After Session Mini Blog

[Derrick]

Ok got the cartwheel landing.

Last session one of my skates came out from under me while I was entering a spin. Like it was on ice. Cleaned my wheels but it dit it again. I didn’t fall or anything but ny spin was anticlimactic. (sometimes it’s anticlimatic all on it’s own)

DJ siad hte same thing happened to him on the same spot on the floor. He told me his story first so I know he wasn’t humoring me. There’s a slippery spot out there.

Then last nigh,wierdly, my skates just seem to be dragging. I kept speed but found it slightly laborious. Hmm..... Couldn’t decide whether it was skate issue, floor issue, or age issue.

[Derrick]

Can now do a decent cartwheel on skates. The landing isn’t quite as pretty as off skates. It’s a silly thing to do, but it goes nicely after a scratch spin. But I don't know quite where to go from there. I’ve been working on just landing one foot and glide off arebesque. But I don’t have a lot of momentum after the landing.

[rufusprime99]

They say it's the skater, not the skate. Well, if you are good enough, this is true. I guess I have made that elite club. (pats myself on the back)

I drove 30 miles to Holiday Skate in Orange, only to notice upon arriving, I did not have my skates. Oh the HORROR. I immediately started the car and said, no way to rentals. But, I had missed a few sessions, and decided to bite the bullet. Lucky I am a 10.5/11 in tennis shoes. Actually 10.5, though I often wear an 11. The size 10, always run large, skates I tried fit well. Well, the left skate felt stretched out, and the front truck was gimpy. But I got on the floor, and I could skate OK. I was shocked at how slow they were. Slow bearings and SOFT art size wheels. I could hardly make noise as I tried some toe tapping to the music. I actually skated just fine. I used my normal lean that I use with my SF DA45, but I used pre-emptive heel and toe lifts to achieve the turning the plates could not supply themselves. Yeah, I remember way back to 2011 when I was skating the Rebels and white Mags, I had started experimenting with toe and heel lifts to turn, and not just depend on the plate. Still do it now. Sometimes I just lean, and let the plates do the work, and other times I earn it. Only tonight that I was forced onto relatively crummy 10 degree skates do I really know where I stand. I CAN make 10 degree maneuver well. Well, bully for me.

I did swap out the left skate. Got lucky. The 2nd left skate fit well like the right. Like the two were a proper pair, not a mismatch pair. And then I just went at it. Boy, it was a slog though. And I did almost catch some edges on transitions. Mainly due to fatigue. The long plate skate reacted much slower than my short plates, and took more effort to lift a toe or heel. I started to get a bit sloppy at the end. But I call it a nice night skating, and certainly a moral victory. Save for the super slow wheels, I pretty much conquered rentals, and was not conquered by them. So this means, I could put a 10 degree metal short forward plate on a boot and still make it hum. Without realizing it, I have developed the skills that are needed to make a 10 degree turn better. The wheels in the 'ol noggin are a turning.

[Derrick]

Took my daughter her freind and youngest so Zeke on a friday at the little rink in my town.

Zeke picked right back up, he’s 17. I showed him my progres on spins, he sais, “nice! but you need more revelutions.” I showed him my cartwheel and he said, “that sucked, it looked more like a round off.l. You can always count on Zeke fo an honest opinion. The landing did suck. it’s hard to get the skates in line with the roll. So I do more like a round off. I do a really good round off off skate. But I have to br careful of my back. I’m confindent I could still do a hand spring but not confident I would walk well afterward. But a regular cartwheel can land softly and still be very nice. But on skates, no toe stops, the soft landing has the wheels trying to go against the grain and the slip out. I found if I land one foot a glide off the best I can. it’s better. I can soft land and three turn the skate back to an edge. It still needs a bit of work. It’s really kinda fun. I’ve always loved cartwheels.

Now for those one foot spin revolutions. I never give up. I need to get video again. I thunk I’m getting 3 or 4 revs consistently and my entry is pretty good. I can get two revs standing on one foot and coming around with the balance foot up. I can lift a foot on a two foot spin. My two foot spin is somewhat better.. I’ts tight and I get probably 6 to 8 revs normally. I know many people can get a lot more and I love to spin so I’ll just keep trying to get better and better.

