Friday is Skating Day!

The time I re-established contact with inline skating

I hardly skate in school as I find it a hassle lugging a backpack with your laptop and then adding the weight of the skates. It's worse when the area we have for skating is so limited that I can't put my fitness skates to good use. I drop by every week to watch the skaters at practicing at our weekly skating sessions though. I might not be in skates, but I can still teach.

Today was slightly different. I was looking for some Friday evening activities since my parents' happen to be in Indonesia. Anything that can keep me occupied and provide me company would have sounded good to me. I brought my skates to school, joined in the skating session, then followed the crowd when it got to the night urban skate. Man, urban skate is a whole lot more fun with a big group. Back in school, HH and I finished off with a sprint race up the giant slope.

The last time I had a great inline skating urge was back in JC, when I'd skate as part of my training for 2.4. But back then, I didn't know the value of good skates. I bought cheap skates which ended up hurting my feet and I wasn't very keen on skating for very long periods. Then, during the summer holidays in 06, a bunch of us from the EllTeeBee class got together to skate at ECP. What a surprise soft boots turned out to be! I had never experienced such comfort in inline skates before. Very soon, I was making trips to ECP early in the morning to rent skates and doing "the East Coast Run" just to drown out my post-Kili blues.

I somehow managed to scrimp enough to buy a new pair of skates despite being so broke after Kili. The first time he saw it, XZ looked disappointed. "You'll never be able to do slalom with those fitness skates." It didn't matter to me: I prefer the wind in my face to swirling around cones. I got into the mailing list for the skating sub-activity in SMUX. When I got into Kroo, I decided to run for XSeed manager partly because of skating.

The skating sub-activity grew under commendable leadership from XZ and Ter. They were both passionate about skating and never complained about teaching any newbie how to skate. The members also proved that while they can't commit on a regular basis, they'd still make an appearance during the events that matter. Me, since I re-established contact with skating, I've found that I like teaching others how to skate. Part of it is from the sadistic glee of watching newbies fall. But the other part is from watching as these newbies work hard to learn new skills and eventually flourish on their own.

I guess that's part of the draw in my involovement with SMUGS. I love the outdoors. I love outdoor activities. And I love how in SMUGS, I could enjoy the outdoor activities that I love with a bunch of like-minded people. And I love how, after enjoying the outdoor activities, I also get to interact with others and get them to enjoy the outdoors like I do. I guess that's what Yujian meant when he urged me to run for Kroo last year. "As long as you embody the SMUGS mission, you will do SMUGS a service." My term as Kroo is coming to an end, but I know I will still pop by for SMUGS activities. There's no other place I see myself in. -Jimmy