, so we could roller
skate in the basement with themetal skates at the age of four.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nice, that was my first pair of skates too, so I
understand where you're comingfrom.
So now was it only in thebasement, or did you start going
to roller rinks at that age, ordid you kind of wait till later
before roller rinks?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
later, before roller rinks.
It was later, it was later inlife that I went to roller rinks
, um, even though I got myskating.
Honestly, my mother and fatherback in the 60s met no, I'm
sorry, back in the 50s met at aroller skating rink and it was
their commonality and I neversaw them skate together, uh.
(02:28):
However, my mother always hadthese precision skates at the
time, uh, and on occasion shewould go skating.
Uh, didn't take us as kids, uh,until we were in, um, I would
say, about sixth grade or so,and then you'd go to the skate,
you'd go to the church skatingparty, you might go to the
(02:51):
family night where you had theorgan music, and so I beat
myself, but you know, that was.
That was my early rinkexperience, as you know, as an
adolescent going skating justevery now and then.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, so now, when did you become more serious
about skating, doing like, areyou a jam skater or what's your
style of skating?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I'm a rhythm skater, so I'm the guy that goes to the
adult night at your local place.
I live in Dallas, texas.
We are blessed that we have anumber of great skating options
as an adult.
But I like I can go to familynight.
(03:43):
I can go to.
I can skate around the kids.
I don't mind skating around thekids, I'm not too cool to skate
around kids, but I enjoy thefamily, I enjoy the adult nights
and in Dallas you have choicesof adult nights five nights a
week, tuesday through Sunday,and in some locations multiple
(04:09):
rinks that have adult nightopportunities.
But I really got serious aboutskating and there were two areas
One, when my mother did investin skates for myself and I had a
younger brother and sister, sowe were the kids that could go
to the skating party and had ourown skates, which was one thing
.
And that was when we were earlyteens.
And then I was an athlete inhigh school so I was told
(04:34):
falsely by coaches that rollerskating would mess up my
athletics and so I shouldn't doit and somehow I fell for that.
So as a teenager I got too coolto skate and stop skating for
whatever individuals who arefrom my hometown of Detroit,
(05:06):
michigan, got together and weplanned a roller skating party.
That ended up being the hit.
And so in my sophomore year ofcollege we threw skating parties
like other groups throughregular parties and we outdrew
any of the other groups so thatit really became a hit.
(05:30):
That was in the state of NorthCarolina, at my alma mater,
which is North Carolina A&T.
So I got serious about skatingat 19, and then they unleashed
the beast and I've been rollingever since.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Nice.
Now, what sports did you do inhigh school?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
that said, skating would interfere with with your
athletics well, I, I actuallyshowed a little promise in
football at least that's whatthey said, uh, and because I
played football since littleleague and by the time I was in
high school, uh became like allthese, all district, all league,
(06:07):
and and and did pretty well inthat.
But you know, coaches said, hey, look, you're going to mess up
your college chances for uh, no,don't mess up your college
chances by roller skating.
Going out there roller skating,I'm like oh, okay, okay, okay.
And then I played basketball,ran track.
So, yeah, I was a busy highschooler and put down the skates
(06:30):
for a while, even though I wentto high school less than two
miles from one of the mostpopular skating rinks in the
area Wow, which was now.
I look at that.
I said what was I doing?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
yeah, have the coaches not seen the size of the
quads on skaters?
I don't, they didn't, theydidn't know and think about this
, though just the lateralmovements you do in football or
basketball, skating strengthensall those muscles.
So they were were, I'll have tosay.
(07:06):
Sports training and science hascome a long way since then.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh yeah.
Well, I would just say, just,you know, looking out for their
own selfish interests versus myinterests.
Yeah, they were selfish aboutwhat they could do with myself
and other athletes and reallydidn't know.
They didn't know the physicalscience of that.
Knowing what I know now,because what happened is when I
(07:32):
went to college and did not playfootball, however, I was all
world intramural because wecould play intramural sports
amongst clubs and organizationsand since I had played football
that way and had started skating, I was in shape more than any
(07:53):
of the kids.
I didn't get the freshman 15.
Yeah, it was really nice.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, and now with skating.
Did you ever compete, or wereyou just like the club promoter
for skating?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
No, I was really the club promoter for skating.
Um, you know, there were peoplethat I ran into that uh did
compete, Uh, when, when, whenyou go to a school and people
started coming from all overaround, they bring all of their
experiences.
So I met people who didartistic skating.
(08:29):
I met people that back in thattime had did some version of
derby.
You know, you meet people whowere rink rats at that time and
so the prospect of skating, youknow, just lit them up and lit
them on fire and they became mypromotional team because it
(08:51):
brought back to them somethingthat they were serious about in
some realm of life.
And some of those people are myfriends today.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Nice, now after college, how did the skating go?
What like, still with therhythm, skating and promoting
more parties and stuff, and thenyeah, a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Um, after I graduated from college I went from north
carolina to houston, texas, uh,as a young professional and back
, uh, in those days in the early80s, uh, there were uh rinks,
there were still rinks that werevery popular.
If you think about the ebbs andflows of skating and skating
rinks, when you're in a largercity you actually have more
(09:33):
choices and we had choices.
So as a young adult I did goskating a couple nights a week
so it became kind of a regularat the skating rink, so it
became kind of a regular at theskating rink.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Very cool.
And now I know for me I wasskating in the late 80s, early
90s, through most of the 90s,and someone made me give up
skating because they thought itwas childish and re-got back
into it during the pandemic.
So how do you think thepandemic actually?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
affected like the resurgence of skating.
Well, I think that for thosewho never stopped skating, like
myself, you know it, it didn'tdo anything but bring a lot of
news.
It brought a lot of new skaters, uh, a lot of new people to
skating because, even though fora short amount of time,
depending on your location,rinks were closed, uh, but the
(10:28):
cameras were on, and so, yeah,people made their following by
putting some, by putting onskates, uh, and skating around
wherever their living room,their basement, you know, if
they had a facility that theycould skate themselves, you, you
know, they, uh, they were ableto uh, highlight themselves,
(10:49):
whereas people like me neverstopped skating.
I mean, uh, in Texas, um,things shut down for a small
amount of time, but then, uh,after they had protocols that
allowed skating to come back,people like me and others, we
kept on skating.
And then, when we came back,then you had this whole era of
(11:14):
new people who had found skating, and they found us, who had
never stopped skating.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah.
So I mean, for me it's justbeen amazing and it's like I'm
sorry I ever gave it up.
This is why you never listenedto your first wife.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, but nowyou started an organization, and
what is your organizationcalled?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
okay, uh, well, there's a couple of things, um,
from a skating standpoint.
Uh, I am the executive directorof a scholarship fund called
the Chuck Birch Scholarship Fund, where we raise money for
students to go to school, to goto college in particular, and we
(11:58):
have a few waves of raisingthat money, but one of the waves
that we raise money is by aroller skating party, and so
this will be my 12th year ofskating for scholarships, where
we have grown from one night tofive nights, and during those
(12:21):
five nights we have differentthemes, but the consistent thing
is that we give on-the-spotscholarships to students that
attend, and it has really becomethe hit.
Because I'm an OG in the skateworld and you'll become an OG
(12:41):
just by being around, surviving,not stopping skating and I'm
well respected in the skateworld.
I'm a CPA, an accountant, byeducation, and so I have a great
following and a good reputation, and so I have a passion for
(13:02):
scholarships.
The only way that I got tocollege from Detroit, michigan,
was on a scholarship, and so Ihave always found being around
scholarships as a very noblecause, a very impactful cause
and a way to intervene your love, your recreational love, for
(13:24):
something that's important,because I was going to be
skating anyway, so why not getpeople together and raise some
money and then give it away?
And so that's what we're doing,man.
At our last skating party,which is now a five-night event,
in December, we raised and gaveaway over $12,000, actually
(13:45):
$13,000 in scholarships over afive-night.
I called it love affair onskates.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
There you go.
Now.
Are scholarships like kids haveto attend these things to earn
a scholarship or is there otherways to go about the scholarship
?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
yes, well, for this, this sleeve of scholarships, you
must be present to win, okay,and and so, and you're randomly
drawn.
I mean, the only rule is thatyou have to be in college when
you come, uh, that to be yoursemester, and you have to be
going to school the nextsemester, okay, and it doesn't
(14:29):
matter where you go to school,it doesn't matter who you are,
but if you're in school andgoing to school, you're in the
random drawing.