I’m much better at dancing in place than I used to be. Not great just better than I used to be. I can spin on my bwck but not too much more with th break dancing type move, I try a few anyway.

I’m at the point where a couple of in the center moves seem beneficial when it’s too crowded. I’m happy they have crowds but I need to adjust. The in the centr moves are actually much more tiring thwn skating the outside.

[rufusprime99]

So I got a chance to skate again on Friday. I REMEMBERED my skates this time. Was a pretty good night skating, though I still have not got my butt in gear and lost the weight I need to to feel better on the floor, but I digress. The one funny thing I wanted to note, was after having a pretty successful night on rentals, it sure took me a long time to get used to my normal skates.

I mean, seriously. I don't have this much trouble switching from inlines back to my quads. It is a bigger shock to the system, that long wheelbase to my short forward quads. But the transition is literally about 5 laps. Seemed like it took me around 4 or 5 songs to adjust. I wasn't leaning right, I wasn't using the action as much as I was using technique, lifting heels and toes, to turn, like I needed to with the rentals. The wide vs narrow wheels was bugging me. I kept almost catching an edge on my wide speed wheels. I even almost got my weight back on my heels a few times. I had to keep mentally reading myself the riot act on what the differences of the skates were. Lean harder, keep your weight on your toes, lifting toes and heels happen faster, in fact everything is faster.... stay on top of the skates. The biggest shock was back to wheels that roll vs those soft stuck in the mud wheels. I probably adjusted to that the quickest, by and large, but I did have a few bobbles in the fore/aft due to the different roll.

But, all in all, a good nights skate.

[Derrick]

A tooth. Someone knocked their tooth out and didn’t mention it?

Oh yes, I was practicing a 360 (which I thought was going well) and the DJ joins in. He dies it quite easily. I shiw mine and he says, “You have to jump high”. Kids are so profound these days. That was my “high”.

[Derrick]

Not sure if
a. Trying to get just enough jump to make around it, so I don’t need to check.
b. just don’t have ooomph enough to consistently get around all the way.

But I found it strangly possible to do a 270. just come up to the corner and use the jump to turn it. It feels better than a 180. I think a.

Jam friend tried my cartwheel. Nailed it and said, “That’s it?” I’m like , “Yea, it’s not hard”. Guess I got to get my roundoff going to impress. I’m actually excellent at that (off skate).

IB Spins are better, but consistency still alludes me. But in general 3 or more revs.

Doing a little jam and free art lesssons possible on thursdays. This is still really fun. .so much to learn you’ll never get over it.

[Derrick]

I was at my home town little rink “Happy Valley”. Doing the limbo just cause I don’t like sitting on the sidelines. I not really very good at it. So I got under one that I would usually hit on. Hmmmm... I must be getting better....... Got through the next round too. Now how the heck did I do that. The next one was impossible (for me). I made it! And a friend comes up and says, “You know Butch keeps raing the bar just as you go under......”. . Good old Butch.

[Derrick]

Ouch.

[Derrick]

My wife is not quite ready to go on her own. So it’s a lot like a Fisher Price pull toy. She’s not the go getter type that says, “let me try this on my own”.

But we had a great time! It’s pretty instructive to dance with someone slowly. In fact lots of learning happens under restrictions. But she admitted that, perhaps, I wasn’t getting as much rink time as usual and I should do an additional session. Won’t argue with that.

Best cartwheel landing yet🤗

[Derrick]

So my wife is comming occasionally and Zeke (youngest) is starting to go more often again. The good, I like brining people. The bad, I’m not getting as much rink time. And I like skating with the same crowd every week. I need some more rink time.

Anyway Zeke is a great critic. He says drop my “rap god” spin because it has nothing to do with skating. Ok, I’ll drop it. (And only do it in the basement where no one can see me.)

As for my Waltz jump, he wonders how I get even half a revolution on such a low jump. I tell him it’s all the height a half revolution deserves. Truth is, I’m working on gettting it higher (not high, just higher).

