Posted on 04 Jun 02:16 pm
metamorphosis
The word-for-word definition of metamorphosis from MSN’s encarta.
- change of physical form: a complete or marked change of physical form, structure, or substance: the overnight metamorphosis of the pond water into ice
- change of appearance or character: a complete or marked change in appearance, character, or condition
- supposed supernatural transformation: a transformation caused by supposed supernatural powers
- transformed person or thing: somebody or something that has gone through a complete or marked change
- zoology change in animal form: a complete or marked change in the form of an animal as it develops into an adult, e.g. the change from tadpole to frog or from caterpillar to butterfly
This is the metamorphosis that my boots go through, twice a year.
I like definitions #1 and #3, it’s been so nice to be gliding along again.
I’m not sure I will be doing any inline races this year. There are no races I know of planned for Salt Lake, and when I can race my bike 3 times a week within easy riding distance, it feels selfish to consider a 10 hour drive, or flying to get my competition fix.
And I am profoundly sad to have come to that conclusion, and the following idea:
Will continued high gas prices, leading to vastly more expensive travel, have damaging long term consequences to a sport that requires frequent travel?
Filed under: from home
In response to your question: yes.
Those who do not live close to an ice rink or are not residential in a place like Salt Lake will be pressured: do I skate, or do I live? Now, I realize how these two overlap big time, as for most of us, skating is living; however, choices will be made. We will see less people traveling to skate.
But: If one does live within a given distance from a rink, we will see their dramatic improvements very soon. These people will either inline or bike to the rink, improving their physical “fitness”. This will, no doubt, make them better skaters.
Therefore, we will see two effects: more high-end skaters, but less newcomers.
Is this good or bad? That’s the big question…do we want more golds @ the Olympics, or do we want to increase our national popularity from somewhere around 2,500 registered skaters to a much larger number?
P.S. When I say the term “skating”, I mean ice, not inline, unless I specify.
P.P.S. Wait a sec…what am I doing? I should be studying for my History final!!!
I like 1 and 3, too. But those boots are awfully clean! Over the course of a summer, it’s kind of like 5.
The gas problem is going to be a serious problem for life before it is for skating…I think. For skating, we can still make some decisions within a reasonable range of choices - I want to drive to ____, which will use $100 worth of gas, so I’m not going to buy ____. Ian, you’re right that there will likely be fewer newcomers - parents are not going to bring a kid to skating practice three times a week an hour away. On the other hand, if a kid really wants it and starts to do well, they can give up some other things, too. And yes, more of a small group of us will ride or inline to get around. But what happens when enough people have no gas, no heat, no food…if the gas stations have long lines or close down…? At some point, if things go the way they seem to be going, I’ll feel more threatened by the possibility of looting and attacks on my car and bike than a gradual increase in airfares and fees.
My question on skating (assuming the above is not the case!) is whether some of the competitions might see attendance drop off and then adjust for people who don’t want to spend $500 on travel for one race… I’ll decide not to go to an event for an amount like that if I can skate only a 500 and 1500 and then sit around waiting for the end of the weekend, but if I were guaranteed my long races (I could try for personals) and a range of competitors (I could see my friends), it would be ok to spend money. Or will event organizers give up, assuming we’re not interested?
I don’t see people in the north east, riding their bikes or inlining to a rink in the middle of the winter.
We are also quite concern what this is going to do to Lake Placid.
Most people that travel to Lake Placid, drive and average of three hours plus each way. I drive four and one half hours each way when the weather is good. Six hours or so when is bad.
Conditions in Lake Placid has been quite poor as it has been for some time now. We could very well be seeing the end of long track skating in the north east.
Quebec is talking about inclosing their oval but, that’s a couple of years from now. But then again, its just talk and we would have to drive even further in the event that is does become a reality.
So, in addition to the higher cost in getting to wherever one is going to skate, we will also pay more for ice time since there will be less skaters.
what kind of boots are those? Marchesee?
el darbo, that’s a slap in the face…Marchesee wow…
Carla,
you are 100% right, that high gas prices are a life problem in a more profound way than merely being a skate problem. But I fear it will affect our sport profoundly over time.
