The Journey Begins: San Luis Obispo to Washington D.C.

Hello friends,
Day 1 of my adventure has come to a close, and I think it can be best summed up in one word: tiring. Made it safely to Washington D.C. where I met up with the rest of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam for a meeting over dinner. We have a pretty busy schedule planned for tomorrow including multiple House and Senate visits, a White House visit, and a team photo in front of the United States Capitol. Tomorrow will be an early morning, so I am off to try and tackle this project of getting my body to adjust to the time change. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated! Check back tomorrow for a report on our day on Capitol Hill!

It's Go Time!

It’s finally here. After waiting for two years, spending hundreds of hours in preparation, and traveling over 10,000 combined miles for training, I will set foot on an airplane bound for Washington D.C. Thursday morning. Not long after that, I will be heading to London, England accompanied by the other 16 members of the 2011 SkillsUSA WorldTeam, for the 41^st WorldSkills International Competition. It is really hard for me to believe that the time has finally come. I am so excited for this adventure to begin!

The last few months have been a flurry of activity and short notice trips to some interesting parts of the country. It all started this summer in Kansas City, MO with the 2011 SkillsUSA National Championships.

There, I went through nearly all of thestations in both the Post-secondary and secondary division to practice for the upcoming competition in London. This was fantastic practice, and it was great to see all of our SkillsUSA friends from around the country. While in Kansas City, I also met up with the rest of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam for the first time.

After spending the week in the city, I traveled down to Pittsburg, Kansas with Ron Downing and Scott Norman (USA Technical Experts for Automotive Technology) to spend another week training at their fantastic Pittsburg State University Facility. Their staff of instructors including: Bob Schroer, Tim Dell, Mike Elder, and others, transferred a wealth of knowledge to me as I began to prepare for the WorldSkills competition. During the week in Pittsburg, I stayed with Ron and his wife Suzanne in their beautiful home and they introduced me to some of south-eastern Kansas' greatest hits including: Chicken Annies, Chatters, The Deli, strip-mine pits, and Brutus, the largest electric powered coal mining shovel in the world! (Or something like that).We also visited Joplin, MO where a tornado had struck 4.5 weeks earlier and killed over 150 people. It was quite a sobering experience to drive through a town that had a majority of its area literally wiped off the face of the earth. This was a very sobering experience, but damage like that is something you just can't understand until you go there and see it yourself.

After traveling back to San Luis Obispo, I have spent the next several months training intensely for the competition. Thanks to BMW North America and MINI USA, I was able to spend a full day at the Western Region Training Center working on the 2011 MINI Countryman. Also, thanks to Sunset Honda in San Luis Obispo, I have had a 2011 Honda CRV at my disposal for the last month and have been using it to train extensively for the competition!

So now it's go time! The bags are packed and the work is done. I am very much looking forward to this trip and will be posting updates on here every day. Please visit often and follow me as I pursue my goal of earning the first ever gold medal for the United States at the WorldSkills level in Automotive Technology!

Daniel Lehmkuhl

End of the Year Update

Hello Friends!

As 2010 comes to a close my mind drifts memories from the last year, and looks ahead to the excitement of the next! Looking back, I think I can safely say that the trip to Brazil I got to take in March was the highlight of the year (and quite possibly my entire life to this point). Looking ahead, I am super stoked to begin what I am anticipating will be nearly nine months of focused preparation for the WorldSkills 2011 in London next October. While the contest technical description and standards have not yet been released, I've begun discussing strategy and polishing up on my European diagnostic skills in anticipation of what I fully expect will be the most difficult contest I will face in my career. It is a daunting, yet severely exciting challenge that has motivated me to train and practice as much as I can, and give this thing my best shot! If you're at all interested, browse around the WorldSkills website and you can get an idea of what the event will be like. Also, I want to take a minute to say thank you to Rizzoli's Automotive, Snap-On Tools, Lowe's and all the other folks who support me and the WorldTeam, you are the ones who make all of this traveling possible! And if you are interesting in becoming a sponsor of me or the team, please contact me at daniel.lehmkuhl@gmail.com . Thank you!

Exciting News!

Well, it's been an eventful summer filled with good experiences and exciting news! The Skills USA National Championships were held in Kansas City at the end of June, and I was fortunate enough to win a silver medal in the Post-Secondary Automotive Service Technology competition. But the most exciting news of all was when I was informed that I have been selected to compete in the 2011 WorldSkills International Championships in London representing the U.S.A in the Automobile Mechanic competition. I am very excited about the opportunity and am looking forward to a year of preparation for this exciting event. Check back for more updates, I am going to be posting information on a regular basis. For more information about the WorldSkills Competition, visit www.worldskillslondon2011.com

Update from Kansas City

Yesterday was a long and tiring day competing from 8 AM until 4 PM but its finally done! I feel pretty good, things went well and I had a fairly large and rather raucous group of supporters following me around all day cheering me on which was awesome. We will find out results tonight at the medal ceremony around 7 PM Central time. Last night was our banquet with all of the business and industry members and sponsors. I got to spend a good amount of time chatting with Tim Zilke, President of ASE as well as the president of NATEF, former NASCAR driver, team owner, and ESPN commentator Rusty Wallace, and several Snap-On higher ups. Pretty fun stuff. I'll post results as soon as we find out.

Skills USA National Championships

It's competition time again! I am flying out to Kansas City tomorrow afternoon for the 2010 Skills USA National Championships. I will be posting updates and (hopefully) pictures all week long. Competition day is Thursday and results will be known Friday evening. Stay tuned!

Skills USA State Conference

Headed down to San Diego for the weekend for the Skills USA State Conference. I will be competing in the Automotive Service Technology category in the Post-Secondary Division. I'm also very excited to have my cousin and good friend Ben Sjogren compete in the AST High School Division. Should be a fun weekend!

Big thanks to Rizzoli's Automotive and the Rizzoli family for their generous sponsorship!