And we draw at least fourscholarships every night of the
five-night event.
And then on the last night,which we call Salute to the Old
School and OGs, we have specialscholarships that we award to
(14:54):
skaters who are students who dothe above and beyond.
You know, maybe they are veryimpactful in the local community
.
Okay, maybe they are veryimpactful in the local community
.
Maybe they are, maybe they workat a skating rink, but they
really stand out.
We've had two skaters that havepassed and we named those
(15:17):
skater that scholarship, thosespecial scholarships for those
skaters.
So they really embody the heartof someone who's very
enthusiastic about skating.
That's one special scholarship.
And one who really is committedto skating, and that's another
special scholarship.
So the combination of those andthe randomly drawn scholarships
(15:37):
allow us to really make adifference for a number, a large
number of students along theway.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Okay, and now are these events only held in Texas?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
This event?
Ah, good point.
This event is only held inTexas, However, it's 2025.
I've been doing this for 12years.
I've developed a littlefollowing online and I have had
offers that I am taking up andconsidering in 2025 of bringing
(16:11):
skating for scholarships to alocal location.
For example, I have a son thatlives in Atlanta and I visit him
often.
I visit him often, so there isan individual who's on the
Atlanta skating scene who I amcollaborating with to add a
scholarship component to hismulti-night event, so we're
(16:34):
probably going to have skatingfor scholars of Atlanta.
I'm a native of Detroit,michigan.
Talk to some of my home peopleabout doing that.
I get out as using platformslike this and thank you very
much for having me on You'rewelcome.
Creative juices goes, and Iwould love to talk about how I
(17:04):
can help bring skating forscholarships to your or a local
location.
If nothing else, we arebringing the awareness of roller
skating and the need forscholarships.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nice because I know Denver has a huge skating scene.
And it's funny because I'm fromthe Bay Area in California and
we only had one rink and I'mhere in Denver, which the whole
state has less people than whereI live in California, and
there's at least five or sixrinks that I can think of off
(17:32):
the top of my head that I havethe option to go to.
We have the adult skate everynight of the week.
So we got multiple options andin the future I'm planning on
bringing bigger skating eventsand we're actually planning an
event in Victoria, texas, toactually make the city more
(17:53):
aware for just bringing morepeople into skating and the
passion of skating.
So you have a passion and I havea passion and I took it a
little different route with apodcast and bringing all forms
of skating together.
And you're bringing skatingwhere people can actually get
scholarships, and I know I havea 17 year old that's getting
ready to go to possibly see youBoulder next year, so, and he
(18:17):
worked at a roller rink.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
He plays hockey still .
Speaker 3 (18:22):
So well, it's funny because I actually have
individuals who come from Denverwho come to my party.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I have had in the past an individual who, well,
every year I have more than oneindividual who goes to school
wherever.
They just happen to be in town,or they've heard about the
event and they've come down, oreven sometimes they just
stumbled into the event, whichis, hey, I just came here with
(18:50):
my friends and I want ascholarship.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
you know, that's, that is how it certainly works
um, but you know, their friendsset them up oh, yeah, they did.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, well, well then , that's the right.
Hey, the friend set them up,they invited them.
They got the scholarship, thefriend did, and but what they'll
do at?
They got the scholarship, thefriend didn't, but what they'll
do at a multi-night eventthey'll come back again and
again and again, which actuallyhelps to promote skating,
because then you get people whomay normally only go one night
and they are motivated to gomultiple nights.
(19:22):
And then we do some otherthings to encourage people to
come multiple nights.
We have raffles, we have, Icall it, we have TVs that get
bigger every day so we may startoff.
We start off the first night.
It might be a 38-inch TV, a36-inch TV, and those are random
, they're raffled off, so itallows us to raise money.
(19:53):
We have vendors there.
We have what's called theSkaters Showcase, where it's a
skate competition.
It's a competition, but it'snot a competition.
It really showcases andhighlights individuals who have
different skate styles,different, different skate
(20:13):
grooves.
We film it and, by audienceparticipation, every night we
pick a favorite male and femaleskater and the winner of every
night gets to advance to thefinal on sunday.
So then we basically have fourgroups of and you know, if you
(20:36):
win one night you can come skatethe next night.
You just can't win the nextnight so that by by the finals
you really got, theoretically,four favorite skaters in the
male and female genre who arebattling it or actually just
competing, and then we, weinvite others to come and and,
(20:59):
uh, demonstrate their favoritestyle, uh, and so it's highly,
it's highly popular.
We actually get one of thelocal TV stations behind us by
that final event.
It really becomes a great vibeand a great build.
We do some things outside ofskating.
We promote some of the localbusinesses.
(21:21):
We have a skate shop thatactually hosts kind of our skate
happy hour event where peoplewe call it tune up and turn up,
where you can tune up yourskates along the way, get
equipment, get swag and be readyfor the next night of skating.
Juice Bar that has a perfectsetup that you can come and wear
(21:48):
your skates and enjoy healthyeating options.
They were actually one of thevendors at my last event.
So we have lessons on Saturdaymorning.
We actually give lessons wherewe give lessons in various
styles of skating.
We give lessons where we givelessons in various styles of
(22:22):
skating, everything frombeginner and basic to artistic,
to ballroom and middle work anda bunch of other styles.
So all of those events allow usto attract over a thousand
people over the week and againraise some great money, raise
some great awareness and, ofcourse, reward skaters that come
via scholarship.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Nice Now with the scholarship, is that last while
they're all the way throughcollege, or is it just like for
that semester?
It's only for one semester.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
We want individuals to come back.
Uh, and and I really and Ireally want to facilitate this
this idea of other locations uh,considering adding a
scholarship component.
I mean, wouldn't it be a greatthing?
I mean, you're going to go downto victoria, texas, and you're
going to bring your love forskating there.
Uh, there are going to bepeople going to hear about
they're going to come out.
Uh, they're good people who aregoing to walk into it and then,
(23:16):
if you can leave the communityand a greater good there's
there's a university of houstonat victoria.
I know that because one of thescholarship awardees actually
last year goes to U of HVictoria.
So when you're going down, whenyou go down to Victoria and
we're in contact, oh, I'm goingto help be an ambassador for
(23:39):
that.
I'm going to make sure skatersthat I know there and they bring
people.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Nice, yeah, because it's one of my guests, she's
from there and they don't havelike an adult night and like the
adults aren't.
But I thought it would be likecool to like set up a whole
event, maybe like have some oldcars, old school cars there,
make it like a whole thing andtry to get the whole town
involved and then that way wecan really bring awareness and
(24:10):
that just not only does it forcommunity's sake but also for
the rink and that's a localbusiness down there.
So I mean we can like you, I'ma skate ambassador and we can
create more skating, becausemore people skate, the less
problems we have with fights.
Like you know, the community is.
The community is so awesomethat we don't.
When you go to a roller rink,you bump into somebody, you say
(24:31):
oh sorry, and they're like, oh,that's okay and everything.
If they fall, you help themback up.
It's not like a bar where youbump into somebody and next
thing you know you're gettinghit in the face or something.
So it's a totally differentenvironment and community and I
think we're a lot more familythan we are, you know, just
people that show up to skate.
(24:51):
So we welcome everybody, wehelp everybody.
So now the next question is doyou get out there and do a
demonstration for everybody onon how the OG does it?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I've been, I've been encouraged uh, many times, many
nights, because because of mylongevity and skating and some
may say that I'm a pretty goodskater, whatever that, whatever
pretty good is.
Uh, that, yes, I, I, I will,you know, I'll, I'll rise to the
occasion, Uh, and someone willsay, or some someone will say,
(25:25):
hey, chuck, show me something.
And then the next thing I lookbehind me and then there are a
group of people doing exactlywhat I'm doing.
So, uh, yes, I am, I am, can, Ican be that guy sometimes where
I start a group skate, uh, or,uh, I might be that guy because,
uh, I'm from Detroit, um, I, Iadmire all styles of skate
(25:51):
skating and can usually prettyquickly emulate, uh, that style,
uh, and, and it's a, it's acompliment, you know, it's
really a compliment that youknow you're.
If you're a jam skater and maybesomeone new comes and they
start jamming with you the sameway you're jamming, you know,
(26:12):
that's, that's the ultimatecompliment.
And so I, I'm pretty good, I'mgood enough to be able to do
that, or to pick up thingsfairly quickly.
