Davey_Speedstar

I've Gone

2008-02-22T14:34:00.002Z

That's right, Blogger was good up to an extent, but wordpress is even better. I can host pretty much my entire site on their (and eventually my own) servers, using their all-encompassing software.

Just follow http://www.daveyspeedstar.com/ to find me, or e-mail me dave@daveyspeedstar.com

The Easter Eggstravaganza 2008 London - Part 1 The Long Good Friday Night Skate

2008-02-22T10:18:00.005Z

Another event for the Easter Weekend is the Easter Eggstravaganza, celebrating the end of winter, the arrival of spring, and more importantly the start of the new skating season, (although for some of us the skating season really stops to allow us to get drunk over Christmas, and hibernate for a few of the coldest weeks at the start of the year).

The weekend starts off at 7pm on Friday 21st March with The Long Good Friday Night Skate, which is a longer than normal London Friday Night Skate. After a loop of Hyde Park, at 8.00pm the skate goes off on a 15 – 18 mile tour of the UK’s Capital. The skate is billed as being:

For intermediate and advanced skaters.

This means that participants should be able to cope with going up and down hills (therefore being able to stop effectively), also confident with turns, curbs and bad surfaces. If you’ve never done a street skate before try the loop of the park and see how you get on.

Derby RollerWorld All-Nighter 22nd - 23rd March 2008

2008-02-21T09:32:00.006Z

About every four months Rollerworld in Derby doesn’t exactly throw open its doors on a Saturday Night - more like they just don’t shut them, as skaters from across Derbyshire, the East Midlands, and in fact most of the UK converge on the rink for the opportunity to skate all night until 6am.

The main theme of the night is the obligatory roller-disco, often with guest DJ’s doing their sets, and keeping the mood alive. This is interspersed with games such as barrel jumping and bulldog – although this is not for the faint-hearted, as the games get more and more competitive as they get to the climax.

The next All-Nighter is over the Easter Weekend, and I for one am optimistic that I will be able to get down there. It’s a great night out and another great opportunity to meet (again) skaters from all over the country.

RollerWorld’s Website
All-Nighter FaceBook Page

Reminder

2008-02-20T09:06:00.002Z

Freestyle Slalom on BBC Blue Peter

2008-02-19T10:02:00.003Z

I haven’t watched Blue Peter for over 20 years, but I’ll be tuning in tomorrow afternoon, 20th February 2008 at 4.35pm (or at least I’ve set Sky+ for it) as they are doing a feature on Freestyle Slalom.

According to SerpentineRoad.com, the BBC recently filmed some members of the Eastbourne Skating Association for a feature on the sport. As well as this they will be showing some of the competition footage from BattleUK, which I featured a few months ago.

This hopefully will give some great publicity and promotion for Freestyle Slalom.

Eastbourne Skaters Association
SerpentineRoad.com
BBC Blue Peter

Update on West Kirby Skate.

2008-02-18T14:56:00.002Z

I featured Rods' site on my blog a few months ago, and he’s since updated his site:-

"This blog originally, was my attempt to find the long, lost, grown-up skaters of the Wirral Peninsula in the U.K. I now realise:

THEY DON'T EXIST!"

Rods is a man who knows when the battle’s lost and has re-vamped his site to showcase street-skating from around Europe. He’s winning the war and bring street-skating to the masses (whether they like it or not!!!) by amassing a collection of YouTube clips shot in London, Paris, Bruges and many other cities.

http://www.rebelsonskates.co.uk/

Keeping up to Date

2008-02-17T12:13:00.001Z

Whenever I turn a computer on, after checking my e-mails, there are a few sites that I just have to check, just to see what is happening in the skating world.

My first stop is Serpentine Road to check out what is happening, and what people are talking about in the UK skating scene. Then it’s off over to the SkateLog forums.

Although based in the States and getting most of its input from that side of the pond the SkateLog forum gets a lot of posts from all over the world, so is a good source of information from around the globe, and in respect of most areas of roller sports.

Another ‘must visit’ is the US Freestyle Skating Association forum. I find this site very informative, the board is very friendly, and again has some input from all over the world. I like the site as it is slalom specific, and because it is always a friendly place. Perhaps this is because freestyle is still in its infancy in America.

My final stop is at the Nottingham Skaters Website (although at the time of writing the site was down. This is especially interesting to me as these re the people I skate with on a regular basis, and you have to keep up with your friends.

If you click on the image you’ll see a screen shot of the skating tab on my iGoogle page – I have constant updates as to what is happening in the world of skating (sad isn’t it!!!)

My Links Page on DaveySpeedstar.com

London Friday Night Skate & Sunday Stroll

2008-02-15T10:49:00.001Z

Every Friday Night and Sunday Afternoon throughout the year (so long as it’s dry), skaters in London take to the streets, and take over the capital.

On Friday Nights the skate sets off at 8.00pm from Wellington Arch, which is in the middle of Hyde Park Roundabout. The nearest tube station is Hyde Park Corner (Although Green Park is also pretty close). This skate can be a challenge to the novice skater as it is 12 – 15 miles, and the 2nd half is usually a lot faster than the first half.

