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?