Expanded City Sports Article Index 1- The Thrill of Victory, October 1993 Watching the skating motion is pure eye candy, a confectionery blend of symmetry, strength and grace. In-line racing is an alive and growing animal because the people who skate are a refreshingly eclectic bunch. Lawyers, carpenters, salespeople, doctors, artists and engineers are joined by a common bond: a love for going fast on skates. 2- Bay Area Race Scene, December 1993 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. 3- Bleed Speed Not Blood With Slalom Turns, May/June 1994, p. 38-39 My first alpine descent on in-line skates was a bruising series of traverses between parked cars on a city street. Necessity being the mother of invention, I found that carving a turn at the last second prevented collisions. Furthermore, I discovered that the act of turning generated enough friction to stop me. 4- The Secret of Skating, Jul/Aug1994, p. 38,42 When it comes to balance, strength, and coordination on in-line skates, I have a good side -- and a less good side. Whether it be gliding, pushing off, or crossing over,I'm constantly trying to bring my less good leg up to par with the good one. I may never be able to completely eliminate the discrepancy between my good leg and my bad leg, but at least by doing drills I'm constantly narrowing the gap so it never becomes a permanent impediment. 5- How to Become a Better Crossover Artist, Sep/Oct 1994, p. 38 Crossing over has always been a weakness of mine. Compared with the big boys, who have experience skating tight indoor tracks, my crossovers are slothful. Over the years, though, there is a way I've noticeably improved my crossover technique. It's called practice. Practicing crossovers has helped cut my losses and turned me into a more complete skater. 6- Mind over Matter in Breakaways, Nov/Dec 1994, p. 56 After 6 years of trying, I finally broke away for good. My elusive dream of winning a race in Holland -- where it really counts -- finally came true. I won two races in Holland, back to back, and am still pinching myself to make sure it's true. In both races I was involved in a winning breakaway, a seldom occurrence in a sport where the seething pack often swallows everything up in preparation for a massive field sprint. 7- Preparing For the Big One, Jan/Feb 1995, p. 18 The Athens-to-Atlanta 85 mile skate marathon isn't just a long race for masochistic athletes, it's an epic journey over hill and dale that's fun and can be done by all. Take Wendy Gramm, 49, for example, who decided to skate Athens-to-Atlanta at the last minute. Initially unsure of whether she could physically do it , Gramm put her fears to rest when she comfortably completed the roller-coaster course on her recreational skates in 8 hours and 50 minutes. 8- Overcoming In-line Insecurities, March 1995, p. 41 I overcame my initial fear of falling by turning skating into a game. I zipped and dodged and darted and swerved while playing in-line soccer with a tennis ball. Ultimately, this game helped boost my confidence level because it increased my agililty and finesse on skates, preparing me for many situations where quick reactions were necessary. 9- A Wheel Hardness Primer, April 1995, p. 42 Wheels are sugar and spice, sweet orbs of colorful motion that indulge us in ever-changing scenery, the very eye candy which gives us cause to skate. Fresh out of the package and flashed with grease, these shiny little propulsion units look good enough to eat. Some wheels are so soft they could be gummy bears, while others are so hard they could be Jolly Ranchers. There are advantages and trade-offs to both kinds. 10- The Final Countdown for a 10K Race, July 1995, p. 50 Except for PowerBars in my face and the fresh TWINCAM bearings and Krypto wheels in my skates, no amount of last minute cramming can enhance my performance if I haven't been doing my homework all along. My checklist for a 10K is a product of all the mistakes I've made in the past, so save yourself the trouble and take heed of the following. 11- FEAR: The Great Motivator, August 1995, p. 59 The real war wasn't against my opponents, however. It was against my own fear and foreboding at the prospect of suffering serious bodily harm. The real battlefield wasn't on the course, it was in my own head. The reason? The downhill course, despite being lined with protective hay bales, was terrifying enough to put gray hairs on even the most fearless of skaters. 12- The Camp Experience, Sep/Oct1995, p. 50,52 I just returned from one of the most exhausting but rewarding skate experiences of my entire life. No, I didn't skate from San Francisco to Los Angeles, roll to the top of a mountain, win a race or even set a new record. What I did do was conduct a weekend skate camp in Tampa, FL. 13- Overcorrection to Perfection, Nov/Dec 1995 p. 60 I maintain that the best way to correct bad habits is through overcorrection. If you make a conscious effort to exaggerate the correct way of doing something on skates, eventually you'll find a happy medium that will become second nature. 