We're going down to Melbourne in a couple of weeks for 'skate Melbourne', a trip organised by the local Brisbane inline skate group. About 20 skaters will descend on Melbourne for a week and there will be a skate organised for most days, distance varying from 10km to the 'great skate' of 55km. I'm assisting in the running of some of these tours so I thought I'd better dig my trusty old FSKs out and start to get 'skate fit'. 
The Wednesday Night Skate was unfortunately cut short this week due to rain, but the skies cleared overnight so I was able to skate to work and back on Thursday (12km each way with a bit of a hill in the middle), and then today I skated down to town (7km) and caught up with one of the skate lessons that takes place on a Saturday morning. It was good to spend some time mucking about on them and my legs are starting to work like they used again - in other words, I'm starting to bend my knees like I used to.
Skates are a great way to get around and ideal when I'm working away from home as they're a lot easier to pack - here's me in Dayton, Ohio a couple of years ago (it was about 5 degrees that day!)
and here I am in L.A., after skating the whole length of the beach strip from Santa Monica through Venice Beach, Marina Del Ray, Manhattan Beach and down to Redondo Bay and back - about 80km in all on dodgy hired skates.
However they're not the best commuting tool as they're useless in the wet and easily get caught up on cracks in the pavement, sticks and seed pods which leads to the traditional 'gumby stumble'. Sometimes it's safer to get off the pavement and take to the side of the road but you're never quite sure if car drivers will notice you and give way. And you can feel a bit vulnerable at speed - anything over 30km/h requires a fair bit of focus. I've hit 50km/h + on them occasionally and that's just downright scary.
Of course because it's not a fasionable sport you regularly get rubbish shouted at you by the local 'humourists' passing by. Generally there are two strands of abuse - those that doubt your sexuality (normally emanating from 4x4s or utes filled entirely with young men desperate to impress each other) and those that deride you for being out of fasion (normally coming from people squeezed into too-tight jeans, the latest $500 'sneakers' (sic), and gel-laden hair). However since I both skate & ride fixed gear bikes I figure I span the entire bell-curve of coolness...
The Wednesday Night Skate was unfortunately cut short this week due to rain, but the skies cleared overnight so I was able to skate to work and back on Thursday (12km each way with a bit of a hill in the middle), and then today I skated down to town (7km) and caught up with one of the skate lessons that takes place on a Saturday morning. It was good to spend some time mucking about on them and my legs are starting to work like they used again - in other words, I'm starting to bend my knees like I used to.
Skates are a great way to get around and ideal when I'm working away from home as they're a lot easier to pack - here's me in Dayton, Ohio a couple of years ago (it was about 5 degrees that day!)
and here I am in L.A., after skating the whole length of the beach strip from Santa Monica through Venice Beach, Marina Del Ray, Manhattan Beach and down to Redondo Bay and back - about 80km in all on dodgy hired skates.
However they're not the best commuting tool as they're useless in the wet and easily get caught up on cracks in the pavement, sticks and seed pods which leads to the traditional 'gumby stumble'. Sometimes it's safer to get off the pavement and take to the side of the road but you're never quite sure if car drivers will notice you and give way. And you can feel a bit vulnerable at speed - anything over 30km/h requires a fair bit of focus. I've hit 50km/h + on them occasionally and that's just downright scary.
Of course because it's not a fasionable sport you regularly get rubbish shouted at you by the local 'humourists' passing by. Generally there are two strands of abuse - those that doubt your sexuality (normally emanating from 4x4s or utes filled entirely with young men desperate to impress each other) and those that deride you for being out of fasion (normally coming from people squeezed into too-tight jeans, the latest $500 'sneakers' (sic), and gel-laden hair). However since I both skate & ride fixed gear bikes I figure I span the entire bell-curve of coolness...
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