Perry Boskus: Owner/Founder of Florida Skating Inc.
A lifetime of skating and a world of experience led to the creation of an ideal non-ice skating surface and a company designed to create, provide and install rinks for hockey and figure skaters of all ages and experience levels.
"We stand behind our product with a strong warrantee and continuing support. We're always available to our clients for advice and suggestions, or to answer questions that may arise even long after the purchase. We don't just sell you a product, we sell you an incredible skating surface, a viable business concept and long term support to guarantee our facilities success." - Perry Boskus
The President of Florida Skating Inc., Perry Boskus, has been skating for over 38 years. He has competed nationally becoming North Atlantic Figure Skating Champion two years in a row. At age 13, Perry started speed skating and playing hockey. He trained in speed skating for three years and went on to be Eastern Seaboard Speed skating Champion. He played hockey in high school and became known for his powerful slap shot winning many games in overtime, and was awarded a hockey scholarship to New Hampshire College.
As an adult he was a Professional Figure Skating Coach, training Florida's first junior national champions who continued on to become Florida's first junior world champions. In 1992, he became the skating director of Tampa Bay Skating Academy and one of the top U.S. coaches in the south. As the director, his skating school achieved wide ranging recognition and the highest number of students ever. He has been involved in the skating industry for over 30 years, managing skating facilities and coaching figure skating and hockey to the world level.
With all the years of varied skating experience Perry often had the opportunity to test synthetic ice surfaces. He saw great potential for this product but felt it lacked the glide characteristics to compete with real ice. However, he used synthetic ice to train his figure skaters and saw that they became stronger skaters and improved their performance as a result of regular practice sessions on these surfaces.
2005 International Business of the Year Finalist
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Business of the Year banquet, 2005
Although the artificial ice skating surfaces were good for training, he made note of the problems with the surfaces and thought there could be a better solution. The general public did not like the way the existing artificial ice surfaces glided and they weren't configured for maximum effectiveness in the way the panels were joined. Perry felt a proper synthetic ice surface needed to be kept smoother at the joins, and it needed to offer a more realistic "Skate Like Ice" feel.
With Perry's Guidance the Super-Glide Team developed the Super Glide Skating Surface, scientifically developed to address these issues and provide a near perfect ice replacement. They researched the chemical make-up of a wide variety of different materials looking for the formula that provided the best glide factor. They also worked with a chemist to create Super-Glide Skate Enhancer which is used on the skate blade to create that true "Skate Like Ice" feeling. Considerable time was spent engineering a new join solution for the panels to ensure a perfectly smooth surface through a wide variety of temperatures and conditions. All these advancements combine to create the world's best non-ice skating surface, the Super-Glide skating surface.
Along with developing the surface, Perry, and his company Florida Skating Inc., actually operate several skating facilities, which is not the case with other competitors. Operating facilities allows us to keep abreast of the industry, gather "real time" information about the performance and longevity of the product, and look for new and inventive ways to advance the skating marketplace and all the business aspects surrounding it. No one has greater knowledge or experience in this marketplace than Florida Skating Inc, the Manufacturers of Super-Glide.
With experience, knowledge and perseverance, Florida Skating Inc. has created a major revolution in the skating industry by offering a simple, affordable and viable alternative to real ice skating facilities, Super-Glide Skating Facilities!