My passion for skating originated in 1993, when 'Hey Hey, It's Saturday' hit its 22nd anniversary, and we decided it was time for a new Saturday night hobby. The 5-year-old version of me wandered on down to the Noble Park Skate Centre with my family and our old plastics. There, we saw how much fun skating was and it became a regular occurrence. After the unfortunate retirement of the centre soon after, we set up base at the Dandenong Skate Centre, which eventually became our second home and initiated our love for the rolling life. Every following Saturday night we caught the 7:30pm session, and let loose some crazy speed and stunts in an even crazier environment. I grew to truly love going to that place... the memories of Dandenong Skate Centre will always be regarded as some of the best in my childhood!
So what happened when the fast skates at Dandy turned into a zooming blur, after we developed some speed? We found out that our so called "speed" was nothing to the trained and skilled speed-skaters that we met. These guys knew how to tear up the floor in a matter of seconds. As goes the classic case of "monkey see, monkey do", I wanted to go that fast, and so began speed-training.
After meeting even MORE people interested in the speed factor years later, we all formed a speed skating club, Peninsula Inline Speed-Skating Team, which we affectionately abbreviated to PIST. We trained weekly in Frankston, progressively recruiting more and more interested skaters. Two people I remember in particular showed up one night on their push-bikes, who used to train with the Melbourne Speed Team. Their fondness for the sport was so great that in 2003 they decided to open up a little skate shop in Hampton. That's right, I'm talking about Neil Jesberg and Andrea Winzor, proud owners of Bayside Blades! In April 2005, Neil and Andrea employed a young-gun speed skater, capable of hitting 40km/h on his speed skates... Me of course!
Before the birth of Bayside Blades, before 40km/h was accomplished and certainly before I was any good at speed skating, I had my first race in 2001, when I was at the ripe old age of 13! Following the "first race" tradition, I lost horribly against the more experienced guys, but the nature of the sport provides room for improvement, so I got to work, and continued training.
2003 bought a scary experience for me, it was my first National Inline Speed Skating Championships. After representing Victoria, in Perth, I managed to come home with a Bronze medal and a thirst to do even better next time!
In 2004, Peninsula Inline Speed-Skating Team joined forces with members of the Bayswater Team and formed 'Team Bayside'... named after Bayside Blades, the major sponsor. The 2004 National Championships were held in Brisbane, where I aspired to winning Gold in the Junior 300m Outdoor Time Trial, as well as Gold in the team relay, and two silver medals.
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