Wired, Crafted, & Connected: Laine and Taylor's Friendship Forged at Skills

In our first-ever joint episode, we’re joined by Laine Van Hardeveld and Taylor Desjardins, two standout Skills alumni whose paths crossed in the most inspiring way. Laine, a Mechatronics and Millwrights competitor and Skills Canada Alberta’s 2024 Alumni of the Year, and Taylor, a Cabinet Making competitor who went on to represent Canada at WorldSkills Russia, share how their friendship began and blossomed through the Skills competitions.

From competing at the 2018 Provincial Skills Canada Competition to cheering each other on at Nationals, Laine and Taylor walk us through their individual journeys, the highs and lows of competition, and how they built a lasting bond rooted in shared experiences, great conversations, and a mutual love for trades and skilled work.

Tune in to hear how two different trades brought together two incredible people—and how the Skills community continues to create unexpected and meaningful connections.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Skills and Thrills, Alberta's Trade and Tech Youth Podcast by Skills Canada, Alberta. We feature the stories of skills alumni through sharing their competition experiences and how those moments shape their careers. Through casual, unscripted conversations, we explore the journeys behind the skills and the paths that followed. I'm Danny and I'll be your host. Let's dive into today's episode. Today's episode features not one, but two amazing guests, Lane Van Hardeveld and Taylor Desjardins. Lane competed in Mechatronics and Millwright, and Taylor competed in cabinet making. Tune in as they share their skills, journeys, and how it led to friendship and unforgettable experiences along the way. Hi, Lane and Taylor, and thank you for coming on the podcast today. How are you both doing? Lovely, fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Great. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I'm doing good, thanks. Taylor, do you mind starting off by telling us about your skills journey?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Hello, my name is Taylor. My name is Taylor Desjardin. I competed in cabinet making. I started back in high school. My teacher really got me into it. I quite enjoyed it. Woodworking was something I really took a passion into. I stopped paying attention to my other courses. So I really loved it. Um, but then I guess the uh the real highlight is when skills competition came around, but I didn't know skills was a thing until my teachers came up to me one day in class in my first year of cabinet making at State and were asking me, Well, have you ever heard of skills? And I completely blank faced and no, I have no idea what skills is. So they continued to explain to me what skills was, the organization, how it was a worldwide organization and really expanded around the globe. So that's how I got into it. It was a great experience.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So that's so cool. Do you mind kind of talking about a little bit about like each competition and how you got to world skills and what that was like?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

For sure. First year of cabin making at State was a provincials competition. Uh provincials was, I would say pretty simple. Kind of got you into the competition aspect of it. My first ever nationals back in, I want to say 2016. Um I got third place and it was it was hectic. It was a lot of running around, a lot of mistakes. Um really found myself in the gutter at times, but it really showed me how competitive this competition was and how how many people really took pride in what they do. So for my next year, I really knew I had to step that up. Um, so back, you know, I went back to provincials, won provincials again, and then had nationals in Edmonton, and that was the qualifying year for worlds. Um, so I knew there was a lot on my plates, I knew I wanted to go, so I I really put in a lot of effort to hopefully, you know, having the opportunity to make my way into worlds. Um, thankfully I did. Uh, I was very lucky. World skills, on the other hand, was uh, you know, kind of like the Olympics. It was everybody is in it to win it, and you know, there's there's nothing else you can do but do your best. And it was um, I wouldn't say it was as stressful as nationals, just because I knew going into it that you just have to be calm, relaxed, you know, it is a competition, mind you, but you just gotta enjoy it. So world skills was um was definitely the peak highlight of the competition, but it was definitely um one of the hardest competitions I've ever been in.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

So yeah, I bet just like a whole different level, I mean. And so what was the project like for world skills versus like nationals?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Well, on a on a hardness scale, basically, it would be nationals was maybe like a three or four, and worlds was like a 11 or 12. Wow. Huge difference. And well, with nationals, you could uh you could actually train on the project you were building. Where Worlds, they would give you three potential projects, and they would only choose one on the day you showed up. And so you'd show up and day before competition, you would find out what the project was, and they wouldn't let you study said project since they changed it at uh 30%. So now the project isn't anything like you had practiced, and there was dimensions that had changed, um different types of joinery that was changed, and now you had to, you know, show up to competition day and build this. So it was it was quite the experience.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Holy, yeah, that's that's a lot to prep for, and then be like, Oh, I guess I gotta rework what I'm gonna do and plan for last minute.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yeah, and thankfully everybody's in that boat. It's it's the whole competition floor is looking at these plans for the first time, and you're just now gung-ho into the competition, and you know people are scrambling since everybody's just running around trying to figure out what they're doing. So it was it was fun, it was a great time.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

