The Santa Skate is the best skate of the year: several hundred skaters (last year was around 400, this year was probably 200 because of the weather & flu doing the rounds) dress up as Santa Claus, skate a route around London, and amuse the Christmas shoppers. It's the one time of the year when onlookers actually stop, get out their cameras, and start snapping photos and videos.
Via Rebecca Cornford, on Facebook.
It's normally scheduled to run early evening on a Saturday before Christmas but, this year, the weather certainly got the better of us: heavy rain all day Saturday meant that it had to be postponed to Sunday afternoon. So, dressed in the standard uniform for a Santa Skater, we all congregated in the middle of Hyde Park Corner roundabout for the 2pm start.
The route is pretty standard: down to Knightsbridge, round onto Kings Road, through Sloane Square, past Victoria into Parliament Square, Embankment into Trafalgar square for half time; then up to Picadilly Circus, Regents Street, some winding through Soho and the West End, Marylebone, onto Oxford Street for a short while, and on to the finish. Essentially the route is about promoting inline skating in London, and the whole event is about raising money for the next years street skating seasons.
Last year, as we headed past Harrods, something wonderful happened: it started to snow when "Let it snow" came in the music! Ok, so Harrods had a snow machine but the effect was magical. I kind of hoped for the same this year, but no such luck. Still, the run past the crowds on the street made up for it.
Via Ross Boushear, on Facebook.
Half time is always quite amusing, especially since the reindeer have been introduced. All of the people in Trafalgar Square congregate around getting their photographs taken, often with those reindeer (strangely it usually seems to be men & kids, can't think why!). They hang over the barrier at the top of the steps to the National Gallery, just to get a photo of all the skates, include our special Rudolph!
After leaving Trafalgar Square, during the wind through Soho, the roads got a little rough and, as we moved north (not quite as far as the pole), the crowds thinned. It's the only bit of the skate where there's a noticeable period of Santa's chatting to one another: everywhere else you're either waving or shouting "Merry Christmas" to someone by the side of the road. It's like the calm before the storm because, after coming down St Christophers Place, we turned onto Oxford Street.
Coming out onto the main road in London for Christmas shoppers can be interesting for two reasons: one, the surface turns fairly nasty, and, two, the number of people on the side of the road suddenly multiplies. The job of the marshals must have been infinitely harder at this point because, where they normally have to block a small group of people by the side of a zebra crossing, here you're standing in front of maybe as many people as skaters.
The skate only sticks to Oxford Street for a short while because, I guess, the marshals are trying not only to expose the skate to the public, but also limit the impact of the skate on the Christmas traffic. It's a shame because it's the ideal opportunity to really raise the profile of these skates.
I dropped off the skate slightly before the end as I wanted to get back home. After it turned off Oxford Street I took a short cut, with a friend, through to Edgware Road where we skated down Park Lane at our own pace: very little traffic passed us!
One of the great things about this skate is that it is just so much fun: a friend was having a bad day but, once dressed as Santa and skating round London, they said it had changed their mood completely. Honestly, if you choose to try skating and want one skate to aim for, it's the Santa Skate. Not only will you enjoy yourself, you're also supporting the LondonSkate and London Friday Night Skate by purchasing a ticket.
So, to the organisers of this, and the other skates throughout the year: Thank You.
Of course, if you want to get skating and aim for this skate in 2009, then I run a Sunday Stroll course, or provide private lessons, that will get you there.
Media
Here's an ever growing list of photos, videos and comments of this years Santa Skate:
Here's a general idea of the size of this years skate, from the reindeer at the front, to the rear marshal at the back:
One of my Qik videos taken from my iPhone.
Just to show how pedestrians react to the skate as it passes them:
Via Dan from Camberley Skaters.
Possibly the first video of this years skate:
Via kaiserchiefff.
Another video that appeared pretty quickly:
Via 3djinn.
Via beccabing.
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