First Inline Skate Slalom首度曲道直排

Jeremy, my husband, is a talented and graceful skater; in contrast, I am dull on skates. Why hadn’t I seized this great resource and learned to glide gracefully? Perhaps I will end up managing to do triple toe loop? Sigh… Inline skating is one of the many sports I am confident that I will not be good at. I am too afraid to fall on hard surfaces; my nerves will be on edge way before my skates are on their edges.

I decided to join Jeremy for one of his practice sessions last week after all. So that next time when he hangs out with his friends he will have an answer to “does your wife skate?” And maybe I can shorten my waiting time to get something to respond to my outdoor buddies’ question: “does your husband hike?”

I couldn’t do cones right away and had to start with learning basics, because I am not like him – I am not an Italian, not Crazy and not Special (It seems that all the names of freestyle skating moves are tailored to him. It is so not fair). I spent probably a couple of hours repeating toe turns, 180 hop turns, front crossovers, t-brakes and finally I did a few runs of regular slalom with cones which are 80 centimeters apart from one another.

Toe turns are a good way to turn because it is stable even when your skates are traveling in high speed; besides, they let you turn when the space is tight. To do a toe turn, you keep one foot forward one foot backward (just like a telemark stance except for that the rear foot is flat on the ground), knees bent and both arms in front of you. While traveling forward, initiate the turn by lifting both toes, then turn your hip to spin the skates 180 degrees and drop both heels flat on the ground at the same time. Look, inline skating and skiing share many concepts; I think I like it a bit more now.

180 hop turns are a bit advanced, but the concept is the same. You travel forward, maintaining the stance as described above. Imagine your body as a spring and try to simulate its bouncing motion and hop upward, use your hip to rotate 180 degrees, and land on the ground on both feet, flat.

Crossovers change your travel direction and at the same time increase your speed. It’s a fundamental move for figure skaters; in addition, if you are a city skater, it gives you more flexibility to maneuver through traffic.

I practiced t-brakes because I want to be comfortable removing the brake which came with my skates. Therefore the length of my skates will be equivalent, which enables me to do crossovers in both directions.

Clicking on the image shows a video clip of my practice. At the beginning I was doing regular slalom runs, in which I traveled with my skates next to the other and used my hips to make the turns happen. I did better than I expected; last time (which was probably months ago) when I tried regular slalom with cones farther apart, I kicked them off the route all over. I contribute my performance to kayaking because kayaking trains my hips a great deal.

The second weekend of October, Jeremy will be in London participating in his first freestyle slalom competition; and I’ll be in California joining the 1st Annual Outdoor Blogger Ho Down. It seems like the old routine: he skates and I hike. So does my husband hike? He is probably skating right now.

我老公Jeremy是花式曲道直排輪的好手，看他溜直排輪，好比欣賞藝術品。相反的，我在直排輪上的表現，顯得笨拙無比。有這麼個好老師在身邊，怎麼沒有好好把握住機會，讓雙腳八輪優雅的滑動，搞不好，真的激出我的天分，哪天做出什麼三轉跳也說不一定。唉，還是別作夢了，直排輪是眾多我有自信一定學不好的運動中的一項。這個運動，要摔可是摔在結實的柏油路上，就已經不怎麼美麗了，還是多愛護還勉強算是年輕的肌膚吧。

上個禮拜，居然跑去參加Jeremy的練習。我回心轉意了嗎？偶爾也是要和老公共度一些甜蜜時光，免得他那些朋友沒事就問他：「你老婆不溜直排輪喔？」而也許這樣的「犧牲」，他哪天也突然背起大背了，我也不用應付戶外同伴的多管閒事：「你老公不喜歡登山喔？」

剛開始練習，還沒有資格玩曲道，得學習一些基本的心法。沒辦法，我不像他，既不是Italian，也不Crazy，更不Special（怪了，這些花式是根據他的家世、性格命名的還是怎樣，這也太不公平了吧）。所以，我乖乖地花了大約兩個小時的光陰，反覆練習腳尖轉彎（toe turns），跳轉，前剪冰，以及T煞，終於最後還是嘗試了幾度區道直排。障礙物之間的距離是為80公分。

腳尖轉彎（toe turns）讓你在極快的速度下，仍然可以穩穩地轉個180度，另一個好處是，就算在狹隘的空間下，也可以實做這個心法。腳尖轉彎的準備姿勢如下：一腳前一腳後，膝蓋彎曲，兩手臂在身體前方（這真是太像telemark stance了，除了後腳的腳跟沒有翹起以外）。往前滑行的時候，提起雙腳跟，以雙腳尖站立，臀部使力讓身體旋轉180度，接著同時將兩腳腳跟平平放下。看，直排輪和滑雪在很多觀念以及技巧都是相通的，這讓我對直排輪又更增加些好感了。

跳轉稍微進階些，不過和腳尖轉彎是很像的。準備動作如上所述，假想身體是個彈簧，模仿彈簧往上彈起，接著以臀部的力量，轉身180度，雙腳八輪同時著地。

剪冰改變行進的方向，同時增加滑行的速度，是花式直排輪選手必須要學習的基本技巧。同時，對於在城市街道巷弄溜直排輪的人來說，剪冰的技巧讓你在穿梭車陣的時候，更加得心應手，迴避掉不必要的交通衝突。

練習T煞的主要目的，是希望可以將直排輪原本所附加的煞車塊拆除，這樣兩隻直排輪的長度可以一樣，可以向左也可以向右剪冰。

所附連結是我練習時拍攝的小短片，影片的開始，是我嘗試區道直排的鏡頭。溜的方式相當基本，兩腳併攏，然後使用臀部左轉、右轉、再左轉、再右轉…令人驚喜的，成果居然還不賴，比我之前預期的好太多了，這都要拜kayaking的福啊，kayaking可是相當訓練臀部的運動啊。想我數月在障礙物之間的距離為120公分的情況下，用直排輪把該些障礙物（cones）踢地七零八落的樣子，真是不可同日而語。

十月的第二個週末，Jeremy要遠行倫敦參加他首度的花式曲道直排競賽，而我則要跑去加州參加1st Annual Outdoor Blogger Ho Down和其他戶外部落客相見歡。看來還是老樣子，他溜直排輪，我登山。我老公登山嗎？嗯嗯，現在他大概在溜直排輪吧。