I sk8ed Frisco

In 2010, I had skated San Francisco with Inline Skates (and rockered wheels). In 2012, I did it with quad skates. I want to publicly thank Google for their new special SF application on GoogleMap, indicating the flattest streets for bikes.

That stuff did not exist back in 2010 and that first time was quite a discovery. I would had known in advance what I had been about to do, I would have cancelled my little solo tour. With hindsight I do not regret it, and I actually like to brag about it... but it was intense:

Chinatown, the Coit Tower, Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Warf, Marina Street down to the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, Cruz Skateshop on the Mission, back to the Hostel, shower and shuttle to the airport where I slept on the carpet waiting for my morning plane.

As far as I remember.

Must have forgotten one or two stops and a couple of hills.

This time, rather than doing a 8-hour tour, I just went for a little skate from the Mission to Haight Street, following google map's advices -- which I knew could be trusted, as Karla and I had had a try the previous day to go to the MOMA (loved Cindy Sherman's exhibition, btw).

Flat, smooth and sunny on top of that.

[bootlicker mode on] I <3 Google. [/off]

I obviously got lost (it is some kind of ritual), and asked for my way in a dry-cleaning laudry... run by a Chinese... who did not speak English. Fail. Hopefully, the next person, an old lady taking her dog out, helped me a lot, mentioning a Frickin' Fried Chicken I had already spotted (classy).

And you know what? I skated into the Chinese guy on my way back and he said hello. How probable is that?

Visiting the Sac City Rollers

After our one-week stay in Vegas for the RollerCon (here and there for latecomers), we headed to California to visit longstanding friends of Karla Karschër's. One of our stops was Sacramento and we took the opportunity to go and train with the Sac City Rollers.

It was one hell of a resumption! The class was their very first of the season after the summer break, and coach Purdy Grrrl did not take it easy on us. The program was simple, though: ENDURANCE for the three quarters of the class... pacelines, single, double, clockwise, anti-clockwise... and a bit of skating and derby skills to end up with.

We made the mistake to show up with our Team France jerseys (we wanted to match a bit... yeah and show off too).

"Hey Team France, show us that blocking drill again. Girls, watch how close they work together. Team France, once more. Alright. Now one more last time, let's try with a bigger built jammer." Uuuh!

To be honest, I almost fainted and had to ask for sugar but that was fun (and purifying, given the water we lost).

Water. Air. Have you ever derbied in a sauna? Worse: have you ever had an endurance class in a sauna? Well... We did.

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Night Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. skating) and Night life (i.e. partying).

At first, I had decided that I was going to the RollerCon for a special purpose: SKATING.

...But then I started to take an interest into the EVENING schedule.

1. The whole thing about standing in lines to attend classes and wearing full gear on was part of why I only bothered attending on-skate classes the first 2-3 days, when it was not yet totally crowded. (see part.1)
2. The other reason was that I was sore all over (I confess) because it was the first time in 8 months that I was doing REAL derby moves. No matter how hard you train off-skates in rehab, there is nothing like the real thing. At least, I was glad I had the time to loosen up a bit on skates with my resuming of rollerdancing a couple of months before! 
3. The last main reason why I got more flexible with attending on-skate classes, was that I also had a go at partying (I confess too) and that it obviously became harder to be effective at day-time...

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.

Holidays in the U.K.

I haven't been very talkative lately because I was on holiday in London. Ten days to chill out, go shopping at Oxford Street, clean out second-hand CD shops, smoke chicha, ride motorbikes, but above all to SKATE!

I usually go to England every summer -- Don't ask me why I don't go spending my holidays in the Spanish sun just like every normal French people... My rebel side tells me to go North when everybody goes South. The weather is not worse than in Paris... after all England in the rain is just a myth (okay, I convey that sometimes it's not).

For three years there's been this annual freestyle skating event called SkateLondon in which I used to take part. This year SkateLondon hosted the European Championships and I decided to go as a visitor (yet, I ended up as a judge to give a hand for the Classic, but this is another story...)

Bordeaux RollerGirls: Les Petites Morts

This week I was in Bordeaux, my hometown, to rehearse and record with my band Akouphën. I made the most in poping to Bordeaux's practices.
 

That's kind of funny because I wouldn't have moved to Paris, I would belong to that team...
 

I attended two of their practices on the docks at the hockey rink *memories*, showed them some off-skates exercises and on-skates drills. Nice!