For sure. Yeah, it's fun knowing that everyone else is in the same boat, and you're like, oh, we just gotta figure this out. We got this. Yeah. Cool. So was the project like about the same for each compet competition and just got a little bit harder with details and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Or oh no, they were completely out of the books. They were okay. Each one had their own designs, their own unique characteristics. Um really nothing about it was the same.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Wow. Yeah, so you really had to learn just like multiple different projects to really hone your craft, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of uh a lot of training involved.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Do you have any advice for someone that would uh compete in cabinet making?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Well, for any any competitors really, just try your best, have fun. And uh if you're if you want to go the extra mile, you gotta put in the effort. It's you can't just walk into it. It's it takes a lot of time, a lot of training, a lot of practice. And if you're if you're going into it, just you know, a give or have fun. Take the time off and and do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, agreed. I feel like that's one of the main things is just like have fun. Like it's it's gonna be a challenge, but all you can do is your best and just have a good time. So exact. Yeah. Lane, do you mind telling us your story with skills?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

For sure. Uh so my name's Lane Van Hardefeld. Um, I've actually competed twice with skills, once um in Mechatronics in 2018-2019, and then once again in Mill Wright, industrial mechanic mill right. I got into skills first of Mechatronics with kind of just a random pull aside from the instructor. They did uh kind of a presentation, be like, oh, this is what skills is. You know, we're looking for people to join the team, yada yada. And I was like, okay, I didn't give it much thought. I thought, oh, going to Russia would be kind of cool, but didn't really give it too much of an extra thought. My one instructor came up to me and he's like, you would be really good at this, you should go check out the meetings. And I was like, well, I'll consider it. Uh ended up talking to my father about it, and he had gone to World Skills in 2009 when it was hosted here in Calgary. And he was like, You are going. It is incredible. You need to go, you need to give it a chance. Like, you won't regret it, basically. Lo and behold, he was right. As parents normally are. So yeah, ended up doing provincials, nationals, and then the world qualifier all in one go for, I guess that would have been like, yeah, 2018. And yeah, unfortunately didn't make it past the qualifier for mechatronics. We had a bit of a string of bad luck, but that's how life goes. And then fast forward to uh millright, I was this is my second year. Second year millright, and the instructor that looks after the millright skills pulled me aside during lunch one day and was like, Hey, uh, you're still eligible to compete this year. And I was like, Oh, that's that's cool. That's a nice tidbit of information. He's like, No, no, no, I I want you to come compete as a millwright. And I was like, You want me, like a first barely second year millwright, to come compete against fourth years. He's like, Yeah, yeah, just just come compete. You'll be good at it. It's great, it's fine. So did uh kind of a fast track and ended up competing at provincials. And then because it was COVID and all that fun stuff, I ended up going straight into the world qualifier for that year and basically completely bypassing nationals. Yeah, unfortunately, my luck ran short again for that. Came up a little bit short in the points, but it was still incredibly fun. And obviously, not a lot of people can say that they've competed twice in two different competition areas, so it's definitely a a huge love point for me being able to say that I've I've been able to compete in skills and have all this extra experience.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, that's amazing to do Mechatronics too and Millwright. So that's awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about the projects and like what you need to prep for when it comes to Mechatronics and Millwrites for people who might compete?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

