The Real Deal

Ahhh Worlds is OVER; part of me is happy, the other part is... also happy haha. The competition was great; i had an awesome time racing the world's best, but it's been a long year with a few bumps in the road and a decent chunk of my training never happened- which is nobody's fault but my own. Next season, starting Oct 1, i will be keeping an online blog style training journal, which will include all my workouts and my diet. It will also include exactly how i felt in each session as well as what was going through my head while i was doing it- i will provide the link once it is set up.

The Asian countries are definitely stepping their game up and showing the rest of the world that to be the best you have to put in the work; too many kids now-adays dont understand that concept. I was really let down to hear about sebastian arce from colombia, he was my pick to be the star of worlds this year- i hope he gets his health back sooner than later. With his absence, arose a new world stud from china taipei- Son Qingyang; the kid is incredible. Wei Lin Lo, also from china taipei, won his first individual gold this year, which was well deserved; he's been one of the fastest guys at worlds for the past 3-4 years, if not longer, and has always come up short. A lot of skaters stand out in my mind, but with long day of travel yesterday, my memory is near non-existent.

To clear up a few cloudy rumors traveling around at the moment:

• I was not under any contractual obligation at the world championships - i chose each part of my product by my own will and received no compensation for those choices
• I currently am a 'free agent' and have not signed any deals with any companies, nor have i made any verbal agreements to what will happen for the future
• I do plan on skating next year on inline and i do plan on skating indoor, including nationals; the goal being to clear up peoples' ideas that i've 'lost my touch' so to speak
• The seven fingers held up at worlds does not represent any monetary value, it represented my 7th gold medal of the championships

Anyway, back to the trip... one of the best after parties i've been to ever! It seems that the worst organization is complimented by a dope after party (first spain, now china)- but i can't give the credit to the organizers of worlds this year, the good chaps from new zealand set this one up at a local bar called the Oasis. This place is run by a really nice couple who both speak english and happened to welcome us with open arms. At one point there was a bull frog the size of a softball sitting on the pool table pissing, and of course peter michael drinking a pint of beer out of someone's shoe (this is known as a shoey)... it was good times. NOTE: if you want a couple free drinks at the oasis, just give them your overall trophy, works every time haha... seemed like a fair trade, pus i was REALLY thirsty and all i had in my hand was my trophy cup- what other solution was there?

China was hot and humid, kinda like the worst day in florida- but every single day. It wasn't exactly easy to breathe there either, mostly because chinese people LOVE smoking, especially inside... especially in our hotel... especially RIGHT outside our room. We changed rooms with about 4 days left, but the damage was done, i felt like i was going to die every morning when i woke up; i was coughing up this awesome yellowish, greenish stuff. That, accompanied with some minor chest pains, led me to believe that i  had emphazima or however you spell it... then i hypothesized that the chest pains came from swinging my arms too hard in the 200m... i apparently strained a chest muscle or somethin; this, ladies and gentlemen, assures me that my choice to give up my dream of becoming a doctor and to instead pursue a career in skating was completely just and a very good judgment call on my behalf (thats a lie, but if i could be a jerk like house and get away with it, I'M IN) .

im pretty excited to see what happens for the next season; there are a ton of things on my plate and its a good thing because im HUNGRY. First, NSC- in my opinion, this is going to change our sport and there have also been a lot of rumors floating around about what this thing is really going to be about...

• by no means is NSC scripted... not even a little bit... it's legit sport by passionate athletes which is going to bring more excitement than you could even imagine; we don't need to make it fake
• harry vogel won't be skating the first event because he made prior obligations to attend different races around the same time frame- my assumption is that he has a new brand and needs as many SKATERS to see it as possible to get it off the ground and a good way to do that is to skate meets where those skaters will be in attendance. He was on board before this, so again, this is my assumption... we will see what happens for the subsequent races.
• we already have several local sponsors interested in what we're doing; this is going to be huge
• The site will be live in just a few days, check http://www.pronsc.com/ on Oct 3

Second, my sponsorship situation for next year. I have a few legit offers and really look forward to moving forward with my career. Opening new doors is always yields exciting results and keeps things fresh when they start to seem a little stale. It gives me a new set of goals to work toward.

