Flutterby™! : Skating

Yesterday we had some friends staying with us from out of town, so we took 'em down to Justin Herman Plaza at the Embarcadero in San Francisco to try out the Kristi Yamaguchi Holiday Ice Rink(something I've been wanting to do for years). It's been a long time since I've been on steel blades, and it was tough when I was starting out to tell if my problems were the rental skates, public skate ice (it was a little bumpy at the start, and really got chewed up over the time of the skate), or just that I haven't been on skates of any sort at all in a while. I was reminded of the difference between inlines and blades when it comes to spinning, although by the time I was ready to exploit that my legs were already off their prime, I got one good spin in, then two falls, and figured maybe it was time to bag the session (since everyone else was getting tired too). But I did see that there are occasional clinics over at the Yerba Buena rink, maybe it's time to take some actual lessons and coaching on spins and jumps.

They were playing James Bond theme music, which was kinda cool, but aside from A View To A Kill, all of it is this long flourishy stuff with lots of tempo changes, good for fast sweeping moves that cover the whole ice. New Year's Day public skate, with lots of kids and newbies, is not the time for that sort of move. For once I wanted a little dance music, short and choppy with lots of room for footwork.