And when I pick it up down,you've got two people, then you
may have four people.
Now you've got a whole bunch ofpeople in line doing whatever
we're doing.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, it's always awesome to see that, because a
lot of the times you'll getpeople out in the middle of the
rink, especially at my rink,where they start doing the
dancing, and next thing you know, you look out there and there's
10, 15 people out there andthey're all just trying to learn
.
And the cool thing is iseverybody's teaching everybody.
(26:53):
So it's, you know, there's no,it's all inclusive, there's no
exclusivity.
It's like oh no, you can't joinus.
They whoever wants to do it cando it.
And that's one of the things Ilove about skating, and it
doesn't matter what your styleis, it's you're there to have
fun and have community and it'suh, it's probably one of the
most awesomest things I could bepart of.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
For real, and that's universal.
That's universal all over thecountry.
I've been fortunate to be ableto skate internationally.
I've been able to skate oncruise ships.
Um, I had a.
I went on an 18 day cruise lastuh fall and chronicled those 18
days of skating because thatship had a skating rink on the
(27:32):
boat and so what cruise line isthis.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Let's promote them too.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Absolutely this is Royal Caribbean.
So Royal Caribbean has fourships in a class.
My particular boat, ovation ofthe Seas, has a skating facility
called the SeaP, open as longas I wasn't in the way of people
doing other things.
And then there were lightertimes when there was no one out
(28:16):
there but me, and of course youbecome a hit amongst the cruise
staff because here you are, youbrought your own skates and
you're roller skating and you'repretty good, uh, and you are a
hit amongst the cruisers becauseit's like hey, there's that guy
, he's a tall.
Look, he's gonna skate today.
(28:36):
We're gonna go see him skatetoday.
Hey, I wanted to learn how toskate like that.
Uh, and I even have people whosaid, boy, are you part of the
staff and part of the crew?
And someone said, no, he justloves skating.
Nice, it's real nice.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
And now they have skate rentals on the cruise too
for people to get skates.
Absolutely, that is awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
On those boats they have skate rentals that people
can rent skates and it's reallya skating party.
On a short cruise sometimesit's one or two nights.
On a longer cruise it's reallya skating party.
You know, on on a short cruiseit's sometimes one or two nights
.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
On a longer cruise it's definitely three nights
well, maybe we have to get oneof the ships and just commandeer
it and have just a giant skatefestival on it.
Hey, I was close.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I, I was this close.
I was down the road with uhforming a skating party.
Uh, I couldn't get the.
I couldn't get Royal Caribbeanto kind of agree upon my terms,
which was to allow a largernumber of people on the skating
surface at the same time as wellas agree to the times that we
(29:41):
would.
We, as skaters, would need toskate and and some other terms,
so we weren't able to do it on alarge scale basis.
Would need to skate and someother terms, so we weren't able
to do it on a large scale basis.
But I haven't given that up yetbecause of that boat, that
favorite boat of mine, whichused to do the Alaska run.
They would go from Seattle upto Alaska and back.
(30:01):
Then that cruise repositionedto Australia and I got on in
Hawaii and cruised to Sydney,australia.
Well, that same boat is comingback to Los Angeles late this
summer, and as that boat thenstarts to do the Mexican Riviera
, going out of LA down to Mexicoand back out of LA down to
(30:26):
Mexico and back, that's whenthere may be some great
opportunities to put together anevent or people who skate and
cruise.
You're going to start seeingthat, because this will be the
first time that that boat goesout of Southern California and
you don't have to be subject toa longer cruise to enjoy it.
(30:47):
So watch me, because I might bedoing it, but I am sure
someone's going to get the sameidea and it's going to be a
great time for everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Nice.
Now, one of the things with alot of my past guests is that,
just like the mental healthaspect of skating too and it's
helped so many people and withme, it helps me deal with a lot
of things Between skating andthe gym.
I'm pretty strong mentally, sohave you seen a lot of that with
(31:20):
a lot of the people that you'vementored over the years, and I
mean even kids gettingscholarships from skating.
That's got to.
That's got to boost your health, mental health too, or your ego
At least that?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Oh, absolutely.
I'm a finance guy, I'm a taxguy.
This is my tax season, yes.
So if anyone knows accountants,you know accountants can be
pretty, can some can can bepretty stuffy people.
So for me, I'm a lively guy.
Skating keeps me lively, keepsme cool, keeps me hip, keeps me
(31:55):
physically in shape, keeps mementally sharp so that I can get
through the things that I doprofessionally and I encourage
others to do it.
I have clients, colleagues.
I invite them out, they inviteme out.
I'm the tax guy that does a lotof work for the people at the
rink and the skate rink ownersand things like that.
But more importantly, it is amental outlet because it is
(32:21):
therapy.
You can go skating and you caneither be in your own world or
you can be in everyone else'sworld, and each one is greatly
accepted.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Exactly.
And now do you get to skate alot during tax time?
I know because, like sometimes,during tax time you're working
12, 15 hours a day.
Do you make time to still getout there and skate?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I do.
I do that If I don't doanything else, if I have to get
up from the desk to go and I'm arink skater and go to the rink
and get an hour or two or threein.
It allows me to continue tokeep my physical and mental
sharpness, and sometimes it'sthe only thing I do, because
(33:07):
it's the only thing you havetime for.
But you can establish a routine.
You can go and get a littlesweat on, get some social
interaction, get some thingsother than behind the desk and
then get back to it.
So yes, I do it and a lot ofother people do it for the same
(33:27):
reason.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Nice.
So now, growing up, who was oneof your biggest influences for
skating?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I had growing up, you know, because I had this unique
situation where I had skatesand we had siblings that we
could skate in the basement andthen we could take those same
metal skates, and we hadsiblings that we could skate in
the basement and then we couldtake those same metal skates and
we could skate outside.
Matter of fact, we turned uh,roller skates into like hockey
skates, um, again we play, weplay hockey on the with the
roller skates uh, and then Ikind of lost the rink thing
(33:59):
coming up.
So I didn't have any idols, uh,or anyone that I, with the
exception of my mother.
My mother was a good skater.
My mother was the one thatwould pack us all up and we'd go
on occasion to these skatingparties or we'd go to the
skating rink on occasion.
(34:20):
So she was probably my hero inskating.
And then when I got back toskating, hero in skating, and
then when I got back to skating,I wasn't one that was a regular
at any particular place until Ibecame the regular at the place
, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Totally makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Now, yeah, nowadays, with the proliferation of social
media, there are some peoplethat I see skating and I've met
skating that I admire at 64,almost 65.
I admire them and sometimes Iget admiration because of kind
(35:04):
of how I position skating andthe fact that I can skate and
the camera will see me andthey'll say well, chuck, you're
from Detroit, can you do thatslide thing?
And you know I can, I can slide, you know, in when I was 20 to
40, I could slide in what'scalled drop, which is this move
(35:24):
that basically you slide andthen you go down on two legs.
I wouldn't recommend it toanyone.
Matter of fact, I stopped at 40because my body wasn't going to
let me get back up anymore.
Running joke, but not a joke.
Hey, I've torn a meniscusroller skate but I've recovered
(35:46):
from it, but I use skating torecover from that.
I have torn a quad tendon.
Look, I tore a quad tendonrunning and I said, well, man,
if I was running I should havejust went skating.
But I'm skating as the rehab.
Right that night I should haveran, I should have went skating
as the rehab.
Right that night, I should haveran, I should have went before
(36:08):
skating.
But then it was an importantpart of my rehab because I got
my orthopedic doctor.
Well, she ice skated, so sheunderstood what skating was and
she said hey, yes, if you do itthis way, then this can be an
important part of your therapyand this will help you.
And so I did what my doctortold me and I recuperated much
(36:31):
faster than I would have had Inot stayed.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah, skating has helped a lot with injuries and
just movement in general,especially as we get older,
especially as we get older, sowhat is your skate setup?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
What am?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
I rocking with.
We're on online.
I just happen to have my skateset up and my skate set up is a
little different and it's kindof custom, because I've broken
plates, I've torn up boots, youknow, I've torn out tongues, and
(37:14):
so I've put together somethingthat actually my local rink
owner actually helped me withbased on seeing me go out there.
So I have a boot that's almostlike a hockey boot.
It's an iron horse boot,composite plate which allows me
(37:49):
the skate to be light, yet, youknow, yet firm.
