3rd time lucky
About 5 years ago, I rented inline skates to give them a try. 5 minutes later, I returned them, completely unable to get any sense of control. Two years ago, I tried again, with the same results.
Today, I tried a 3rd time, and had much more success. I went out for about an hour, and my first fall was a full 47 minutes into it. And that was while I was coming off the Cambie Street bridge, which is quite a steep hill to go down. (My second fall was about 30 seconds and 10 feet later.) The armour (knee, elbow, wrist, head) did their job, and I was unhurt, although dusty.
I figured out a few things about inline skating:
1) Stopping (even slowing down) is hard. The smart person plans ahead and manages his speed so that you don't need to stop immediately.
2) There are several ways to stop, but they are all ineffective, and they are all destabalizing. So when you're going fast, the last thing you want to do is something that's going to make you less stable. But that's what you've got to do, because that's the only way to stop. It take some courage. A couple of times I cought myself thinking "I know that I'm getting fast here, but I've had enough practice now that I'm confident at that speed." When in reality, I forced myself to admit that I was afraid to try to stop at that speed, which is the complete opposite of confidence.
3) The pads and all that do work. So even though you're going to fall on concrete or something equally hard, and you're only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, you're probably going to be unhurt, since the pads are in the right places.
My first loop of the False Creek seawall actually took longer on inline skates than it would have taken walking, so it's not (yet) a good way to get places quickly. And because my skill level required me to keep the speed down, I wasn't working all that hard. So it wasn't a good workout. But it was a good training exercise.
Now I'm confident enough to say I'll eventually master these things, and I'll be able to actually work up a sweat and get a good work out, without killing myself or others who are in the way.
Today, I tried a 3rd time, and had much more success. I went out for about an hour, and my first fall was a full 47 minutes into it. And that was while I was coming off the Cambie Street bridge, which is quite a steep hill to go down. (My second fall was about 30 seconds and 10 feet later.) The armour (knee, elbow, wrist, head) did their job, and I was unhurt, although dusty.
I figured out a few things about inline skating:
1) Stopping (even slowing down) is hard. The smart person plans ahead and manages his speed so that you don't need to stop immediately.
2) There are several ways to stop, but they are all ineffective, and they are all destabalizing. So when you're going fast, the last thing you want to do is something that's going to make you less stable. But that's what you've got to do, because that's the only way to stop. It take some courage. A couple of times I cought myself thinking "I know that I'm getting fast here, but I've had enough practice now that I'm confident at that speed." When in reality, I forced myself to admit that I was afraid to try to stop at that speed, which is the complete opposite of confidence.
3) The pads and all that do work. So even though you're going to fall on concrete or something equally hard, and you're only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, you're probably going to be unhurt, since the pads are in the right places.
My first loop of the False Creek seawall actually took longer on inline skates than it would have taken walking, so it's not (yet) a good way to get places quickly. And because my skill level required me to keep the speed down, I wasn't working all that hard. So it wasn't a good workout. But it was a good training exercise.
Now I'm confident enough to say I'll eventually master these things, and I'll be able to actually work up a sweat and get a good work out, without killing myself or others who are in the way.
posted by Wade at
5:56 PM
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