Memorial Day Skating Weekend

Hello blogosphere!  After forever, I got my computer back!  So now I can go back to keep everyone apprised of my skating activities.  I've got a bunch to tell you about.

Thursday I skated up in Cerritos at Skate Depot.  I wore my new  skates and they felt great on their awesome floor.  The maple wood floor is truly a pleasure to skate on.  

It was totally packed and the skaters put on a phenomenal show, as usual.  I was too chicken to do any backwards skating, but I did skate a lot in the center.  There were so many people, it was pretty hard to practice routines.  But I saw a lot of cool tricks that I will try to pick up moves from.  Towards the end of the night, my skates started killing my feet.  I'm going to have some work done on them and try to soften the leather more.

Saturday night I skated at Skate World.  It was a huge contrast to having been in Cerritos just a few days earlier.  I was one of only a few adults in the whole place.  But anyway, I wore my old skates as I didn't want to have to leave because my feet hurt.  It felt really different at first but ultimately it was extremely comfortable.  I hadn't worn them at the rink in over a month. I got a bunch of practice in on my routines and tried out a few new tricks I had seen in Cerritos.  

Yesterday was the skating bbq at the bay.  It was super fun!  It was simply gorgeous next to the water.  A perfect San Diego day.  Sunny, breezy.  I skated for a really long time, about five hours altogether but of course I was taking breaks all the time.  It was awesome to see all the amazing skaters that came out to show their moves.  I skated the #4 routine and bunch and was able to learn #3!  Now I know both of them.  I still have to perfect all the moves but I know all the steps.

I have made all sorts of progress on my duck walk.  I can do it now, just need to get used to bending my knees more.  That has taken me nearly two months to master.  Yesterday I was learning how to do a move called the grapevine.  Very challenging and it requires moving my skates in a way that is totally foreign to me.  I got all the fundamentals, now it's just practice, practice, practice.

Skating Tuesday at the rink for Adult Night.  Can't wait to skate the routines with the other skaters.  :)