Third, my main race goals for next year are as follows:

• something i haven't had any desire to do in years has suddenly sparked my interest again with everything going on: Win Indoor Nationals- not just overall, every race
• i don't know if it's ever been done before: Win every race at trials
• there are 2 titles that i haven't been able to attain at worlds: Win 200m, Win 10k Points/Elim on Track; i will work to win all that i can at worlds, but these 2 races are my primary concern

I have plans to start a technical video that i've been wanting to shoot for the past 4 years or so, if anyone can help with this, i would greatly appreciate it. Im looking for quality videography accompanied by someone who really knows what they're doing when it comes to editing.

One last thing, thanks to EVERYONE who's been reading and also to those who have been complimentary in their comments, both on facebook and on here, much appreciated.

China - Part 7

ohhh mannnn, i have to say one of my new favorite people to watch race is the junior kid from china taipei, he is a FREAK! Also, justin mannon is hilarious! the dude came across the line last night tap dancing or something, haha it's funny because i can relate to the emotion that goes into races at worlds, especially the first few medals.

Erin jackson was a stud last night! i think she would have won the 500m last year on the track if she would have raced it how she did last night; she was fearless last night- she learned.

Keith was great in the relay heat, did exactly what he needed to do and helped get us into the final from a heat that was very hard.

Will was a G last night in the final. Skated very fast, composed, and had a big role in getting us the gold, as did cheex.

I didnt get to see all the races, so i may have left out someone, dont shoot me lol.

OHH i almost forgot, there's this dude that stands at this set of double glass doors that leads to the track from the ready area; his name must be st peter cause he considers himself 'the gate keeper'. The girls just finished racing so my group was warming up and the dude blocked me from going to the track saying im sorry im sorry and holding his arm up in front of me. With me speaking no chinese, him apparently not speaking any english other than the 2 words he just keeps repeating, i logically removed his arm and tried to proceed forward and i almost made it... but... he must have realized how much he liked me because he gave me a hug from the back... a bear hug, picked me up and everything. I said, whoa buddy, i know im handsome, but i dont swing that way, and gave him an elbow to the chin, he put me down and i went to the track haha. Everyone standing around was kind of surprised that these guys are taking their shitty job so seriously; i think he forgot that if it werent for the athletes there wouldnt be a world championships and he wouldnt even have the opportunity to make his 3 dollars an hour. Anyway, after a little chin music, he didnt give me any more trouble the rest of the night.

to date...

12 Junior Titles

23 Senior Titles

4 existing World Records

Those accomplishments wouldn't have been possible without a few people. Mom and Dad first, they were the best parents a kid like me could have asked for, showing complete selflessness when it came to my skating; the sacrifices they made can never be repaid, but im going to try one day. Renee Hildebrand is the best inline skating coach in the world; her passion and knowledge makes her second to none in my book. She took me from a rink rat to a world champion and i didn't even know she was doing it until it happened. My sponsors over the years: Stalker boots (george stalker), Bandit boots (jeff snow), Kerjean (bernard kerjean), Verducci (luigino verducci, doug glass), Hyper (jon elliott), Luigino (luigino verducci, doug glass). VERY special thanks to Dave Simmons for staying up ALL NIGHT making me a boot in 24 hours and overnighting it to me about 4 weeks ago, that guy is incredible. There is a list a mile long of people who have in some way helped me along the way; chris tidwell, dave downing, linda wood, charlie lucas, i know im forgetting a ton, im sorry, but you know who you are and i sincerely appreciate it.

China - Part 6

24.250 

sorry, i just had to put that up top...not to boast, im just hella happy about that accomplishment; for me it was a very tough thing to attain and I really needed it to get me relaxed and ready to rock the rest of worlds.

this meet doesn't really feel like worlds, so its hard to get into the state of mind i need to be in for racing at the level we're racing at; my dad's not here, renee isn't here, the crowds are scarce, a lot of good skaters aren't in attendance, and i didn't prepare throughout the year like i should have for this. Anyone who's been at worlds the past 6 years knows that my dad is the loudest guy there, usually the biggest too haha; he's like a walking circus (people aren't used to seeing muscles that big i guess) when we're at worlds, i think he usually gets more attention than me. It seems a little empty without him and renee here, but in my head when i was on the line for the 300m i just pictured him shouting out, "JOOOEEYYYYY, THATS MY BOY," with renee right next to him, "Come on JOJO," and it really helped me get in the frame of mind to do what i needed to do. 

