Cerritos Style

Wanted to get in a skating greeting before the weekend begins. I have had some other commitments this week so have not skated as much as I would like. How can that be, how can there be anything more important than skating? Yeah that's how it is when you become a mom. BUT the San Diego skating group was making its monthly trek to Skate Depot in Cerritos and after missing Adult Night at Skate World on Tuesday, I was itching to go.

The rink was not quite as crowded as in previous times I have gone, and that was really cool. I had time to warm up around the oval and I am going so much faster these days. I used to be so afraid to crossover at a higher speed, now I can do it and it makes me feel so proud. I can go even faster if I don't do the crossovers. Even now they make me nervous but gradually, I am getting better and better at them. Awesome!

I went in the center of the rink and the turn out from the San Diego group was fantastic! Must have been a good dozen or more people there. It's always nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd. I skated downtown and totally rocked it, it was too cool! My confidence is getting stronger in my skating all the time, and it's just thrilling.

Music was a bit slow but picked up around 10:00 pm. Then the rink started to get crowded and you could see some amazing performances in the center of the rink. I was still skating routines with the group but it started getting too crowded. This guy danced right into me and I would have eaten it hard if he hadn't caught me. That gave me a fright and I stopped doing routines then, just too crowded.

I was also backwards skating - not just on the special, I even skated it during the all skate! I never do that as it makes me too nervous but my backwards skating has improved to the point where I know I need to keep it up so I can improve even more. My backwards skating has no rhythm and nothing will make you see that like being in Cerritos with all the amazing skaters grooving all around you. I watched them carefully and tried to pick up little moves here and there.

Skating BBQ at the beach tomrrow so that should be a lot of fun, although the music probably won't be going for skating until late in the day. I still want to hit up the rink tomorrow night so I'm not going to overdo it at the beach, want to save my enery for the rink skating.

Summertime

Summer has finally arrived in San Diego, and it couldn't be more welcomed. Finally, the blue skies and bright sunshine we have all been waiting for. It's so beautiful - and perfect for skating. I was able to get out last night to Mission Beach for a beautiful sunset skate. It was great to put in the time distance skating (just look out for those errant pebbles) and then spend some time roller dancing by the coaster at Belmont Park. There were plenty of people out enjoying the weather so I had a small audience of onlookers.

It looks like I am going to be skating in the Pacific Beachfest so I better get over feeling nervous when people are watching me skate. It's exciting! It's going to be on October 9, 2010 and I will be skating the numbers with the rest of the skaters. So I'm going to have to work, work, work if I expect to be up to speed in time for the festival. We will be doing routines 2-6 as well as the Fly. Even though I know the routines, it's another thing altogether to do them consecutively, one after another. Exhausting! But I know I can do it.

Tuesday was Adult Night at Skate World. It was a lot of fun, almost all regulars, only a handful of amateurs, so that was pretty cool. The only problem was since the weather has finally improved, it is hotter than a hen in a wool blanket inside the rink. The only saving grace is a giant fan in front of the back door where you can cool off. Of course it is totally clogged with people gasping for air at all times, so you have to muscle your way in there a bit. All I can do is put my hair up, get a drink of water and deal with it. As long as the music is on the money, it makes me forget how thick and hot the air is inside the rink.

One last note that I have been scouring the internet for cool roller skating images ever since the inception of this blog. I think it's about done; there are only so many roller skating images out there, and I only like posting my very favorite ones. At this point I am going to have to start posting some pix of myself. I am really going to try to get some pictures from my beach skating this weekend so hopefully I can post some skating pix of me next time.

Get out there and ride your hide! There's no time to lose.

4th of July Skate

Hello out there! I know I haven't been posting as much in recent days and weeks, but trust me when I say it's because I've been skating! The summer is just going great, all I can say is I Heart Roller Skating! Here's a bit about my recent skating activities:

July 4 Bay Skate

This was a great fun day of skating. The weather didn't turn out unfortunately, so it was gray and ugly the entire day, but we didn't let that stop us. Put in a good three hours of skating time and it was awesome to see the pros that showed up to strut their stuff. Did the numbers with the other skaters and was right on the money, too cool. Started learning the Fly, this is my next routine to conquer. My #6 is shaky too so working on that all the time.

July 1 World on Wheels

What a blast! I had the best time skating here. It's funny because their name is World On Wheels so everything is WOW. Wow Rules! Wow no refunds!

They have a few different adult nights and this one was not well attended but I like that. You actually have a bit of space to move around. One of the coolest things is that the center circle of the rink is enclosed so no worries about people knocking you down when you are dancing. Very cool! There are two entrances/exits and even room to sit down on benches. It's hard to describe but it is super terrific. I showed them how we roll San Diego style. It was a trip to check out the different routines they do up there. The music was pretty good - there was a painful slow set that seemed endless but other than that, the music was up tempo.

July 6 Adult Night at Skate World

Fun adult night, although not very well attended. I guess people were still tired from Sunday. I got some work in on the Fly and skated the routines with the other skaters. I am really trying to focus on 1) Looking up (0r anywhere that isn't the floor) and 2) Finessing my moves. Even though I know the moves, I need to make them smoother and add even more bounce than I already have.

Always room for improvement. Busy weekend coming up - won't be able to skate at the beach, which is disappointing but I'll be at the rink Saturday night. See you later, skater.