14- Racing With Honor in Japan, Jan/Feb 1996, p. 36 Although unsportsmanlike conduct is a serious issue in America, and the miscreants are seldom punished, I can't help but think that it's all just child's play compared to places where athletes race with a true sense of honor. I used to think that the only real place to race was in Europe, but now I have to add Japan to my list. 15- Blister Prevention, March 1996, p. 42,43 I 've always had this sick fantasy of scarring up my heels so the tissue gets tough and dead to the senses, enabling me to skate forever free of our perpetual foe friction. That fantasy has now been replaced by another, one of tromping fabled stretches of rock and sand on shoes made from the ships of the desert. 16- Eco Skate, April 1996, p. 38 I recently practiced an act of environmentalism which benefited the earth, my body, and my pocketbook. It was called moving without a U-Haul. You guessed it: I skated everything except the kitchen sink the eight blocks between my old pad and my new one. I figured that as long as I was going to be tied up with the hassle of moving, I might as well get a workout. And what a workout it was. 17- Fallsafe, May 1996, p. 52 Falling may be inevitable, but the consequences need not be so adverse. I've had plenty of high speed crashes, one of them into a German Shephard who thought he'd zipper out in the road like a squirrel, but I've never even managed so much as to scrape myself up badly. The reason? I needed a half a unit to graduate from college, so I took a gymnastics class. It taught me how to tumble. 18- Go Ahead, Skate A Volcano, June 1996, p. 44,45 Even though skating is my life, there are altogether too few hours in the day to practice my passion. This sad fact was brought into sharp focus on my most recent escapade to Maui, Hawaii, where I went to the top of a 10,000 foot volcano to test the world's first hand-operated in-line skate brakes. I couldn't go up and down that volcano enough times before the sun went down on me. 19- Keeping It Fresh, July 1996, p. 22 The embers of motivation exist in all of us, but they sometimes take a little fanning to burst into flame. I keep my skate mojo in full conflagration by training in three seperate ways: working out by myself, training with a friend or in groups, and getting guidance from a coach. 20- Take it Away, August 1996, p. 21 Things begin to click if you can just take your mind off of what you're trying to accomplish. It's like seeing a faint star by looking slightly off to the side, or recalling a name that's on the tip of your tongue by thinking of something else first. On skates we can force ourselves to make great leaps of progress if we just take away some of the things we normally take for granted -- be it our vision, traction, traffic, support, or even the surface itself. Here's what I mean: 21- SUPER MEET MARKET, Sep 1996, p. 16,18 Make way, Marina Safeway, Randy and the Friday Night Skate are coming through, supplanting you as the supermarket of choice for meeting people. On any given outing you'll have a chance to bump into and grind with an eclectic group averaging over 600 strong --30% of whom are first-timers -- as you tour the streets of San Francisco by night. 22- Souvenirs, October 1996, p. 32,33 My sponsors recently allowed me to tour the world on skates. I reveled in my good fortune and embarked on a great adventure which took me through the streets of Kyoto and Tokyo, Hanoi and Saigon, Surin and Bangkok, Bombay and New Delhi. Skating was the common thread I was able to weave through my newest tapestry of vastly disparate experiences in completely differenct cultures 23- Taming Terror, Jan/Feb 1996, p. 43 Confronting my fears and doing something about them, whether on a snowboard, skateboard, or on inlines, has been one of the greatest spiritual oddyseys of my life. I can honestly say that because of snowboarding and skating I have become a more confident public speaker, a more self-assured writer, and a more adventurous traveler. 24- The Athens to Atlanta of Ice Skating, March 1996, p. 42 The official announcement for the Eleven Cities Tour came only hours after I stepped out of the plane and onto a canal outside Amsterdam. It was freezing so hard that expansion cracks rang out like gunshots. It would bo only the 15th time this century that the Tocht der Tochten ("Tour of Tours") had been held. 25- Crisis of Conscience, April 1997, p. 42 I'll never forget the day before the New York City Skate Marathon last year when a forklift operator showed up at the 10th floor door of Raymond's Canal Street warehouse studio in New York City. Raymond and I stood there in utter astonishment as the man jumped into his machine and maneuvered an eight-foot tall pallette of energy bars into the middle of the room, nearly scraping the plaster off the ceiling in the process. 