June 2006 – six skaters achieved their ICP 1 inline skate instructor qualification under the guidance of Asha – Nina Madden, Andy Morgan, Faris Al-Sawaf, Pam Glinski, Roger Howorth and Pete Cowan. Six months on, Skatefresh caught up with Pete to find out what skate stuff he’s been up to since then.

Pete – I live in the small town of Montrose about 100 miles north of Edinburgh on the north east coast of Scotland. Although there has always been a healthy community of young skaters in the town, skating isn’t (or wasn’t) really viewed as something that adults should be seen doing round here (that sounded like a bit of a challenge to me!!).

I went on the ICP Instructors course mainly to improve my own skating ability. Very naively, I hadn’t thought much about giving instructions or lessons afterwards.

When I got back from the course I was raving about it with friends and family. I discovered that a number of adults in the town owned blades and had tried skating once, but hadn’t usually got on too well and they were simply too shy to persevere on their own. Their blades were just gathering dust. With a little encouragement and an article in ‘The Montrose Review’ I started to have regular customers for lessons. Key to the success of these was finding a secluded and traffic free stretch of tarmac which had been laid for a new industrial estate [but the factories had never arrived]. This secluded location (and of course some excellent instruction!) helped the nervous adult skaters overcome their lack of confidence in the knowledge that there were never any spectators. After sweeping it clear of chuckies this area became the perfect summer school location. It’s where-abouts are still a closely guarded secret!

Individual and group lessons continued from summer until late autumn when the dark nights and poor weather closed in (one disadvantage of living this far north). By that stage around 15-20 adults had participated with most returning regularly. Group lessons proved a great way for adult skaters to have a right laugh with others of similar ability. By late summer a good number had developed their ability and (more importantly) their confidence and so we organised a Sunday Rollerstroll. We used the smooth tarmac cyclepath which runs almost the entire length of the town with a detour on the return leg along the promenade by the beach for an ice cream stop. The sun shone, the tarmac was dry and we had such a laugh together that day. Although only a few skaters were able to be on the stroll, it was a turning point for adult skating in the town and was positively reported in ‘The Montrose Review’.

I’ve also been liaising with Don Morton the only other ICP instructor working in Scotland. Don instructs mainly in the Glasgow area. We are in regular contact and are collaborating on various initiatives to ‘GET SCOTLAND ROLLING!’ which we hope to develop in 2007.

Being so far North, the roads are seldom skate-able during the late autumn and winter and the days are very short. I approached Angus Council Leisure Services Department about finding an indoor venue and they were really helpful. An adult skate club has now been formed and meets twice a month from October to March in the Town Hall. It has a large hardwood floor which is perfect. I organise and run the sessions with a mixture of free skating, coaching and other activities. So far the club has around 15 members and is growing steadily. The last session before Christmas was a Christmas party skate with all skaters in fancy dress, seasonal skating games and a surprise visit by Santa with gifts for everyone! The skater-conga was just such a hoot!

So with so much having happened this past year, 2007 looks really exciting. I hope to see the group of adult skaters in the area expand and more frequent lessons and rollerstrolls – occasionally joining up with the Glasgow skaters too. And I’d love to bring a small group to London to skate with Skatefresh chums and to join in with a London streetskate too. Look out for us and say hi!!

Pete can be contacted on www.SkateWithPete.com

January 2007.

I’m supposed to write about my skating week-or a typical week in skating. It’s 19th of Dec and people are buying presents for Xmas for each other. Lucky for Skatefresh, one loved up couple, my friends Cindy and Ian bought themselves a package of skating lessons for Xmas (Skatefresh’s special offer of buy 4 lessons get one free). Not only the latest Nintendo games or I-pod make people happy. Keeping fit in life is very popular too. Good thing is that skating is funky too-as I have to admit to myself, that`s one of the reasons why I keep on skating.

Since I passed my ICP (Inline Certification Programme) exams to become an inline skating instructor, I learned how to brake after 14 years on skates (also 13 years after becoming an active skier, and as it helps your balance, I’m now an even more confident skier. So I’m looking forward to teaching Cindy and Ian how to keep safe and be confident on skates. After 5 lessons they should end up on the Sunday stroll, a street skate with several hundred skaters in London. It is a good, fun and healthy thing to do on Sunday afternoon.

Is very rewarding for a skating instructor to see students progressing quickly! Skatefresh’s “learn how to streetskate in 5 weeks” course is designed exactly for that. From a shakey skater creature you will become a confident, gliding (maybe elegant) person on rollerblades who’ll know how to stop and turn even on fairly steep hills. So I hope my friends will be successfully streetskating by the end of February. I`m going on month long holiday-starting 22nd Dec (Yipee). Will hopefully be able to ski in Slovakia-hoping for some snowfall at home. White x-mas. That would be nice.

Saturday 16th Dec, was in every skaters diary highlited as a speciall event, the Santa skate. Starting from Hyde park corner at 5pm last Saturday. I got ready by cleaning my bearings beforehand so I can enjoy it more-don’t have to do so much hard work pushing the stride-it was worth it. Asha-our manager bought all skatefresh instructors tickets as a thank you for nice team work in 2006. Thank you Asha once more.