Maybe i'm different from most people, but for me when I train really, really hard all year for something, i naturally lay every ounce of heart on the line for a gold medal; when I haven't prepared throughout the year, i tend to get into this unmotivated funk, perhaps because in my mind i subconsciously believe i don't deserve it because i didn't work hard enough. This is the hardest thing for me to overcome when racing; its not the nerves, its not the pressure, its not even the race itself, it's just simply convincing myself that i SHOULD be there and in the race. Luckily, i was able to do that for the 300 and i know its what i'm going to have to do before each of the rest.

anyway, enough of that serious crap... lets get down to business. FIRST, i took a spill on one of the practice days, and its pretty funny actually.


WATCH HERE



Look for me trying to save the skin on my butt by trying to hop with my hands, i don't know why, but i just found it pretty entertaining, thought i'd share.


Today, the people that run the little chick place at the track gave me a toy (not sure why, maybe making up for the crappy ice cream a few days ago still lol)... it was a winnie the pooh 'club'.... so picture this... take the little thing that bam bam from the flinstones carries around and cover that with a stuffed winnie the pooh, still maintaining the shape of the club. Inside, you can feel a wooden object; it's hard enough to leave a knot, but not hard enough to kill someone i don't think. Anyway, i was planning on putting it in my uniform and pulling it out in the 500 final tonight in case someone tries to jack me, ima stick it to em with the pooh club.

This led me and cheex to our next idea which was: for each gold you win, you get to equip yourself with a new weapon. So i think next, im gonna go for the eeyore oil can and leave some oil slicks behind me on the last lap (hopefully in first place, otherwise, it kinda defeats the purpose).


We have been continuing our UNO quest and now we have a winners sheet; a piece of paper that we keep track of how many games each person has won. I'm on the sheet as who-dini? (houdini) for 2 reasons:


the first reason is because jake, who was following me in the rotation, was on uno and it was coming around to me (we play with about 8 people, so it was gonna take a minute to get to me). With all the focus on jake and his 'uno' status, i decided it was time to pull a couple tricks out of my sleeve. I told everyone to leave it on green and i would own him, at which point i showed the whole crew a green draw 2 i had in my possession- they liked this idea. What they failed to recognize was that i only had 2 cards left in my hand. So the color is yellow and it gets around to sara, who is right before me, and i show her my fool-proof draw 2 card again, she reluctantly changes the color to green. I then throw down my draw 2 with a smile, but WAIT.. THERES MORE!?, i wasn't done YET... you see, we play that if you have more than one draw 2 in your hand, you can multiply them on your discard... so i then laid down my 2ND draw 2 to win the game! SUCKKKERSSSS. So i gave myself the nickname houdini because i just pulled out some incredible trickery and an unsurpassed diversion to win the game... i think its what's called the kansas city shuffle. haha.


side note- the kansas city shuffle is from a movie called lucky number sleven... if you havent seen it, get it NOW, its great...


the second reason my name was 'who-dini?' is because cheex was writing the names on the sheet and didn't really know how to spell it, i think he just sounded it out and 'who-dini?' is what he came up with.... BRILLIANT.


justin got 3rd place in the elim last night which was pretty awesome, but the best part was that my man threw up the 3 (three fingers) when he came across the line! hahahahah i was sitting next to kalon and we looked at each other, both saying, i dont think ive ever seen that before haha. EPIC! During the race he snuck someone to stay in the race and did some kinda thing with his hand that looked like he was tryin to be yosemite sam, "dance varmit," as he shot at his competitors' feet lol it was also quite epic.

China - Part 5

i had a theory yesterday, but before i tell you what that theory is i need to give you some Joey facts about china; i call them Joey facts because i made them up, and there is probably no validity to what im about to say at all:

1. 94.3% of all Chinese people ride on mopeds or motorcycles (yes including infants)
2. wind burns the eyes and causes dryness - this one qualifies as a real fact i think
3. protective eye wear was not introduced to china until about 19 years ago (some say maybe even 15)

My theory is as follows, chinese people have eyes as the are because since the dawn of time they have been riding mopeds and having to squint so they dont get burny eyes. After thousands and thousands of years of this, evolution kicked in and now they dont even really have to wear eye protection, it's kind of like built in. So in conclusion, chinese people come with upgrades.... lucky.

