Rollerblading

I tried rollerblading for the first time today.  The reason I have waited until now to do it is because the price of rollerblades is more than I ever wanted to spend.  This pair came to me free as they were put in a pile of discarded items from college students moving out of the dorms at the college where I work.  Every end of academic year there is a "freecycle" pile with all the items students don't want any longer for free or exchange.  This pair was exactly my size, so why not try it for free?

I went on youtube to learn the basics (you can learn almost anything on the web) and got a good idea of how to start.  Friends told me you absolutely have to have wrist guards to keep from breaking your wrist while breaking your fall. Fall?  Me?   I was pretty sure I could go easy enough to keep from falling since I can ice skate pretty well.  Just to be safe I dropped 20 bucks on the wrist protection, but did not get elbow pads, knee pads and helmet.......there are limits, after all.

What I found is that it wasn't as fun as I expected.  It was pretty easy I suppose because of my ice skating experience and I never fell... so much for the money spent on wrist protection, but how do you know ahead of time if you'll actually need it?

I could see doing it with friends as a group activity, but blading on pavement is rough and where can you find flat concrete except at Venice Beach?  Portland has brick sidewalks with uneven and broken bricks and tree roots causing great heaves that would be impossible to skate on.  My surface of choice was a concrete basketball court.  Round and round and boring after 15 minutes.  I think I had better skating form than this guy, but I'm guessing this is the image portrayed to bystanders.