We picked up our Santa outfits from The Vic pub (Londons only skate friendly pub). We got changed into –one size fits every proper skater-L/XL-Santa outfits, ncluding scary white beard. I used it for covering my neck-chest area-it was nice and warm and my fairy lights were shining nicely through and created special atmospheric Xmasy glow.

At the front of the skate there were 8 fast-sexy looking reindeers. Behind them our specially decorated music bike. Another speciall reindeer decorated scooter with speakers was ensuring that Xmas hits filled streets through which santa skate was passing with festive atmosphere of all popular Xmas songs. The skate took off at 5pm from Hyde park corner, then went through central London- Skating down Knightsbridge, Chelsea to Trafalgar square-where we had short brake for refreshment and chance to chat to non skating public wondering which one is The Real Santa… I wonder. Then after short show of by the most talented streetskaters who performed jumps and slalom we skated up to Piccadily circus, around Soho, down Oxford street and finished in front of good old VIC. We wished everywhere happy Christmas. Skatefresh instructors used this opportunity to make skatefresh more visible by handing out flyers-Skatefresh Santa-Asha-the manager +helpers-Me, Louise, Nina, Jonathan, Jason. Andy was marshalling the skate, and we were very proud of Skatefresh Linda as reindeer-she was skating really fast.

The weather on Saturday was ideal, felt finally a bit more wintery. Chosen route for this skate was very smooth and to me it seemed mostly downhill, so I could skate one more after we finished. Very succesfull evening indeed, I’m already looking forward to do next streetskate. Imagine 300 skating santas-you should try to join next year. Most skaters cought up on recent events and wished each other happy Xmas festive period in Vic after the skate. I didn’t buy last years DVD- Santa skate-the movie, but going to watch it now despite that. As I luckily saved it for my skate mate- also co skatefresh instructor Andy, who left it in The Vic.

So happy Xmas everyone and don’t forget to try something adventurous next year! Maybe you could take up skating, if you haven’t done so already.

Maja

Skate Instructor Diary – Andy

My Busman’s Holiday! This time of year, having a full time job severely limits the amount of time available for teaching inline skate lessons. Realistically this is limited to weekends. With this in mind in was great to learn that my application to work at the Ice Rink at the Natural History Museum had been successful. So last Wednesday, I joined several other wannabe Ice Marshals and Customer Service assistants at the ice rink for an afternoon of training before the grand VIP opening later that evening. It wasn’t long before all of the information gathering and familiarisation to the new surroundings was over and the evening session began. The first thing that stood out was just how different the ice was to that that I am used to at Guildford Spectrum Ice Rink. After a relatively modest spell for this time of year, it was proving difficult to actually get the ice frozen, resulting in a fairly wet surface during the afternoon. Partly to do with that, as there simply wasn’t a great thickness of ice, it was not possible to use the Zamboni (that’s the ice tractor that scrapes the surface of the ice to rid it of debris) this meant that the surface was really quite rough. Add to this the fact that the rink sits beneath several large trees all intent on shedding their leaves tied with a breeze and it was a certainty that most of the first night would be spent leaf gathering!

As it turned out I had a really fun evening, getting used to my role and responsibilities, meeting my new colleagues and getting my ice skating legs back! Although I have been devoting most of my time recently to inline skating, in truth I have always been an ice skater at heart. But unlike inline skating, I have no formal qualification to teach skating on ice. My new employers assured me this would not be a problem as by far the majority of potential new customers would be absolute beginners to ice and would be looking to a confident skater to give them a helping hand rather than a formal teaching lesson. We would soon find out – I was booked for my first private lesson on Saturday morning! As it turned out my apprehension was unfounded. My student was a very nervous French mother of two, whose children were quite good ice skaters and had persuaded her to bring them along. In fact she was more nervous than me! In no time at all mum was free skating around the rink with the children shouting mildly amusing words of encourage…in French so it might have been at my expense!

Basic teaching methods for inline skating seemed to work just fine on the ice; balance is a little harder to grasp as not only does the ice offer less friction, and therefore the skates move more freely, but the blades are quite heavily rockered which (unlike inline skates which are flat) means there is a tendency at first to fall forward or back ‘off’ the skate With my confidence growing by the hour, I was beginning to really look forward to Sunday, and more successful lessons. And so it proved when my first of the day saw two really fun young ladies Amanda and Merci relatively dancing around the rink by the end Alas, we all have to come down to earth with a bang, and so it proved when an over confident me was approached by my boss to say there had been a hiccup with the bookings and as a result I was to take a class of 8 nine year olds followed by a further group of 12 celebrating an eleventh birthday, horror!!! Its not so easy finding a quiet place in a 20 x 50m ice rink with 250+ skaters just to assess your new charges!

