the Get Rolling Orbit

I joined co-instructor Janet Miller to teach at Hilton Head Camp Rollerblade on May 14-18, 2011.

Fourteen women aged 34 to 62 met each other for the first time to share inline instruction, smooth pavement and new friendships. Here is what they had to say in a Zephyr survey taken immediately afterwards.

Overall experience

• Camp Rollerblade was absolutely incredible and I had the time of my life. Liz and Janet were phenomenal and very supportive.
• Very good camp, perfectly suited for beginners and those with just a little experience.
• The instructors are excellent and have an incredible amount of patience and knowledge about teaching. I really loved them–they made the entire experience a great one.
• I would encourage anyone interested in rollerblading to take it.
• Was a lot of fun – plenty of laughter along with very patient and caring instructors.

Favorite moment

• Meeting my roommates. I’d never really done any sort of ‘camp’ before (as a kid), so this was my first experience with that sort of thing. Second would be our first dinner as a group.
• So many to pick from… but getting to know this incredible group of women was truly inspiring. Oh yes, and when I finally learned to stop.
• Dinnertime conversations were fun!
• Too many to describe; the entire trip was Wonderful!! The instructors were both excellent, their styles were complementary to each other, and the group mixed very well.
• Doing a spin stop.
• Getting out to skate on the beautiful trails.

These ladies had so much fun, and bonded in so many ways. The most gratifying outcome to me goes beyond what I was able to do for their skating skills: it’s the frosting on the cake that this group is already planning a “Reunion Weekend” next year.

Burning calves and tingly arches are very common for the beginning skater. Your muscles need time to get used to any new activity.

Your arches may cramp if:

• your feet are tensed up inside the boot,
• the boot is laced or buckled too tight, or
• you haven’t skated for a few months and your skating muscles have gotten out of shape.

A dull pain may also be the result of feeling a little scared. As a beginner, your knees may be too straight (very common) and that causes a tendency to bend forward at the waist, which forces your lower legs to work harder to support that weight.

If this sounds like you, try to get your torso more upright and drop your hips towards your heels to keep your weight lined up over your arches. Crouch by bending your knees, rather than leaning forward. By doing this, you flex at the hips, ankles and knees instead of from your waist.

Another way to feel the proper stance is to try to tuck your tail bone forward (think of rounding your spine) rather than back which results in sticking your rear out.

Leaning too far forward  also causes calf pain (not to mention your lower back). The muscles on the fronts of your shins are unaccustomed to skating in the first place. Bending forward at the waist tips a lot of weight over your toes, and the fronts of your shins must work along with them to support that weight as you try to stroke. Other calf muscles may get a bit sore when you’re just learning to skate, too.

My last bit of advice is to take a deep breath in and out and pretend like you’re relaxed. Imagine the good skaters you’ve seen, and be them in your mind as you skate. This does help for brief moments, really! The more time you can skate with a relaxed body, the less your feet and legs will burn so you can build up the muscles and the confidence that will help you maintain the proper ready position shown in the image above.

Inline skating is a really great low-impact exercise  for aging joints. My main worry for older people, especially women, is bone density. The undeniable truth is that it’s not really a matter of if you fall, but when you fall. If you do have brittle bones or have not been exercising regularly for a few years, the impact of a fall is more likely to lead to injury. This is a serious consideration before going out and buying the gear.

That said, many of my students are in their mid- to late-sixties and some do astonishingly well. I am guessing it’s partly due to the active California lifestyle, but also because they’ve had a lifetime to develop the cumulative balance that is such an asset to the beginning skater. Here are the most common and helpful advantages for beginners of any age:

• Past balance experience: Ice or roller skating translate wonderfully to inline skating (many other activities help too, and it doesn’t matter how long ago or how well you did them)
• Sure-footedness or general agility: There is a definite advantage if you are steady on your feet and have decent balance while standing on one foot.
• Fitness: You need to have a baseline of fitness to be safe on skates. Here is a good test to see if you are fit enough for skating: you must be able to get up off the floor by yourself without help from furniture or another person.

Occasionally—and more so in recent years—the problem of being rigid with fear has prevented some of my students from ever relaxing enough to enjoy the delicious inline stride and glide, even on a flat surface. If you tend to be physically timid, you may want to stick with less athletic sports.

All new skaters can take action to reduce fear and risk, and increase their chances for success. First, there is a subtle confidence that comes from always wearing a helmet along with knee, elbow and wrist guards. Some people wear padded shorts to protect their hips and tailbones.

Do try and find a lesson for your first time out. To find a qualified instructor your area, go to the Inline Instructor search page and enter your state abbreviation. Another option is Camp Rollerblade, which specializes in 5-day learn-to-skate instruction for mature adults. Many of my proudest teaching memories are from people I helped at these camps over the past dozen years!

Good luck!

California Outdoor Rollerskating Association (C.O.R.A.)

Join a weekend of rolling fun and help Reboot Outdoor Skating on April 8, 9 & 10, 2011 in San Francisco!

