learn to in-line skate

My skates have just been sitting in my kitchen since last December.

I need to try them out again, but I wish I had someone to coach me. I don’t want to go to the park at midnight (really the only time I can go) and get jeered at by Korean men again. That made me super uncomfortable. I don’t even care if they look at me from a distance, but walking up to me, laughing and making comments is NOT cool. :/

I really want to be able to skate!

I went to the park and put my skates on. Then I spent five minutes trying to figure out how to move. I was awkwardly pushing my feet back and forth, flailing my arms, and getting nowhere.

But a nice policeman soon came along and spent 45 minutes tutoring me! He told me to move my feet kind of in a “V” shape, not a straight line. Also, he taught me to actually lift each foot an inch or two off the ground as I pushed off into the next move. Finally, he also told me to keep my feet close together, do each motion as smoothly as possible, and go slowly!

I must have spent two hours practicing. By the end of the night, I was moving somewhat quickly. I didn’t have a single fall, but I could feel some painful blisters forming on the sides of my big toes. Skating didn’t feel as graceful as I imagine it to be. Of course, this was only my first time, but I felt like I was trying to walk through two feet of snow, not glide around smoothly.

It will be fun to practice again tomorrow, if my blisters are OK.

Thanks, Mr. Policeman. It would have taken five hours for me to learn what you taught me in 20 minutes. :-)

I just bought my skates and equipment on Friday night. Today I practiced balancing on them. It was very easy. I didn’t feel shaky at all. However, I’m sure tonight will be scary. I plan to practice moving on them for an hour or two.

Phil and I started skating on a regular basis about a month ago. We’ve been skating on this 5 mile trail (round rip) near our house. When we first went, I had to hold Phil’s had for probably about 50% of the trail. I couldn’t break, I was scared of hills, and my stride was very short. I think our first trip took us about an hour to finish.

Earlier this week Phil and I went for a usual skate and completed it in 32:13. Not only have we cut our time nearly in half, but I didn’t hold his hand even once. I can now break and stop and I love going downhill.

Tonight, I call this goal complete because I fell. Seems like a fail, right? But no! I managed to scrape my knee up pretty badly, but after that I got right back up and finished the trail (we were only about 1/8 of the way through). So, in-line skating? Complete!

Hi everyone! I just found this site by chance…its pretty cool.I love inline skating even you know i stink.I can speed skate a little but my neightborhood is on a mountain so there i have some trouble.Once I takle jumping really well and doing stalls with my trick skates Im going to make a low lying grinding rail!!
Good luck to everyone!!!

hushh… I was really not sure I will be able to start with it or not.. but to my surprise I was able to stand on them and started balancing in first 5 min without any support.(but I was stading near wall so that i can take support)

So next day… no support no wall… a open space…its really exciting….

Need some tips from experts…. I feel so…. to have smooth movements.

Find a smooth surface such as a bike or walking trail, college campus, or nice parking lot. Wear wrist guards if nothing else because wrist injuries are the most common injury in rollerblading.

Tried to skate a couple of years ago with out much success, so at the ripe old age of 21 here we go again, wish me luck

for my birthday so this weekend I’ll be off to the park :-)

think I am getting the hang of stopping gently.

Still not very proficient. Let’s give it a few more try over this 2 weeks. I should be there in no time.

hmm.. think I am progressing faster than my girl now :)