26- Off-Road In-Lining, May 1997, p.38 Dan rode his knobby-tired skates like a magic carpet, floating them downslope with the greatest of ease, seemingly in utter defiance of the very laws of nature. These newfangled lawbreakers are called Roces Big Cats, and they very well may revolutionize the sport of in-line skating forever. 27- My Inline Love Affair, June 1997, p40 My inlines are an appendage of my own body, more a part of me than my own two feet. For the better part of nine years, I've been attached to my skates and vice-versa. In fact, the bond is so strong that I must confess I've even slept with them. 28- The Elixir of Youth, July 1997, p25 I'm tired of hearing the same old hogwash: "It looks like fun but I'm too old for that stuff." The simple truth is that it's never too late to skate. Allen and Dennis are two cases in point. 29- Roll Models: Dennis Cummings, August 1997, p33 Dennis Cummings is an individual who defies his years, thanks in large part to skating. He admits that he turned his life around by starting to skate. His body a mess from years of carousing, Dennis slowly crawled out of that rut. When he finally reached level ground, he kept on going. Skating gave him a different ritual to follow and a sense of purpose like none other. 30- Power to Heal: Diddo Clark, September 1997, p36 I know some San Francisco Bay Area women for whom skating has been nothing short of a medical miracle. One woman, attorney Diddo Clark, has used skating as a way to rebuild muscles after sustaining a severe groin injury while swimming around Manhattan. Her case for skating is unassailable 31- Skating for Sanity: Victoria Harrigan, October 1997, p36 At 47, Victoria Harrigan looks good. Her cheeks are taut from flying down the bike path every day at dawn, when raw speed peels back the sheaves of her years like wind stripping away chafe. Her long blond mane of hair flows backwards and gives life to even longer legs in lycra tights, which terminate into a dark pair of racy five-wheeled inline speedskates. 32- Mental Scaffolding, Nov/December 1997, p56 I had a student in Spokane last weekend who broke down and cried at not being able to latch on to the double push. The double push is a technique that's all the rage in racing circles, but that's beside the point. What matters is that I was bombarding her with too much information in too short a time for her to process fully. Much of my presentation incorporated skills that were cumulative in nature, like a pyramid of building blocks, so she was getting ahead of herself. Instead of falling into place, everything just seemed to fall apart. The confusion and frustration she felt was acute. 33- Getting Some Respect, March 1998, p16 I use hockey as a gauge of how popular speedskating has become, because the way a hockey player greets me reflects the state of the sport. It used to be that puckster ridiculed me for any skin-tight clothes and headware. They'd yell "Sissy!" or even "Hey, Queer!" -- clearly telling me that skating hadn't yet gained wide acceptance. Gradually, though, the paradigm has shifted. 34- The Ups and Downs of Inline Adventure, April 1998, p36 I've had so much inline skating adventure -- and heartbreak -- in the last few months, that I just have to let it out. 35- Mix It Up, May 1998, p76 There was once an elite marathoner named Adrian in whom reared an awesome cross-training animal. He came of the blue and raced 97 miles on inline skates from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, smashing through the ranks and finishing with the pros. He and I traded phone numbers and eventually began working out together, sometimes he with me on skates to pick up some technique, and other times I with him on foot to gain fitness. 36- The Banana Peel Principle, June 1998, p46 I love the way Boston marathon runners or Tour de France riders can get showered by cool, refreshing water during the heat of battle. The relief is usually offered on an uphill stretch, either by a pot-bellied guy with a garden hose, or a madly sprinting fan with a bottle of Evian. However well intended, these time-honored traditions just wouldn't work in an inline skate race. It's sketchy enough skating through a wet feed zone, where botched hand-offs and tossed, half-drunk cups of water contribute to hairball slipperiness. 