For the second episode of the Then And Now Podcast, I interviewed Caleb Smith. Caleb is an aggressive inline skater who fell in love with big wheel blading and has taken distance skating to the next level. This year he has skated several thousand miles as part of his Midwest Ultra Series. In this interview, we talk about Caleb's history in skating, when we met, his aggressive skating, when he discovered big wheel blading, his Ultra series, Camp SkateIA, marathons, making a living on skates, Dante Muse, his new sponsor, and much more.
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Show Notes:
- 00:00 - Intro
- 00:53 - Caleb's skating backstory
- 05:12 - Caleb comes to Austin to aggressive skate, and I take him on his first distance skate
- 07:18 - Back to Iowa and his first RAGBRAI
- 10:00 - Early Ultra skates, Athens to Atlanta to Athens (A2A2A)
- 20:02 - Midwest Ultra Series Part 1
- 21:30 - Aggressive skaters & Big Wheel Blading
- 23:50 - Midwest Ultra Series Part 2
- 25:48 - Camp SkateIA, Skatepark Instructor Certification 30:02 - Doing Food Delivery on Skates
- 32:16 - Marathon Skating
- 33:29 - Dante Muse, the World Champion speed skater
- 35:16 - Learning the Double-Push
- 37:44 - Do aggressive skaters really know how to skate?
- 38:45 - Dante Muse, the aggressive inline skater 4
- 0:21 - How much is Caleb aggressive skating now?
- 41:45 - Current aggressive skate setup and a new skate sponsor!
- 45:36 - Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG)
- 55:00 - Caleb's favorite long-distance skate?
- 57:39 - Creating the "Ultra" short film with Bruce James Bales
- 01:02:32 - Carrying gear on Ultra skates? Building an Ultra Community
- 01:12:00 - Skating with Bambi, New Mexico
- 01:14:47 - Future plans
- 01:15:35 - Outro
Links to Articles on Caleb Smith
- Caleb Smith of Des Moines, Iowa on Inline Skating and Life During COVID-19
- “The Land of Enchantment” Caleb Smith and Katie Baird Bladepacking New Mexico
- Caleb Smith Conquers the 467-Mile RAGBRAI Challenge on Inline Skates
SkateIA https://skateia.org/
Big Wheel Blading Merchandise https://bigwheelblading.com/store/
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
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- Then and Now on Twitter
- Jan Welch's Instagram