I'm from Michigan, so I weartoe stops, and toe stops allow
me to do things that some people, without toe stops, can't do.
And then I have FOMAC Premierwheels.
Wheels and fomac premier wheelsare hard like the wood surface
of any great wood floor, whichallows me to slide.
(38:12):
So that's my setup and it worksout.
Now I keep an in sole.
Yeah, make it comfortable.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And what kind of bearings do you use?
Do you just use?
I like all the nitty-gritty.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I've gone through yeah, I've gone through a number
of bearings in sole.
I can't tell you I thinkthey're Reds and I don't know
what version of Reds.
They are Okay, but you knowthey.
They again.
I'm blessed.
I'm great with all of the localskate owners.
Hold on a second, this is goingto stop me.
I'm blessed to know all ofpretty comparable replacement,
(39:06):
literally on the spot.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Nice.
And now, what is your advice toup-and-coming skaters, just in
general, like what's your bestadvice you can give them?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
My best advice is there.
There is no substitute for timeon the wheels.
There is no substitute for timein those skates, whether you're
a rink skater or an outdoorskater, uh, or you know, if you
skate in facilities or if you'reskating your living, you're
skating your garage, um, get onthose skates, move, move around,
(39:39):
try things, give yourself somegrace, because no one becomes a
video skater overnight.
It will help you.
All you got to do is ask or bereceptive when people may want
(40:06):
to help you.
It's not like they're trying tobe creepy or it's not like
they're trying to do anythingodd.
They just want to share theirlove of skating with individuals
.
So, with new skaters, come,come again, try it, go out, come
on on and give yourself somesome patience, because, uh, for
those who escaped it, you knowwe can tell you that we didn't
(40:28):
get here overnight, uh, and wedidn't.
We didn't learn anything new,uh, without trying it many times
.
Don't be afraid to fall.
Everyone fall.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Uh, you can learn how to fall you.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
But again, once you get it, once the light comes on,
the light's on.
Do it until life tells you thatyou can't do otherwise.
And when life tells you youcan't do otherwise, try to come
back to it.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, I actually enjoy the skating videos of
people that are chronically intheir skating journey and they
include the falls, they includethe mess ups, they include the
mistakes, because you're justwatching them grow as they get
better.
And if they only put the goodstuff, it would be like regular
social media.
It's just only showing you thegood stuff, like, oh, I never
make mistakes.
So I appreciate that they showall the falls and the trials and
(41:20):
tribulations that they gothrough.
So it's a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I agree Again.
It's the place where you canreally be honest with yourself
and you can be honest withothers, and that honesty brings
emulation and hopefully thatemulation brings someone along
the way.
And I know that there's no waythat I would have thought that I
(41:48):
would be a skate partycoordinator.
There's a group called theSkate Coordinators Group and I
still ask myself how did I getinto this?
But it's great to be includedamongst some of those that
people can.
When they dial in a video, Ican say well, I know such and
(42:12):
such and such and such or suchand such will come to my event
or when I'm in XYZ town.
And when you're in XYZ town, ifyou bring your skates, you are
automatically accepted.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, I mean you can't leave home without them.
I mean, it's like it should.
You should have a separatecarry on just for your skates.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
As a matter of fact, that's a cardinal rule.
Carry on your skates, don'tcheck.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Apparently there's some airports that you can't
skate in, so somebody postedthat and I'm like I gotta find
out what these airports are,because I definitely know
they're probably not in the bayarea that's right.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Um, what skating rink ?
Uh, I mean, I know I've been tothe church bay wheels, uh, in
in the bay area, um, and I'vebeen to some outdoor facilities,
uh on the oakland side of thebay area.
Um, what was the place?
Uh, unless you had to go up tosacramento or down to stockton,
or it was actually san ramon,it's uh, the golden skin, ramon.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah, and I actually heard many years yeah, I've
heard for many years that it wasclosing and one of my previous
guests is actually from myhometown and it's still open,
which surprised me because Ithought like after the pandemic
they were done.
But I'm happy to hear they'restill open.
And when I go back home tovisit I'm bringing my skates and
I'm hitting the rink, so Igotta bring both pairs.
(43:39):
I gotta bring the speed skatesand the my skates and I'm
hitting the rink, so I got tobring both pairs.
I got to bring the speed skatesand the indoor skates.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
So Absolutely I.
One of the one of the hits uh afew years ago is I skated in a
parade, uh in San Francisco.
Uh, so that was a blast uh toto be able to skate in the
parade.
Uh, I have a good friend.
His name is David Miles.
He runs the Church of EightWheels, okay, and he's very
(44:08):
entrenched in the San Franciscoskate scene.
The mayor of San Franciscoactually roller skates.
I've skated with the mayor.
Yeah, really nice.
So I've got some pictures of atrip that I made there last
summer where I'm helping herlace them up and get on out
there.
But you're right, whether it'sNorthern California in the Bay
(44:32):
Area, southern California,denver, colorado, texas, the
East Coast, west Coast, victoria, texas and every place in
between, you can find skate.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Absolutely, because when we were growing up, we went
to Golden Gate Park all day,went home, switched to our
indoor wheels and then went toGolden Skate, but you got to
take BART out there just so youdon't have to deal with trying
to find parking and traffic, andit's way worse now.
True, deal with trying to findparking and traffic, and it's
(45:04):
way worse now.
So now how can my listenersfollow you and find out more
about your events and possiblyeven show up to your events?
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Absolutely Well, I'm Chuck Birch, c-h-u-c-k-b-u-r-c-h
.
I'm the guy with one syllablenames.
You can find me on any means.
You may have to go Chuck Birch,cpa, because I am a CPA.
Or now you can look up Skatingfor Scholarships on Facebook,
(45:31):
instagram, tiktok, blue SkyThreads.
I'm everywhere.
I've been encouraged to be onall means and what I try to do
is try to post the sameinformation to both, to all of
those on the skating forscholarships, on all of those
things it's always rollerskating things.
On some of those other meansyou may see some of the other
(45:53):
stuff that I do for forscholarship, but when it gets
toward the event, then you willsee nothing but skating.
You'll see unique skatingthings.
I'll have some unique peoplethat might be speaking for me,
since people come from all overthe country to my event.
I turn about, turn about fairplay, reciprocate, and I
(46:17):
actually may help to promotesome other skating events for
some of my friends because I maygo to their location to either
help promote the event or justto roller skate.
Yeah, they do and they do this.
They do the same thing for me.
So, chuck Birch, you can findme there and usually from there
I always have a direct way,because I do have a website and
(46:39):
and some other ways that you canget in contact with me, and
hopefully this podcast is justgoing to continue to spin and go
viral all over the place andyou'll see all of us here.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Absolutely, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you coming on theshow tonight, so I look forward
to actually working with you inthe future on projects too.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
It is my pleasure.
Anytime.
I'd love to come back becauseyou know we skaters are, I like
to say we're kind of greatpeople in our own right.
So we hear our message of ourlove for skating and sometimes
our love for the other goodstuff around skating, skating
and sometimes I love for theother good stuff around skating
(47:24):
and for me, um, oh, there willbe a way as you follow me, there
will be a way that, no matterwhere you are in the country,
you can participate in skatingfor scholarships, because what
I'm going to allow, uh, andencourage, I have what's called
a virtual ticket.
You can okay, you can, purchasea virtual ticket for the
skating event Submit your video,your 30-second or 60-second or
(47:48):
less video I'll probably cut itto 30 seconds and I will play
one.
I'll play that video at theevent, because every facility
has its own projection screenand then I am going to run those
videos on my social media pagesboth before, during and after
(48:09):
the event.
So that is the encouragementthat anyone, everyone, can
participate in Skating forScholarships and then you're
part of my skating family andthen let's keep in contact so
that we can help each other.
You know, I got 5,000 friendsand following.
I got the maximum on Facebookand then I don't know how many I
(48:30):
got on Instagram and otherplaces.
But it's great to be part ofthis community, that we can help
each other, and that is one waywe can help each other and
everyone can participate inSkating for Scholarship.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Absolutely Thank you, 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 (00:40):
Welcome to this week's episode of how Do you
Skate.
I'm your host, Sean Egan, andmy guest this week is Chuck
Birch, and he's got a veryspecial organization which we'll
get into after we find out moreabout his skating.
Welcome to the show.
It's my pleasure to be here.
So how old were you and whendid your whole skating career
(01:01):
begin?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I started skating at the age of four.
