With never being content to just stay where I'm at I somehow came to the idea of trying out a move that combined rolling from inline skating to an ab roller style work out using one freeline skate. This took a few attempts. Unfortunately I came off shot on my first successful attempt, but unknowingly I had an audience in the background who vouched my accomplishment with an applause! I included another successful roll on the video clip, it's difficult to tell with my baggy trousers but my knees were off the floor the whole time.

For next time, could have straighter legs and would be good to be rolling the whole time!

I like to think I'm the first person to have done this, just so I can name this move the 'Transformer!'

My first attempt a few months ago I managed seven cones. Today the whole line of twenty cones was nailed in Hyde Park.

It was a nice little challenge as it got me to focus on accuracy and work on my control in a tighter space.

Today my friend Florian started freelining. I passed on what information I could and I got him riding down the same slope which helped me learn. He's progressed much faster than me so far. My friend Chidi say 'it's because he's French!'


For me today I managed to carve through about four slalom cones on the freeline skates. So the challenge is on to do a whole line of twenty by the end of the summer!

Finally it's happened. I can skate both sides on the freelines.
This should hopefully be of good preparation for my snowboarding trip later this month!

I've gone back to the sloping paving where I first managed to stay upright on the freeline skates to practice more on the left side. (going in the left direction). Re-learning the left side has probably taken longer than the first time for some reason, but progress is being made.

My right side is also improving though. Skating on the right side reminds me of the awesome freeline feeling I can achieve. This keeps me motivated and the fact I eventually would like to be able to do a 180 switch..

I've made a lot of progress since I've got my freelines. My movements are a lot more fluid and I can control more or less where I want to go. I still have crazy arm movements going on, hopefully that will calm down the more I use these skates.

Going the other way (left) still feels really alien. I just can't seem to move in the left direction which is more frustrating than when I first started as I can go right confidentially now!

In preparation for the Survival of the Fittest in two month I thought I better start running. The distance is 5k and even though its broken up by lots of obstacles, being able to run continuously for that distance would no doubt be of good training.

As this is my first day back at running I decided to go easy on myself and not do too much. I did just three 2 minute intervals before I got distracted by my freelines.

As if someone flipped a switch, it just clicked. It feels really awesome the way you move and I don't think that translates that well from watching the video. Nor does how ecstatic I was from when I first got it going.

I have propulsion.


The thing is I can move right, but when I tried going left it was like starting all over again. From looking at this video you can see my right foot is more dominant than my left which may be something to do with it..

People asked how long it took to learn. To get to this stage I estimate about five hours altogether spread over many 30 minute sessions.

What's great about freelining is that you can just jump on them, much like a skateboard as oppose to having to carry your shoes as you do with inline skates. It allows you to be a bit spontaneous and so freelining has become my lunch time hobby by Tower Hill.

Today I went out on a public terrace area with my work colleague Antony. It was incredibly windy today so it was helpful in that I didn't have to worry about pushing off, just have to stay on these silly things!

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)...