However the half time break is usually near a tube station, so if you don’t fancy continuing it’s easy to get home. If you are of average fitness and/or exercise a couple of times a week, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Just make sure that you are confident and proficient at turning and stopping. The London Friday Night Skate always finishes at Wellington Arch, (although many continue on to the pub)

If you’re not so fit, still new to skating, or you’re just not sure if you’ll be able to keep up, then the Sunday Stroll is a great introduction to street-skating. Setting off from the Eastern End of Serpentine Road in Hyde Park, this is a gentle and relaxed skate around the streets of London which once again is marshalled. Although the Sunday Stroll usually finishes at Hyde Park, they do occasionally have ‘one-way skates’ which means that you will have to find your own way back to town.

Check out the website for full details

Lincolnshire Bombers Roller Girls

2008-02-10T11:55:00.002Z

I had an e-mail from the Emma (Bitchin Payne) of the Lincolnshire Bombers Roller Girls the other day. They are a new Roller Derby team that train every Sunday in Lincoln. They have a dedicated group of girls who travel from as far away from Rochdale to train. Emma tells me that they are in the early stages of their training, and at the moment don’t envisage a proper bout for about a year.

However as well as skaters they are on the look out for support members (male or female) in the form of coaches, scorers, announcers, and everyone that is needed in the development and promotion of what is (bound to be) the UK’s premier Roller Derby squads.

The Lincolnshire Bombers Roller Girls MySpace page

Zephyr Skating Tours

2008-01-31T15:04:00.000Z

A few years ago I read about someone who spent a couple of weeks skating along the Danube. It struck me as a great holiday as the report I read said how good the roads and paths were, and in addition the entire route was slightly downhill.

This year Zephyr Staking Adventures are organizing a 6 night/7 day tour along the Mosel River from Thionville in France, through Luxembourg, finishing up in Koblenz in Germany.

The website says tht if you take the long route, the total skate is over 535Km, howeverhere are shorter options available.

The trips start on 13th & 20th July and cost about £1000.

Full details on their website

BladeSoc & The Nottingham Skaters

2008-01-27T09:37:00.000Z

The University of Nottingham’s BladeSoc, and the Nottingham Skaters meet every Saturday (during term time) in Cripps Car Park at the University at 1.00pm for a few hours good humoured and (strictly) non-competitive skating.

Yesterday I went down to Nottingham and enjoyed my first proper skate of the year. There were almost two dozen skaters of various abilities who turned out that afternoon. Some were complete beginners who were shown the basics of stopping by Jim, who is an ICP accredited instructors, right up to very serious competitive skaters.

The first part of the afternoon split down into a couple of main groups, one group playing hockey, and the other dodging a few cones. After a couple of hours the group took off on a skate around the university campus, stopping at the end in the student bar for a drink and a bite to eat.

It was a great afternoon. The only thing I was sorry about was that it had been so long since I last went down.

http://www.bladesoc.com/

http://www.nottinghamskaters.com/

BladeSoc's FaceBook Page

Nottingham Skaters FaceBook Page

Bend Your Knees

2008-01-23T14:53:00.000Z

I saw an article on Inline Planet today giving the 3 top skating tips. Although two of the tips were specific to racing – swinging the arms right, and something to do with the ankles, however there is a tip regarding bending your knees.

Every skater knows that regardless of your discipline you can never bend your knees enough:

"The lower you are, the farther you can extend your legs."

And more interestingly:

"…pretend that you're sitting in a chair as you move down the straightaway."

I can see that this will maximise the power that is transferred from your upper leg, through your skate to the ground, furthermore, because you can extend your legs further it means that power is being transferred for longer for each stride you take.

Most of all I like the idea that as you skate down the road you should pretend that you’re in your favourite armchair!!!

Reference

London Inline Marathon 31st August 2008

2008-01-20T10:28:00.000Z

The 6th London Inline Marathon is to be held at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit on the outskirts of London. Registration for this event is now open and the earlier you register the cheaper it is!!!

Full details on their website.

Dan Daniels - Trans-USA Skate Record Attempt

2008-01-19T10:17:00.000Z

I read the other day about a guy who’s skating across the USA. Dan Daniels set off from San Deigo Ca, at the start of the month and is heading towards Jacksonville Fl. Dan is continually updating his own blog on his MySpace account.

I’ve unsuccessfully tried to think of ways to express the feat of this endeavour, the best way to share it is for you to read (and subscribe to) Dan’s blog.

Welcome Back

2008-01-18T19:53:00.001Z

As promised I’m back, and with a new format. Using Blogger I’m hoping that things will be a lot easier to deal with. I never got around to sorting out the main pages of DaveySpeedstar.com, it’s something that will take a fair amount of time, and something that hopeful (if the weather ever gets better) I won’t have time to do as I’ll be out skating.The blog should be up and running properly over the next few days once I’ve sorted out all the links.