I saw a bus yesterday and i realized that china does not care about racial equality at all. On the side of every bus are giant ads, each one of these ads has just normal white-ish chinese people in them... no african-chinese, latin-chinese, or even hispanic-chinese (those last 2 might be the same, but for sake of argument, i put it in there). Then i started to question whether or not those people even exist... i dont know if ive ever seen a legit african-chinese person, this is a great mystery. I just got the idea to look it up on google, but if i do that, my purpose for writing it here will basically be ruined, so im gonna refrain and just live the rest of my life without satisfying that curiosity perhaps.

i saw a childseat on the floor of a moped yesterday (floor being where you put your feet)... which doesnt seem safe, however, they did do it correctly because the child seat was facing backwards, so i gave them a few points. But then again, i think the purpose of that is so the airbag doesnt hurt the baby (mopeds dont have airbags, do they??)... however, i wouldnt put it past the chinese to equip their mopeds with airbags, they are clever little people. I say just put one underneath the seat so when you're about to get in a wreck you can just eject yourself into the air and avoid death, but they'd have to wear the inspector gadget coat that blows up like a blimp so they could land safely, which isn't a problem because they sell them here in china for like $300 (see image).

I had KFC yesterday and it was delicious. The ice cream there was INCREDIBLE, unlike that other chicken place we go to. So if you're ever in china and looking for a place to get ice cream, KFC is the place. I dont know why, but their big campaign right now at KFC is shrimp, which is funny to me considering the name. Every employee has this knitted shrimp shirt they wear, it's classy... and they have shrimp balls and shrimp sandwiches... its like a forrest gump dream come true.

Theres not much to write about skating yesterday, i only did about 30 minutes of it easy... looks like all the countries are starting to back it down and get ready for racing.

China - Part 4

really the only cool thing that happened yesterday was me falling down going 100% into the corner; the cool part was that my right just let go and i almost saved it, but in the end just ended up sitting down. I bounced a good 3 times and tried to push myself back up onto my feet with my hands, which had to have been a funny sight to see; picture someone sitting on the asphault at 12 in the afternoon on a sunny day in florida (hot as hell) and then trying to get up awkwardly because their butt is burning but they cant cause when they put their hands down, it burns their hands... just like that. As i was falling i could hear everyone watching say, "ohhhhhh ewwwww ahhhhhhh," and i knew before i even got up that the whole butt of my uniform was gonna be GONE. So i got up with a smile, becuase i have to admit, it was funny that i was now wearing what looked like ass-less chaps i guess, but the spandex version. Regardless, it didnt hurt and i just finished practice with my butt hangin out the back of my uniform (i think... i couldnt really see back there, but people were laughing as i came by).

learned 2 lessons with that fall:

• this track does damage to wheels more than you think (ive been on the same wheels the last 6 practices)
• dont go into the corner 100% with used wheels on

i did kinda yank my groin when i fell, but i dont think it's gonna bother me when i race... we'll see

REWIND (i just remembered something)>>> before practice we were playing uno with about 7 of us and i was on UNO; i had one card left, so i laid it down on the bed face down. Chelsea Creveling picks up my card and looks at it... i couldnt believe such a blatent cheat. Now, im by no means the cleanest uno player in the room, but i sneak it... i try to see what people have without them knowing. Apparently, where she comes from, they do it big... if you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly i guess. But I still won... TAKE THAT. So if you're playing uno with chelsea, i give you full permission to pick up her cards and look at them... but dont leave yours laying around; fair warning.

i had some ice cream yesterday at this chicken place and it tasted like dragon fruit (if you have no idea what that is, read the last entry) haha, but a freezer burnt version... it was supposed to be vanilla- at least i think it was, i mean it was WHITE and it was ice cream, but in reality it was only an assumption. I guess they could tell i didnt like it, cause the chick brought me out "the good" ice cream... i was happy about this... cheex wasn't, he was stuck with the stuff they had in their freezer since last september haha. Mantia 1 Cheek 0.