In the end with a (massive) hand from my colleague Tara we managed to pull it off and send all 20 of the children home very happy and feeling they had all achieved new goals on the ice! I really did enjoy last week and am hoping the rest of my winter season goes as well. But you know, underneath it all, I can’t wait for Spring, the sunshine, and me getting back to teaching on my roller blades……its better for my weak old heart! Now when is my next shift…And one other thing, many many thanks to Nina who has volunteered to take all of my Skatefresh private lessons whilst I am away on my busmans holiday!

“Les 24 Heure Rollers” (to give it its correct title) takes place at the Le Mans motor racing circuit in France. The principle is simple, 500 teams (from 22 countries) of 2-10 skaters per team, start racing at 1600hr Saturday, finishing 24 Hours later at 1600hr Sunday. The course used is the 4.5 km Bugatti circuit. Each team can have only one skating member on the track at any given time, normally changing the ‘baton’ to another member after completing one lap. Winner is team completing most laps in the allotted time. To add some authenticity, just like the motor race of a similar name, where the drivers run across the track at the start to get into their cars; opening skaters are expected to run across and put their skates on! Simple? Well not exactly. For a start, immediately after setting out on a lap you are confronted with a 600m 3.5% incline, not bad the first time you skate it, but after a few hours even the first 100m makes your thighs burn. Then when you make it to the top and pass through the famous Good Year Bridge, you have to traverse the 1km 2% Dunlop downhill with two sweeping curves. Because of the gradient and the fact that your legs are like jelly after the climb, the bends are daunting (especially when you notice the two vehicles sited at each bend are in fact ambulances!) Most competitors tread (or skate!) very carefully after seeing others come to grief!Then there is the fatigue. On average teams skate 140-160 laps, that means each member is expected to skate 15 laps or just short of 70kms! As most teams run a 3 shift system, whereby 3 or 4 members cover a 2 or 3 hour period, each member of the shift is skating a ten minute lap every twenty minutes for their entire shift! Very tiring. But this means there are a few hours between shifts to get some much needed nourishment and sleep (and to take your skates off!). And sleep is the next problem, or more important, how do you get some? There are over 8000 people on site including teams, support crews, event organisers etc. Tannoy announcements and the constant echo of the sound system, as well as team talks and rantings make it very difficult in the pit area. Back on the campsite is not much better. Skates are off but BBQ’s and catering run all night; comings and goings of participants both on foot, in cars and on motorbikes (yes, really. Even in the middle of the night!) Everyone is doing something at different times so there is no ‘quiet’ time.This is also the case when it comes to loo’s and showers, there are permanent queues from start to finish. This is not helped by the fact that the temp was well into the 90’s during the day and high 60’s at night meaning everyone is taking on vast amounts of water and need to wash seemingly all the time. So how did we fare? My first shift began at 1700, one hour into the race. The very first thing I became aware of was how fast some of the professional and semi professional skating teams were travelling. Even up the hill they give you a sense of motionlessness as they fly by; try following them at your peril they skate at speeds in excess of 75kph downhill! My first lap was just over 10 mins which all things considered I was happy with. Not so my second. As I now knew the track I thought I would put some serious effort into it, imagine my surprise when I found it was actually slower than my first! I did manage to shave some time of in my third and final lap of this first session and come in below 10 mins.My team LSST 2 Mens, was almost on a par at this stage with Nina’s LSST 1 Ladies, both hovering about 100^th place in the standings. As Nina and I had similar shift patterns we spent some time in the pit area talking skating tactics and swapping skating experiences. Nina was already confidently breaking the 10 mins mark, in fact she was coming very close to 9mins. As dusk came and went and the night cooled I was really looking forward to my next shift at 2100. The bubble soon burst when after equalling my best lap of the first session I proceded to go back to the 10 mins mark. Nina continued with very competitive times a fact reflected by her team who had now moved up to about 90^th position. LSST 2 Men had dropped to about 105^th During my main night time break from skating between 1100 and 0500 I managed to eat (1145 – 0015), grab a shower (0030 -0045), sleep (0115 – 0345 well actually, I had drunk so much water, had to interupt that sleep!) rise (0400) and get ready to be back at the pits to skate by 0500. After the earlier disappointment of not being able to improve my lap times, I arrived for my early morning shift to see that it had been the same story for my team mates. As a result we had slipped to 136^th place. Nina’s team on the other hand were really flying, moving up to 86th position.With the race well into its second half, Sunday morning and early afternoon, through a combination of tired legs and more intense heat, saw many people having falls resulting in grazed knees, arms and elbows. In one session alone, all three members from our Shift 3 team had falls, fortunately nothing serious. It was also noticeable how quickly the day was going, and before we knew it we were planning for the finish. Through a combination of energy drinks, Mars bars and probably pure adrenalin, I had my best session of the event, putting in my four best lap times around 9 mins. Although some members of our team were exhausted, we still managed to claw our way back and finished in 115th. Nina’s team had a stunning finish climbing to 81^st overall, and 5^th in the Ladies category, almost on the podium – rollerblading nirvana!This is a fantastic event for which I am already signing up for next year. I strongly suggest that if any of you have the opportunity you do to! Other Skatefresh instructors taking part in this event were Maja for LSST 2 Ladies and Jason for Guiness Draft. Both completed the event successfully.