C.O.R.A. the California Outdoor Rollerskating Association, is presenting a weekend of skating activities intended to mark a new beginning in the development of recreational and fitness skating in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond. Planned activities include the infamous Friday Night Skate, Saturday seminars, Saturday Night Roller Disco and Sunday Streets. To top it off, there will be a Guinness World Record attempt: the World’s Longest Skating Serpentine (a line of skaters linked hand to hand).

C.O.R.A.’s extended-weekend goals are to:

• Present an exciting San Francisco skate weekend
• Renew interest in outdoor roller and inline skating by showing interested participants how they can duplicate C.O.R.A.’s efforts in their own communities by getting involved
• Raise money for C.O.R.A. activities, build membership and skater participation in C.O.R.A. events, expand participation in the C.O.R.A. SkateFit Program and establish alliances between C.O.R.A. and other skating-related business and organizations

“This New Beginning skate weekend is not the same kind of skate event we have been exposed to here in San Francisco,” says C.O.R.A. founder David Miles, known to many as the Godfather of Skate. “If it had to be put in a category, it is more like what you would experience in an event like the Great EsSkate in Florida, only this event is designed for the participants to leave with the tools to build on the experience where they live, or join with us as we move forward. The main point of this weekend is to unify efforts of skaters and establish a new beginning.  It is open to anyone willing to get involved and limited only to your imagination.”

Miles adds, “If there is anything else happening that generates interest in new skaters like we are advocating, we don’t know of it.  We (C.O.R.A.) have taken the position that we can make this happen, and any skater, company or business that wants to see our sport thrive is invited to participate.  C.O.R.A. is a true 501c4 non profit organization.  We need help and we are offering skate groups everywhere an opportunity to learn how to become self sufficient and how to make skating grow where they live. “

Find a detailed itinerary of events, seminars and more on the C.O.R.A. REBOOT!!!!!  OUTDOOR SKATING 2.0 ROLLER / INLINE SKATE WEEKEND IN SAN FRANCISCO web page.

About the California Outdoor Rollerskating Association

The mission of C.O.R.A. is to strongly raise awareness of the positive aspects skating can bring into the lives of youth and adults and to give people a fun, healthy skating experience people can enjoy.  Over the years, we have been consistent in our efforts by promoting hundreds of skating events, races, competitions, parades, parties and much more to make the San Francisco Bay Area a great skating city. California Outdoor Rollersports Association has worked for many years to promote the concept of “recreational asphalt,”  when cars are removed from the roadway so that people can use it to walk, run, ride their bikes, roller skate and inline skate.

Over the years, C.O.R.A. has been consistent in its efforts by promoting hundreds of skating events, races, competitions, parades, parties and much more to make the San Francisco Bay Area a great skating city.

About Sunday Streets

Introduced by Mayor Newsom in 2008, Sunday Streets started with two events in 2008, expanding to six events in 2009. By 2010, nine Sunday Streets events covered five different routes around the city, with longer car-free stretches and program hours, attracting 15,000-20,000 participants per event.

On Sunday, April 10, 2011, C.O.R.A. will be joining with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Livable City, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Shape Up SF, Kaiser Permanente, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, California Pacific Medical Center, AT & T, and a host of other civic groups, businesses and community-based organizations to present Sunday Streets San Francisco.

In February, I joined my fellow Zephyr Adventures guides (here’s a complete list with bios) for our semi-regular guide training weekend, where we brainstormed ideas for giving even better customer service while skating the local trails and goofing off between meetings. To find out more about why we met, read Zephyr owner Allan Wright’s blog about the weekend.

I can say without reservation that nobody else I know can beat the charisma and antics of the “life-of-the-party” mates I find myself so lucky to be associated with!

While I did not digitally document the hi jinks for sharing, below are snaps of some of my favorite moments in Tampa. Click for full-size view.

Last summer I introduced my followers to Paul Korankye, a skating enthusiast from the InlinePlanet shater’s network. We keep in touch by email and the social network from time to time. Here is a recent training shot of the Hidden Stars Skaters Dream Club.

As a 2010 Christmas present, Get Rolling donated $200 for gear and international shipping fees to Ghana. I selected the following items from Paul’s wish list at Inline Warehouse, one of my favorite skating retailers:

• 2 sets of Rollerblade 90mm wheels with SG9 Bearings
• 1 red Firefly Supernova Safety Light w/ Clip
• 1 Sonic Super Bearing Oil  1/2 Oz
• 1 Rollerblade Inline Skate Blade Tool
• 1 Sonic Turbo Wash Bearing Cleaner
• 1 TWINCAM Speed Bearings ABEC5 16pk

Judging by these latest photos, more club members are sporting essential safety gear. I hope that other skaters or clubs here in the U.S. who can afford to be generous will check the Hidden Stars web site to see what else we can do to keep the team rolling safely toward their stars.

View Paul’s latest photos and make friends with him by joining the  Inline Planet Community. If you decide to support his speed skating team, he would welcome direct contact through email at paul_kn2000@yahoo.com.