For sure. So Mechatronics, um, we've got a huge library of tasks. And really what we do for that is just repetitive training. Uh, we work on Festo's modular production systems, and they're just like tabletop mini manufacturing system simulations. So a lot of the training and tasks for that is just learning the equipment and then learning what it can do, the variations you can set it up in, how you can modify them for certain tasks. And then my trainer Dan, he would uh he's made up Dan's challenges, which are just like Frankenstein tasks, as we call them, where there's bits thrown together here, there, and just a real test of skill level. So provincials, it was like a two-station setup, nationals was a three-station setup, worlds qualifier. We ended up going to a new release of the same machinery, so like a new version of it. So that was a huge learning curve for us trying to learn this whole new, not whole new, but very upgraded system compared to what we were working on before. For Millwright, um, uh there wasn't a lot of preparation necessarily because a lot of it is stuff you kind of do every day. Like I did a little bit of training on like pipe bending because I hadn't done a lot of that in my life. But Millwright was cut into multiple different kind of subtasks. So there was a welding task that we had to do, which we were given blueprints and said, here, weld this. Um, we had a couple different alignment tasks. One was with like a cross dial, which was like the mechanical dials to align pump and motor shafts. And then we had laser alignments, we had pneumatic circuits we had to build as well. We had a leveling task as well, which was like leveling out a table kind of idea. Again, simulating, setting up different footings, different footblocks, different yeah, like crowding it and leveling all kind of the same thing there. And then a bit of like fabrication machining as well, where once we had finished our welding project, we had to take that and then drill and tap and mount pillow block bearings to it, and then of course have everything aligned so you can put a shaft through it. That was kind of the the check there. I can't remember what else it was for provincials, but that was provincials. And then the qualifier was again, you kind of just like jump on steroids past that, and we actually had to build an entire table and then a tabletop with it with uh like a functioning pneumatic circuit that served a simulation for a manufacturing process. So same sort of concepts on everything. The only other addition to it was we had to learn how to do balancing and dynamic balancing for again, like motors and like rotary discs, fans, stuff like that. That was really fun. I really did enjoy that. But yeah, it was it was a lot. The pipe bending definitely was probably the bane of my existence for that. Because I learned that like a week before competition, so I was like, oh yay. Um but yeah, it was just a lot, like I said, a lot of things that you would see kind of on a daily basis as a mill right, but the precision needed to be there for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I I can't imagine learning how to do pipe bending and stuff like a week before and like knowing all of that for it. I'd be like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, I did that with MEG welding too. I've done stick welding and I've done TIG welding. Uh, because I work in food food manufacturing, so TIG is what you do with everything. But I'd never MIG welded, so I had two weeks to learn how to MIG weld before provincials. So spent a bit of time in the welding shop too. Thankfully, MEG is like apparently the easiest out of them all.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

So okay, that's good at least. Um, do you have any advice for a future competitor that might compete in Mechatronics or Millright?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Oh, for sure. Two slightly different tidbits. Mechatronics, you really gotta love it. If you're determined to do it, you really have to stick to it. It's it's not it's not a competition area that you can kind of just like meander your way into. It's very, very precise, very high precision, very detail-oriented for a lot of things. There's many aspects you have to look at. A lot of my training with that was like type 2 fun, where yeah, it might not be the most fun while you're building the machine, but if you enjoy seeing end results and seeing things function at the end, Mechatronics is a hundred million percent worth it. For Millwright, obviously, same not the same thing, but like go do it. It's so much fun. Um, I found Millwright to be a little bit less demanding, but again, I'd also competed already, so I knew what to expect. But overall, if you won't if you're even considering competing in skills, do it. It's it's so much fun. You meet so many people. Clearly, my best friend I've met through skills, so um, it's it's definitely worth it 110%.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, that's awesome. Do you mind talking a little bit more about how you guys became friends?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Sure. We've been friends for so long now. It's like I know we met at Skills somewhere, um, but I don't remember the exact meeting. I know I'm pretty sure it was like provincials, like 2018-ish. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah somewhere there. We we really we really started to to hang out quite a bit during the uh um it was like that uh the doers training event for nationals or whatever. Can't remember now.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, because I know we spent we spent a bit of time together in Edmonton too. That's true. With nationals then. But yeah, it wasn't until after that once we were both on like Team Canada prospects and whatnot, because we're both at State and they were having different promotional things going on that we were like constantly running into each other.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

So Yeah, we definitely spent quite a bit of time together.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

What made you guys click as friends?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Uh well Lane's very hardworking, as you know. Um, so we got along there and we both love machinery and all that stuff, so we love talking about the trades and and Lane loves cats. I love cats, so that's like a win-win right there.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

So, how has your friendship continued beyond the competition?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I don't even know how to describe that because like I feel like we were more friends outside of the competition to begin with. Like we met during the competitions, but we have so many common interests outside of it. Like we both ride motorcycles, like I said, we both have cats, we both work on vehicles, um, we have so many common interests across the board. Yeah. Building things, Lego.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Lego's more my thing, but it still plays into like building things.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

It's it's been a long time since I've played with Lego. I love Lego, but I just I can't I can't afford it with my other expensive hobbies.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

What other hobbies?

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Oh, like she said, there's motorcycles and uh right well, snow wheels and backcountry skiing and you know, vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, Lego can get a bit expensive, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, very, very expensive.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Work night shifts, so I have to find something to do at like three o'clock in the morning when the rest of the world's dead. So it was a good time killer when I started my current job.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

I totally get that. I like just got into it like last year, so I'm I see all the new sets and I'm like, I need to buy them all.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

They just yeah, they just released the entire F1 grid and I am dying to get it. But yeah, it's $350 for in one go, and I'm like, oh, probably shouldn't be doing that, but we will eventually.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

It gets pretty rough when it goes over the $300. You're like, hmm.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Well, I mean, I have the Titanic, so I can't say anything.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Oh, yeah, that that's an expensive one. Um, but you guys both studied at SAIT, right? Yes. Yeah. Uh did you guys like know each other at SAIT or no?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