37- Ode to Women, July 1998 Guys, don't let me startle you, but without women in sports, I'd never have succeeded in becoming a speedskater. By and large, men are absent from my list of influential sports figures that have shaped my own development as an athlete. It's the women who have provided me with the motivation and direction necessary to pursue a career on wheels. 38- Wheel Justice, August 1998, p. 34 "I can't have you interfering with peoples' morning commute," blubbered a rotund San Leandro cop who had had nothing better to do than tail me for two miles and then pull me over to just to have a cow. "I know you're out here getting a workout and everything but if you can't use the sidewalk or find somewhere else I'm going to have to write you up." 39- Finding Heaven in Hell, September 1998, p. 51 It's ironic that the smoothest, most continuous piece of pavement on the planet is found on the most unforgiving stretch of road on earth, the bike leg of Ironman Triathalon. How can such a heavenly stretch of skateable terrain exist in such a godforsaken place? 40- Heaven is Drafting, October 1998, p. 23 There is no sensation on inline skates quite as thrilling as being sucked along at 30 mph in a slipstream, that quiet vacuum of air that draws you into another world and carries you at tremendous speed with minmal effort. Whether being pulled along by a pack of bicycles, a motorcycle, or another skater, drafting is heaven and heaven is drafting. 41- Access to Speed, March 1999 In-line skates provide an instant fix if you're a speed addict. Within seconds of coming off the shelf, these wheeled-wonders can have your smiling face cleaving through the wind. However, to maximize your speed on skates for a sustained period of time - like a 10K or a marathon - it takes more than just pointing them downhill or tooling down the bike path a few times a week. It requires quality down time. 42- 12 New Ways to Countless Good Times on Skates, April 1999 Are your skates in the dark collecting dust because workouts on them have lost their luster? Show them the light of day by introducing them to a whole slew of fun, new activities disguised as workouts. With all the good times to be had, it'll be hard letting them out of your sight again! 43- Raking the Itch, May 1999 I am tormented by an everlasting itch to race. Only vigorous competition on in-line skates can sate the restless craving but, like a rose, the welcome irritation returns relentlessly, more robust with each passing season. It's been 11 years since I began scratching the bite. I draw blood each time. Every weekend between March and October, the want hits me like a recurring fever. So long as I get to fire up the engines and let 'em rip in competition, no distance is too far, no expense too great. 44- Skate Outdoors, June 1999 The Eternal Question When it comes to working out, my biggest question remains: how long does it take to get out the door? I don't care whether it's the door to the house, the car or the office. What I want to know is how soon can I be off and skating, breathing in fresh air and propelling myself through space? 45- Women Keep the World In-Line, July 1999 Women may face some daunting challenges on in-line skates, but usually these challenges have nothing to do with capability or desire. The challenges they face may be as simple as finding the time to exercise their love of skating, as complex as learning to overcome their own inhibitions, or as age-old as standing up to entrenched notions about how a woman should or shouldn't integrate into a new sport. 46- Skate Like a Gear-Head, August 1999 I used to be a one-speed cruiser on in-lines, content to just tool down the road and admire the view. So long as it was flat, I was a happy camper, but when the slope started creeping upward, I'd start to lug and lose all momentum. I hated that. 47- In-Line Events to Die For, September 1999 Unlike runners and triathletes, skaters have the luxury of deciding last-minute whether or not to participate in an event. Even without any training, it's still possible to finish a marathon and never hit the proverbial "wall." That's because with wheeled-wonders under your feet, 26.2 miles is a totally do-able distance. 48- In the Camera Crosshairs, October 1999 Have you ever called your answering machine and been embarrassed by the sound of your own voice? "That's not me!" you might say. Well, do I have news for you. Just wait until you see yourself skate. Have yourself filmed and look at it later: you'll be broadsided by reality. "That's not the way I skate!" you'll exclaim. 49- Skiing SkateRuns: The Seven Wonders of the Downhill World, December 1999 Where there's a road that goes up, in-line skates can improve on Newtonian principles by going down with far more gusto than a falling apple. Gravity-fed runs mainline into a skater's system the same addictive mix of awe and terror that downhill skiing provides.