Now I'm 64 now, so we arereally celebrating my 60th year
of some type of skating.
But of course every skater hastheir own unique story.
So you know, I wouldn't saythat my four-year-old skating
was something that would benoteworthy, because it was the
(01:27):
time when if you think about theold skates that had the metal
skates that used to fit over gymor tennis shoes, I had those
skates and I lived in Detroit,michigan, so we could roller
skate in the basement with themetal skates at the age of four.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nice, that was my first pair of skates too, so I
understand where you're comingfrom.
So now was it only in thebasement, or did you start going
to roller rinks at that age, ordid you kind of wait till later
before roller rinks?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
later, before roller rinks.
It was later, it was later inlife that I went to roller rinks
, um, even though I got myskating.
Honestly, my mother and fatherback in the 60s met no, I'm
sorry, back in the 50s met at aroller skating rink and it was
their commonality and I neversaw them skate together, uh.
(02:28):
However, my mother always hadthese precision skates at the
time, uh, and on occasion shewould go skating.
Uh, didn't take us as kids, uh,until we were in, um, I would
say, about sixth grade or so,and then you'd go to the skate,
you'd go to the church skatingparty, you might go to the
(02:51):
family night where you had theorgan music, and so I beat
myself, but you know, that was.
That was my early rinkexperience, as you know, as an
adolescent going skating justevery now and then.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, so now, when did you become more serious
about skating, doing like, areyou a jam skater or what's your
style of skating?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I'm a rhythm skater, so I'm the guy that goes to the
adult night at your local place.
I live in Dallas, texas.
We are blessed that we have anumber of great skating options
as an adult.
But I like I can go to familynight.
(03:43):
I can go to.
I can skate around the kids.
I don't mind skating around thekids, I'm not too cool to skate
around kids, but I enjoy thefamily, I enjoy the adult nights
and in Dallas you have choicesof adult nights five nights a
week, tuesday through Sunday,and in some locations multiple
(04:09):
rinks that have adult nightopportunities.
But I really got serious aboutskating and there were two areas
One, when my mother did investin skates for myself and I had a
younger brother and sister, sowe were the kids that could go
to the skating party and had ourown skates, which was one thing
.
And that was when we were earlyteens.
And then I was an athlete inhigh school so I was told
(04:34):
falsely by coaches that rollerskating would mess up my
athletics and so I shouldn't doit and somehow I fell for that.
So as a teenager I got too coolto skate and stop skating for
whatever individuals who arefrom my hometown of Detroit,
(05:06):
michigan, got together and weplanned a roller skating party.
That ended up being the hit.
And so in my sophomore year ofcollege we threw skating parties
like other groups throughregular parties and we outdrew
any of the other groups so thatit really became a hit.
(05:30):
That was in the state of NorthCarolina, at my alma mater,
which is North Carolina A&T.
So I got serious about skatingat 19, and then they unleashed
the beast and I've been rollingever since.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Nice.
Now, what sports did you do inhigh school?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
that said, skating would interfere with with your
athletics well, I, I actuallyshowed a little promise in
football at least that's whatthey said, uh, and because I
played football since littleleague and by the time I was in
high school, uh became like allthese, all district, all league,
(06:07):
and and and did pretty well inthat.
But you know, coaches said, hey, look, you're going to mess up
your college chances for uh, no,don't mess up your college
chances by roller skating.
Going out there roller skating,I'm like oh, okay, okay, okay.
And then I played basketball,ran track.
So, yeah, I was a busy highschooler and put down the skates
(06:30):
for a while, even though I wentto high school less than two
miles from one of the mostpopular skating rinks in the
area Wow, which was now.
I look at that.
I said what was I doing?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
yeah, have the coaches not seen the size of the
quads on skaters?
I don't, they didn't, theydidn't know and think about this
, though just the lateralmovements you do in football or
basketball, skating strengthensall those muscles.
So they were were, I'll have tosay.
(07:06):
Sports training and science hascome a long way since then.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh yeah.
Well, I would just say, just,you know, looking out for their
own selfish interests versus myinterests.
Yeah, they were selfish aboutwhat they could do with myself
and other athletes and reallydidn't know.
They didn't know the physicalscience of that.
Knowing what I know now,because what happened is when I
(07:32):
went to college and did not playfootball, however, I was all
world intramural because wecould play intramural sports
amongst clubs and organizationsand since I had played football
that way and had started skating, I was in shape more than any
(07:53):
of the kids.
I didn't get the freshman 15.
Yeah, it was really nice.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, and now with skating.
Did you ever compete, or wereyou just like the club promoter
for skating?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
No, I was really the club promoter for skating.
Um, you know, there were peoplethat I ran into that uh did
compete, Uh, when, when, whenyou go to a school and people
started coming from all overaround, they bring all of their
experiences.
So I met people who didartistic skating.
(08:29):
I met people that back in thattime had did some version of
derby.
You know, you meet people whowere rink rats at that time and
so the prospect of skating, youknow, just lit them up and lit
them on fire and they became mypromotional team because it
(08:51):
brought back to them somethingthat they were serious about in
some realm of life.
And some of those people are myfriends today.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Nice, now after college, how did the skating go?
What like, still with therhythm, skating and promoting
more parties and stuff, and thenyeah, a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Um, after I graduated from college I went from north
carolina to houston, texas, uh,as a young professional and back
, uh, in those days in the early80s, uh, there were uh rinks,
there were still rinks that werevery popular.
If you think about the ebbs andflows of skating and skating
rinks, when you're in a largercity you actually have more
(09:33):
choices and we had choices.
So as a young adult I did goskating a couple nights a week
so it became kind of a regularat the skating rink, so it
became kind of a regular at theskating rink.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Very cool.
And now I know for me I wasskating in the late 80s, early
90s, through most of the 90s,and someone made me give up
skating because they thought itwas childish and re-got back
into it during the pandemic.
So how do you think thepandemic actually?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
affected like the resurgence of skating.
Well, I think that for thosewho never stopped skating, like
myself, you know it, it didn'tdo anything but bring a lot of
news.
It brought a lot of new skaters, uh, a lot of new people to
skating because, even though fora short amount of time,
depending on your location,rinks were closed, uh, but the
(10:28):
cameras were on, and so, yeah,people made their following by
putting some, by putting onskates, uh, and skating around
wherever their living room,their basement, you know, if
they had a facility that theycould skate themselves, you, you
know, they, uh, they were ableto uh, highlight themselves,
(10:49):
whereas people like me neverstopped skating.
I mean, uh, in Texas, um,things shut down for a small
amount of time, but then, uh,after they had protocols that
allowed skating to come back,people like me and others, we
kept on skating.
And then, when we came back,then you had this whole era of
(11:14):
new people who had found skating, and they found us, who had
never stopped skating.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah.
So I mean, for me it's justbeen amazing and it's like I'm
sorry I ever gave it up.
This is why you never listenedto your first wife.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, but nowyou started an organization, and
what is your organizationcalled?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
okay, uh, well, there's a couple of things, um,
from a skating standpoint.
Uh, I am the executive directorof a scholarship fund called
the Chuck Birch Scholarship Fund, where we raise money for
students to go to school, to goto college in particular, and we
(11:58):
have a few waves of raisingthat money, but one of the waves
that we raise money is by aroller skating party, and so
this will be my 12th year ofskating for scholarships, where
we have grown from one night tofive nights, and during those
(12:21):
five nights we have differentthemes, but the consistent thing
is that we give on-the-spotscholarships to students that
attend, and it has really becomethe hit.
Because I'm an OG in the skateworld and you'll become an OG
(12:41):
just by being around, surviving,not stopping skating and I'm
well respected in the skateworld.
I'm a CPA, an accountant, byeducation, and so I have a great
following and a good reputation, and so I have a passion for
(13:02):
scholarships.
The only way that I got tocollege from Detroit, michigan,
was on a scholarship, and so Ihave always found being around
scholarships as a very noblecause, a very impactful cause
and a way to intervene your love, your recreational love, for
(13:24):
something that's important,because I was going to be
skating anyway, so why not getpeople together and raise some
money and then give it away?
And so that's what we're doing,man.
At our last skating party,which is now a five-night event,
in December, we raised and gaveaway over $12,000, actually
(13:45):
$13,000 in scholarships over afive-night.
I called it love affair onskates.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
There you go.
Now.