No? No. Yeah, I guess it's pretty different class areas too, hey?

unknown 18:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Not necessarily. Well, somewhat, but like I I was in Thomas Riley with MET a fair amount, but I was a hermit and a half. My first years of engineering. So I didn't do anything. I would like go to school and go home, and just that was it. It wasn't yeah, it wasn't until after we went through skills that we we started actually making time and getting together on campus, off-campus, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

So yeah, I totally get that. Can you both describe like a really memorable or even challenging moment from the competitions?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yeah. Um probably making time to to train and uh focusing on training a lot. Um, I know my I owe a lot to my trainers and experts, uh uh Harold Bergman and Mick McGowan. Harold uh Harold stuck with me um the entire time. He was he took time off of his daily you know evenings and weekends. He was there the entire time, and uh we we trained a lot. It was three days a week and plus usually a full Saturday. Um, so yeah, it was it was a lot of time off, a lot of time to train. Um it was mentally taxing at times. So he definitely saw me through my ups and downs, but uh yeah, it was it was tough. But lots of the training was probably the hardest part just because you you had to keep making mistakes to get better. So the more you practice, the you know, the more you got better. So that's that's what I did. I just had to put my head down and and work, and my my trainers really, really push me. So that's that's what I would say was the hardest part.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah, for sure. Do you have a memorable uh moment or a challenging one that comes to mind lane?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I mean, outside of training, again, day two of the competitions, Alex got violently sick, and he ended up missing the first four hours of competition that day. So yeah, it was stressful. It was very stressful, especially for me. I'm like, well, um, this is cool. I'm going to try and figure my life out and get done what I can and hope that like Alex is okay and that he ends up showing up at some point, basically, because yeah, that was definitely probably one of the more stressful and memorable times. But yeah, I mean there's a million and one other fun memories to make up for it, but that was definitely the more challenging side of it. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, that sounds that sounds really challenging. Just so stressful too, when you just want to do really well in the competitions and stuff. For something like that to happen, that's super stressful. Um, do you guys mind talking about a little bit more about your mentors and how they help guide you through these competitions?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

For sure. I mean, I can grab that one first. Um my trainer, Daniel Barrett, he he was our go-to for everything. He's been around the block a few times with this. And he was definitely there every step of the way trying to push us to be better, find different ways that he can nicely screw us over, you know, make mistakes to make yourself better idea. So he was constantly trying to make us slip up. But yeah, he was he was there for a lot of things too, just helping a bit on the mental side, being like, you know, we're all in the same boat. It was the first year that Satan Mechatronics had made like the world's level for Mechatronics. So we were all in the same boat of like, well, we don't know what to expect for the process. Our expert, um, Neil Wagner from Nate at the time. Um, he was also a huge resource. Of course, we're emailing and talking with him left, right, and center, trying to get a grasp more for the processes of everything versus the tasks, because you've got access to um the older tasks as well. So we kind of knew what to expect there, but everything else surrounding it was a huge question mark for us. So it was it was definitely nice to have those two on board for that, and then yeah, pushing us to be better and being like, you know, this is the first time you're doing this, you know, you gotta show up, you gotta show off kind of idea. Do the best you can, make sure you you represent well.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

So yeah, that's awesome. It's always good to have like a really amazing mentor that always pushes you to be better.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Taylor for sure. Um, I got I got pretty lucky with my uh trainer and expert. They were both uh they're actually both my teachers at SAIT. So um Mick was actually the one who got me into skills. Uh he was my one of my instructors. Uh during my first year, he was really, really devoted into finding people to to train and compete. So we had uh little extra like curricular evenings afterwards where he would you know bring us into the class after after school and we would go through projects and we would start practicing. And really, we I now that I think about it, we only had like two or three days to practice before the provincials. And I mean, we we were in that field anyway, so we were technically practicing every day, but he really, you know, really pushed us to do better during those evenings. And then um come my fourth year actually, we were that was uh after skills. Fairly certain, can't even remember now. Um both my my teacher and my trainer were uh they were they were quite funny in the aspect that whenever I would come to them to to train, it would be like after it'd be during school hours, actually, because I would get the classroom work done and I'd go up to them and I'd say, Hey, can I start this work? They're like, We don't care what you do, just go and do it. They're like, just you're already gonna go do it anyway. We know it's gonna be done well. So um actually a memorable moment. I know I'm kind of off topic here. Um my fourth year project, and I was uh designing my own talk, and I came up to Mick with a with a design and a diagram, and he's like, Taylor, I don't care what you do, it's gonna be great, so just go ahead and do it. And I'm like, great. So my my teachers um were fantastic. They were they were great, they were devoted, they were always there. Um Harold would always uh come up with the most unethical designs sometimes that were really challenging. Um they were a lot of fun though, I might add. Um, but they really they really put your head down and made you work for it. Um they weren't easy. So he really made sure you were uh you were well trained and well rounded when the competition came around. So I I can't complain. They were great, they were great people. They stuck by my side the entire time. Um sadly they're not teachers there anymore. Harold's actually moved up. He's now overseeing the division now. So yeah, I'm happy I had them when they were when they were my teachers.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Oh, that's awesome. Do you mind telling us about some of those crazy designs?

