MegèveSki

Friday Night Skate

Tonight I skated 12.5 miles around the streets of London in a pack of skaters that at times resembled something out of Rollerball; lots of jostling for position and people cutting in and out, occasionally bumping you, sometimes gently, sometimes less so... Once I got used to the idea that this wasn't going to be a stroll in the park and that I had to skate much more defensively and, to be honest, agressively to stay with the group and avoid being taken out by accident then it was great fun.

The Friday Night Skate is an event that's run every Friday night in London, weather permitting. Each week there's a different route which generally starts and finishes at Hyde Park and has a half time break at a tube station somewhere so that people that are tired, or don't fancy the harder section after the break, can get home easily. There are lots of volunteer marshals who deal with the traffic and lead the skate and back-mark to prevent people getting lost. They do a great job and it's really quite an amazing feeling to skate with the pack through red lights with motorists cheering you on and feel completely safe due to the fact that the marshals are holding up the traffic at all intersections that the pack is passing through at that moment. There are several hand signals that the pack do to inform people behind what's going on, basically indicating direction changes and slowing down, etc. It's a simple system but it works very well.

This is the route that we took tonight:

The first section was slower than the later section and it took me a fair while to get used to the idea of skating so close to so many other people and having so many people cutting around you. The fact that the marshals deliberately keep the pace down for this section and deliberately keep the pack slightly tighter than later on actually made the first section harder than the later section. I'm sure it will be fine next time, now that I'm used to skating right on somebody's tail and weaving around people with gentle nudges and allowing others to do the same.

I'd like to thank the guy who ran into the back of me early on and wiped me out for reminding me that I need to look for my padded shorts and wear them next time! Being wiped out actually helped immensely as it made me realise that I needed a much lower, more powerful and balanced stance and that I needed to be ready to push people away and smile sweetly whilst doing it.

One of the tricks I found is that it's worth positioning yourself behind someone good; they make less erratic moves and generally act more sensibly. I found myself behind my ram raider and became concerned about his, er, 'style', so cut around him and found a couple of more reliable looking people to follow.

I was a little nervous about the second section. There was mention of lots of down hill sections and the idea is that the "black" is faster and more difficult than the "red". I needn't have worried. The second section was faster, quite a bit faster, but it was also a looser more strung out pack. This made it easier, well, it did if you could keep up with the leaders and drop into the gap just behind the main crowd but before the slower people. Much more space, much more speed, and much more scope for technique to win out over brute force and jostling. The down hill sections were fun and there was usually somewhere to scrape off the speed before we had to stop for things like complex junctions or whatever.

Another tip is that you shouldn't slow down too early, you'll just have the rest of the pack pass you and suddenly you'll be at the back. Far better to come in a little faster than you might at first feel comfortable with and then slam the anchors on. Also it's a good idea to continue the competitive thing when stationary. Work your way to the front of the pack or you'll find that everyone else has done that and you're now at the back!

There was something quite primal about being near the front of the pack when we set off from a standing start and all decided to chase the taxis and busses that were ahead of us... Everyone dropped into nice, long, loping strides and I was quite surprised that I didn't hear more howling...

All in all a good evening, and good exercise; it's quite an amazing experience to skate around the London streets in a fast and relatively safe manner. By the end of it I was actually a little disappointed that we didn't have the Rollerball leathers and spiked gloves. Someone did manage to collect a ball though; a local 'youth' had kicked his football at the pack and shouted some 'encouraging words' in a local language and so one bright spark decided to scoop up the ball and skate off with it! Perhaps next time we'll have some motorbikes with spiked tires try and run us down to get the ball back... Bring it on!