Skate skills:

SKATE TIP OF THE WEEK
Inline secrets from the world's top skaters and coaches

This week's tip:
Tea Time for Smelly Skates

By Eddy Matzger
(Jan. 12, 2007)

As most of you have discovered, skates can develop an odor all their own.

I can live with my own smells better than those of others, but sometimes the smell of my skates gets to be too rude for even my own sniffer!

Periodically, I fill a bucket with bleach and water and scrub them out. But I've also invented my own homemade odor eaters.

In China, it's common practice to fill pillows with tea leaves or barley, so I've adapted this practice for my own dogs.

I simply buy some tea in bulk, fill an old sock with it and tie the open end.

Then after skating, I slip the fragrant assembly into my boots for the night.

It sure helps with the odor ... and maybe the natural caffeine in the tea even gives my skates a kick to make me faster!

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Eddy Matzger is one of the winningest skaters in the history of inline racing and leader of the popular SkateFarm workshops. He returned home last month from China, where he was coaching a speed team and looking for new skate adventures.

• Eddy's web site
• Skate Tip of the Week Archive.