But he says he has nothing that can compare to my IB spin. It’s, always getting a litlle better, but never as good as I would like. I don’t know, his high jump gets a lot of attention. He is finally showing some interest in making it a waltz jump. It’s high, but its two foot take-off and landing. And he starts backwards. He should just do a 360. He’s actually high enough to do an axel, but he would need to see Trace Hanson to teach him that.

He showed me a couple of mohawk jumps. But I’m a bit of a critic too. Those don’t really count as a 1/2 revolution. They can be made to look cool though in a dance sequence. Not that I can make them look cool....... yet.

I’m still working on my full revolution with a back edge one foot landing. May be a while before it’s pretty. (or going more than .0002 mph)

I’m still a bit iffy on liking my cartwheel landing. It’s too loud. The take off is great! But I need to find a way to soften the landing, or roll off a round-off instead. It doesn’t hurt or anything I just think it could be softer or more dynamic. The thing is I make a loud sound and I’m just kind of standing there no roll, no art to it. And my legs are way more than shoulder length appart, just not a pretty landing. Zeke said is looked good, but I would like it better. Not that I’ll give the cartwheel up! people gasp when a 52 year old dude enters a cartwheel on skates. (Mostly because they think I’m nuts, or they want a youtube FAIL video) but some really like it and give me high 5 (or is it a knuckle bump now))

Anyway great times.

[Derrick]

He was super excited.
And it’s way better executed than mine.

[Derrick]

Best compliment ever, “You still look like your walking on a cloud”, but what do you mean by “still”?

[Derrick]

OK, that’s horrible click bait. I really should be ashamed.

So, tuesday night a young woman (bout 25) wanted to couples skate real bad. She’s married but doesn’t have a skate mate (pun intended).

Of course I’m super flattered but I want to stay married real bad. She says her husband would understand. But that’s just not anywhere my marriage of 21 years has ever been. We be a bit old-fashioned.

So my wife and I decided it’s just best to stay away from tuesday nights.

[ASB1583]

Impressed to see how long this thread has stayed alive. New to the group and used the quick link to "today's posts". Pretty entertaining! It's like the Amazon review's on select items that draw attention.

[Derrick]

Tried to do YMCA while in a handstand. So YMCA is with your legs. Y is easy enough. M might be a bit dangerous (at leat for dudes). I have no idea where I planned to go from there but I fell out of it by then anyway.

[Derrick]

On vacation, did 4 days straight. Talked to the owner at the consession stand. She said she saw my dance moves, I said I know I’m crazy. She said she enjoyed it but the kids thought I was crazy. Yep, I do a lot of crazy sht for an over 50 skater.

Q. Whats the craziest thing to the rink rats?
A. Art boots

[Derrick]

They have changed from afters school session to art practice. They have just six students. Three adults and three kids. I was invited to skate around while they practice. They want me to compete, but I just can’t do the same forward routine to organ music over and over zzzzzzzzzz. Asked me a year or two ago and I would have. I apreciate the skill and prescision it’s just not for me.

But the kids are doing freestyle. I like that better. I pick up what I can from the kids, I don’t really have an instructor. But with the floor being empty I practiced stuff I haven’t done in a long time. Like my walts in both direction. I go waltz to waltz to waltz just to get the feel for comming off one and doing another. Fake (no toestop) 1/2 mapes; both directions. I really should go full (fake mapes). IB and OF spins. I try both directions just for fun. But I’m better CW. Consecutive three turns (I have only done 5 of the 8 really. But I can go LIF-LOB-LIB-LOB and around and round a few times. Oh yea, consecutive cartwheels too. Just cause I can , no real techincal skating skill in a cartwheel even with your skates on. I hope to finish my three turns, do loops, and full mapes sometime.

It really was a great time. I only got an hour in but it’s good to have some floor space.

[Derrick]

After the session a guy I know to skate 4 - 6 times a weeks says, “You are one hell of a rythm skater, brother”.

A good ego stroke never hurts.

[Derrick]

This post goes out to those who find Fathers Day a sad day not a happy one. I saw my Dad yesterday but I found some of the regulars (kids of just 6 and 12) who aren’t as lucky as I am at 52.