Are scholarships like kids haveto attend these things to earn
a scholarship or is there otherways to go about the scholarship
?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
yes, well, for this, this sleeve of scholarships, you
must be present to win, okay,and and so, and you're randomly
drawn.
I mean, the only rule is thatyou have to be in college when
you come, uh, that to be yoursemester, and you have to be
going to school the nextsemester, okay, and it doesn't
(14:29):
matter where you go to school,it doesn't matter who you are,
but if you're in school andgoing to school, you're in the
random drawing.
And we draw at least fourscholarships every night of the
five-night event.
And then on the last night,which we call Salute to the Old
School and OGs, we have specialscholarships that we award to
(14:54):
skaters who are students who dothe above and beyond.
You know, maybe they are veryimpactful in the local community
.
Okay, maybe they are veryimpactful in the local community
.
Maybe they are, maybe they workat a skating rink, but they
really stand out.
We've had two skaters that havepassed and we named those
(15:17):
skater that scholarship, thosespecial scholarships for those
skaters.
So they really embody the heartof someone who's very
enthusiastic about skating.
That's one special scholarship.
And one who really is committedto skating, and that's another
special scholarship.
So the combination of those andthe randomly drawn scholarships
(15:37):
allow us to really make adifference for a number, a large
number of students along theway.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Okay, and now are these events only held in Texas?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
This event?
Ah, good point.
This event is only held inTexas, However, it's 2025.
I've been doing this for 12years.
I've developed a littlefollowing online and I have had
offers that I am taking up andconsidering in 2025 of bringing
(16:11):
skating for scholarships to alocal location.
For example, I have a son thatlives in Atlanta and I visit him
often.
I visit him often, so there isan individual who's on the
Atlanta skating scene who I amcollaborating with to add a
scholarship component to hismulti-night event, so we're
(16:34):
probably going to have skatingfor scholars of Atlanta.
I'm a native of Detroit,michigan.
Talk to some of my home peopleabout doing that.
I get out as using platformslike this and thank you very
much for having me on You'rewelcome.
Creative juices goes, and Iwould love to talk about how I
(17:04):
can help bring skating forscholarships to your or a local
location.
If nothing else, we arebringing the awareness of roller
skating and the need forscholarships.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nice because I know Denver has a huge skating scene.
And it's funny because I'm fromthe Bay Area in California and
we only had one rink and I'mhere in Denver, which the whole
state has less people than whereI live in California, and
there's at least five or sixrinks that I can think of off
(17:32):
the top of my head that I havethe option to go to.
We have the adult skate everynight of the week.
So we got multiple options andin the future I'm planning on
bringing bigger skating eventsand we're actually planning an
event in Victoria, texas, toactually make the city more
(17:53):
aware for just bringing morepeople into skating and the
passion of skating.
So you have a passion and I havea passion and I took it a
little different route with apodcast and bringing all forms
of skating together.
And you're bringing skatingwhere people can actually get
scholarships, and I know I havea 17 year old that's getting
ready to go to possibly see youBoulder next year, so, and he
(18:17):
worked at a roller rink.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
He plays hockey still .
Speaker 3 (18:22):
So well, it's funny because I actually have
individuals who come from Denverwho come to my party.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I have had in the past an individual who, well,
every year I have more than oneindividual who goes to school
wherever.
They just happen to be in town,or they've heard about the
event and they've come down, oreven sometimes they just
stumbled into the event, whichis, hey, I just came here with
(18:50):
my friends and I want ascholarship.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
you know, that's, that is how it certainly works
um, but you know, their friendsset them up oh, yeah, they did.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, well, well then , that's the right.
Hey, the friend set them up,they invited them.
They got the scholarship, thefriend did, and but what they'll
do at?
They got the scholarship, thefriend didn't, but what they'll
do at a multi-night eventthey'll come back again and
again and again, which actuallyhelps to promote skating,
because then you get people whomay normally only go one night
and they are motivated to gomultiple nights.
(19:22):
And then we do some otherthings to encourage people to
come multiple nights.
We have raffles, we have, Icall it, we have TVs that get
bigger every day so we may startoff.
We start off the first night.
It might be a 38-inch TV, a36-inch TV, and those are random
, they're raffled off, so itallows us to raise money.
(19:53):
We have vendors there.
We have what's called theSkaters Showcase, where it's a
skate competition.
It's a competition, but it'snot a competition.
It really showcases andhighlights individuals who have
different skate styles,different, different skate
(20:13):
grooves.
We film it and, by audienceparticipation, every night we
pick a favorite male and femaleskater and the winner of every
night gets to advance to thefinal on sunday.
So then we basically have fourgroups of and you know, if you
(20:36):
win one night you can come skatethe next night.
You just can't win the nextnight so that by by the finals
you really got, theoretically,four favorite skaters in the
male and female genre who arebattling it or actually just
competing, and then we, weinvite others to come and and,
(20:59):
uh, demonstrate their favoritestyle, uh, and so it's highly,
it's highly popular.
We actually get one of thelocal TV stations behind us by
that final event.
It really becomes a great vibeand a great build.
We do some things outside ofskating.
We promote some of the localbusinesses.
(21:21):
We have a skate shop thatactually hosts kind of our skate
happy hour event where peoplewe call it tune up and turn up,
where you can tune up yourskates along the way, get
equipment, get swag and be readyfor the next night of skating.
Juice Bar that has a perfectsetup that you can come and wear
(21:48):
your skates and enjoy healthyeating options.
They were actually one of thevendors at my last event.
So we have lessons on Saturdaymorning.
We actually give lessons wherewe give lessons in various
styles of skating.
We give lessons where we givelessons in various styles of
(22:22):
skating, everything frombeginner and basic to artistic,
to ballroom and middle work anda bunch of other styles.
So all of those events allow usto attract over a thousand
people over the week and againraise some great money, raise
some great awareness and, ofcourse, reward skaters that come
via scholarship.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Nice Now with the scholarship, is that last while
they're all the way throughcollege, or is it just like for
that semester?
It's only for one semester.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
We want individuals to come back.
Uh, and and I really and Ireally want to facilitate this
this idea of other locations uh,considering adding a
scholarship component.
I mean, wouldn't it be a greatthing?
I mean, you're going to go downto victoria, texas, and you're
going to bring your love forskating there.
Uh, there are going to bepeople going to hear about
they're going to come out.
Uh, they're good people who aregoing to walk into it and then,
(23:16):
if you can leave the communityand a greater good there's
there's a university of houstonat victoria.
I know that because one of thescholarship awardees actually
last year goes to U of HVictoria.
So when you're going down, whenyou go down to Victoria and
we're in contact, oh, I'm goingto help be an ambassador for
(23:39):
that.
I'm going to make sure skatersthat I know there and they bring
people.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Nice, yeah, because it's one of my guests, she's
from there and they don't havelike an adult night and like the
adults aren't.
But I thought it would be likecool to like set up a whole
event, maybe like have some oldcars, old school cars there,
make it like a whole thing andtry to get the whole town
involved and then that way wecan really bring awareness and
(24:10):
that just not only does it forcommunity's sake but also for
the rink and that's a localbusiness down there.
So I mean we can like you, I'ma skate ambassador and we can
create more skating, becausemore people skate, the less
problems we have with fights.
Like you know, the community is.
The community is so awesomethat we don't.
When you go to a roller rink,you bump into somebody, you say
(24:31):
oh sorry, and they're like, oh,that's okay and everything.
If they fall, you help themback up.
It's not like a bar where youbump into somebody and next
thing you know you're gettinghit in the face or something.
So it's a totally differentenvironment and community and I
think we're a lot more familythan we are, you know, just
people that show up to skate.
(24:51):
So we welcome everybody, wehelp everybody.
So now the next question is doyou get out there and do a
demonstration for everybody onon how the OG does it?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I've been, I've been encouraged uh, many times, many
nights, because because of mylongevity and skating and some
may say that I'm a pretty goodskater, whatever that, whatever
pretty good is.
Uh, that, yes, I, I, I will,you know, I'll, I'll rise to the
occasion, Uh, and someone willsay, or some someone will say,
(25:25):
hey, chuck, show me something.
And then the next thing I lookbehind me and then there are a
group of people doing exactlywhat I'm doing.
So, uh, yes, I am, I am, can, Ican be that guy sometimes where
I start a group skate, uh, or,uh, I might be that guy because,
uh, I'm from Detroit, um, I, Iadmire all styles of skate
(25:51):
skating and can usually prettyquickly emulate, uh, that style,
uh, and, and it's a, it's acompliment, you know, it's
really a compliment that youknow you're.