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Oh, jeez, I should have brought them in here too. Um just uh a lot of weird angles. Um everything was what the there was a hand cut section in our in our designs that had to be hand cut. You couldn't use uh machines or anything. So handsaws, chisels, um, knives, whatever you basically had access to via your hands, really. Um we were we were doing some dovetails, and uh you always have to hand in dovetails for marking, so you always had to hand cut them, and they always had to be drawn out and labeled, and so we were doing some multi-level dovetails where they were just getting ridiculous to the point where you wouldn't see it in competition, but they were really training you to do better. So um more or less there were uh some other hand cut parts to it as well where you had to um cut out mortise joints and they're very, very difficult to say the least. Let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

It sounds difficult, just very like precise and everything, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Yeah, oh for sure.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Did you have to do a lot of those, like in preparation or oh yeah, um almost every day. Um not as bad as you think, no.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Oh okay.

unknown 27:52

No.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Okay. Um do you guys have any really fun memories from skills that you don't mind telling us?

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Um I think me and Lane had to uh We have one. Yeah, we had a lot of fun during the um that prospects uh retreat or whatever. Yeah. We were where were we? We ran on on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

We were in Montebello. Yeah, Montebello. That was that was crazy. That was also where we met our other skills friend from Manitoba, Miranda. Um, she was my roommate for that. That was that was a good time. I mean, one of my favorite memories of Taylor and Skills was back when we were on Team Alberta, the first go-around, and uh he was hyping everyone up, running around with the thunder sticks. He ended up taping a bunch of them together to put a flag up. Just absolutely like Spirit Award 2 of the nine. It's definitely one of my favorite memories like of Taylor and skills.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Yeah, there was a little bit of running around.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Oh, that's so funny. So wait, you won this Team Spirit Award, or did we have that back in 2018? I'm not sure if it like is a new thing with skills or oh no, there was definitely a Team Spirit Award. Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

It was the second year I competed where uh Team Alberta, like I got the Spirit Award for that one. And I think we were at the um the ceremony, and we're we're walking up the aisle or whatever with the team, and I'm like, we're like running around the whole crew and like yelling at them. I'm like, who's ready? Like freaking out, right? And everybody's just looking at me like he's crazy. It's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

And Alex and I are both like, what have we gotten ourselves into associating with this human? Yes, yes, records out Alex and are both on the on the introverted side, so we we did not have that level of enthusiasm outwards, at least.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah, no, that's so fun. I feel like it just makes the experience. And it's like so much more fun, you know, when everyone's like really excited and there's that one person that gets everyone like rowdy and everything. It's just so much fun. Yeah. So, Taylor, you went to World Skills Russia, which is amazing. Do you mind telling everyone a little bit about that and what that was like?

