Inline Skating Notebook

Since 1995, the Eddy Matzger Workshop has improved and enthused thousands of inline skaters wprldwide. The workshop is proud to announce that we've found a new home and acquired a new name! Eddy Matzger's 25 acre SkateFarm is nestled in the hollows of Virginia's scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, near mile marker 174 of the Blue RidgeParkway, a 469 mile long scenic roadway that stretches from Virginia to Tennessee. Work is underway to build a one-thrid mile closed course loop and a 200meter track on side, but currently the SkateFarm is designed to be a weekend intensive open road skating seminar. If you can't make it to Virginia, then the SkateFarm can come to you! For more information, keep and eye on skatefarm.com, contact Bob Flynn at skatefarm@knology.net, or call 727-458-4420

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Plant you love for skating and let it grow at the SKATEFARM, a 3 or 5 day road skating camp with Eddy's famously fun inline coaching in the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Option 1: Arrive Wednesday to begin cultivating five days and five nights of skating growth. Option 2: Arrive Friday for flat-foot dancing at the Floyd Country Store Jamboree and then enjoy three night and two days of rolling through a smoothly-paved wonderland. The SkateFarm is only an hour's drive from the Roanoke (ROA) airport and is also accessible from Greensboro (GSO), North Carolina. All food and lodging is provided Farmers can pack a lunch of dine on their own nickel in Floyd. Comfortable indoor sleeping space is limited to the first dozen registrants. The SkateFirm does its best to provide private accomodations for couples. Additional information about the SkateFarm is sent upon request or after registration. For more information, please contact Bob Flynn at skatefarm@knology.net. or call 727-298-8097.

Eddy Matzger in Skate Farm Download : Skate Farm 1 (9.20MB), 2 (10.9MB) and 3 (9.88MB)

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After more than a decade of Eddy's inimitable instruction, the Eddy Matzger Workshop has grown into the SkateFarm RoadShow! Eddy brings his SkateFarm to you. That means more skating and fewer drills. Highly personalized instruction willcause your skating to bear fruit: you'll skate faster, farther, and with more style. A couple days of Eddy's guidance will yield more than a couple years of skating on your own! The RoadShow takes all the best aspects of the tried and true workshop and improves upon it with all kinds of new practical applications. You'll learn to milk the most outof improved balance and form and cause your friend to wonder how you got so much better so fist! Roadies will gain valuble experience skating with a whole crop of other inline lovers. Teamwork in small groups will help you to plow all your old bad habits under and sprout new pathways of correct technique. A perennial highlight of the workshop has been to try and chase down Eddy while he skates backwards and videitapes you doing a star, a straightaway, and a finish hawk! The RoadShow invites you to come and try to give Eddy a scare by flying and trying to pick him off! At night you'll bask in the glow of the big screen as he takes your form to task in stopaction detail, then supplies you with a written summary of your exploits. Additional information about the SkateFarm is sent upon request or after registration. For more information, please contact Bob Flynn at skatefarm@knology.net. or call 727-298-8097.

Inline Skating Notebook: "Skate Farm" in Blue Ridge Parkway
Inline Planet Skate Forum: Skate Farm Fun (Mar. 2, 2008)

2007 SkateFarm Schedule:
May 9-13 (3 days), May 11-13 (5 days), June 15-17 (3 days), June 13-17 (5 days), August 24-26 (3 days), August 22-26 (5 days), August 31-Sept 2 (3 days), August 29-Sept 2 (5 days), September 7-9 (3 days) and September 5-9 (5 days)
2007 RoadShow Schedule:
February 23-25 (Clearwater, FL), April 6-8 (Greensboro, NC), April 13-15 (Phoenix, AZ), April 20-22 (Austin, TX), April 27-29 (Atlanta, GA), May 4-6 (Detroit, MI), May 18-20 (Philadelphia, PA), May 25-27 (Dallas, TX), June 1-3 (New York City, NY), June 8-10 (Washington, DC), June 22-24 (Ottawa, Canada), June 29-July 1 (Dusseldorf, Germany) and August 10-12 (Seattle, WA)

SkateFarm: SkateFarm and RoadShow Schedule

What is the SkateFarm and RoadShow?

The Eddy Matzger SkateFarm is an intensely participatory, interactive skating experience. Taught by Eddy himself over the course of a weekend or new for 2007,a 5-day seminar, the SkateFarm is geared for all ages and abilities, and covers inline skating and racing from A to Z.

The 5-day SkateFarm and weekend RoadShow scratches your skating animal behind the ears through a combination of chalk talks, group skates, technique games and drills, off-skate exercises, mock stage races, and frame by frame digital video analysis of each skater.

If you've ever wanted to skate the double push, or improve the one you've got, the workshop is the place for you! Saturday afternoon and all Sunday long you will have the opportunity to develop your outside edge underpush!

