So last weekend I went home for a few days to visit my parents. It wasn't all smiles and dreams, but that isn't important. Health is getting better and that is what counts. So right before I left I got my new wheels! I decided to go with Poisons. They are this insanely glow in the dark green color, although I don't really think they glow in the dark. Anyway, with new wheels I got new bearings. So I went to Youtube for a few videos on changing bearings. After about two minutes of watching I decided to try it. I successfully put the new bearings in the new wheels and put them on my skates!! I still need to learn to clean the wheel bearings, but that will come a little later.
So my parents live in the corner of Arkansas that is flat. I figured it would be great to go skating on. The issue with this is yes, my roads are flat. But no, they aren't smooth. Arkansas roadways suck. There are cracks all over, weeds growing in the middle, and just all around horrible skateway. This really kind of bummed me out. I was really looking forward to trying the new wheels out. But I learned a valuable lesson. I hadn't been home since I started Derby and learned that you CANNOT judge a road from long term memory in your car.
I did try to skate on it and I didn't make it too far. About two houses down I decided that it just wasn't for me. Beside the road being cracked out like nobody's business my back was bugging me. Early that day I had gone swimming with a friend and her kids that I used to watch. Her boy and I were horsing around and I had tweaked something in my back. It didn't hurt much until I tried to skate. I decided to stop trying to skate and let my back rest and I did. It took a few days but now my back is good to go. I still need to try out my new wheels outside. If I can't before next derby practice I will get more practice in changing my wheels. One day I will have a second pair of skates so I can just trade out skates. But that isn't yet.
~ <3 Kiss My Blarney
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Still Here, Still Skating
Just a quick post so you guys know I am still alive. I have been extremely busy with work the past few weeks. Yesterday was a great day in the derby world. We went to a skate park to try to skate. Our Coach used to skate on a banked track and has experience with skating up ramps and such. Wow. I know I don't have lots of confidence on my own and I SURE don't have it at the skate park either. I could skate around the park itself. Not a huge deal, some was slightly up hill, some slightly down hill. The scary part was the ramps. I wasn't going to try to half pipe type ramps yet. So just tried a ramp that went from the second level down. That was a bad idea.
First I tried going up. I didn't have enough speed and half way up my momentum started to slow me down. My first thought was 'Oh crap, I'm not going to make it. BACKWARDS? NO......' So I tried to push while going up. I pushed alright, straight onto my knees. Yup, thankfully we have knee pads on. (They also helped me climb up the ramp on my knees so I didn't have to get up on the ramp or slide down.) You would think that with this experience behind me I would be smart enough to realize that going down would be just as hard. Nope. I will try most things once. If I fail it might be a bit before I try again. So what did I do? I tried to go down. I went down. There is no mistaking that. I went down fast and hard. Right on my butt. Thankfully I turned slightly so I didn't land square on my tailbone. I have bruised it before and that is no bueno. At this point I decided to give up the skate park idea at the moment. After the five or so minutes to recover from the pain in my butt I crawled back up the ramp and decided to watch the other girls. We had several girls that KICKED butt and the skate park. We fell a lot, but all the girls tried a ramp or two at least once. It was interesting hearing the guys on skateboards and bikes talk about us. When we first got there half of the park left. One of the girls overheard one of the other skaters say that he didn't know that a "skate park" meant that kind of skates. In my opinion then why allow bikes? We are skaters too, with skills to work on. Just because we are safer, wear gear, have more wheels, and are GIRLS doesn't mean we can't.
My favorite part of the practice was the hang out afterward. We all went to the pool and had a mini pool party. It was great. Up until the time I had to leave to go to work. Let me just say I was exhausted all night. Today I am a little sore from the swimming and the skating in the park. But I woke up to a nice surprise...
New gear!!! I ordered some gear from one of our sponsors. I have to go home middle of this week to my parents house for some family stuff. I won't be able to skate in a rink for at least a week. But there is always outside. So I finally ordered those poison wheels!! I will let you guys know what I think. I ordered new bearings, lower ABEC rating than my normal ones though, so we will see how that goes. Also got new toe stops (bigger the better in my opinion for a fat kid!), bearing oil, and some new laces. My favorite part was that I ordered them less than a week ago knowing that I would have them before I left! Any person who orders any skate gear, whether for roller skates, skateboards, inlines, what have you will know the fun part of any package is A)putting the gear together and using for the first time (half of this is done so far) and 2) getting the stickers! I have been and always will be a sticker whore. Thankfully another one of our sponsors is a sticker company...Watch out ladies, I'm getting stickers!!
~ <3 Kiss My Blarney
First I tried going up. I didn't have enough speed and half way up my momentum started to slow me down. My first thought was 'Oh crap, I'm not going to make it. BACKWARDS? NO......' So I tried to push while going up. I pushed alright, straight onto my knees. Yup, thankfully we have knee pads on. (They also helped me climb up the ramp on my knees so I didn't have to get up on the ramp or slide down.) You would think that with this experience behind me I would be smart enough to realize that going down would be just as hard. Nope. I will try most things once. If I fail it might be a bit before I try again. So what did I do? I tried to go down. I went down. There is no mistaking that. I went down fast and hard. Right on my butt. Thankfully I turned slightly so I didn't land square on my tailbone. I have bruised it before and that is no bueno. At this point I decided to give up the skate park idea at the moment. After the five or so minutes to recover from the pain in my butt I crawled back up the ramp and decided to watch the other girls. We had several girls that KICKED butt and the skate park. We fell a lot, but all the girls tried a ramp or two at least once. It was interesting hearing the guys on skateboards and bikes talk about us. When we first got there half of the park left. One of the girls overheard one of the other skaters say that he didn't know that a "skate park" meant that kind of skates. In my opinion then why allow bikes? We are skaters too, with skills to work on. Just because we are safer, wear gear, have more wheels, and are GIRLS doesn't mean we can't.
My favorite part of the practice was the hang out afterward. We all went to the pool and had a mini pool party. It was great. Up until the time I had to leave to go to work. Let me just say I was exhausted all night. Today I am a little sore from the swimming and the skating in the park. But I woke up to a nice surprise...
New gear!!! I ordered some gear from one of our sponsors. I have to go home middle of this week to my parents house for some family stuff. I won't be able to skate in a rink for at least a week. But there is always outside. So I finally ordered those poison wheels!! I will let you guys know what I think. I ordered new bearings, lower ABEC rating than my normal ones though, so we will see how that goes. Also got new toe stops (bigger the better in my opinion for a fat kid!), bearing oil, and some new laces. My favorite part was that I ordered them less than a week ago knowing that I would have them before I left! Any person who orders any skate gear, whether for roller skates, skateboards, inlines, what have you will know the fun part of any package is A)putting the gear together and using for the first time (half of this is done so far) and 2) getting the stickers! I have been and always will be a sticker whore. Thankfully another one of our sponsors is a sticker company...Watch out ladies, I'm getting stickers!!
~ <3 Kiss My Blarney
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