SPEAKER_02 30:18

For sure. So um I guess first off, the World Skills competition was uh was a huge, huge thing for me. I was I knew like right away that that's what I wanted to do. So I really put the effort into doing it. Um the cabin making competition side of it was uh was quite interesting. So what they do is they provide so each country has an expert and a trainer, and every expert has to submit a a plan, a blueprint of a potential project for worlds to use as a competition piece. So out of the 30 competitors, 30 projects were submitted. Uh they choose three, and then they give you that three in about there's a year out. So you have a year to practice three different projects. All the joinery, all the aspects, the measurements, the dimensions, the whole bit. And then come the competition. It's a huge competition with brand new equipment. Um, you're allowed to bring uh certain tools along with you. So you get to, I think you get like a certain amount of hand tools you can bring, um specific chop saw you can bring, so forth, a router table, and uh you you gotta fit this within a wooden crate. And the crate has a dimension of one meter by one meter by one point five meters. So whatever you can fit into that crate, you can bring. So we stuff as much as we could into this box, and you build your own box. So the box actually opens up and becomes your your workbench. So back to the uh the blueprints part of it, you you know, you practice with that bench, and then you built them all from there, and then you packed up that bench, you shipped it off, and then you get to the competition area, you unpack everything, and the day before all the experts get together and then they show you the project that you're gonna be building. So you are now given 45 minutes to look at these blueprints that are now they have a 30% change, and you're trying to literally memorize every single aspect of this planet to the nines. Like, okay, what was changed? What's the same? What can I focus on? What are, you know, what are the hard points that I need to practice? What are some things that I can just forget about because I can do those easily? And you just kind of put your head down for 45 minutes and study these plants. And then the bell goes off and you are escorted off the floor, and now you are freaking out because you're trying to remember everything and you just forgot everything. So um day one of competition, you uh and and it's in Russia, and a lot of people are skeptical of it, but honestly, it was actually I had a great time, great people, great culture, um, quite an experience. But uh I guess the right before the competition when we all got there, they actually they have arm guards around the entire perimeter um of where the entire world skills uh teams were staying. So it was this giant um, I think it was a university that we all stayed at, and we were all in the dorms and whatnot, and they had big, like almost parties every night where they had like music and games so you could socialize with other competitors, you know. It was a very friendly environment. Um, so it was quite fun. But then you you had a deadline. You were responsible for getting to the competition on time, taking the bus, you know. So day one shows up. We all, you know, everybody's showing up on time, everybody's nervous, and uh, I just got a big grin on my face. I'm excited, I'm ready for this competition. Um you get into the competition, they go through the rules, the safety, the whole nine yards. And uh, you know, bell goes off, and now you get to start reading your plans. Where am I gonna start? What am I gonna do? Um, and the timer starts. And that's a big thing because you have a specific amount of time, you have specific times you have to leave the competition area for your breaks, your launches, so forth. Um, and then during those breaks, you you can't talk to your expert. You're not allowed to talk to anybody during the competition, you can't make eye contact with anybody during the competition outside of the fence, and there's literally people walking by you two feet away, and they're they're staring at you, and you gotta you just gotta focus. You gotta keep your head down, and every once in a while, you know, you look up and you kind of wave because you're you know, people are walking by and there's they're watching, and but uh yeah, it's it's it was a wild experience. So day one ends, and some people are stressed, some people are not so stressed. You can really tell who is, who's freaking out. I was feeling pretty good. First day was definitely a little stressful, but um timelines are are your best friend. You make yourself a timetable and you go through it step by step. So after the competition's done, you meet with your trainer and then you go through what you've completed, um, what's next on the list, and you know, you just you create day two. You already planned for day two. So when you show up, you already know what you're doing. You're not you're not scared of anything, you're just you're getting to work. Team Canada and Team Alberta, especially uh phenomenal people. They will if you are in trouble, if you are having a hard time. Um, I know Lane knows this. Um Mike Suri, for instance, he's such a wonderful individual. Uh he would just, if you have time to talk, he would make time to talk with you. If you were scared, you know, he would help you. He'd be like, Yo, you got this. He's a very positive individual. I mean, the whole crew is, not just him, like the entire team, Alberta, team Canada, all the representatives, they're just they're such great people. I have nothing, I have nothing bad to say. Um, they helped me a lot during worlds. So that was definitely a bonus. Any, you know, any questions I had, they were there, they were there to support you.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

So oh, that's amazing. Um, that's a really amazing experience going to Russia and everything and competing there. Did you learn anything from the other competitors in that area?

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Oh, yeah. I learned um lots from a lot of competitors, and I could go on for hours. But uh, I guess I guess a big one was uh the Japanese competitor. He actually had his own handcrafted tools that he made himself and brought to the competition. So they weren't no store-bought planes or hands-like they were all handcrafted. And just the artwork alone, right there, like you're competing against guys who have a passion for this. Um another one would be the Australian competitor. He was actually a good buddy of mine. We uh we met actually in Australia, and um he was he was quite a funny individual, very sarcastic. So he would uh he'd look at me and go, So how's your uh how's your maple syrup, eh? And then I'd look at him and go, So you guys have pet kangaroos or what? And so we would always go back and forth at each other. Um we got along really well. He was uh he was a very good individual, and uh we really, really got along. I got along with basically everybody on the competition floor. Um, but everybody was very talented and everybody had a good story, and um yeah, they were they're all just good, well-rounded people to to be involved with.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

So yeah, it must be so cool to meet other people in your field, but from around the world, and they all like do their craft a little bit differently. And I think it's so cool that that guy had his own tools that he made. Like, wow.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yeah, that was that was a very unique. So I was he was a very nice individual, didn't speak English very well, but uh he was a very nice person.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

So oh, that's awesome. Lane, I wanted to talk about you being on the PTC. What made you want to join the PTC?

