On The Trail

IN THIS ISSUE...

• Publisher's Message
• Gates
• Until Next Time

Publisher's Message

Welcome to the seventh issue of On The Trail! The Inline Skating Center will publish ten issues of the newsletter from now until the end of October covering a wide range of topics about inline skating on marked trails.

In today's issue, we're going to introduce a tactic you can use to skate around and through gates that you find on some trails.

Gates

Some trails contain metal gates that act as safety barriers to reduce the speed of cyclists and skaters when they approach cross walks that are accessible to automobile traffic.

To skate safety through a gate in the trail:

1. Slow yourself down by pumping your brake about 20 feet before the entrance to the gate.
2. Now, position your skates so they are parallel to one another and about three inches apart.
3. Roll your ankles and put the wheels of both your skates on their edges to initiate a quick turn to your right or left accordingly, to bypass the first arm of the gate.
4. After you pass the first arm of the gate, roll your ankles and put your wheels on their edges a second time to initiate a quick turn in the opposite direction so as to bypass the second arm of the gate.

The effect is like making two, quick, dynamic, short-radius turns around two pylons or gates that are arranged in a tight, slalom course.

Until Next Time

In the next issue, we'll look at a tip and tactic you can use to avoid fast cyclists on the trails.