Wed - August 17, 2005

Skates on Board?


inline skating
2006 WaterTribe Ultimate Florida Challenge includes 40 mile highway portage between St Mary and Suwannee Rivers. During the Okefenokee 2001 and Cross Florida 2002 Challenges, some racers walked this long portage but others used in-line skates (e.g., DevoMan or Greyfox and 2Brave) or mountain bikes to tow their boats (e.g., ManitouCruiser and Kopian). You can find race reports by James Devoglaer (Devo) and Mark Przedwojewski (ManitouCruiser) as well as a towing/training report by Chief in WaterTribe Magazine.

Since I am going to paddle my Sea Wind in UFC 2006 I will have capability to carry a bike on board. However, even the lightest folding bike, Dahon Presto Lite, adds almost 20 lb to carry for 1200 miles around Florida. I've decided to explore in-line skates as a first option for doing this long portage. I may consider a nordic style of skating for that purpose, i.e., using trekking poles. That method is used by Renata Chlumska during her Around America Adventure.

I've never used inline skates before. I did some recreational ice skating during my school years, but it was over 30 years ago. Two weeks ago I ordered K2 Kinetic 10.0 skates and started to skate. So far, it goes pretty good. After a couple of sessions I was able to skate about 10 miles during 1+ hour on my local bike trails. No falls! I've found the Inline! book by William Neally very useful for a beginner and fun to study. I need to check his other books on white water kayaking and mountain biking.

I haven't tried to tow my boat yet, but even if the inline skating doesn't work for towing, it will be a fun activity just for cross training. I've created a skating page on Mountain Wayfarer site and I am going to photograph and document my local bike & skate trails.


Posted at 09:05 PM    


Mountain Wayfarer | fit2paddle - fitness paddling | Wayfarer blog | virtual race | paddling with a camera