To date, the Eddy Matzger SkateFarm has tickled thousands of happy campers. "The enthusiasm, camaraderie and the instruction was unmatched in my sports experience," said one. "I learned more in two days than I have in 20 years!" said another. Read people's comments about their experiences at the workshop, see a sample day below, even reserve a spot.

Prerequisites
SkateFarm RoadShows are open to everyone and confirmed as soon as 18 skaters have made a deposit at least 21 days in advance. Workshop administrator Bob Flynn runs the SkateFarm and relies on a host skater for coordination of site specifics. If you would like to see what's involved with being a host, please e-mail us at skatefarm@knology.net

Custom T-shirt
SkateFarm and RoadShow participants receive a custom SkateFarm t-shirt, premium ILQ-9 bearings, an inline DVD with over a dozen new features for 2005, as well as other goodies courtesy of workshop sponsors.

Costs
The cost of the weekend SkateFarm and RoadShow is $250.00, which includes Eddy's transportation. A five day SkateFarm costs $500.00, which includes food and lodging at the Skate Farm itself. European workshop participants are charged a flat fee of $250.00.

Registration & Refunds
Enrollment is open to all. To reserve a spot, the SkateFarm requires a prepayment of at least one-half the SkateFarm fee, by check, money order, or Visa/MasterCard. Online payments are processed by PayPal. If paying by check or money order, a mailing address is provided. The SkateFarm cannot refund your deposit unless you cancel at least 28 days in advance. However, you may apply your forfeited deposit towards a future SkateFarm or RoadShow within a year.

Curriculum
From the horse's mouth you'll get the skinny on how Eddy first learned to stop to how he became a current world record holder. He'll show you how he trains, what he eats, special techniques, what equipment he uses, and how he psyches himself up for competitions.

Optimization
You'll receive continuous feedback throughout the weekend, learn how to interpret it, and make the adjustments that will enhance your speed, efficiency, and enjoyment. The workshop helps bring out the best of what you already have and improve upon it further, refining here and there but ultimately letting your own signature style shine through.

Methodology
Eddy's fourfold approach helps you sink your teeth into the course material. First he tells you what he's going to teach. Second, he draws diagrams and demonstrates. Third, he structures time for you to work on each part separately and together. Lastly, he reviews the material so you've got it for good.

Visual Hot Seat
The workshop employs broadcast quality digital video to capture you executing a variety of skating drills and maneuvers. We analyze and critique the footage on Saturday evening, frame by frame. The footage is frequently hilarious, sometimes painfully honest, but always illuminating.

Support Materials
Each participant receives a packet on Friday night with detailed information about the workshop, written notes, diagrams, and articles written by Eddy.

Refreshments
Participants are requested to supply their own drinks, but water will be made available at the SkateFarm location.

Themes
The SkateFarm emphasizes having fun while committing the fundamentals of technique to muscular memory. Hipwork, teamwork, and the principle of least work are some core ideas around which the workshop is structured.

Sample Day

The SkateFarm is a whopping weekend affair, including over 20 hours of Eddy's personal instruction. Whether you're a new skater or a seasoned racer, Eddy spends quality time with each participant every day.

Friday
7:00 -9 p.m. Introductions, chalk talk, and goodie distribution

Saturday
8 a.m.-12 noon Off skate: stretching and balance exercises, classic stroke component practice, dryland skate simulation with passing and merging drills. On skates: balance drills, first with partners, then individually. Relays and mini competitions emphasizing stroke component practice: base position, fall, push, set down, and recovery. Slow motion skating individually and in packs.

12 noon- 2 p.m. Lunch break

2 p.m. -6 p.m. Changing gears and incorporation of good habits into full speed skating. Individual videotaping of each participant from front and side views with live commentary.

Crossovers and crossover component practice using partners for balance and to simulate centrifugal force, slow motion crossovers, endless crossovers, track skating, passing and changing positions in turns, pursuit games.

8 p.m.- 10 p.m. Video review with individual skating analysis

Sunday
8 a.m.-12 noon Off skates: stretching, skate aerobics, double push practice with partners. On skates: double push progressions with and without partners, chalk template tracing of double push tracks, individual filming.

12 noon - 2 p.m. Lunch break

2 p.m. - 6 p.m. On skates: uphill and downhill techniques, braking and stopping, teamwork and pack skating practice, strategy session and tactical practice, stage race with team, individual, and pack events. Off skates: plyometrics demonstration, awards ceremony, and presentation of progress reports.

* Depending on location and time of year, a social skate may precede the Friday evening activities.

Bob Flynn -- workshop administrator

Phone: 727-298-8097 Cell: 727-458-4420
Office hours: 9am - 6pm Eastern Standard Time
Email: skatefarm@knology.net