Super Awesome Hobby: In-Line Skating!

Okay.  So it’s absolutely no secret that I am a huge fan (in the Gil Renard sense) of the movie Hackers.  I have been since the first time I watched it . . . at a sleep-over birthday party in the ‘90s, yes!

That fateful premiere was also my very personal introduction to in-line skating.  I’d been roller-skating a handful of times, and I’d seen folks strap in-line skates to their gams, but before Hackers it just didn’t enter my realm of interest.  I am not ashamed to say that one of my favourite extracurricular activities is film-inspired.

Sadly, the end of high school saw an end to my skating.  My family moved away from our little home town and I was exceptionally shy and consequently made no friends that last summer before I began university.  Then there was university; my first two years of post-secondary saw me living in the residence buildings at The School On Top Of A Giant Hill.  No skating there.  (Okay, I could have gone off campus.  To be honest, by then in-line skating was among the last things on my mind.)

Long story short: I didn’t strap the skates on again until this summer, some twelve years after I graduated high school.  That, my friends, is a long time.  Too long.

But, better late than never.

Last month was my first foray and holy mother of WOW was it bad!  I should have had training wheels.  (At the very least one of those “walkers” you used when you were learning how to ice skate as a kid – remember those?  Pretty slick.)  But!  I persevered.  I was pretty shaky, but I was also in a fairly un-busy part of the city at the time and let’s face it, it’d been over twelve years since I’d done any skating of any kind.

I’ve been out a few more times since and holy! has it been fun!  Skating, I’ve found, also pairs super well with my first love: walking.  I can’t reach all of the targets I’d like to with walking, or hiking (I am not a jogger folks, not at all) no matter how extreme the hills I choose to climb.  But throw a good skate into the mix and I’m aces!

I have to say, it’s pretty freeing to get a little more speed going.  Bonus points: I’m still getting my skate-legs back so I find that I concentrate more on not falling than I do on the day’s bullshit.

Want to see the ridiculousness of my skates?

Okay, so these aren’t mine.  These are skates I found on an internet search, but they’re basically the same model.  Mine are blue where these are red and I haven’t removed my brake (ye gods – talk about taking your life into your hands).  But at the end of the day?  Yup, mid-‘90s Bauers.  (Don’t worry – I’ve been out enough to justify a new pair next year.  Plus side?  No one does this anymore so they’re pretty affordable – and it’s all about the Rollerblades now folks.  Legit.)

How about you guys?  Do you in-line skate?  (If you’re in the Prince George, BC area – where do you skate?)  If not, what’s your poison?  And hey – have you ever been inspired by a film to pick up a hobby?  (If not, you should.  It’s pretty awesome.)

Okay.  We can’t walk away without tapping into OTV.

HACK THE PLANET!

The Prodigy – Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix)

UNT.

About these ads