Happy 2012 from Sara Skates!

Happy holidays my readers!  I hope the holiday season is treating you well.  It can be stressful, and also limits skating opportunities <-- dislike  I have been getting it in wherever I can.  I think I told you I've been going to Skate Depot on a more regular basis, it's been incredible.  Saturday is much more mellow than Thursday but it's what I can attend so I am used to it now.  The crowd is getting to know me and I've had lots of new partners, which is so exciting.  To me it's more about being accepted up there than the act of couple skating.   The music can be frustrating because it's so much slower than San Diego.  But I have found ways to skate to it that work for me.  Side Note:  Check out this awesome image circa 1937

Backwards couple skating in Cerritos has been a trip.  That is very different from the way guys skate down here.  Plus backwards skating is a big hot button for me right now anyway.  I am nervous from the minute I get asked to backwards skate until it's over.  But I have to do it, can't look like a chicken.  Sometimes my nervousness gives my partner the jitters, just because I'm so jumpy.  I focus on doing my step and a lot of the guys up there do all sorts of fancy stuff behind me, not sure exactly what they're doing.  But I've always been taught to keep doing the step, no matter what.  That's what I do.  All while trying to relax hahaha.  The way we couple skate is not unlike the picture below.

I skated at Skate World for family night this past Friday and it was a mess.  I think I've been going to Cerritos too much.  I couldn't stand the music, it was just painful.  It seemed like all they played was Kesha and LMFAO, no joke.  I know it's for the kids but that crap is hard to skate to.  I was hungry for a super slow Cerritos jam.  Plus the kids, I am not used to skating with them anymore.  I used to skate with them all the time back in the day when I was coming up.  Now I only attend Adult sessions.  Man they were just all over the place, going the wrong direction, cutting across the middle of the floor suddenly.  I found that super annoying.  I could only tolerate two hours and I know I didn't get a proper sweat on.  I just couldn't really go at my top speed with those nutty kids everywhere.

Trying so hard to get up to Cerritos to ring the new year in.  I want to so bad!  Hopefully I can get my ride situation worked out.  It will be such a disappointment if I'm not on my eights when the ball drops.  Working it, I can make it happen.  I hope you have a nice farewell to 2011.  2012 is going to be off the chain.  Thanks to all my faithful readers for the past three years.   Check out this roller girl, I've come so far!  The best is yet to come.  ♥

In Love with my Eights

Hello out there in the blog world!  I am absolutely thrilled to be writing a regular old blog post.  No more off topic entries or horror stories about my injuries.  In short, I took two months off following my accident in September.  It sucked, I hated not skating.  But I was messed up and needed the break.  Now I am finally working again and yes, skating again.  People close to me are alarmed and concerned.  My doctor's advice was to "please, please never roller skate again".  Sigh.  Where's the sense of adventure?  I am so passionate about skating, there's no way I can stop.  Sorry, worrywarts.

It's hard to describe just how great it is to skate again.  I guess it's because of the forced break, it's made me appreciate it so much more.  Feels JUST AMAZING.  The first few weeks were understandably shaky.  I definitely have lost some of my confidence.  But it's not scary - what is scary is backwards skating since that's how I got hurt.  Session skating and roller dancing, I haven't hurt myself doing those things so I have no fear.  But after the initial few weeks, my confidence is back where it was and I feel like a million bucks when I'm on my wheels.

As for backwards, I am really afraid of it.  In some ways, I just want to forget how to do  it so I can relearn the skill.  Obviously I was doing something wrong.  My friends want to help me.  I have done some very, very slow and careful stuff.  What I have done is backwards couple skating, lots of that.  It may sound silly but I feel safer with a partner. If I were to fall back, I would land on them.  Of course I only skate with highly competent skaters that know how to make sure we don't fall.  We haven't.  Just doing the couples skating has made me feel better about backwards altogether.  I know I will do it by myself again one day. It's just too soon right now.

