Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I know I say it a lot, but I started this blog for family, friends, and to help myself think actively about the life I lead. Somehow as I was blogging for this small audience, the world showed up on my doorstep!

In November there were 1514 unique visitors to this site, making a total of 4,180 visits! an average of 139 a day. But here is the thing that really blows my socks off, there were significant numbers of visitors from 25 different countries! Mostly the skating nations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. I just can’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that there are people on the other side of the planet reading this.

A couple of them have emailed/contacted me, and I have gotten to know a few. Some have sent me pictures of skating in other places, and those images deserve to be posted here.

Franklin is a South African living in Norway, he skates both ice and inline, and runs a blog in both Norwegian/English. He is a really nice guy. He links to fun stuff like the AK skate videos (I LOVE the South Bank Skate, wow) Franklin sent me the image below of natural ice Skating in Norway.

I have spent my share of time on lakes and rivers, skating natural ice, (I even raced a 100k once! Oucharama!!) but this astonishing pic makes part of me want to trade my aerodynamic skinsuit & performance oriented skates for a pair of warm boots, thick jacket, and endless straight-aways full of incredible scenery.

Latazza is a Russian who skates in their brand new covered oval in Chelyabinsk. She sent me this picture of it.
I think she is pretty young, but one can’t tell over email. The funny thing is, you can see several top Russian skaters in their blue & red team jackets lacing up here. I bet I have met a few of them at Boris’s house.

The important thing is this; skating is a worldwide sport that has as diverse a following & practice as one can imagine, but we are all still skaters, and have more in common than we think.

It does not matter if the 400m long track thing is your obsession, or a short-tracker defying g-forces, an indoor inliner rumbling across the hardwood, a canal/lake skater thoughtfully amassing the kilometers, or a marathon inliner whirring past the miles/kms on bike paths or quiet roads, skaters are a funky family, and I am glad so many have shown up here.

Although I personally have had to specialize in the ice 500/1000m in the last few years, I have enjoyed every kind of skating there is, and its all good fun.

P.S. any other pictures out there from the wandering tribe and the places you skate?

International or North American, feel free to email them to me: spdsk88er (at) yahoo.com -when I get another handful I will post them.

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