At age six I was introduced to ice skating and the piano. By age 9, skating 4 hours/day and playing piano for maybe 20 min.
At age 12, training 6 hours/day for figure skating and favored to win Easterns Championship (best on the East Coast of US), our van was stolen with my skates in it. I competed with new blades but fell on my Double Axel (one of only a few doing this at this time) which dropped me to 4th place. That was it for figure skating, switched to speed skating becoming Easterns Champion, then on to hockey. After a Four-year Letterman at Don Bosco Prep, NJ. (first freshman to play varsity) received a scholarship to New Hampshire College for hockey (again being the first freshman to play varsity).
As for the piano, I played and performed recitals, instructed by a Julliard School of Music graduate. At age thirteen my spot was at the end of the recital now, no longer the 30 sec. piece for 8-10 year-olds, now I had a 3.5 min. performance. I did not practice like I should have (teenager) when I started to play after about 30 sec. forgot the rest. What did I hear in the silent auditorium? "Oh my God, he forgot his piece" my mom. Left the stage and never played again .
Upon retirement I started to play again, now you're all caught up.
In Figure skating I completed Nationally against competitors like Brian Boitano, Paul Willy (beating them at age 12). I Invented a move where while doing shoot the duck, turned into a backward shoot the duck with a three turn, very difficult to do. without rising up. Also invented a footwork sequence I called the Hop, Hop ,Hop, which I do in videos. During my Speed skating time I invented a move never done before at age 13. In spend skating before the turn the skater swings out to the right to make the turn, due to my figure skating knowledge I was able to hold my edge on my right foot so when the skater in front of me went out for the turn I went straight passed him and held my edge to do a tighter turn and not allow the skater to cut me off on the left side. The first time I used this was against Eric Heiden (who had always beat me) I cut him off and made the turn so on the next lap he did the same to me but could not hold his edge (having never done this move) so I was able to cut back on the inside and pass him finally winning, (this move is now used in the Olympics) then I stopped speed skating because no one else to beat. In Hockey as a sophomore in high school I won the First round state championship with a slap shot from the blue line in double over time 0-0 game winning it 1-0 against Montclair. As an Adult I Played in the Philadelphia spectrum and one game where the teams had owners of Walker Ford and Ken King (he started selling alligator parts in Florida in the 70's) they had a big bet on this game. Before the game they were talking as I went by and Ken King (the team I was on) said "gonna win tonight Perry?" I'll do my best. the Ford team had a ringer, a French Canadian that we just could not stop, we were losing 1 -0 but with that player we were not going to win. Our worst player heard us talking on the bench and said "Perry let me play a shift" I needed a break so he went in. He starts slashing the Canadian, all of a sudden the Canadian turns and swings and they both fight and get thrown out of the game. We realize what he had done. We scored a goal 1-1 the with 40 seconds left in the game I get the puck and charge down the right side just over the red line I wind up and hit the puck as hard as I could falling in the process. The puck went on the ice like a bullet and hit the goalies stick so hard it went under his stick and scored. We Won. Then as a Coach, in Seven years out of 32 competitive skaters 19 became National Champions and four students became the first Jr. World Champions from the State of Florida in Japan. As Skating Director of the Tampa Bay Skating Academy I grew the skating school to become the largest Learn to Skate School in Florida a record that still stands today. It was an interesting time and I enjoyed the students I taught as I watched them grow into outstanding citizens becoming Stars in ice shows, sports doctors, Broadway actors. Then things changed in the late 90's when parents complained about the kids "working too hard - don't go so fast." the years of developing champions were over.
Along with Susan, started Global Synthetic Ice (2004) and Created Super-Glide. Prior to Super-Glide all Plastic ice rinks (words synthetic ice was not invented yet) had failed. As I opened Super-Glide facilities they all became great success and competition started. I wanted Super-Glide skating to become like Klenex (the term for this type of skating) But competitors complained so "Synthetic Ice" became the industry name. We were the first to have a product on the new web-site E-bay. Also wrote all the information on Wikipedia which gave us credibility and grew the Synthetic Ice Industry we see today. Super-Glide became known as the best in the World, selling to over 25 countries, Traveling around the world was exciting as we traveled as guests of some of the richest people in the world. Stand out countries include Easter Island, Tazmania, (Tazmanian devils are cool) Australia, New Zealand, Prague, Mexico, Cypress, China was especially interesting as we won the contract to install Super-Glide rinks in all the schools and Malls, I met with high level officials including Wang De Line who designed the famous Birds Nest Olympic Facility. In the US, Super-Glide became the training tool for NHL players to become stronger than ever before with endorsements from Hall of Fame players Marty St. Louie, Mark Messier George Laraque. Olympic Champion Oksana Baiul. Make-a-wish called and said kids are wishing for my rinks, three kids received their wish, which was very humbling. A woman wrote to me about her husband who came back from Desert storm with a concussion and the local rink would not let him skate. He loved skating and was devastated and went into a depression, we sent him a basement rink and his wife cried with joy seeing him skating again. Changing thousands of peoples lives and bringing happiness to millions is worth more than money. Sold the company in 2020 after 20 years. Thousands of rinks are still being sold around the World today.