Buddistpunk,
yes, your situation in lake placid is exactly what I was thinking about. Because I used to do that lake placid drive every weekend in the winter, 5 hours each way. Ouch…
El Darbo,
they are SS boots, by Bruce Kohen. These were really designed for long track, but they are such outstanding boots, & fit me so well, I use them for inline too….
Increased fuel prices will cut out loads of “luxury” activities, like skating, for lots of people. I expect a drop in attendance at meets and rinks that have smaller teams in rural areas will be in trouble. I live close to our rink, but 2 hr away from Placid, so I don’t think I’ll be going up every weekend like I had planned. I also won’t travel to meets that are more than 2 hr away anymore. Unfortunately, my concerns this winter are how to heat the house, not how to get to skating.
Hey, did anyone see this photo of the unfortunate event of June 1st in Mexico during a bike race?
http://www.dailypress.com/media/photo/2008-06/39569278.jpg
Scary, huh?
Seeing Andrew doing flying laps this week appears as his wheels really never were off his skates…his morphosis was a seamless transition from blades to wheels.
Local Inline Races planned: will host the West Jordan 5K, and let’s hope to get something going for late July. Hey, maybe you, Eric, & Uel can do a climbing race up Big Cottonwood! Now that oughta get you HRM going!
The solution is to use public transporation and relax a bit - its not like there isn’t any more gas. If it gets that bad, I am sure an Al Quaida cell will be “discovered” in Saudia Arabia and that will be that.
Normally the old adage ‘he whose wine I drink song I sing’ works except in the case when the imbiber has fistfuls of rockets and airplanes to maul you with.
We will soon be joyfully skating and thriving like never before!
I’m getting an electric car. My buddy in the next cube at work is making them. He’s been getting a lot of calls lately.
http://www.zevutah.com/
I beg to disagree with Mr. Grunwald. Yes, there’s still some petroleum out there. However, even if the US government decides to try to appropriate it in S. America or wherever, it’s not going to get any cheaper. This is already driving the cost of EVERYTHING up. There have already been food riots that can be traced to the diversion of crop land to ethanol production. We worry about getting to work or to compete; these people can’t buy food.
Air fares are shooting up, and there are new baggage charges and every other kind of sneaky cost the airlines can think of - still, they’re going bankrupt.
In time, perhaps advancing tech will help. Perhaps. You can’t predict, schedule, or compel innovation. In any case, the lag time for tech developments, and that for having them adopted - tried to buy a new Prius? they can’t make them fast enough - is going to hurt.
I think energy-intensive sports like skating WILL take a hit. Rinks will close. People won’t be able to travel. (Think how I feel, on an island where everything is shipped in, electricity costs 3 times what it did in NY, everywhere is at least a 3000-mile airfare away, and our whole economy is based on visitors from those distant places! Actually, I’m happy, planning solar panels, aquaculture and a biodiesel car. But I’ve always been odd. At least I don’t have to pay for heat.)
People skated before cars and electricity - just not everywhere. The WHOLE world will contract; the skate world is likely to contract even more - or shift massively to inline. I know it’s not the same, but you do have that opportunity, which didn’t exist before cars and electricity. I’m hoping the best for you all.
Interesting times.
This is interesting. Has ORDA done this before?.
ORDA has oval season passes for Speedskating at $60.00 until July 11th (after that $125.00).
Are they trying to see how many people are planning to come up this coming winter?.
Will they have a split session every evening?!….
Kate, I surely don’t think the world will contract. The world has been expanding for centuries as technology advanced. Trains, bicycles, cars, airplanes and telecommunication have made the world much smaller and continue to do so. Fifteen years ago, there was no way I could enter a discussion of some Americans right from my easy chair. Now I can.
I live in the Netherlands. Gas prices have been three times as high as in the US here for decades. It hasn’t put us behind the US in wealth or technology. And for skating, we just built ice rinks 60 miles apart :-).
Really, the world will find a way when oil is more expensive. In fact, things will just get better because when using cheap oil, we are polluting the world without paying for the damages we do. Hopefully, the more expensive oil will drive us towards more sustainable energy sources.
