Getting mah skate on!

My friend Heather, whose derby blog is here, purchased her skates right after that very first live bout in January. Once she was done with Faire, she started taking skating classes at Universal Skating Center, which is where we go to see the Orlando Psycho City Derby bouts. Every Saturday morning from 9:15-10am they have classes and then from 10am-noon they have public skate. She’s been going for a little over a month and was finally able to convince me to wake up early enough to get down there and skate.

My first class, on June 11, was a bit hectic. Usually they have two teachers, one to teach the level 1 skaters and the other to teach the level 2 skaters (level 3 classes end at 9:15 and they are run with both teachers), but one was gone, so the first 20 minutes were just waiting around. I started in the level 1 class, but because I was already rolling and moving, I was bumped up to the level 2 class. At the end of the first class I decided I had to have my own skates and went to the store inside of the rink.

Heather has Rock GT-50 skates which are apparently better for wider feet. I thought I would be getting that one, but I asked to try on the Riedell R3s that they had. I tried on a few pairs of skates and finally found that the size 7 fit me best. Once I was all laced up, we went back out onto the rink floor and it was like magic. I had used the crummy rental skates for class, but skating on my brand new skates was like skating on butter.



While going to the Orlando skate class at least once a week is something I plan to do, I still wanted to skate a bit closer to home. I knew of one skating rink here in Ocala, but it’s not open very often because it doubles as a community center/daycare type of place. I called on Monday to find out their public skating hours and discovered that they have a 21+ adult skating session every Monday nights from 7-10. So that night I convinced my brother to come along and we skated.

I’m now going to continue skating twice a week (and I'm going to show up right at 7 because they have skating lessons for the first 30 minutes), and hopefully I’ll start to improve. I’ve fallen a few times (more on that in another post) so far, but I have managed to pick up a few skills. I can do: turtle tucks, scissors, t-starts, flamingo, raising one foot while skating, and one footed turns (though I need to practice them more tonight).

What I want to be able to do before recruitment:

• Stop!! (T stop, plow stop, and if possible the tomahawk stop)
  
• Shooting the Duck
  
• Crossovers
  
• Skating backwards (we started this in class but I was only able to waddle back and do horrible scissors)
  
• Lift leg behind me, swan-like move (no idea what it’s called)

Update!: I wrote this post while I was at work today, but I forgot to post before I left for skating. The skating class wasn't exactly what I thought it was, but something really amazing came out of it - I learned how to do crossovers!! I'm so proud of myself and very excited. They feel so natural. I also fell tonight while working on backwards skating, so I'll definitely be wearing my pads the next time I give it a go.