I've been going to Adult Night at Skate World, of course, but what's even better is I've been able to get up to Cerritos almost on a regular basis!  It's so completely awesome.  Fingers crossed that my ride stays solid.  I've started doing downtown with the skaters up there and they are welcoming me with open arms.  I love it.  They do the same roller dancing we do but with different names and slightly different moves.  It's a trip.  I go up there and pick up new steps and then I show my crew when I come back home.

That's about it, and of course skating at the Bay every weekend.  Been doing a lot more teaching there, I like it.  We are always trying to recruit new skaters to learn roller dancing. It's a dying art!  You know you want to learn.  Hit me up.

Me and my buddy, Paul, getting our Halloween roll on

Interview with Skate Lisa

Hi out there, I know I have been quiet but I am busy recuperating.  It's almost been two months so I am totally getting there!  In the meantime, enjoy a piece about one of my very favorite skaters, Skate Lisa. :)


Skate Lisa.  You may have heard about this dynamic quad skater, seen her videos on youtube, or even had the pleasure of skating with her at Venice Beach (she's only been skating there for over a decade).  Everyone should know more about Lisa, so this blogger asked her to take a few minutes out of her busy day and answer some questions.  She was completely gracious, willing and helpful.


Sara Skates:  Talk about your earliest roller skating memory.
Skate Lisa:  My earliest memory was opening my first pair of roller skates on my 10th Birthday, I had the biggest smile on my face, it was like magic shoes.


SS:  I am so excited to interview a pro like yourself.
SL:  I don't consider myself a pro, I just worked very hard for years and got noticed by TV producers etc., Riedell spotted me all over Europe, America, etc. and decided to sponser me, to which I am eternally grateful.

SS:  I know you're from London, is that where you live?

SL:  I am on the road quite a lot but not normally for months at a time.  London is my home but my heart admittedly is in California as I lived there for several years.

SS:  Talk about a day in the life of Skate Lisa.

SL:  A day in the life of me involves training at the gym, checking all my emails, and I quite often stretch and skate a bit at home too.  I always make time to visit my parents who have been wonderful in supporting what I do. 

SS:  Are there any skate moves you don't know how to do?

SL:  I am always up for learning new stuff. You will quite often see me at Rinks alone practicing new moves.

SS:  What is your diet like?

SL:  My diet is clean most of the time, lots of fish, rice, protein, vegetables -CHOCOLATE sometimes lol

SS:  What is your greatest accomplishment thus far?

SL:  My greatest accomplishment to date is having skated in so many different places and met so many different people.

SS:  Do you have a motto you live by?

SL:  BE A FIRST RATE VERSION OF YOURSELF AND NOT A SECOND RATE VERSION OF SOMEONE ELSE!!

SS:  It was such an honor to meet you and get a little insight into who you are. Do you have any last words you want to leave my readers with?

SL:  So many girls are scared to let go and be themselves, I have been told that this is what makes me stand out as a skater.  When I was 10 years old, I never dreamt of doing what I do now, but something inside always pushed me. GO FOR IT GIRLS!

Big thanks to Skate Lisa for allowing me this interview.  Can't wait to see her again soon in Cerritos or down here at the beach. 

I Got Hurt

Hi blog world, it's with a heavy heart that I write this post.  I have not been able to update my blog because I suffered a brain injury roller skating on September 6, 2011.  First off, don't be freaked out.  If I wasn't okay, I wouldn't be writing this post.  I did get hurt but I don't want anyone thinking extreme stuff.  Let's face it, you can get yourself killed roller skating.  And walking outside, and riding in a car, etc.  So with that disclaimer, my story.  September 6 was Adult Night and it was a great, fun night.  I remember lots of awesome moments.  Nero was there and we did plenty of couple skating.  9:30 is the normal time for the beginners backwards special.  I remember going out.  They were playing "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers.  I was doing my usual backwards step, I went around a few times.

Then the worst happened.  I took a normal step back and somehow completely lost my balance.  It's hard to describe because I don't really know what happened.  I fell back and basically landed completely on my head.  My skates somehow flew from under me.  I didn't hit my butt, my elbows, not any other part but my poor head.  I completely blacked out.  Friends have described the sickening sound of my skull hitting the wood as being difficult to erase from memory. The next thing I remember is being on my stomach, looking at the lines painted on the rink floor.  My glasses were off.  One of my best friends, Wonder Boy, was laying next to me, trying to get me to wake up.  He helped me to my feet.  My head was in terrible pain and there was blood on the floor. It was obvious I needed medical help.  I felt completely disoriented and confused.

