Roller bled

Just roller bladed for the first time in my life, and it was a terrifying experience...

Sunday afternoon and my housemates decide to head to East Coast Park to learn to roller blade cos they're so bored, and they drag me along. It's a hot day, the sky looks overcast, and it's an hour's travel away. I moan, but my roommate threatens to rape me.

It's been years since I've been in ECP, and the sea is actually a refreshing change from all the buildings and concrete. People cycling, walking around, barbequeing, and of cos, what we've come for, rollerblading!! It looks cool when others do it, just gliding along the park, cool and aloof to the people looking to you...inspired, we went to rent roller blades for ourselves.

Wearing the blades, we immediately realise that we couldn't stand up. Each movement with your feet threatened to send you propelling forward out of control...it's like learning to walk all over again...each step is a fight to not fall backwards on your butt with a resounding thud...which I lost quite a few times....

The first half and hour I was just trying to stay vertical, walking like a duck, keens bent, butt out, hands forward in case I fell....defintely NOT impressing all the girls....lots of other beginner skaters around too....doing the typical beginner moves, like the cheerleader wave (swinging your hands wildly when you lose your forward-backward balance) and the Rockette Kick (kicking your leg out when you lose your sideways balance).

Fell a lot, always to the back though, so after a while I was putting my hands out to the front to shift my weight rather than to break a fall....1st lesson learnt. Still walking like a duck though, and with my eyes down on the road, but once in a while a real blader will whiz past as if I was merely a lamppost...true considering our relative speeds. And the speedbumps!! Speedbumps on a roller blading path??? The cyclists are unfazed, the real bladers don't even notice them, but each bump is a mountain to me, and always promises a fall...such that in the end I was going around them by walking on the grass....

An hour and a half after roller blading we stopped...I've not learned how to really cruise, but I've mastered the duckwalk, and can stand without falling...maybe 3-4 more sessions? My feet hurt, and knees are shaky, but I've survived! Never thought 4cm would give me claustrophobia though.