Thrill seeker at home on the ice
No cape or super power or menacing villain, just a will for thrill.
That’s all 82-year-old Joe Kello needs to fulfill his nickname, "Super Joe."
The longtime Las Vegan and former Strip dealer has spent decades pounding powder on two skis, exploring the deep blue sea scuba diving in the Caribbean and flying among the clouds via airplane.
"I’m not a daredevil," he promises. "I just enjoy these things."
But it’s his time on two skates — modified speed skates, namely — that has earned him his infamous nickname.
Decades ago, neighborhood kids of the first ice rink in town bestowed the moniker on Kello as beguiled spectators of his speed skating skills, said Kello’s daughter Jill Landess.
Landess, who was about 5 years old at the time, was with her dad that day and remembers being confused by the fuss.
"I remember everyone gathering around him and thinking, ‘What’s the big deal?’ " she said.
The story of what happened next is one of Kello’s favorites.
"I would say, ‘Who wants to skate with Super Joe? Form a line,’ " Kello said. "Jill said, ‘He’s nobody, he’s nobody. He’s just my dad.’ I looked back and she was in the line."
Kello still entertains a little fanfare as the oldest skater of the biweekly, seniors-only skate events he frequents at the Fiesta Rancho SoBe Ice Arena, 2400 N. Rancho Drive.
The rink is too small for him to test his top speeds, he said, but his laps help him live his latest life philosophy.
"Avoid medication," Kello said.
Aside from a few scrapes through the years and partial hearing loss while scuba diving, Kello has avoided heavy injury during his thrill-seeking days.
He continues to ski at the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort, 6725 Lee Canyon Road on Mount Charleston, and uses the bent poles he’s had around for ages, Landess said.
"He says it’s from saying, ‘Back, girls, back,’ " she said.
Kello lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Sandra.
While she likes to work out at the local senior center, Kello said he prefers to stay fit with youngsters.
"They don’t talk about their aches and pains," Kello said.
A new family joke was born last year during a ski trip with Kello, Landess and her young daughter at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California.
"Eighty and over ski for free and so do 6 (years old) and under," Landess said. "I was the only one that had to buy a lift ticket. People can’t believe he’s as old as he is."
Kello moved to Las Vegas in 1952 and started work as a blackjack dealer at the El Rancho Vegas. He came west from his native Montana to avoid a life spent in copper mines, he said.
He moved around titles and casinos here and at Lake Tahoe and in the Caribbean. At one point, he sold everything and bought a boat to scuba dive full time in the tropic region. Hurricane Ivan destroyed his boat and forced him back to Las Vegas.
He decided to spend his retirement years here.
"It’s been good to me," he said.
Kello’s friendly demeanor and decades in "this small town," he said, have widened his "Super Joe" reputation.
Landess said that she’ll hear "Super Joe" get hollered to her dad when they’re out and about together.
"You can’t go anywhere without someone knowing him," she said.
Through it all, Kello kept his fervor for ice skating.
He was introduced to the sport around age 12 in Butte, Mont.
Temperatures would "drop 20 or 30 degrees below zero and stay there for a month," he said, so city officials would flood embankments to make pop-up ice rinks.
Kello didn’t own skates, but it didn’t matter.
His fellow skaters would light a bonfire to warm up in between laps. Kello would borrow their skates during those breaks. He would even bring firewood to seal the deal, he said.
"We had an expression: ‘Wood or freeze,’ " he said.
Kello skated on and off for decades, taking breaks to enlist in the U.S. Army, focus on work or try out a new thrill sport. He discovered speed skating and even traveled to Austria once to practice on its regulation rinks.
Kello sold his most recent pair of speed skates but he keeps up the speed.
"Guy goes like a bat out of hell," said fellow skater John Bialecki, 72.
Kello dons a helmet and keeps clear of figure skaters during the senior skate hours, he said.
Landess said that her dad’s active lifestyle is an inspiration.
Kello thinks he has about five more good years on skates.
"I might even be better by then," he said.
Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.
