After the progress I made using my friend Li Chuan and Ben's freeline skate I decided to purchase my own. I had also recently agreed to going snowboarding with some friends for the first time and thought this might be good urban training. The inventor of these skates made them to replicate snowboarding and surfing.

Li Chuan and Ben's freeline skates are actually imitations called 'FeiFan Drift Skate.' It's less than half the price of freelines and at beginner level they hold up exactly the same as the real thing. Take note that the official Freeline skates are probably built better for when it comes to do doing more aggressive manoeuvres. 


We purchased our Drift Skates from Deal Extreme. They're based in Hong Kong so it took about three weeks to arrive. Annoyingly when I got them they were not as pictured, instead the wheels were bright Barbie pink! They could have been any colour, but why pink?!! I took to the shoe polish and then rolled the wheels viscously in some dirt to disguise the girly-ness.

They don't look too bad now, I think I get more of a 'what the hell are those skates?!' look from people in the park as oppose to 'look at his girly skates!' (That's what I tell myself anyway)...

Everything seems to come back to skates! 



(The photograph was taken by Benjamin van der Spek).

Ten months since my friend Rene showed me two yoga holds and I’ve managed to sustain the positions long enough for the camera! My poses don't look as clean as when the pros yogis do it but I'm really happy to be able to hold these positions now.

I have been trying every now and again, when I could build myself up for another potential faceplant. A cushion is essential!

Surprisingly these poses do not require as much arm strength as you might think. When you’re in the hold it actually feels quite nice and you can hover there for quite a while..

 

(It’s worth taking a photo of yourself as initially I thought my body was straight but in fact was curled up). 

Okay, flying might be an exaggeration! (I kept on the weird skates things).

Today my friends Li Chuan and Ben let me use their freeline skates in this paved area with a slight gradient. It was enough of a decline to keep me moving so I could just concentrate on just keeping upright. My arms were probably flapping about like crazy but staying on the freelines was a nice feeling. Especially doing these swooping carves which I can imagine is similar to snowboarding. (not snowboarded before).

Self propulsion is still a mystery though.