Have you taken your quad skates for a spin at the local skate park? Some skate parks are more properly skateBOARD parks and don’t allow quads, but if the one near you does, get out there. It is awesome. And terrifying. And exciting. And you will meet other people who think wheels are the way.
One of the great things about skateboarding is that you just need the board – most skaters don’t wear pads or other protective gear. This will be hard to handle, since they hit the concrete just as hard as we do and you’ll see it up close. Their bad-assery just takes a different form than ours. They are fast and full of crazy moves that seem like the worst idea ever. And they are beautiful!
Flat-track skaters on quads at the skate park (in our case, teammates encouraging each other to “just try it” because it is fun and scary) seem to have fewer tricks and more interest in shifting body weight when vertical and discovering speed and angle in a way that doesn’t break anything. The bowl is deep and every plane is steep. One of the take-aways for the flat track is figuring out your edges and speed control to get higher in the bowl and half pipes and ramps.
When you are in the “bowl” a.k.a. the empty swimming pool, the preferred method for “dropping in” for quad skaters is to slide down the shallow end wall on your wrist guards and knee pads. Gnarly? No. Does it work? Yes. Once in the bowl, building speed is key because you always headed up which requires speed or coming down which builds speed for your next climb up the side of the bowl.
So far none of us look as cool as the skaters shooting out of the bowl and doing ollies, but we are killing it with 180 jump turns off ramps. We are also doing the safest falls at the park, naturally, which is epic. And we can go backwards like nobody’s business. (Skateboarders don’t do backwards.)
Park etiquette includes turn taking on ramps and drop-ins, as well as being complimentary about skateboarder’s style, falls, wheels, trucks, bearings and of course scar comparisons.
Some reasons for derby skaters to go to the skate park:
- Why should skateboarders have all the fun?
- Drinking a 40oz out of a paper bag.
- Even young dogs need new tricks.
- Because you don’t think you can… but you can.
- Because women in skates bring all the boys to the park.
Written by Scaristotle
Images provided by Scufflepuff