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Uh it's gonna sound kind of cheesy, but uh I didn't want my time with skills to end. Uh it'd been such a a big part of my life for so many years that um when when we were done with Halifax, it kind of was just like a hole had opened up in my life and in my in my hobbies, and I was like, well, I've I've always enjoyed my time, so I might as well give back um a little bit more because I train our mechatronics teams at Saint as well. So it was just another one step forward, get a chance to keep being involved, get to go to provincials, get to see everybody, get to keep the connections and see the teams that I've helped train and the up-and-coming teams show what they can do as well.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Do you really enjoy like the planning and everything and helping people train and kind of being a mentor?

SPEAKER_01 39:40

I like the mentorship aspect. Um, the planning. I personally like planning things. Um, planning things with a group of guys um that don't plan things the same way you do um is not always the easiest thing to deal with. But we've been doing it for a few years now, so we've all kind of settled into a routine there. Um, but my my favorite part of all of it is just seeing um like the excitement and the passion in the competitors' eyes, knowing that I've been through that and I know exactly what they're going through and how they're feeling, and getting to see them share the same passions that I have. To me, it's just it's really rewarding to see, and it just warms my heart.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Oh, that's amazing. Do you have anyone competing uh this year that you know?

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Um this year, unfortunately, I've had to take a step back from training just my work schedule right now. Um, but I know we've got two teams. I know um one of our guys is from last year. He was also actually the summer student at my work, but um, I'm excited to see him compete again. Um from the updates I get from Dan and Jason, that it sounds like our teams are doing pretty good. So it'll kind of be like a surprise for me once we hit provincials.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Oh, that's awesome. Well, I'm rooting for them. I hope they do well. Okay, if you guys could re relive one moment from your skills journey, what would you relive?

SPEAKER_01 41:07

That's a tough one.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

I know. There's so many good moments.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Um well, it would definitely have to be uh well, I got two of them. One would be the World Skills Competition, and uh one would be uh when me and Lane were at the uh the prospects uh reunion there, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

The retreat.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Um yeah, the retreat. That was that was a heyday, I gotta say. I think uh I think me and Lane had our fair share of fun.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Yeah, that was definitely it was it was a very much a bonding experience, which is it was supposed to be. So yeah, that was that was definitely a lot of fun. I also have two, but they're kind of unconventional. I would go back and I would I would want to relive both of both of my qualifying competitions, not for the sake of like wanting to change the outcome, but just getting to experience that setting again and getting to be around the new people and getting to have those interactions again. Um yeah, just the networking, the new people, the this the stress of the competition. I'm not gonna lie, it's it's it gets to be kind of addicting after a while. You get used to working under pressure and it's um yeah, it's just something that you don't get to experience very often. But yeah, unfortunately, all of all of my happy memories, I I'm less inclined to relive because Taylor and I are still friends, so we still have all sorts of happy memories that we make. So uh especially with PTCT, like there's always happy memories, but I find I find myself like going back and like replaying the competitions more than anything.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Yeah, I feel like competing is kind of a high. Like it's it's anxious, like it it yeah, you you feel so anxious about it, and there's a little bit of stress and there's like a time limit and everything, but I feel like there's still like this exciting like I'm competing and it's so fun. So I get that. Um, have you guys learned anything from each other's trade?

SPEAKER_01 43:19

I suck at woodworking, so no. Sorry, Taylor. No. I I always make a joke to people that I work with metal and Taylor works with wood most times. Even though you know he does mechanics.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

Fair statement.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yeah. So yeah, no, not particularly.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

I can't say I know how to program. I can't say I know how to program anything of lanes. I I think uh I think high school was the last time I ever programmed something. She'd probably look at it and go, that's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Probably say that about my own workbeat days.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

If you guys could trade skills for a day, what would you guys do? What would you guys try?

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Aircraft maintenance is on my list. I would totally want to do that. Um that or I know there's not like not a motorcycle specific competition, but I know there's like uh an outdoor small engine kind of competition. I forget what it's called, sorry. But I would totally want to do that too.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Outdoor recreation or something? Outdoor equipment and recreation.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

I think that's the one that also does motorcycles, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

I remember in Vancouver, I was like losing my mind because they one of the bikes they were working on was the same model bike that I own, just like a few years older, and I was like, oh my god, it's my motorcycle.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Anyway. How about you, Taylor?

