I always liked inline skating. I had a great pair that I liked, and I rode them till I not only wore down the brake rubber but the screw that holds it in.
Once that screw’s head was worn down, it was impossible to remove it with a screwdriver and thus impossible to replace the brake pad. I took it to Sport Chek a few years ago, but they said the repair was beyond their ability, and that I’d have to drill out the remains of the screw. I knew I didn’t have the tools for that so I gave up for several years.
Until now; After last year’s misadventure on cross-country skis, I finally bought a new set of skate skis that I’ve been dying to try out. I nearly offered to join a Ski 2 Sea team that was short a skier, but it turned out a scheduling conflict would make me unable to go this year. Still, I wanted to start skate skiing soon, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn’t in good condition to pursue that. I figured getting back on my roller-blades was the best option to build up the right muscles and technical skills.
I sprung for a stronger drill bit and found a ‘screw extraction’ kit that could remove a screw that was stubbornly stuck once you bored a starter hole into it. Ultimately, once I had drilled that hole out of the screw, I was able to turn the screw with a set of needle-nose pliers, rather than the screw extraction kit. I ordered a new brake pad from Amazon and I was ready to go.
One of the things I like about inline skating is it can be done without getting too sweaty, so I’ve been keeping my skates and a helmet in my car. I found an opportunity to skate around the parking lot near the gymnastics club where my sons train.
I was also able to do some skating on my lunch hour at work. The area has some multi-use trails, and not getting too sweaty meant I could resume working in the office afterwards.
That wasn’t much, but the Family Day Long Weekend came, and we made an overnight trip to Manning Park Resort. The meals in the Pinewood Restaurant were good, and on Monday morning, we rented skis for the ever-growing boys, and I finally got a chance to try skate skiing on my new skis.
When I first got my skis on and started skating, I got an almost nasty surprise as to how fast they were! In fact, it wasn’t long before they flew out from underneath me when I turned around to look behind me at how my son was progressing. There’s no network coverage in Manning, and we tried the Strawberry Flats trails that we always use. My Trailforks app did track my distance, and I figure I got 8km done. Unfortunately, I forgot to stop it before I started the drive home, so the record is useless.
The new skis were a joy to use, and it vastly improved my mood and salvaged a difficult weekend. I want to continue using my inline skates to keep up my cross-country ski conditioning. There may be roller skis in my future, but we’ll see for now.