If you're a jam skater and maybesomeone new comes and they
start jamming with you the sameway you're jamming, you know,
(26:12):
that's, that's the ultimatecompliment.
And so I, I'm pretty good, I'mgood enough to be able to do
that, or to pick up thingsfairly quickly.
And when I pick it up down,you've got two people, then you
may have four people.
Now you've got a whole bunch ofpeople in line doing whatever
we're doing.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, it's always awesome to see that, because a
lot of the times you'll getpeople out in the middle of the
rink, especially at my rink,where they start doing the
dancing, and next thing you know, you look out there and there's
10, 15 people out there andthey're all just trying to learn
.
And the cool thing is iseverybody's teaching everybody.
(26:53):
So it's, you know, there's no,it's all inclusive, there's no
exclusivity.
It's like oh no, you can't joinus.
They whoever wants to do it cando it.
And that's one of the things Ilove about skating, and it
doesn't matter what your styleis, it's you're there to have
fun and have community and it'suh, it's probably one of the
most awesomest things I could bepart of.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
For real, and that's universal.
That's universal all over thecountry.
I've been fortunate to be ableto skate internationally.
I've been able to skate oncruise ships.
Um, I had a.
I went on an 18 day cruise lastuh fall and chronicled those 18
days of skating because thatship had a skating rink on the
(27:32):
boat and so what cruise line isthis.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Let's promote them too.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Absolutely this is Royal Caribbean.
So Royal Caribbean has fourships in a class.
My particular boat, ovation ofthe Seas, has a skating facility
called the SeaP, open as longas I wasn't in the way of people
doing other things.
And then there were lightertimes when there was no one out
(28:16):
there but me, and of course youbecome a hit amongst the cruise
staff because here you are, youbrought your own skates and
you're roller skating and you'repretty good, uh, and you are a
hit amongst the cruisers becauseit's like hey, there's that guy
, he's a tall.
Look, he's gonna skate today.
(28:36):
We're gonna go see him skatetoday.
Hey, I wanted to learn how toskate like that.
Uh, and I even have people whosaid, boy, are you part of the
staff and part of the crew?
And someone said, no, he justloves skating.
Nice, it's real nice.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
And now they have skate rentals on the cruise too
for people to get skates.
Absolutely, that is awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
On those boats they have skate rentals that people
can rent skates and it's reallya skating party.
On a short cruise sometimesit's one or two nights.
On a longer cruise it's reallya skating party.
You know, on on a short cruiseit's sometimes one or two nights
.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
On a longer cruise it's definitely three nights
well, maybe we have to get oneof the ships and just commandeer
it and have just a giant skatefestival on it.
Hey, I was close.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I, I was this close.
I was down the road with uhforming a skating party.
Uh, I couldn't get the.
I couldn't get Royal Caribbeanto kind of agree upon my terms,
which was to allow a largernumber of people on the skating
surface at the same time as wellas agree to the times that we
(29:41):
would.
We, as skaters, would need toskate and and some other terms,
so we weren't able to do it on alarge scale basis.
Would need to skate and someother terms, so we weren't able
to do it on a large scale basis.
But I haven't given that up yetbecause of that boat, that
favorite boat of mine, whichused to do the Alaska run.
They would go from Seattle upto Alaska and back.
(30:01):
Then that cruise repositionedto Australia and I got on in
Hawaii and cruised to Sydney,australia.
Well, that same boat is comingback to Los Angeles late this
summer, and as that boat thenstarts to do the Mexican Riviera
, going out of LA down to Mexicoand back out of LA down to
(30:26):
Mexico and back, that's whenthere may be some great
opportunities to put together anevent or people who skate and
cruise.
You're going to start seeingthat, because this will be the
first time that that boat goesout of Southern California and
you don't have to be subject toa longer cruise to enjoy it.
(30:47):
So watch me, because I might bedoing it, but I am sure
someone's going to get the sameidea and it's going to be a
great time for everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Nice.
Now, one of the things with alot of my past guests is that,
just like the mental healthaspect of skating too and it's
helped so many people and withme, it helps me deal with a lot
of things Between skating andthe gym.
I'm pretty strong mentally, sohave you seen a lot of that with
(31:20):
a lot of the people that you'vementored over the years, and I
mean even kids gettingscholarships from skating.
That's got to.
That's got to boost your health, mental health too, or your ego
At least that?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Oh, absolutely.
I'm a finance guy, I'm a taxguy.
This is my tax season, yes.
So if anyone knows accountants,you know accountants can be
pretty, can some can can bepretty stuffy people.
So for me, I'm a lively guy.
Skating keeps me lively, keepsme cool, keeps me hip, keeps me
(31:55):
physically in shape, keeps mementally sharp so that I can get
through the things that I doprofessionally and I encourage
others to do it.
I have clients, colleagues.
I invite them out, they inviteme out.
I'm the tax guy that does a lotof work for the people at the
rink and the skate rink ownersand things like that.
But more importantly, it is amental outlet because it is
(32:21):
therapy.
You can go skating and you caneither be in your own world or
you can be in everyone else'sworld, and each one is greatly
accepted.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Exactly.
And now do you get to skate alot during tax time?
I know because, like sometimes,during tax time you're working
12, 15 hours a day.
Do you make time to still getout there and skate?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I do.
I do that If I don't doanything else, if I have to get
up from the desk to go and I'm arink skater and go to the rink
and get an hour or two or threein.
It allows me to continue tokeep my physical and mental
sharpness, and sometimes it'sthe only thing I do, because
(33:07):
it's the only thing you havetime for.
But you can establish a routine.
You can go and get a littlesweat on, get some social
interaction, get some thingsother than behind the desk and
then get back to it.
So yes, I do it and a lot ofother people do it for the same
(33:27):
reason.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Nice.
So now, growing up, who was oneof your biggest influences for
skating?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I had growing up, you know, because I had this unique
situation where I had skatesand we had siblings that we
could skate in the basement andthen we could take those same
metal skates, and we hadsiblings that we could skate in
the basement and then we couldtake those same metal skates and
we could skate outside.
Matter of fact, we turned uh,roller skates into like hockey
skates, um, again we play, weplay hockey on the with the
roller skates uh, and then Ikind of lost the rink thing
(33:59):
coming up.
So I didn't have any idols, uh,or anyone that I, with the
exception of my mother.
My mother was a good skater.
My mother was the one thatwould pack us all up and we'd go
on occasion to these skatingparties or we'd go to the
skating rink on occasion.
(34:20):
So she was probably my hero inskating.
And then when I got back toskating, hero in skating, and
then when I got back to skating,I wasn't one that was a regular
at any particular place until Ibecame the regular at the place
, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Totally makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Now, yeah, nowadays, with the proliferation of social
media, there are some peoplethat I see skating and I've met
skating that I admire at 64,almost 65.
I admire them and sometimes Iget admiration because of kind
(35:04):
of how I position skating andthe fact that I can skate and
the camera will see me andthey'll say well, chuck, you're
from Detroit, can you do thatslide thing?
And you know I can, I can slide, you know, in when I was 20 to
40, I could slide in what'scalled drop, which is this move
(35:24):
that basically you slide andthen you go down on two legs.
I wouldn't recommend it toanyone.
Matter of fact, I stopped at 40because my body wasn't going to
let me get back up anymore.
Running joke, but not a joke.
Hey, I've torn a meniscusroller skate but I've recovered
(35:46):
from it, but I use skating torecover from that.
I have torn a quad tendon.
Look, I tore a quad tendonrunning and I said, well, man,
if I was running I should havejust went skating.
But I'm skating as the rehab.
Right that night I should haveran, I should have went skating
as the rehab.
Right that night, I should haveran, I should have went before
(36:08):
skating.
But then it was an importantpart of my rehab because I got
my orthopedic doctor.
Well, she ice skated, so sheunderstood what skating was and
she said hey, yes, if you do itthis way, then this can be an
important part of your therapyand this will help you.
And so I did what my doctortold me and I recuperated much
(36:31):
faster than I would have had Inot stayed.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah, skating has helped a lot with injuries and
just movement in general,especially as we get older,
especially as we get older, sowhat is your skate setup?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
What am?
Speaker 3 (36:53):
I rocking with.
We're on online.