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Uh I'd probably I'd I'd like to get better at uh at welding, I think. I'd like to like I'm not bad at it, but I'm also you know, I'd I'd probably love to love to do welding. That's probably my go-to.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

It looks pretty fun, I have to say. It looks it looks like a fun thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

One of these days we'll we'll have to touch baits and I'll have to introduce you to Ben. He was our uh our world's welder. Pats go around. Um, I know him through we're both part of a committee for the government. Um with the Ministry of Advanced Education anyway. But yeah, he's a he's a sweet guy. You guys definitely get along. We'll have to plan something. I'm pretty sure we'll be back at Stampedes.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Yeah, Ben's super nice. I just did an episode with him last year. So he's a sweetheart. He's such a super. Yeah. Um, okay, one more fun question. If your trade was a superhero, what would its name be? Um, or superpower. So name or superpower.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Superpower. I think it'd be pretty lame. I think it'd I think it'd be only able to grow trees.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

I think that'd be pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Or just create something out of nothing with like I don't know, a wood creation of some sort.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

That would be nice, but it would take all the fun out of it.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Totally, totally. How about Elaine? Have you th thought of one?

SPEAKER_01 46:18

I don't know, it's really hard. I don't know, I feel like a su a a really fun superpower for kind of like a combination of mechatronics and millraid because that's that's what I do for work right now. Is there's a combination of both. Um be able to like speak computer, like just be able to like physically talk to a computer or a PLC. That would be kind of nice. Um I couldn't give you a superhero name at all. That would have to be workshopped extensively. Yeah, no, I get it. That or some sort of like telepathic fixing. Um, like instead of having to tear an entire machine apart, you can just like telepathic go into the machine and be like, you, you gear, you are not doing well. We're just gonna like telepathically renew you back to being new and better, and then life would be great. Thank you again, take some of the fun out of it, but it would also take out some of the headache when you've got like four hours of disassembly for something. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Superhero name would be binary.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Yeah, uh it could it could be into it. I mean, it yeah, PLCs and automation don't run as much on binary anymore as you think they would. So we have got a line at work and it actually runs on automation PCs. Not even PLCs, but they have an actual PC in them. Just just for automation stuff. And I'm like, oh, that's nice. Apparently, I gotta go learn how to do like structured text programming now, but like C and Python, and like learn that. Yeah, wow, whole other skill set there.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Just a wee bit. So fun. Okay, what is your favorite thing about your trade?

SPEAKER_01 48:10

It's gonna sound cheesy, but probably my favorite thing is always asking where's the 10 mil. Again, it sounds cheesy, but like the number of times we have to go for a 10 mil, a 13 mil, or a 916. Like I can do basically my entire job with those three wrenches. And like supplies.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

That's funny. How about you, Taylor?

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Probably would be just building unique projects constantly. Um I'm always on a different project, so it's it's quite interesting to be able to be put on different designs, different architectural designs, stuff like that. So you get to you get to really dive into somebody's dream, right? You get to build their dream. So that's that's probably my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

That'd be pretty cool. Sounds sad now.

SPEAKER_02 49:04

No, I love that. That 10 mil, I've I almost lost mine the other day. I was mad.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

I've had the same 10 mil wrench for the two years I've been at my job. I've not lost it. Fingers crossed, knocked on wood, whole nine yards of suspicion, but I'm just gonna show up to your work and steal it for a day. Good luck. Oh, good luck getting in. I dare you. Do you have your initials on it? Well, yes, I have my initials on it, but I also work in a production plant. So literally everything is locked down to the nine. Like you you can't you can't even get through the front doors without getting buzzed in. Right. That's why I said I dare him to, because yeah, it's not easy.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

Do you guys have anything else you'd like to add to this episode?

SPEAKER_02 49:53

Skills is the best organization there is.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

I mean, obviously, we all second that one. If anyone listens to this and sees Taylor Eye at Provincials or whatever, feel free to come say hi. I'm gonna throw Taylor under this bus too. But yes. Something high we're if we're all adults, we'll go for drinks. We're happy to always talk about skills, share experience, stuff like that. I know pretty much any alumni is always happy to talk about their experiences.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

So yeah, that's true. Awesome. So you guys will both be a provincials.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

That is the plan.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Yay, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

I was gonna say, I didn't I didn't know if Taylor was going, but I know I've got time booked off already. So awesome.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

I told my boss that I'm going. If he sends me somewhere, I'm gonna do something that he's not gonna like.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

You just fly back out to Edmonton, be like, no, we're here. Yeah, I just get a paid day off for it because it counts as volunteering. So that's that's what I get from work.

SPEAKER_00 50:56

Awesome. Well, I hope I see you guys there. Oh, you will.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

We'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Awesome. Well, thank you both for sharing your skill story today. It was amazing chatting with you both.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Our pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

Thank you for having us. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in, and we'll see you in the next one. Thanks again for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and gained some valuable insights from our amazing guests. If you'd like to learn more about Skills Canada, Alberta and our wide range of programs, be sure to check out our website at skillsalberta.com. From bringing skills right to your classroom to taking part in our competition programming, there are countless ways to get involved. And don't forget to follow us on social media at SkillsAlberta to stay up to date on our latest episodes and events. See you in the next one.