Entries this day: skate_road_rash

skate road rash

Friday 20 January 1995

Last night was my latest wild skating adventure. I skated from my house to Party on the Plaza and met Chris and about 5 of his friends there. We goofed around up there playing disc with my glow-in-the-dark Boneheadz disc. Then we went to The Texas Club, which is one of my favorite garages in the downtown area. It's like 12 or 13 stories tall, and it's *entirely* enclosed by windows, so it stays comfortable and clean in there all the time. On the way up the ramp to the elevators, a van was its way down, pretty much taking up the whole lane, but we managed to sqeeze by to the elevators. We got to the top and skated down the whole thing without incident, except that two of the guys fell near the last turn at the bottom. The last turn is both steeper and sharper than any of the others in the garage, so it's a bit of a doozy if you're going too fast.

We stopped by the Houston Chronicle newspaper printing press viewing windows on the way to Brewery Tap for water. We went next door to Power Tools, but they wouldn't open for another 35 minutes. So we cruised to the parking lot at Main street and Franklin, which I have decided is my favorite street level parking lot in downtown. We played disc there for a while then we went up the hill on Main street to the U of H Downtown campus.

Okay, when you get to the top of the hill look down the hill at the traffic light at the bottom. When it turns red, count off 8 or 9 seconds and then skate skate skate skate as fast as you can toward the bottom. The light will turn green, and you'll go flying through the intersection on the green light. If you do it fast enough, you will literally pass the cars at the bottom that are getting started through the intersection.

Note: there is a groove in the right hand lane of the hill that runs parallel to us flying down the hill. The groove is precisely the right size for inline skate wheels to get stuck in it. My right skate got stuck. Bad. Fortunately, most of my impact was taken up by my right kneepad. Then the pad slid down my leg and my knee caught some concrete. I was holding my frisbee with my right hand, and I fell forward onto my wrist guard and frisbee. Then my hip hit the ground and I slid there for a moment. Wow.

I yelled to the others, "Keep going! Keep going!" I didn't want them to miss the light and get into an interesting situation with traffic. I got up and hobble-rolled down the hill, across the street, and met up with them in a small parking area. My kneepad had a *large* clean white spot where it took most of the blow. My frisbee had a large scrape across the face. My hip had a deep strawberry/scrape about 5 inches in diameter. My shorts got a nice rip in them, too. Thriving on the adrenaline rush, I yelled, "I'm doing it again!!!"

Chris went up the hill with me. We counted off the 9 seconds and then skated like crazy all the way down, this time in the left lane. I passed a car going through the intersection at the bottom. Yes!!

We cruised to Power Tools where skaters get in free. It was really uncrowded. A girl was all smiley dancing by herself in there, acting stoned on something- I don't want to know what.

We skated to a well-staired area by Alley Theater. One guy skated down all the steps- like 5 sets of 10 or 12 steps each. It's actually somewhat trickier than just 50 or 60 steps; you've got to adjust for the level sections between the steps. I was impressed at how well he did it. I made it down like 4 of the 5, but nowhere near as smoothly as he did.

We cruised to Allen Center and hopped in the elevator to level 6. The elevator doors opened and there was a guard standing there waiting for us right in front of the doors. He shooed us out of the building. So we skated across the street and blatantly into Jesus Saves. This garage got its name from the gaudy neon sign at the top of an old church across the street. The name fits. If you skate down the garage without wrecking at least once, wow. We skated right past the guard booth; I didn't see if the guard noticed us. While we waited for the elevator, I expected the little speaker in the wall to tell us to leave. It didn't.

Up to the 13th floor we went. I was the only one in the group who had skated Jesus Saves before, so I told them about it. "Each ramp goes steeply down two levels. There is a 180 degree turn at the bottom of each ramp to get to the next ramp. If you need to dump speed, just turn 90 degrees and dump speed in the parking area. Note that the ramps are rough, but the turns are not, so it's very easy to slide on the turns."

Chris and I went flying down the whole garage together. I fell once; he didn't fall at all. Wow. We got to the bottom and waited a full minute before the next guy got down the garage. The next guy to arrive came from the direction of the elevator. He had used it from level 7. The other two guys took longer.

We skated to Fuzzy's and did the Kellogg Garage. In the elevator between the second and third floor, the elevator suddenly stopped and an alarm went off. Crap. We were caught. We were there for fully 8 or 10 seconds before someone (not me) realized he had hit the "push to stop pull to run" button. Whew. We skated the garage without incident; it's rather tame compared to Jesus Saves.

After that, Chris, et. al. left. I went into Fuzzy's and talked to some people. I met Tom, who had called 911 after my accident on 15 September. He told me that as he dialed he was thinking, "I'm wasting my time. He's gone." Wow.

After that, I skated about 5 miles before I took a shower. My road rashes hurt like hell. I can't wait to go out and skate again.

See ya
- Rob