For the fourth episode of the Then And Now Podcast, I chat with Brian Freeman. Like myself, Brian started his skating career in Austin with Texas legends like Jason Howard Mason Richard, and Zachary Gutweiler. In this interview, we go back to when we first met and discuss Brian's early days in Austin, his influences, and his new sponsor Iqon. We also talk about his Bfree blade Acadamy, SkateIA, ways people can make money today blading, and cool things happening in the industry.

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Show Notes:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:05 - Julian Issac and Houston
• 05:46 - The first time we met
• 07:16 - LST and Brian's early days of blading in Austin.
• 10:30 - Skaters who influenced Brian
• 14:58 - Moving to Oakland
• 17:56 - The fires of Northern California
• 19:44 - BFree Blading Academy
• 23:12 - Brian's YouTube Channel
• 23:36 - SkateIA Certification
• 26:35 - How to market yourself as a skate instructor
• 29:40 - Skating for Iqon
• 34:32 - Big Wheel Blading
• 38:55 - Ways to make a living through skating 4
• 3:11 - The industry has grown up
• 47:13 - Iqon and Montre Livingston
• 49:39 - Blading Cup and positive changes in the industry
• 51:02 - Doing your part to help the sport grow
• 54:18 - Sponsors
• 55:06 - Matt Mickey and Intuition Skate Shop
• 56:08 - The future and COVID
• 57:19 - A rundown of Then And Now
• 01:01:01 - Shout-outs

Links for this episode

• Brian Freeman on Instagram
• Brian Freeman on YouTube
• BFree Blading Acadamy website
• BFree Blade Acadamy on Instagram
• BFree Blade Academy on Facebook
• SkateI Website
• Iqon Website
• Iqon Instagram
• Disroyal Distribution Website
• Disroyal on Instagram
• Disroyal on Facebook
• Distroyal on YouTube

You can watch these podcasts as videos on the Then And Now Youtube channel. The YouTube version also features video and photo overlays relevant to the conversation to make it more documentary-style. The channel also includes The Vault, Jan's collection of raw skating footage spanning from 1995-2010. Find out more about the Podcast and YouTube channel at thenandnowblading.com.

Support Then And Now through our Patreon page.

Links

• Then And Now on YouTube
• Then And Now on Patreon
• Then And Now on Facebook
• Then And Now on Instagram
• Then and Now on Twitter
• Jan Welch's Instagram