Skate, Don't Hate

Hey Skate Team! How is everyone doing?  Happy Start of Summer!  I am so happy the summer is finally here.  Lots of opportunities to skate outside and enjoy the sunshine.  Went to the rink last night for Adult Night. It was quite dead, looks like that is going to be a trend for the summer.  Who wouldn't want to hang out inside a boiling hot building, skating as fast as possible?  Yeah I guess I didn't mention that the rink is not air conditioned.  I know, it seems like medieval times or something.  In Cerritos, the rink is air conditioned.  Sometimes I need a jacket when I'm warming up, it's downright cold on the floor!  Once you get all hot and sweaty though, how wonderful to feel that icy cold air on your face.  Anyway, I digress.  The rink was dead which means super fast hardcore skating, utter exhaustion by 9:00 pm (rink closes at 10:30).  When there are more people, you have to be more cautious so it causes you to skate slower. Man this dead rink is tearing me up!

I have been feeling a little stagnant lately.  Need to mix it up a bit.  I still love doing all my regular stuff like downtown and all, I just want to go to the next level.  I am back watching my how to videos again.  Lately I have been trying to learn to spin.  The only spin I know how to do is a downtown spin, which doesn't even really count as a spin.  You seem some skaters doing some amazing spins, 10 times around.  I am just trying to do one spin and stop.  Then I will go on from there.  I am working on the heel toe spin at the moment.  I am also trying to skate more on my front wheels.  All these things are challenging so it's much easier to fall back into my regular movements.  Have to keep pushing for constant improvement.

My birthday is coming up in a couple weeks.  Man I just keep getting older.  But with my skating, I honestly feel younger than I have in years.  So happy birthday to me, bitches!!

For my birthday, I am going to Vegas.  Yeah baby!  So excited.  I am going to skate at Crystal Palace on July 3 for their Adult Night, hopefully they will have a 4th of July special skate.  I am looking forward to luxuriating at the hotel, lounging in the pool, getting drunk on cheap drinks, kicking ass on the slots, and not sleeping.  That's the plan!

You Ain't Ready for Cali

Hi friends! How is the beginning of summer treating you? Couldn't be better over here.  I have many skating adventures to report on so let's get down to brass tacks.  Last week was the awesome, incredible and impossible to forget Back to Cali Skate Jam at Skate Depot.  Where do I start to describe an event like this one?  Although I went last year, since then my skating has grown in leaps and bounds so it was a completely different experience.

I had heard that there were supposed to be 300-400 skaters in attendance for each night of the four night event, but STILL! Being out there is so different from reading about it.  This year I went on Thursday and Saturday.  Thursday being the kick off, it was quite crowded.  The music was off the hook.  Once I got out in the crowd and started grooving with them, I felt like a million bucks.  Correction: a million petrified bucks.  No matter how many times I have skated in Cerritos, doing Back to Cali is on another level all to itself.  The floor is just so packed, but everyone is respectful of everyone else's space.  But when a fall happens, it truly is scary because three or four skaters inevitably end up tripping on the fallen ones.  I had a guy bump into me from behind and felt myself begin falling back.  OH MY GOD! There were some terrifying seconds there, and then he grabbed me and I got my balance back.  Phew.

My blood was pumping so hard after that near miss.  I was shaking all over!  And although I perfected getting off the floor last year, it was like being a beginner all over again up there.  I was too scared to get off the floor!  Haven't felt that in a long time.  So no choice but to hang in until they call for a special and the floor clears.  Back to skating with my heart in my throat.  This guy runs into me and it looks so grim - I'm flailing all over the place, falling forward.  I really thought I was going down, but he (rightfully) grabbed me and I managed to not fall.  I grabbed on to his arm and sweater so hard that I partially bent one of my fingernails back.  Ouch!  But not too bad if that's the only injury you take home from Cerritos.

They called for Trios (I described these on my very first trip to Cerritos back in February 2010 awwwww) and this is my cue to get off the floor, but a couple of my buddies talked me into doing it with them.  Wow.  I thought I was terrified before.  For a special event like this, there are dozens of skaters that can skate trios, so it wasn't like the floor was empty or anything.  There has to be 15 groups on the floor, and some had as many as seven skaters.  We mostly did this thing where we linked our arms together, and I was in the middle getting pulled back and forth like crazy.  We also tried holding hands and going in circles, which involves a lot of a backwards/forwards skating.  Much scarier.  Plus I felt like one of them was going to break my wrist.  So we went back to the other way.  I was so frightened but I felt like I grew as a skater in those moments.  I'm proud of myself for conquering trios. 

Thursday was so incredible that I decided to go back up for Saturday as well.  Also crazy packed, with people pouring in by the minute.  I felt empowered from my successful Thursday night, and hit the wood hard.  Feels so good to roll with folks like that, true skaters getting their roll on.  Man I would love to go every week!  There were many different times where a skater would put their arm around me to let me know they were passing me, or take my  hand to pass in front of me.  So natural.  I wasn't able to escape unscathed, however.  I ended up falling on my ass a few hours in.  Really don't know what happened, these falls tend to happen so quickly.  I found myself on the ground, that much I knew.  In the fast lane.  I got up in a crouch position in about two seconds and a friend helped me away.  But man my butt is still sore 10 days later. [Side note: my subject line is taken from one of the comments the DJ would often make as we were skating around "Ya'll can't handle Cali" "You ain't ready for Cali" it was hilarious!)

Simply cannot wait until my next Cerritos trip.  Unfortunately I don't have one on the books right now as my birthday is coming up next month.  I'll be heading to Vegas to skate at Crystal Palace, woo  hoo!  Looking forward to that.  Should be able to hit a rink or two on the way over as well.  Yeah baby, skating road trip!!!