Paul

Paul - London

Previously my main hobby was being a hard-core cyclist. I raced for London Dynamo, a club I started up with some friends some years ago. I, like most people had bought some skates on a whim but just left them in the cupboard to gather dust. My main reason for never getting going was that I was worried of injuries impacting on my cycling.

It all changed in April 2010. After years of grueling training schedules and competing in Time Trials and road races I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my family and needed a new hobby. I signed up for group lessons in Hyde Park and was hooked!  I soon began to apply the same discipline and time into learning to skate and realised skating is Safe and so much fun.

I found it was a great stress relief from work and it’s the first time I’ve been forced to switch off and concentrate on exactly what I’m doing and be in the moment rather than dwelling on life pressures.

August 2010 was probably the first real milestone when I started to Street skate with the help of SkateInstructor.com, and my skill level just kept on improving. I’ll never forget the morning that I was sitting on the bench outside Gloucester Road staring at my skates thinking “I’m about to try and commute to work on skates, I’m mad!”

I continued skating with skateinstructor.com and was asked if I’d considered the Skate Instructor course. Never shy of a challenge, I set off on my next adventure….

I passed in Sept 2011, 16 months after first putting on a pair of skates!  It showed me we can achieve anything if we put our minds to it. Straight after passing I was asked to join Skateinstructor.com and I’m happy to now be part of the Instructor team!

My day job is Corporate IT and currently work in the City.  Skating really helps me forget work and distress and I would love to pass on my knowledge, skills to help other people feel the same way I do while skating.