This is the narrative of my rollerblading experiences when I began, now over six years ago. I am a much proficient rollerblader now, but I thought it would be helpful to have an idea of how I began.
About six of us (including John, my mentor!) at CARB have been rollerblading since the beginning of last week. Some of us are more graceful than others. I belong to the latter category, but I'm getting there in a route that seems to be laden with many falls.
There are a few things one can learn about rollerblading from our experiences:
Do not carry change in your pockets when you rollerblade. Coins hurt.
We thought that the CARB corridors and carpets were an awesome place to rollerblade. However, Oscar, who had waxed these very floors that we rollerbladed on about two weeks ago, didn't share this opinion and he made that known to us clearly. I guess the parking lot will have to do.
Never play rollerblade tag unless you have enough experience braking and controlling your direction of movement. While I was struggling along, Barry decided to show off by deciding to "tag" me. He did accomplish this maneuver, except that he overestimated his abilities and shot right through and ended up on the footpath. I shall attempt to describe his adroitness graphically.
This is what he should have done:
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Barry Me
This is what he did:
site of crash
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Barry Me
It is easy to find balance, but it is harder to create motion. However, once motion is achieved, say by moving downhill, it becomes harder to maintain balance. Stopping also requires some skill. As of this moment, the best way to stop, I find, is to just fall. I have fallen about 30-40 times. It is a funny sight to watch, if I say so myself.
Try it out! The skates were on sale for only $40.00. I think it's an awesome sport. I ache all over exercising muscles I never knew existed, and it's very exhilarating moving really fast with just two feet and a set of wheels.