The next few days after that pass in a blur.  I was admitted to the ICU at the hospital.  I had fractured my skull and had bleeding on one of my frontal lobes from the jarring to my brain.  Although I had cracked my head open, the crack was not deep and I luckily did not need stitches.  If they had done stitches, they would have shaved my lovely blond tresses.  Thank goodness for small things.

Anyway, it's been 12 days sicne the injury.  I feel a little better each day.  I'm eager to skate and also completely terrified.  I really can't believe I got hurt like this, this is not a usual roller skating injury.  It's fairly common to hear of broken wrists, bruised tailbones.  Normally if I was backwards skating and I felt like I was losing my balance, I would turn around.  I would take a step back.  Why I didn't, I will never know.

I sure as hell am not quitting skating.  But I have to take my time getting back into it.  Obviously I have a new found fear for when I'm skating.  Never worried about cracking my head open before!  Imagine if I was at a rink with a concrete floor. Shudder.  But I do need to make sure I'm good before I go back.  The biggest side effect for me is dizzy spells.  I also have completely lost my sense of smell and taste.  Absolutely bizarre.  I taste absolutely nothing, I have no clue if I have bad breath, I don't know if the fruit is ripe or not.  I can't even taste bacon for pete's sake.  The doctor said to give that a year to return.  Brain injuries are no joke.

So the blog will continue, but not as often.  And I can't do the pretty pictures right now, I'm sorry.  My home pc is kinda janky.  I will still be skating, I will get back to the level I was at and beyond that.  I can't wait to get to Cerritos.  But I have other things I must consider, like my job and family.  Yes I have a real job that I'm not able to go to right now.  And I have a family that means more to me than anything in this world.  I never really thought a three hour session at the rink could end with me in the hospital, or worse.  Definitely a new perspective.

I love you guys and thank you always for your support.  You'll hear from me again very soon.

Skate Love

Good morning out there in the blogosphere!  I have a bunch of news to report so I will get down to it.  First off, I was up in Skate Depot a couple weeks ago as I had told you.  Oh man, it was just so wonderful.  I know I say that everytime but I can't help it, it seems like it's better each time I go.  Anyway, I went up with Nero and we worked a lot on our couple skating.  Yeah we are totally doing awesome, we didn't fall the whole night and we are perfectly synchronized.  It's awesome.  Now we are doing a lot of backwards couple skating, it's super exciting.  But beyond that, with my solo skating, I just had so much fun.  There is a different calibre of skating expertise up there and it feels amazing to keep up.

In other news, we had a roller skating celebrity visit Skate This at the Bay a few weeks ago.  Skate Lisa appeared out of no where and showed us her awesome moves!  It was pretty awesome.  She is something else.  She's like this little tiny lady but she has mad swag.  Totally amazing jam skate moves which she puts her own twist on.  She was very down to earth and took a bunch of pictures with us.  Apparently she travels all around the world for Riedell, promoting roller skating.  She had these crazy skates on that she said cost $1000!  Nuts.  Anyway, I am very excited to annouce that she has granted me an interview for this blog!  Is that cool or what.  I am super excited.  I'm interviewing her next week so stay tuned for a great piece on Skate Lisa!

I did a roller skating photo shoot with Edwin Real.  I wanted to have pictures of me skating since I am so passionate about it and it means so much to me.  It's such a big part of my life and I don't even have any evidence of it, except for the videos that I did recently.  So we did that last week and let me tell you, the pics came out great!  He did an amazing job.  I will be honest - I didn't take a lot of chances during the photo shoot because I had a grip of people watching me and I seriously did not want to fall.  But he still got some really nice shots of me.  The reaction to the photos has been really heartwarming, sort of like a new rush of support from my friends and family.  <3

Exciting stuff going on with the blog!  I really appreciate any one that takes a minute out of their day to read my ramblings.  Pretty cool.