China - Part 3

alright, so i woke up at about 5am yesterday morning and checked out the world wide web, which had next to nothing to offer me because since ive been here i think ive traveled all the way to the end of the internet in search of a cure for my boredom. I then decided the only logical thing to do was to walk around, so i headed downstairs with my ipod to wait for breakfast; breakfast starts at 7, it was now about 5:45. With quite a bit of time to kill, i was able to make a few observations while sitting in the lobby: i really like T.I. - the music not the man, the roof of our hotel has gold stuff on it - and by stuff i mean golden foils or wallpapers or somethin, my shoes have these two parts on them that fit perfectly together when you put your feet at 45 degree angles or so - so i did that for about 30 minutes, they have this haagen-dazs freezer thats just full of these little ice cream cups and i dont think its locked, so i decided i would dress up like a ninja in the middle of the night and come down to claim some, then i realized, although im in asia, im not asian, so i then changed my attire to a black hoody, black sweat pants, and some panty hose on my head - i mean i dont want them to know who i am if i get caught, thats embarrassing (hows that for a run-on sentence).

 

ahh finally 7, and time for some of that delicious western breakfast cowboy. Ross Creveling came in and joined me; we started talking about the abnormal dreams we've been having. His involved running an outdoor session or something and mine involved a short beach volleyball player in colorado named lauren who had some awesome tan lines and was running this little booth promoting good dental hygene or something. She didnt want to give me her number so i was like fine dont give it to me, then she gave it to me... women are sooo vulnerable to the reverse psycology... well at least in my mind they are which is probably why it worked, afterall, it was MY dream. Now, i dont know that ive ever had such a descriptive dream that i remembered so vividly about a girl that ive never even met, so if you see her, let me know. Ross then decided he was gonna venture into the great unknown and try some dragon fruit; ive never actually seen dragon fruit in the states, so it was a daring move considering it looks something like a clump of white rice with black seeds in it... very appetizing. He dug in and after about 15 seconds of chewing he looked up with a blank expression that leaned a little towards disappointment, just shook his head and said, "nothing." Apparently, in America if a fruit doesnt have any taste, it doesn't make the cut haha.

i have some advice for anyone planning on getting a shirt or tattoo or anything like that with chinese or japanese lettering on it... DONT. Since ive been here ive already seen 2 shirts that said things im sure the people wearing those shirts weren't really aware of... something was lost in translation.

1. ' No Paint, No Gain ' - for those of you who cant figure it out on the first go-round, it was meant to say no pain no gain, and they just decided to add a 'T' to make it paint. Now, this is kind of clever for a painting company, but im fairly certain the shirt had nothing to do with anything of that nature.
2. ' i (recycle symbol) boys ' - now that doesnt seem bad... if it were on a girl, but considering it was on a 50+ year old dirty toothless man about to hop on his moped, id say he didnt really know what the hell he was wearing.

Yesterday, we didnt have practice until 1, so cheex and i decided to skate to the track early and hang out; the track is only about 8 minutes from the hotel on skates. Upon our journey, we discovered that we have no idea how these chinese traffic lights work; they flash and there's arrows and its just not normal so we were unable to figure out the method to their mayhem, but we didn't really give it a lot of heart. They do have 'no horn' signs at some intersections which was funny considering it was like a trumpet with an x through it; i could just picture a little kid wanting to play his trumpet on the corner and then being so disappointed to discover there was no trumpet playing at this particular intersection. As we skated, they were watering some flowers with what smelled like straight urine... not cool. We almost go smashed by about 4 cars at once in front of a school like destruction derby; we became the deer in headlights but luckily made it out alive... theres nothing funny about this part, so if you laughed, you're a jerk... jk, but seriously dont laugh. We then arrived safely and watched some rollerblading.