Ian’s picture just might be a metaphor for this discussion, no?
And I hope Grunwald’s comment is more tongue-in-cheek than not.
The expense and carbon footprint of speedskating indoors and driving/flying across country for cycling and skating has always troubled me a little bit. But I have found a happy medium in a less high-profile competition-based lifestyle than I used to live. Now instead of scrambing around doing important races in far-flung places, I am content to stick with local velodrome racing (so as to avoid situations such as seen in Ian’s picture) and weekend skating time trials; maybe make one long trip a season for competition. I encourage everyone to move to Minneapolis (home of a world-class velodrome and outdoor long-track speedskating rink) and do the same.
I agree with Reinier. Unfortunately, American doesn’t care enough about speed skating to build 400 meter ovals 60, 100 or even 200 miles apart. That’s ok. We’ll take to the lakes. I see all of this as an opportunity to expand my skating and circle of friends…. Bring it!
Buddhistpunk,
I was wondering the same thing about Placid. I am going to call them on Monday and ask a bunch of questions. If you can skate every speed session for the whole season and they aren’t split, then it is definitely worth it. I spent more than that last season up there.
Ian, Thanks for the link to that picture. I had been told about it but couldn’t seem to find it
I think there are two different discussions to be had…
One, are we (the whole world) going to “run out” of oil and gas so that we’re mainly trying to survive and protect ourselves (in which case, who cares about whether we’ll be skating on ice)? Or will technology stay ahead, as Kate is wondering, and/or will Americans be able to behave more like Europeans?
Two - Andrew’s original question, which is kind of in the middle for me. Let’s say we keep using gas and things are more or less the same, but the price goes up to $6/gallon in the US…we’ll travel less, have indoor ice open less, etc, so yes, numbers of skaters and successful competitions will go down.
awesome discussion folks… really awesome..
couple of notes:
Reinier,
I also think it’s a great thing that we can have these trans-atlantic discussions… It’s one of the best uses of the internet. A sport brings us together, and that leads to other excellent things.
That said, the population density of Europe makes certain kinds of mass transit practical, that are going to take decades to bring to the USA.
Should we do it? absolutely.. but remember, this is a BIG country, with lots of vast emptiness.. Mass transit is going to be difficult to create in communities 100% dependent on cars for everything.
secondly…
there was a reason that I titled this post metamorphosis, in that I think the USA has been going through one. For a whole spectrum of horrid reasons, gas prices being one.
I bought a Mini back in March just before the gas prices came close to $4.00. The cheapest I can get in my neighborhood now is $4.23!. I just went back to the Mini dealer to see about a roof rack for my bike and there wasn’t even one car in the show room or the lot; with the exception of the two demos. They can’t keep up with the demand. And why not? I get close to 600 miles per tank on mine. WooHoo. I see this as a good thing. More smaller cars and less SUV’s on the road with one passenger at the wheel…… Anyway, we’re not going to run out of gas anytime soon. The gas issue is nothing more than brain washing and a game to control the masses. Deal with it. But even if we did run out of gas, it would not even come close to the one thing that most people really take for granted. Electricity!. Without it, we would surely plunge to a time well before the dark ages, very fast.
Actually, I started the earlier comment by saying that if gas is $3.99 or $4.25 or whatever, a lot of us can choose to buy one thing and not the other. And yes, “a lot of us” meaning Andrew’s readership - I’m making a guess that if we have internet connections and time to check and comment, we’re not so short on money that we can’t get to work when gas hits $4. So in between I was exaggerating because it does concern me off that a lot of people seem impatient and angry. I don’t think we’re about to run out of gas next week or anything, but at what point - price of gas - are people going to become violent enough to eliminate the fun activities, sort of overruling the choice of whether we’re going to skate or not based on cost.
If you want an inline competition, perhaps you could organise one though the SLC Oval Program. Send out an invitation to all of the skaters. I have no doubt you’d get a decent response.
I’d come!
And (multiple world champion) Heather Richardson would come!
I havent comepeted at inline for sooooo long…..
P.S. Wasnt your topic about you transitioning from ice to inline? Why are people talking about the price of gas and cycling? lol