00:00Oh, it was over 12 years ago now. I was 12 years old, very bored at home one day and
00:05a friend of
00:05my brother's, he came around and we had one of those cubes lying around and he solved it. And
00:10I was like surprised because I'd never seen anybody do it before. And I decided that what I
00:16was going to do that day was learn how to solve it. And the moment I did that, I set
00:22my mind on
00:23it. I was just like locked in. The cube started falling apart because it was super cheap. So I
00:27persuaded my dad to drive me to the toy store and buy a better one. And for weeks and weeks
00:32afterwards, that's like the only thing I was locked in. It was like learning how to solve
00:36it. And then the moment I could do it, it was timing myself to do it faster. I think what
00:41I, like as a kid, I was doing loads of different hobbies. And I was like, pick one up for
00:46a
00:46couple of weeks, then drop it, pick something else up. But I think what stuck with cubing
00:50is it's just, it's so easy to do at home and on your own or wherever you're going. And
00:56you just get obsessed over that time and you get a time and you're like, that's great,
01:00but I want to get faster. And I've been doing that for like 12 years. I'll get a new best
01:04and I'll be like, yeah, cool. That's good. But I know I can do better. Um, and being
01:08able to push myself to get slightly faster each time, each time, um, has kind of what's
01:15kept me hooked. Um, and it's, it showed me that like, if I, if I have a goal and I
01:21really
01:21enjoy doing something, I just, I know I can do it. Might take a while, might be a bit of
01:25pain
01:25on the way, but it's, it's the journey. That's a lot of fun. I mean, it's, it's still like
01:30a very new thing to be making a bit of money from it. Um, so you've got to, you've got
01:35to
01:35do a couple of things here and there. So, um, I have a couple of sponsors who help support
01:40me, take me to competitions, um, pay for that. I'm currently a coach as well. So I'm teaching
01:46what I know to like the newer competitors who are hoping to achieve what like I've achieved
01:52and hopefully more than I've achieved. Um, and I run a podcast online as well, where
01:57we just talk about speedcubing news every week. Um, so a bit of all of that cut bit of money
02:01here and there I'm scraping by, but, um, I love doing it. So I'm happy to just, you know,
02:07have noodles every dinner, dinner every now and again, and make it work.
02:12I got into cubing from a school friend when I was 12 years old. He bought a cube, learned
02:18how to solve it. Uh, he taught me, helped me get into it and then we just started doing
02:23it together, started going to competitions together, sort of took off from there. It
02:27appeals to me because it's always, uh, a skill that you can improve. There's always something
02:32to work on. There's always, you know, a goal to chase. You're never really finished. I
02:37also really like the social aspect as well. Um, competitions, you know, they're a great
02:41way to meet people, a great way to talk to people. They're good fun.
02:43My sister taught me my first algorithms. She was the one who lent me my first cube. Um,
02:49and my, my dad and my sister brought me to my first competition and, um, I thought it
02:53was a really, yeah, they helped me a lot. And what I really like about cubing is just like
02:57the, the community, the people, they just come here and they get to bond with each other
03:03about something that we all just like really enjoy. Um, it's also very like, for the brain,
03:09it, it challenges it a lot. And, uh, I think that's really, really cool.