My Senior year at University of South Florida I started my first company (Venture Enterprise) that printed the name of the business on lighters. They purchased 50 lighters and the stand for $75. They sold the lighters for $1 and get their money back giving them Free Advertising. I traveled Tuesdays and Wednesday selling, averaging three businesses per day, Bars, nail salons, shoe stores were some of my customers. I hired one of my friends to print the lighters due to the amount of sales. Once I had all the local businesses I had to travel farther and that is what stopped this business.
After graduation, The next product for Venture Enterprise was a round beach Towel that you did not have to move, just spin on it. Then I added a rope around the edge and at the end of the day throw everything on the towel, pull the rope and it becomes a giant beach bag. Cost was a problem but I got it in Good Vibrations Surf Shop in Tampa. Then traveled to Miami to try to get it made. Not able to get the cost down I thought maybe I should just sell the idea to a company like JC Penny? I gave up then 6 months later I read "Woody Harrelson sells round Beach Towel to JC Penny for $1 million. I learned I had a good idea just not the connections.
At first I lived on a 21' Proline Cuddy Cabin, was supposed to be for a few months as I along with a Carpenter rebuilt a 28' Carlyle Cutter. Well, that took a year but finally splashed "Waterfront property" into the water. I traveled on this boat up and down the entire West coast of Florida stopping at all the towns to bike ride and kayaking all the estuaries along the coast. I had the best places to stay "On the hook" and log over 10,000 miles. I was in three hurricanes at sea and had the coast guard search for me one time as I left Naples to beat the storm which turned into a hurricane so I sat in Shark River for three days not knowing the coast guard was looking for me. When the water finally calmed enough to leave and I made it to Islamorada in the keys, the whole dock cheered. In 2004 , met Susan and designed and built a Houseboat "Leisure Life" 11' by 40', then after 10 years moved onto Super-Glide III, a 44' Symbol in 2014. O
ver this time period had over 23 boats, Including Fun Zone when I met Susan. Super-Glide - 13' Boston Waller, Super-Glide II - 26' Stamas cabin cruiser, Super-Glide IV - 1963 Renkin classic.
Bars at the Beach sold pitchers of beer but sitting in the sun they did not stay cold. I had the idea of neoprene to wrap around the picture. I measured the pitcher to be one foot by a foot and half. I called around to find a company that could make this for me. I called one company and the person n said I have some neoprene that has a picture on it, you may not want it. I asked what kind of picture? a sunset. What size? about a foot by foot and a half was his answer. I almost fell over, after a week I had a product and sold it to Palm Pavillian. The owner tested the cooler in the sun and said "It works" sold him 10 for a $100 bar tab which lasted the summer at Happy hour.
After giving up on Coaching Figure Skating I took a 4 week trip on my boat to the Florida Keys to reflect on what was next. On my trip I go in a bar in Fort Myers, FL. and their are two others and a bar tender. It was quiet and the bar tender pulls out this game from England called Shut box. We played and everything changed, we were now having fun and turned out to be a good night. I went back to my boat and immediately started to work on getting the game smaller, more portable. When finished I sold the game at the Pier on Clearwater Beach, Fl. The first day at the Pier (Tuesday) I did not sell any, but they all said it was a slow day. I went back on Saturday and sold out before Sunset. I was leaving and the lady in charge said you cannot leave this early you have to stay till the end. I said "I sold out, need to go make more games." she said "Oh, I guess then you can leave then". Had a great time selling the game but then came Super-Glide.
First there was Super-Glide Heavy Duty, four and a half by eight foot panels 3/4" thick. Very heavy (135 lbs.) all commercial portable rinks were made with this product. My slogan "Any where, Any Time, Any Size" was copied by many other companies over the next 20 years.. To separate us from competition that was stating I added the "Ice Blue" color to look like a real ice rink. (Ice rinks paint the ice Blue). Then the home market was starting so I invented Super-Glide Ultra, a 4' by 4' by 3/8" thick panel (35 lbs.) easily put together by anyone, dads, moms, even kids. A buy 3 panels get one free became a great marketing strategy. Then I invented Super-Glide All-Star, a 4.5' by 12' panel that could be rolled up for shipping. I invented a re-bounder (elastic rubber band that could pass the puck back when you pass at it. I made a prototype and put a video on-line on how it worked. 35 were sold before we even made one. It became a great Christmas gift seller.