I have some mental notes here ive kinda been writing off of so here they are because im gettin tired of writing in paragraphs... i have ADD:

• my legs hurt today and i was tired, so i went easy- i think jetleg finally got me
• we went the the grocery store and they had a seafood section... now their seafood section is a lot like an american fish store, just smellier (is smellier a word... doubt it, but im goin with it) - u pic your live fish and take that guy home... they even had like water snakes, which sound scrumptious
• i tried to ask for salt today from someone who doesnt speak english and i realized that if i ever got the word 'salt' while playing cherades, i would be doomed because she gave me pepper and that was as far as i could get
• i was using a bottle at the track to mark the point i wanted to start my turn in the 300m while practicing. Be as it was, a bottle next to the track apparently means 'move me' in argentina. We were practicing with them and it got kicked and moved about 4 times, so im not even really sure if i was running the same lines, but oh well. next time i guess ill just have to stick a mini argentina flag in the top of the bottle... or maybe even a little white flag that gives the implication of "surrender" might work...

yesterday at about 3pm i was attacked by a ruthless hunger that caused me to eat everything in sight like ben stillar at the end of dodgeball... yes thats exactly what i looked like. I layed down on my bed about 4 o'clock and crashed until 3:30 this morning; i slept right through practice... which apparently was much needed. Now i feel good, im anxious to put down some times on the track and run some stuff all out.

China - Part 2

fellow blog readers, today i was hoodwinked... bamboozled if you will; this morning at breakfast i grabbed a glass and filled it up with some delicious pineapple juice, right? WRONG. You see, every day so far the pineapple juice was in the same spot but today they decided to play a damn dirty trick on me and move it, so what i got was a mouth full of disgusting grapefruit juice, no sugar might i add (yes i know they look different in America, but not here in china). It had to have put an incredible expression on my face, because i was absolutely not expecting it and i was absolutely not liking it. Thats not even the best part, so i got a sausage link today for the first time since ive been here and i think what they meant to put on the little card was 'sausage looking hot dog'; im not a huge fan of hot dogs, especially when im not expecting it (no homo). I was seriously waiting for ashton to come out and tell me ive been punked, then i could tell him he's a tool bag... just kidding... but seriously, he is.

So i started my day of with a couple of unpleasant surprises... later to be reciprocated with a couple pleasant ones luckily. Today i realized how much i love skating in front of people who love to watch skating; when i get to the track and there are people watching us practice it makes me WANT to perform on the next level every time. That doesnt have anything to do with my pleasant surprise, i just thought that i should mention it. So doug gave me some wheels today which was really cool, despite the differences between myself and the company, i just want to be on the best product; I'm not one to base my actions on spite anyway. Thats pleasant surprise #1. The other one was that the wheels are perhaps the best ive ever skated on... This makes me very happy, considering its been a while since ive been able to race on what i feel is the best wheel on the track.

oh yea, olympic trials for short track are over, congrats to all the guys and gals that made the team. Jordan, especially, kids got hella talent but never seems to be able to get the lucky break he deserves... or always seems to catch a bad one i guess. hopefully JR isnt hurt too bad and can show the world how inliners do it on the ice at the olympics. I really hope apolo goes to vancouver and just does work, i got to train with that guy for a couple of weeks and he's a machine... he deserves all the success he's experienced.

we went to eat at this italian place today around the corner from the hotel and they sat us in our own little room with these mini love seats pulled up to the table... quite a different experience; I was wondering if some chik in stripper shoes was going to come in and serve our food, but that didnt happen unfortunately... maybe next time. The food was pretty darn good again; china has really stepped their food game up since the last time i was here... Good work China, keep it up!

ive never been part of a world team that has more people bitchin about the stupidest things, nor have i ever been part of one that had people on it who think it's not cool to get better. I'm not really sure what the problem is, but its annoying and i now know why i usually just separate myself from the team and try to do my own thing when it comes to worlds; its way easier to focus without havin to hear the garbage. Maybe people think that to get attention you have to be an idiot or do flashy things, but i've figured out that in our sport the math is very simple... win+silence=positive attention and there are a number of factors that take away from the sum, such as: running your mouth, throwing fits, quitting, and getting an attitude because you cant keep up to name a few. Some of em just argue with no point, i think its just a plot to take up more time, which means less skating... brilliant actually; worlds is a place to relax and work on how good you can complain about people going fast, haven't you heard? But it makes sense, i mean we are speed skaters, why the hell would we need to go fast 5 days before worlds?

that was me venting... thanks for reading haha

the chicken nuggets at the track are bomb, ketchup fantastic as always (good lookin out china), the the fanta was a little weird... stick with sprite