Skate Cross in Haining

Last week, I was in China for a Skate Cross competition.

"...A what?!"

I'm sure you derby girls will agree with the concept of the discipline. Actually despite all the differences, there's quite a lot of common points with derby. Despite that...

We use inline skates, no quad-skates.

You're alone against the world, no team.

The competition is unfolding on a street/skatepark, no flat-track.

The aim is as following:

You have a given circuit in the area, and you've got to do it as fast as possible.

The skaters go by groups of four, determined according to the results of the try-outs. The two first who cross the finish line can go through to the next round, the two lasts are knocked out.

WSX #6 Haining, CHINA from SEBASKATES on Vimeo.

Then... What does this have to do with derby?

Imagine the obstacles are blockers and the others skaters are three opponent jammers. Get out of the obstacles in first position to keep the lead, and stop the jam in crossing the finish line.

You're not technically allowed to hit your fellow-skaters... No tripping, no punching, no knocking with the head and other bullshits... but you can still make room if someone bothers you. Not that far from derby, finally.

Flash-Back

Back in the days, Bladercross had witnessed its golden age, then fell into oblivion for nearly ten years.

Last year, SebaSkates decided to revive and structure it in creating the World Skate Cross Series... and I'm intimately convinced that the concept is going to spread out as fast as its big sister, the World Slalom Series, the development of which I took part in several years ago.

Now you want to know what the competition was like?

I'm proud to tell you that there were enough girls to make a female category, and that I ended up second, just behind my friend Marjorie -- which I find totally satisfying given it's my first go at skate-crossing!

It's fun to run on a skatepark, it changes your perception of it: you don't want to flip or fly, you just want to swallow everything to stay close to the ground and push as much as you can.

There is still a huge level gap between men and women but let's not lose hope!

Credit: SebaSkates

The trip was as ok as a trip in China can be...

• I was asked by the officer at the border who looked insistantly at my shoulders if I was coming for a boxing competition,
• I spilled my tomato juice all over me at the very beginning of the 11-hour plane trip and I had to spend the rest of the trip naked under my hoodie,
• We rushed into a restaurant once we arrived (after two hours spent in a bus to drive us from Shanghai to Haining) and we waited more than one hour for our spaghettis to be served,
• We witnessed fireworks at day to celebrate the competition,
• We had to bear the same music compilation in the hotel for one week the main anthem of it being "My heart will go on",
• We had nothing to do in Haining but going to the gym's, the swimming pool and the sauna of the hotel -- Have you ever seen a Chinese woman drying her pubic hair with the hair-dryer of the public changing room?
• We had to shake off dogs that started to chase us because according to them skating on the road was a menace to their home sweet home,
• We took the Maglev which is the fastest train in the universe reaching 431 kph and covering 30 fucking km in 8 fucking min,
• We got attacked for 50 cents at the fake market because a thief of a guy tried to nab me and I was too proud to let go,
• We admired the skyline and the Pearl Tower by night,
• We saved a woman from being clubbed and kicked to death by a man down our hotel...

It's  been one week,

this is a non-exhaustive list,

and I'm still in the recovery process...