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.  :)

The Pain of New Skates

It's Friday and I wanted to get a blog post in before the weekend. My computer is very slowly being repaired. I am crossing my fingers that I will get it back in May. Last weekend I need to stretch my skates because they were killing me, particularly on my right foot. The skaters told me this old school method to stretch your skates - put on your thickest socks, soak them in alcohol and put on your skates. The theory is that the alcohol makes the leather expand. I liked this idea better than leaving my skates at a cobbler for a week so I went for it.

I thought it would be wise to wear two socks on my right foot since that was the one that hurt more. I could barely even get my feet in my skates as they were snug already. Standing up was pure torture. I walked around my house cleaning and doing laundry to take my mind off the pain. I was able to endure 25 minutes before I had to get them off. My feet looked all crazy from my toes being cramped in there, and the pattern on my socks was embedded in my skin. Lovely!

So I skated at the rink Tuesday for Adult Night, and I wore my newly stretched skates. Amazingly, it actually worked! My left foot is just fine, my right is still a bit ouchie but nothing like the previous week. The skaters recommended I do the alcohol thing again - noooo! But I guess I will. My skates felt pretty good on Tuesday. I am only able to wear them indoors, and I have to wear my old skates for outdoors because of the type of wheels that are on my skates.

In other news, I asked the guy that sold me my skates if he could tell me anything about the history of my skates. I found out that my skates were bought in 1960 and were used for competitive skating. Fascinating!

Can't wait to get my skate on this weekend. Tomorrow night I'll be at the rink - hopefully it's not crawling with kids because I am really looking forward to it. Then Sunday i am skating at the Bay, the weather man is promising a beautiful weekend. Get out and enjoy the sunshine on your skates!

Roll With It

Hello Skating World! I know I have been out of touch and you all are suffering. I can tell from all the emails you guys have been sending me, begging me for an update. The world needs to know what I am up to! I understand and I am here to calm you with my tales of roller wonder.

I have been skating up a storm, like usual. I was at the beach last weekend, which was a lot of fun. I took my son so that was challenging. He is asking for some skates, it's too cute. Skates for tiny toddler feet are super expensive, so we'll stick with the plastic for now. I did a lot of practicing on the continuation and the duck walk. Ugh so hard but I am very slowly improving. Need to practice, practice, practice.

Adult Night on Tuesday was super fun. The whole Skate This group was there and I wore my new Skate This shirt. The group lined up to do downtown and I was actually able to keep up for a few minutes! It is a real rush to do downtown with a big group like that, there must have been 10 people. It was very cool. Paul really wants me to get up to speed on it before the heart of the summer gets here, and his help is so invaluable. He will call out the steps right before they come up if I don't know them so I can try to stay on the beat, it's really helpful.

In other news, I got some new skates, new to me, some old vintage skates that were recommended to me. They are very cool and I have been informed they are quite professional. People in the know sure give my skates tons of attention! The thing about my skates is they have these Douglass Snyder plates that are apparently quite special. Above is a picture of my skates, and here's a shot of my fancy plates:

I'll be skating at the beach on Saturday. I've never done the Mission Beach thing before, I've been going to Mission Bay, so it should be interesting. I will just do my thing and not worry about the tourists watching me, and hopefully I will have some opportunities to learn some new things. If I'm not too tired, I'll be skating at the rink that night. Viva la Skating!