When it comes to in-line skate racing, the San Francisco Bay Area is fast becoming the center of the paved world. A variety of factors - enthusiastic skaters, good equipment availability, grassroots organizers, benevolent authorities and clement weather - all conspire to make the Bay Area a hotbed for racing. There exists no paucity of racing in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, there are more races than you can shake a skate at: bonafide races are held on just about every weekend between March and November.

The course nearest and dearest to my heart is the Park Race in Golden Gate Park. This was the venue of my very first local race, so mention it to me and you'll get the skater's version of the Pavlovian response: misting in the eyes accompanied by salivation and running at the mouth.

The Park Race is organized and run a number of times each year by David Miles of the Outdoor Rollerskating Association of America. If you are of the competitive ilk, the race is a 4.2-mile grind over hill and dale. It starts innocently enough on JFK Drive and heads east, before turning ominously uphill towards Arguello. By the time you crest the hill, a scant few minutes into the race, your legs feel like they have 10 gallons of sour milk in them.

Then you must plunge down the hill like a skier: holding a downhill tuck which seems only to add insult to injury. Reentering JFK via a sharp right hand turn, you whiz down the straightaway past the museums before skating the whoop-de-doo saddle past the Rose Gardens and up towards Stow Lake.

The ascent to Stow Lake may take the last reserves out of your legs and lungs, but you still have to round the lake and retrace your skate marks back to the beginning.

By this point, all memories of the tortuous route are blurred by the warm flush of accomplishment from having completed the course.

One word of caution however make sure you familiarize yourself with the course prior to racing. Since the race tends to scramble your brains a bit, split second navigation decisions become difficult. Call David Miles (415) 752-1967 to find out when the next edition of the Park Race will be held.

If longer, less intense courses are more your thing, go west. The Great Highway can make for a flat, fast and marvelously scenic middle-distance race course. The Skates on Haight 50K Challenge is not contested on the rolling multi-use path that fronts the highway, it is held on the four lane asphalt ribbon meant for cars. Although the pavement on this course is the stuff of dreams, the prevailing cross-wind can be a drag. That's why it behooves you to skate in a pack of skaters, where mutual cooperation reigns. When everybody takes a turn leading, attaining the finish is less arduous.

With no chance of getting lost on the two mile out-and-back loop, there's less need for attentiveness and more time to take in the surroundings. The hiss and whir of a thousand spinning bearings in punctuated by the plaintive yelps of sea lions, while the surf's ceaseless pounding is transposed into another white noise in the skater's envelope. Call Lee Cole at Skates on Haight to find out when this race gets off again.

The Berkeley Criterium is a personal favorite of mine when it comes to tight, fast racing. In-line criterium races have an atmosphere built in, because they are usually run in conjunction with existing cycling events. They are a complete entertainment package because spectators can watch brightly colored athletes careening around turns on a closed-loop course. The best type of criterium is one held in a popular downtown shopping district, zig zagging through closed streets with thousands of wildly cheering enthusiasts. You need not be an elite racer, because everyone who races is a star: Sprint by dramatically or take a sharp turn fast and you'll always be applauded.

From the sun scorched hills of the East Bay, to the fog-bathed slopes of Golden Gate Park, kindred souls with whom to share the joy of racing await.