Photo Credits:  Miss Magnolia and Sushinadi

See Sara Skate!

Hello out there in the skating world!  I have been having the absolute best time skating.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't help it.  Roller skating is too awesome! I have some new skating adventures to report on.

I skated up in Cerritos last week.  I went up with Nero so it gave the two of us lots of opportunities to practice our couples skating.  We did a fantastic job and neither of us fell the whole night.  We did a bunch of backwards couple skating, which was really exciting because I have only done that a couple times before.  Once we established the steps, we were golden and our steps were perfectly synchronized. Being up there at that rink, the music and people were as incredible as ever.  I saw tons of awesome skating.  I was really in the zone the whole night, and my confidence was way up.  I skated over in the fast lane a good amount of the time and held my own.  Some of my friends that do downtown were also up there and it was super fun to do routines in the middle.  We got a lot of kudos.

After doing this blog for more than a year, I actually have some video of me skating.  Now calm down, because it's not like a proper skating vid or anything.  But Paul and I did make some instructional videos to teach downtown, and this is them.  Shooting the video was a good time.  It was a gorgeous sunny day.  I wish I hadn't been chewing gum, but I can fix that next time around.  I was honored that Paul asked me to do the videos with him.

Roller Dance Instruction #1

Roller Dance Instruction #2

Adult Night at Skate World has been great, as usual.  No place like home.  Last night the power went out in the middle of the session.  What a trip!  Absolute darkness.  Luckily no one got hurt as it was towards the end of the session.  I was in the middle of the rink with Paul doing routines so I did hold on to him for dear life for a split second haha.  But of course your eyes adjust after a sec.  And everyone in that place had their cell phone to use as a flashlight.  Then they told us to leave and the excitement was over.  But a memorable night for sure.

I'm going back to Cerritos in a couple weeks *excited* can't wait to do it again.

Photo Credit to Fashion Edit

Eight Wheels of Happiness

Happy weekend out there in the blogosphere!  It's a gorgeous, sunny day in southern California and I can't wait to get out and skate in it.  I have been having such a blast skating lately.  Not to say it isn't always good, I've just really been in my zone in the past week or two.  I skated up in Cerritos last week, and..drum roll please....I didn't fall!  Woo hoo, yeah me! Thank God.  That fall last time was awful.   Anyway, it was a great Adult Night.  The DJ was playing slow music pretty much the whole night.  He seemed like he was in a romantic mood.  I had to make the most of it, even though I prefer more upbeat stuff.   The crowd was awesome, as always, perfectly in time with the music and grooving all night.

I skated the Trios special with a couple of my friends, and it was pretty damn terrifying lol.  It is only my second time doing it.  There were lots and lots of people on the floor and being in the middle of the trio, it really feels like you are going to completely whack into the people you are coming up on.  It's a bit hard to explain.  But up in Cerritos, all the specials are for three songs and that felt like an eternity when I was out there skating the trios.  I was so ready to quit after one song, but I hung in there.  It's terrifying but also very exciting.  I would definitely do it again. And check out this awesome 1922 postcard I found online.  This is exactly how trios are done!

I recently learned this new backwards step, it took me FOREVER to master it but finally, I have! Such a good feeling.  Everyone knows how to do it and it's so awesome to be able to join the others and follow the step correctly.  We always do this step to that song "Forget Me Nots" and they play that at the rink every week.  I also learned how to do the cha cha recently, another type of skating line dance.  It's so cool!

I've been watching some roller skating movies lately.  I watched Hell on Wheels, which was a very good roller derby documentary.  Most roller skating movies out there are about roller derby, but I did watch Xanadu.  I hadn't seen it since I was a kid.  Pretty dated but I liked the skating.  I watched a ridiculous movie called Kansas City Bomber, starring Raquel Welch as the Bomber!  Very 70's and silly.

I'm going to Cerritos twice in August, it's so awesome!  I can't wait.  Until then, see you at Skate World.

(Photo Credits to Style Me Pretty and Foxy's Antiques )