Edit – The Friday Night Skate link looks to be incorrect, see comments for the reasons, the correct link should be http://www.lfns.co.uk.
Stuart used to have rollerskating lessons when he was little, and actually got quite good (as I found out when we went ice skating together. I was nervous I’d make a fool of myself, but let myself be talked round when Stuart promised we could be rubbish together. I wasn’t impressed at all when he started skating in front of me, backwards, going “Go on, just follow me, it’s easy”)
We’ve been saying for ages that we want to start skating. We’d toyed with the idea of going to Miami and learning at South Beach, but it never quite happened. Then Stuart found out about the Friday Night Skate in London, and got newly enthusiastic about getting out and just doing something.
So we found ourselves at our local skate shop (ukskate.com in Longsight) chatting to the lovely staff who tried not to giggle at us floundering around, and helpfully pointed out that we weren’t too old to go out skating because lots of old people do – they still go out, after all, and some of them are as old as 21!!!
So, we’re now two pairs of salomon skates up, and Stuart’s been whizzing up and down our street while it all comes back to him. I’m less confident – my one and only attempt outside involved me using our wheely bin as a zimmer. I’m not too bad on the carpet, but I have visions of my mother coming and shouting at me for skating inside. Even though it’s my house.
Even if I don’t get down to the Friday Night Skate straight away (you have to be good to do it), I’m hoping that the Easy Peasy skate they run will be doable sometime this summer. Either way, I just want to get good enough to show off in the sun this summer.
Have you factored the cost of new teeth into this new hobby?
Hi,
I’m one of the marshal’s with the London Friday Night skate. Well done on getting started skating. You should both come to the easy peasy skate (which I help out at too). Once you can skate forwards (whether you fall over or not) you are good enough for the easy peasy.. If you can actually skate forwards and stop, you can do the Sunday Stroll. Incidentally this Sunday’s stroll is a short one at 7 miles and is going to be deliberately slower than usual to encourage beginners..
You might also want to know that on a Sunday in Hyde park from 1pm till about 4pm you can get free skating lessons from http://www.skatepatrol.co.uk. They will teach you to get moving and stop – for free!!! Half of the Marshals who do the LFNS (London Friday Night Skate) volunteer for skate patrol also.
I did notice that the links you have for the Friday and sunday skates are incorrect. The sites you mention are the old sponsor’s website. The oficial site for both the London Friday night skate & the Sunday stroll is http://www.lfns.co.uk. Here you will find photos and video of each skate plus you will see an accurate route map. Unlike thefns.com and Rollerstroll.com the LFNS is a not for profit organisation funded by the marshals themselves. Please could you change your links to thefns & rollerstroll sites as they both solicit donations for a skate they no longer have anything to do with, and the owner is deliberately causing safety problems on the road by altering the copyrighted route information he copies from the official website each week.
Kind Regards
the LFNS