It's only for a brief second but for that second I am flying. Feels amazing.
Meanwhile below another slalom fatality!
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Lots of falling over. The wheeling is brief but it's possible!
Inline slaloming spread globally with the help of the internet. People would perform something new and other skaters around the world would see, try to replicate or better it.
This is me attempting to do stop using just my two back wheels after seeing it on youtube. Not perfect but it kind of works. However I think my backside wants me to stop repeating this trick now! After many falls I've managed to pull a footgun. Might be a while before I can turn or attempt a cone though.
I was going to write up how I worked up to this trick but actually everything I did was from reading Megan McIntosh's blog post on sitting tricks. Two weeks have passed since my slalom workshop. I've finally got my own set of twenty cones to navigate and trip up over.
Just got to keep practicing to polish it all up.The trick 'Mabrouk,' always feel a bit clunky. 'Crazy,' is fun but somewhat stompy with the right foot. Backwards cross seems lift up on to one of the two wheels, not sure if this is a good thing or not. What's great about filming yourself is that you can really see where you're going wrong. I was aware I was lifting my right foot for Crazy, but didn't realise by that much and the audio emphasises this. Video are also good to see progression and you can appreciate how far you've come when you look back at older clips. With six weeks of me flexing my legs about in my Seba skates it was time to actually learn some moves properly. I had signed on to a two day slalom workshop with the amazing skate slalom couple Megan and Tim, who work under the Skate Freestyle brand setup by world world-renowned skater Naomi Grigg. It was this video of Naomi which introduced me to the world of slalom: The first time I watched this I was blown away, the whole thing was like witchcraft. On the next day I tried briefly balancing on my toe wheels, it was impossible at the time and I left it at that. So now here I was in Hyde Park with about ten other skaters eager to learn the ways of inline slalom. There were people of all abilities that weekend. I was the newbie on the scene and I made that clear as I feel somewhat self-conscious when people are watching and judging me. What took me by surprise was that at the top of the class was Naomi. It was nice to see someone so amazing being so humble. She was there to learn from her peers. There are multiple areas of slaloming that can always be worked on and improved no matter what level your are. She encouraged us all to attend competition whatever level you are as you all feed of each other like some kind a of strange "skate osmosis." At the start of the lesson we warmed up with the basic moves. Forward and backwards crosses. Snaking forwards and backwards. Megan emphasised the importance of working on both sides, so the trick with the left foot leading, then again with the right. You'll always have a preference on which foot to lead but to progress to the more advance moves you'll need to be comfortable doing the basics on both sides. What took me by surprise is how close the standard distance of cones are. 80cm are standard competition spacing. (They also have 50cm and 120 cm spacing for other tricks). I found this particularly difficult given that my previous spacings I've made for myself were with chalk marking that were a lot, lot further apart. Plus now I have these plastic things to trip up on. I remember Megan telling us by the end of this workshop you'll "all be able to do this." She proceeded by doing the 'Crazy.' (Might be called something else in different countries or skate groups). I had no idea what she just did, it was so cool. My thoughts were if I could do just that move in my whole slaloming life I'd be happy to stop there. Crazy is cool. The steps were broken down, chalk marking helped massively. We were then left to try it ourselves. I struggled quite a bit trying to figure out where my feet were suppose to go.Tim pointed out right away that my entry foot was wrong. Switched my approach and I seem to be doing …...the crazy! It wasn't the prettiest looking thing but I was on the right path. I felt good. That one weekend I learnt Mabrouk, Nelson, Backwards Nelson, Sun, Crazy and a Single Vault. All of the tricks needed a lot of work to get it looking sexy smooth but the grounding was there. I was very happy with what I learnt from Megan and TIm at their workshop. A week later I couldn't quite remember how to execute the Sun, despite me taking a photograph of the chalk markings Megan had done. She very kindly sent me some extra notes plus uploaded this video for me to reference to: The video above is after a month of slaloming.
I'm really loving the whole slalom skating. While there's plenty of room for improvement I'm so happy with the progress I've made in four weeks and feeling well prepared for my slalom workshop in a weeks time. Still just chalk marks and no cones for now... From going to the roller disco at Vauxhall this year I've managed to get my friend Ian back into skating. He discovered a nice roller disco at the Newham Lesiure Centre, Skating Heaven. They did try and force us to wear helmets because of insurance but we refused. I understand that we are on their premises but at the same time none of their marshals were wearing helmets and the Vauxhall location didn't enforce the same rules. After some talks with the people in charge they were happy for us to go helmet-less. We later found out that the whole setup was some what new at the time, so they were still finding their feet with the whole setup. The floor is super smooth. Maybe a little too smooth if you're going fast, but usually the marshals signal to you before you get to that speed. They've got a cloak room. Some snacks and drinks available too. Music is played by the DJ in the corner which all the locals seem to know all the words and dance moves to. The great thing about this place is I now know where I can skate on a Sunday afternoon if it's raining. Big thing for me that day was that I managed to pull a heel heel trick on my inlines. Score! So far my slaloming has been some what experimental, weaving whatever stone and twig that happens to be in my way. I dot an even line of white chalk markings to navigate too. This has all been somewhat self taught with the help of a really good Grapevine tutorial by inline slalom skater Naomi Grigg of www.skatefreestyle.com.
From there I discovered another instructor, Megan McIntosh who has her own awesome slalom blog: megan9mm.blogspot.co.uk. Megan's newest post was a slalom workshop in Hyde Park for next month. (Perfect timing). This seems like a too good an opportunity to miss especially as her partner Tim Schraepen was also instructing too. Workshop booked, much excited. The video above is my fourth session on the quest for slalom awesomeness... For the last seven days 'inline slaloming,' is all that I've really been thinking about. When I'm away from the park I'm on the internet watching how all the awesome people do it. I haven't got any cones yet and I'm only slaloming random twigs on the ground. Just trying to get some flexibility without worrying about anything to trip on. I'm trying out ways of moving my feet that I wouldn't usually do. As a result I seem to have accidentally discovered how to skate backwards which is something I've been wanting do for years! Big score. So something to take away from this week: If something isn't working, you got to change your approach. Below is a video from slalom champion Naomi Grigg, I've lost count how many times I've watched this great tutorial for the grapevine. |
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"Any tips, reviews and advice are my own opinions and are not to be taken as professional view points. The information on this site is what has worked for me and is here for guidance only, but I hope you gain insight into the various activities I partake in." Jonathan Chen Archives
December 2019
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