Tom Hyser was born into the Quad culture of the rinks around Atlanta and went from rink rat to skate rat. His family’s move to the Midwest was life-changing—He first discovered inline skating there. Tom is an original X Gamer, a product visionary whose designs have sold millions of units, an internet pioneer, and through it all he’s lived the struggle of being an inline skater. On the show, we talk about the love of skate, the hate received for it, and everything in between. The podcast ends with a laugh out loud “Inappropriate Questions” segment with Andy Kruse. Photos: Hyser Archives.

Check the podcast on Libsyn | Itunes | Thepowellmovement.com.

TIMECODES: 4:00: Covid travel, skateboarding, and Wisconsin 17:00: Jamie Thomas, skateboard hate, and incidents 21:45: The decline of inline, growing up outside of Atlanta, roller skating, and wrestling year-round 26:00: Getting sponsored, high school, qualifying for the pro tour, and college 33:00: Hoax 2, blowing his knee at the first X Games, and going in house at K2 41:00: Peter Glenn Ski and Sports: 43:45: The Fatty, crazy opportunities, no rules, going to Korea and recalls 51:00: The end of K2, Skatepile, Fiziks, and the scary future 61:00: Rollerblade and business is booming 65:00: Inappropriate Questions with Andy Kruse

Tom Hyser is a product designer, Marketing manager and team manager of Rollerblade Inline Skates Brand. In this Skate Talk you’ll get to know a bit more about the man behind brands like K2 skates, Skatepile, Fiziks frames, Epoch frames AND Rollerblade. Hope you enjoy the 107 minute talk with one of the most influential skating individuals in 2017. - Ricardo Lino.

Content

• 01:25 - rollerblading or inline skating?
• 02:05 - Who’s Tom Hyser? For how long have you been skating?
• 08:30 - How did you got into K2 Skates ? K2 Fatty’s ?
• 11:19 - getting payed 5K per month to skate at 22
• 17:50 - How did Skatepile started and why it ended
• 19:41 - FIZIKS frames problem
• 24:50 - What happened to Epoch Frames?
• 27:50 - Ford or Rollerblade?
• 30:20 - Rollerblade First Big Wheels UFS frames
• 31:05 - Your first opportunity to make an hard boot skate
• 33:00 - Skate brands trying something new.
• 34:50 - blank WARLOCK concept skate
• 37:20 - Richie Eisler 125 skates idea made by ROCES
• 38:50 - “If we keep fighting instead of supporting each other..”
• 40:55 - What do you think of the whole big wheel thing?
• 43:45 - Did k2 had Roller Skates?
• 47:45 - Tim Robot from backjack project tour with VANS
• 49:20 - They avoid skating when they get famous
• 50:33 - Some aggressive skaters should be doing freeskate promo videos
• 52:05 - Just look at it as someone who doesn’t skate
• 55:14 - Greg Mirzoyan
• 57:56 - I wanted to modify Sven frames for FISE
• 59:19 - Skaters need to understand why rollerblade lost their BEST TEAM.
• 1:02:22 - Andy Kruse was on a whole different level of creativity
• 1:04:10 - what do you think of skate competitions?
• 1:05:02 - what do you think about Winterclash?
• 1:06:20 - Pro with the a Bad attitude
• 1:10:10 - You can be a really good skater without challenging life
• 1:12:35 - Is there any skater getting payed 1500 US dollars Right now?
• 1:14:00 - When is skating coming back, and what do we need to do for that to happen?
• 1:21:07 - the FIRS Skating Marathon World Championships.
• 1:23:50 - Rollerblade Team
• 1:26:50 - A Big Group of cool dudes used to make fun of David Sizemore
• 1:27:30 - David Sizemore on VALO
• 1:29:00 - New Rollerblade Skates?
• 1:35:26 - Rollerblade 2017 Video Projects
• 1:36:40 - What happened with Matthias Ogger?
• 1:40:30 - Who was the best skater you ever worked with?
• 1:42:20 - What is your favourite skate product on the market right now?

Rollerblade Pro, Razors Pro and Adapt pro, The Atlanta local, Julian Bah has been a top pro aggressive inline skater since the early 2000s and he is still going strong.

My first memory of Julian Bah, was “this kid doing a huge 180 in a street contest in Atlanta”, a few months went by and he was announced as a SKATEPILE team skater, a few more months and Julian was part of team Rollerblade and Fiziks frames, this was only the beginning. Julian’s skate career has been full of ups and downs, from amazing video parts in several videos to some “blade drama”.

In 2018 he is still on top of the game and I’m excited to share this Skate Talk with all of you. Why did you got fired from rollerblade? What happened between you and Coco Sanchez? How was it living in the Razors house? How did you become part of the Adapt skates pro team? All of these and lot more questions were answered during this 100 minutes skate talk with one of the most influential skating individuals in 2018.

Video on Youtube | Visit Jvaughn.co.

Brian Aragon’s life sounded like a dream until he realized it wasn’t. He was a world champion pro skater and his video parts were as legendary as his park skills.

He’s traveled the world many times over, had 6 Pro Model skates, and a skatepark named after him all before the age of 30… And then he rolled away from it all to become the Inside Account Manager over at Arrow Electronics. Find out why on the podcast.

Podcast on Libsyn | Itunes - Visit Thepowellmovement.com.

Arlo Eisenberg was once dubbed the face and voice of his generation and his story sounds like the best 90’s movie that was never made. Arlo, the punk rock kid from Texas drops out of the University of Texas and moves to California to become a star in a sport that isn’t really a sport yet. He arrives on Venice Beach, gets “found” and blows up to be a global sensation who lives a life that is every 13 year old’s fantasy. Along the way he stirs up a national controversy, hosts the X-Games and rides off into a world of graphic design. - Michael Powell.

Check the podcast on Thepowellmovement.com.

I’m honored to have been interviewed for Michael Powell’s “The Powell Movement” podcast. We went pretty deep into the history books for this one, like all the way back to how my parents met and what I was doing before I discovered rollerblades. But it really does give some insight into the very early days of rollerblading and my career. Enjoyed the chat very much. Hope you enjoy it as well. - Arlo Eisenberg.

Alex Broskow’s life is full of juxtapositions. From dropping out of high school and moving into the dorms of the University of Kansas to being an athlete who is looked at as one of the best to ever participate in his sport… But couldn’t afford groceries.

This rare interview dives deep into the world of skating, travel and all that comes with being a pro athlete (minus money).

Check the podcast on Thepowellmovement.com.