May 2009 newsletter

My skating news

I've put up a couple of reviews on my website:

• There's a review of my new skates: Powerslide FSK Hardcore Evo. In short, these are excellent skates with only a few minor points to detract from them.
• With Club Blue Room stocking them, I've done a review of the Matter Slalom F1 wheels. Look for them as they are, for me, a much better replacement for the Hyper Concrete wheels that most people rave about.

New course

I've created a course that teaches backwards skating as several people have asked how to do it. It's a 3 lesson course, spread over two weekends, that teaches the basics and builds towards the final goal of backwards crossovers. It includes a few stopping methods, including backwards powerslides, transitions from forwards-to-backwards (and vice-versa), as well as turning. If we have time, I'll also throw in rolling backwards off kerbs!

Remember that if you are a previous student of mine then you get a £5 discount on the course price, making this only £25.

Courses Coming Up

Here are a few courses that I'm going to be running in the next few months. Each one of these courses gives you access to the students area, which is like your own personal skating manual.

Sunday Stroll

This is a 3 lesson course, costing just £30, that will give you everything you need to cope with the Sunday Stroll, or just to get you skating well.

Booking ID	Dates
C-SS-04	14-Jun-2009 14:00-15:30, 21-Jun-2009 14:00-15:30, 28-Jun-2009 14:00-15:30
C-SS-05	25-Jul-2009 11:00-12:30, 01-Aug-2009 14:00-15:30, 02-Aug-2009 14:00-15:30
C-SS-06	30-Aug-2009 14:00-15:30, 05-Sep-2009 14:00-15:30, 06-Sep-2009 14:00-15:30

You can find more information, and book onto any run of this course, by visiting the Sunday Stroll page.

Backwards

This 3 lesson course, costing just £30, will get you skating backwards, including stopping and turning so that you are safe.

Booking ID	Dates
C-B-01	20-Jun-2009 14:00-15:30, 27-Jun-2009 14:00-15:30, 28-Jun-2009 11:30-13:00
C-B-02	25-Jul-2009 14:00-15:30, 01-Aug-2009 11:30-13:00, 02-Aug-2009 11:30-13:00

You can find more information, and book onto any run of this course, by visiting the Backwards page.

1-Day Skater

Finding timing in the 21st Century to make courses that happen over multiple weeks can be hard! So this course happens on one day, costs just £20, and will get you skating in no time.

Booking ID	Dates
1DS-03	06-Jun-2009 11:00-12:30, 06-Jun-2009 13:30-15:00
1DS-04	05-Jul-2009 11:00-12:30, 05-Jul-2009 13:30-15:00
1DS-05	26-Jul-2009 11:00-12:30, 26-Jul-2009 13:30-15:00
1DS-06	29-Aug-2009 11:00-12:30, 29-Aug-2009 13:30-15:00

You can find more information, and book onto any run of this course, by visiting the 1-Day Skater page.

Skating Events

Paris World Slalom Championship

The weekend of 30-31 May is the Paris World Slalom Championship. I had planned on attending but it looks like I might not be making it, so I think I'll try and get a guest writer in to report on it next month.

Skate London

The UK leg of the slalom calendar is up in August this year. There are a load of events being organised by Naomi, ranging from slalom to high jump, along with some events for kids. More information can be found on the Skate London website. I will be there for this one!

Stuff seen on the WWW

I've been wandering around the WWW looking for interesting skating articles and videos; so here's the best I've seen in recent weeks. Note that I am not responsible for the content of external third party websites or videos; some music and commentary found in such videos may contain language of an offensive nature.

If you have seen anything you think is interesting, contact me and I'll consider putting it into future newsletters.

Animated skaters

Here's something that impressed me a lot: two videos of aggressive skating created by a 3D animator (found via Rollernews). They're pretty realistic and show a good understanding of how your body works when skating.

Crosstown traffic

For anyone who skates the various street skates in London, or hangs around the park, you'll probably know of Sparky. He's a prominent figure on the scene, marshal for some of the skates, and an incredibly good skater (he did the Berlin Inline Marathon in 1:15, in recreational skates ... in a nurses outfit, for charity). Here's a video that he's put together of him skating through a Sunday Stroll which shows not only an excellent relaxed stride but also an incredibly ability to pick a path through the other skaters.

Other instructors

Quentin Silvand has gone full time

Another one of the familiar faces around the London skate scene, Quentin has become a full time instructor. He's especially good at teaching slides and stair riding, as can be witnessed by this video.

Yes, the person falling over backwards down the stairs is me! I'm glad I did this lesson with Quentin because I needed someone to push me (figuratively, not literally) to go backwards down stairs as it's extremely scary. I was impressed that he had myself and Joy jumping up a set of steps that must be higher than I've jumped over my high jump bar.