I just happen to have my skateset up and my skate set up is a
little different and it's kindof custom, because I've broken
plates, I've torn up boots, youknow, I've torn out tongues, and
(37:14):
so I've put together somethingthat actually my local rink
owner actually helped me withbased on seeing me go out there.
So I have a boot that's almostlike a hockey boot.
It's an iron horse boot,composite plate which allows me
(37:49):
the skate to be light, yet, youknow, yet firm.
I'm from Michigan, so I weartoe stops, and toe stops allow
me to do things that some people, without toe stops, can't do.
And then I have FOMAC Premierwheels.
Wheels and fomac premier wheelsare hard like the wood surface
of any great wood floor, whichallows me to slide.
(38:12):
So that's my setup and it worksout.
Now I keep an in sole.
Yeah, make it comfortable.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And what kind of bearings do you use?
Do you just use?
I like all the nitty-gritty.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I've gone through yeah, I've gone through a number
of bearings in sole.
I can't tell you I thinkthey're Reds and I don't know
what version of Reds.
They are Okay, but you knowthey.
They again.
I'm blessed.
I'm great with all of the localskate owners.
Hold on a second, this is goingto stop me.
I'm blessed to know all ofpretty comparable replacement,
(39:06):
literally on the spot.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Nice.
And now, what is your advice toup-and-coming skaters, just in
general, like what's your bestadvice you can give them?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
My best advice is there.
There is no substitute for timeon the wheels.
There is no substitute for timein those skates, whether you're
a rink skater or an outdoorskater, uh, or you know, if you
skate in facilities or if you'reskating your living, you're
skating your garage, um, get onthose skates, move, move around,
(39:39):
try things, give yourself somegrace, because no one becomes a
video skater overnight.
It will help you.
All you got to do is ask or bereceptive when people may want
(40:06):
to help you.
It's not like they're trying tobe creepy or it's not like
they're trying to do anythingodd.
They just want to share theirlove of skating with individuals
.
So, with new skaters, come,come again, try it, go out, come
on on and give yourself somesome patience, because, uh, for
those who escaped it, you knowwe can tell you that we didn't
(40:28):
get here overnight, uh, and wedidn't.
We didn't learn anything new,uh, without trying it many times
.
Don't be afraid to fall.
Everyone fall.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Uh, you can learn how to fall you.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
But again, once you get it, once the light comes on,
the light's on.
Do it until life tells you thatyou can't do otherwise.
And when life tells you youcan't do otherwise, try to come
back to it.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, I actually enjoy the skating videos of
people that are chronically intheir skating journey and they
include the falls, they includethe mess ups, they include the
mistakes, because you're justwatching them grow as they get
better.
And if they only put the goodstuff, it would be like regular
social media.
It's just only showing you thegood stuff, like, oh, I never
make mistakes.
So I appreciate that they showall the falls and the trials and
(41:20):
tribulations that they gothrough.
So it's a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I agree Again.
It's the place where you canreally be honest with yourself
and you can be honest withothers, and that honesty brings
emulation and hopefully thatemulation brings someone along
the way.
And I know that there's no waythat I would have thought that I
(41:48):
would be a skate partycoordinator.
There's a group called theSkate Coordinators Group and I
still ask myself how did I getinto this?
But it's great to be includedamongst some of those that
people can.
When they dial in a video, Ican say well, I know such and
(42:12):
such and such and such or suchand such will come to my event
or when I'm in XYZ town.
And when you're in XYZ town, ifyou bring your skates, you are
automatically accepted.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, I mean you can't leave home without them.
I mean, it's like it should.
You should have a separatecarry on just for your skates.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
As a matter of fact, that's a cardinal rule.
Carry on your skates, don'tcheck.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Apparently there's some airports that you can't
skate in, so somebody postedthat and I'm like I gotta find
out what these airports are,because I definitely know
they're probably not in the bayarea that's right.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Um, what skating rink ?
Uh, I mean, I know I've been tothe church bay wheels, uh, in
in the bay area, um, and I'vebeen to some outdoor facilities,
uh on the oakland side of thebay area.
Um, what was the place?
Uh, unless you had to go up tosacramento or down to stockton,
or it was actually san ramon,it's uh, the golden skin, ramon.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah, and I actually heard many years yeah, I've
heard for many years that it wasclosing and one of my previous
guests is actually from myhometown and it's still open,
which surprised me because Ithought like after the pandemic
they were done.
But I'm happy to hear they'restill open.
And when I go back home tovisit I'm bringing my skates and
I'm hitting the rink, so Igotta bring both pairs.
(43:39):
I gotta bring the speed skatesand the my skates and I'm
hitting the rink, so I got tobring both pairs.
I got to bring the speed skatesand the indoor skates.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
So Absolutely I.
One of the one of the hits uh afew years ago is I skated in a
parade, uh in San Francisco.
Uh, so that was a blast uh toto be able to skate in the
parade.
Uh, I have a good friend.
His name is David Miles.
He runs the Church of EightWheels, okay, and he's very
(44:08):
entrenched in the San Franciscoskate scene.
The mayor of San Franciscoactually roller skates.
I've skated with the mayor.
Yeah, really nice.
So I've got some pictures of atrip that I made there last
summer where I'm helping herlace them up and get on out
there.
But you're right, whether it'sNorthern California in the Bay
(44:32):
Area, southern California,denver, colorado, texas, the
East Coast, west Coast, victoria, texas and every place in
between, you can find skate.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Absolutely, because when we were growing up, we went
to Golden Gate Park all day,went home, switched to our
indoor wheels and then went toGolden Skate, but you got to
take BART out there just so youdon't have to deal with trying
to find parking and traffic, andit's way worse now.
True, deal with trying to findparking and traffic, and it's
(45:04):
way worse now.
So now how can my listenersfollow you and find out more
about your events and possiblyeven show up to your events?
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Absolutely Well, I'm Chuck Birch, c-h-u-c-k-b-u-r-c-h
.
I'm the guy with one syllablenames.
You can find me on any means.
You may have to go Chuck Birch,cpa, because I am a CPA.
Or now you can look up Skatingfor Scholarships on Facebook,
(45:31):
instagram, tiktok, blue SkyThreads.
I'm everywhere.
I've been encouraged to be onall means and what I try to do
is try to post the sameinformation to both, to all of
those on the skating forscholarships, on all of those
things it's always rollerskating things.
On some of those other meansyou may see some of the other
(45:53):
stuff that I do for forscholarship, but when it gets
toward the event, then you willsee nothing but skating.
You'll see unique skatingthings.
I'll have some unique peoplethat might be speaking for me,
since people come from all overthe country to my event.
I turn about, turn about fairplay, reciprocate, and I
(46:17):
actually may help to promotesome other skating events for
some of my friends because I maygo to their location to either
help promote the event or justto roller skate.
Yeah, they do and they do this.
They do the same thing for me.
So, chuck Birch, you can findme there and usually from there
I always have a direct way,because I do have a website and
(46:39):
and some other ways that you canget in contact with me, and
hopefully this podcast is justgoing to continue to spin and go
viral all over the place andyou'll see all of us here.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Absolutely, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you coming on theshow tonight, so I look forward
to actually working with you inthe future on projects too.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
It is my pleasure.
Anytime.
I'd love to come back becauseyou know we skaters are, I like
to say we're kind of greatpeople in our own right.
So we hear our message of ourlove for skating and sometimes
our love for the other goodstuff around skating, skating
and sometimes I love for theother good stuff around skating
(47:24):
and for me, um, oh, there willbe a way as you follow me, there
will be a way that, no matterwhere you are in the country,
you can participate in skatingfor scholarships, because what
I'm going to allow, uh, andencourage, I have what's called
a virtual ticket.
You can okay, you can, purchasea virtual ticket for the
skating event Submit your video,your 30-second or 60-second or
(47:48):
less video I'll probably cut itto 30 seconds and I will play
one.
I'll play that video at theevent, because every facility
has its own projection screenand then I am going to run those
videos on my social media pagesboth before, during and after
(48:09):
the event.
So that is the encouragementthat anyone, everyone, can
participate in Skating forScholarships and then you're
part of my skating family andthen let's keep in contact so
that we can help each other.
You know, I got 5,000 friendsand following.
I got the maximum on Facebookand then I don't know how many I
(48:30):
got on Instagram and otherplaces.
But it's great to be part ofthis community, that we can help
each other, and that is one waywe can help each other and
everyone can participate inSkating for Scholarship.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Absolutely Thank you, you, thank you, thank you.
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