Skating in Hawaii

The Eddy Matzger Workshop

February 2003

By C. Kalani Liu

The Eddy Matzger 2003 Hawaii workshop was held on the deserted streets of the Kapolei Industrial Park about 25 miles from downtown Honolulu. As is the norm, the weather was sunny with beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the 78-82F range. The workshop here was hosted by Mike (the primary name for male skaters here—3 of them) and Ginny. They did a great job in planning the workshop and some skates, skate tours, hikes, and other activities (including a mini-luau).

There were ten participants, most of us local, though some flew in from California and Florida. The skill levels varied from relative gumbies to experienced speed/fitness skaters with a 50/50 mix of 4 and 5 wheelers (I’m an intermediate and used my DeeMaxes for anyone worried that this is only for those with 5-wheels).

The workshop cost me $235 ($185+$50 for my part of the airfare) and I consider it a bargain. I got 16+ hours of professional instruction and goodies worth at least $80. This included a 20-pack of TwinCam ABEC-5 bearings, 10 wheels (80*83A), a set of Salomon Gel Hand sliders, a cool t-shirt, and as a parting gift I also got a skate back pack (I don’t know if every workshop gets a goody bag).

I highly recommend the workshop. It was great. I got way more than I really expected from it because my speed/effort ratio has gone up quite a bit. Eddy is an excellent teacher, a great guy, and a truly amazing skater. The workshop is great for anyone who wants to improve their stroke technique and get more speed for less work. The topics covered improving the stride, crossovers, the double push, carving for slowing on hills, race strategy, and team/individual time trials. In general, Eddy followed the fairly standard pattern in teaching. He explained the goal, demoed, explained the exercise, demoed, then we worked on the exercise. He would tie it all together with a close out/follow up on the exercise. As we worked on the exercises, we were filmed by Eddy who then gave advice on how we could improve. Most of the exercises were done at as slow a speed as possible. I think the idea was that if we could do it slow we could do it fast. I’ll recap everything I remember from the workshop but know I will be missing some things. More was covered and I am sure that I forgot some of the important lessons.

Kickoff -- Friday Evening

The workshop started on Friday night with a pre-workshop get together that included a very mellow short social skate through Ala Moana Beach Park and on to watch the sunset from the top of “compass” hill in the Kakaako Waterfront Park. Next there was a pot-luck dinner at Ginny’s, introductions, registration, and we got our “goodie” bag of skate stuff. The workshop was to run from 0800-1800 the next day so most of us called it an evening about 2100 to get prepped.

Day 1 -- Saturday

The Saturday workshop started with yoga for skaters or stretching if you’d prefer. This was an exercise in futility for me as I have the flexibility of a cast-iron bar. This was also where Eddy, thinking he could help, tried to push me more, gave up, and declared that I had to be the most inflexible skater in Hawaii.

Next the focus shifted to the stroke. The stroke was broken down into five basic parts (&, Fall, Push, Set Down, Recovery). Exercises to work on each part were given. This included work on the fall and set down, one foot drills, hip work drills, heel push drills, and a turtle race (using good technique you go as slow as possible and the winner crosses the line last).

The next area of focus was turns and crossovers. This included prepping for the turn and a number of cross over drills focused on proper torso/hip positioning.

The day portion of the workshop closed with a video session where each of us was filmed skating. This was so our stroke technique could be evaluated during the night session.

That night, we met at Ginny’s place to watch the videos. Of particular interest were the components of a stroke and the angle of knee/thigh bend. In my case I needed to work on setting down more under my body and generally staying a bit lower to the ground especially on my recovery (I lift my leg real high).

Day 2 -- Sunday

Exhausted from the Saturday workshop we set forth on Sunday in search of the elusive double push. We spent about an hour stretching on our own, took a quick 3 mile skate and then started into the lessons.

We started with more crossover work. This included “waving to the audience” (facing your torso out) and doing an under push with your trailing leg. A variety of practice drills focused on hammering the lessons into the muscles were used.

Next it was on to the double push! Work included outside edge pushes, a sculling race, and then putting it all together. I will admit that I now know what I need to do, but it is going to take way more practice on my part to get the double push down.

From the double push we moved on to racing strategy. We ran some passing drills, some pursuit drills, and then came the time trials. We were divided us into teams, given Lycra shirts and skated as a team and as individuals. Things I discovered about racing. It takes practice to be able to draft properly and match stride with someone, with wheels—size does matter, and that I’m too fat to wear a speed suit without showing off my tummy.

The final lesson for the workshop was on stopping/slowing on hills using carving. The technique was real similar to snow skiing and pretty easy.

Conclusion

The workshop concluded with a luau on the beach at Ala Moana where everyone got leid, ate traditional Hawaiian food, got our report cards and some “awards” and bid Mahalo and Aloha to Eddy, Barrie (his business manager who flew in from NY ), Kathy and the Craigster from California, and John and Ilene from Florida.

The Eddy Matzger in Hawaii 2003 workshop was great fun and a great learning experience. I highly recommend it to you all as I felt it was great value for money. In fact, it was good enough that we are pencilled in for next February already (just in case any of you want to escape the winter and visit next year)!

More Information

Check out Eddy Matzger's website at http://www.skatecentral.com/

There is also an Eddy Matzger workshop here in London this year on June 6th to 8th.

Bio

Kalani is a well-respected member and moderator on the LondonSkaters.com forums and has spent quite some time in London with many skaters of our community.  Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences with us, Kalani!

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