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London and Eastbourne Skaters News and Events from Sk8school for June

London and Eastbourne Skaters News and Events for June 2008

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This month, we've got loads on websites, some new courses and skate lessons, several reviews, CBBC and loads more!

• Two Mastering Courses this month
• Childrens BBC
• Instructor Update
• Wednesday Night Skate - LONDON TRIP!
• Sk8 M8's Beach BBQ
• Social skates, Sk8 n Chips and Breakfast Skate ane and more!
• Improvers Coaching Sessions
• Some of the things we've had WHEALSON!
• Mark and Matt's London Courses and new web design!

But before all that...

SK8school RSS and Facebook

Now is the ideal time to subscribe to one or both of these methods of being notified of Sk8school and Sk8 M8 events. Because this month there are 2 events that will happen, but we are not sure of the exact timing, or the timing is out of our control. Facebook and RSS give you an "automatic" means of finding out what's going on and will save you checking websites daily. You'll just get a notification through email or RSS -simple! Otherwise you'll need to review the Sk8 M8's page or ring me up every day! This way, if you are on the internet, you will know - automatically!

The good thing about Facebook and RSS feeds is you set it and forget it, no need to remember to check for changes -you get notified.

To see why these are the best methods, Read on...

(Clue - Sk8 M8's London Trip, to the Wednesday night skate and the Sk8 M8's Beach BBQ !)

The Mastering Courses

Saturday June 14th will be the date for everyone to have another chance at learning learning to go backwards on skates. The Eastbourne Sk8School Skate Lesson "Mastering skating Backwards" is a half day intensive course. It starts from the first principles of backwards motion, then progresses through several drills and exercises to introduce you ultimately to the backwards crossover! On the way you'll see methods of stopping, turning, transitions and more! Most importantly, on completion of this course you'll have a comfortable understanding of all the backwards skating skills and will look like an expert!

Attendees should be able to heel brake stop to some degree and be relatively comfortable with edges. All our instructors will be happy to ensure you "make the grade" before the course with a few private lessons if required.

Cost is £40 per person and pre-booking your place is essential. The class starts at 11am at the Turning Circle. Payment in advance payable to Tim Wheals, 32 Lawns Avenue, Eastbourne, East Sussex. 15 people maximum, first come first served!

The course 2 weeks after that is the Mastering Turns Course on June 28th. Same applies, we'll start with the basics and over 3 hours, you will gain an unshakable confidence when turning, you'll know what to use when and best of all you'll look EVEN more expert! Once we hit July, we will revisit the Sk8 Streetwise so you are ready for the Extreme festival!

Childrens BBC

The Childrens BBC are looking for candidates for a new TV show, "The Ultimate Super Hero". The show's producers are looking for children aged 9-13 on 30th June and you'd better move quick as the closing dates for applications is the 16th June! The shows researchers thought some of the children in Sk8schools weekly Kids Club, might have super speed?!
Well that - and quite a few other skills I'd say, but to see what all the fuss is about - see the BBC website here.

Sk8school Instructor Update

Just to keep you up to speed with all the Eastbourne Sk8school instructors, firstly everyone at June's first group skate lesson will notice that Pam was teaching! Pam's not done a lot of teaching with us recently because her Hockey schedule has been so hectic, thankfully she managed to make some time this weekend to help us out and cover for Marie.

So where was Marie? Marie was off on Holiday, and her private lessons (especially those in Brighton are backing up!) but don't worry she will be back for next weeks class and all her regular Brighton Skate Lessons will continue as normal after that.

Which leads us to an update on Laura's Knee. Alas more bad news, it appears that after 9 weeks her snowboarding injury is just not healing properly and may require some surgery. She's bravely been running the occasional kids club and St. Andrews after school skate club (off skates) but obviously that's not ideal. We will of course keep you all informed of her progress and I know you'll all wish her well.

So last and by no means least where's Rebecca? Well Rebecca is spending every other week in Spain (its alright for some!) which does somewhat cut into the teaching schedule! However she is still available for midweek private lessons.

And finally - is Tim ever going to be able to retire?
er... by the looks of it, no! The idea this year was that the Sk8school Ladies, would deal with the majority of the beginners and kids club Sunday groups, so I could focus more on the new improvers coaching and half day intensive courses. However what with knees, hockey, holidays and general joyriding I'm covering all the girls shifts! Maybe it'll work better next year!

Wednesday Night Skate - LONDON TRIP!

The Sk8 M8's are going to London, Rebecca and Max are regular attendee's to Londons Wednesday night skate so we are using that vast experience to plan this trip. However everything is very much at the mercy of the weather. To organise our way round this we'll notify the date we plan to use THE DAY BEFORE. If you want to attend this skate, check with us on Tuesday night onwards. So if you are up for it and free on a suitable Wednesday here's what you do:

1. Check we are doing it for the following day! (IE. check Tuesday for Wednesday)

2. Get yourself to London Victoria for 7pm. (for example the 5:31 train from Eastbourne). It is very easy to identify who's in your group - they will be the ones carrying skates!

3. Tim, Mark, Max and Rebecca will meet you and get you to the start point for the skate.

4. We do the 10+mile skate!

5. Tim, Mark, Max and Rebecca escort you back to a convenient station for the return trip (probably on the last train).

You need a good level of skating to achieve this -we'd recommend having done our SK8 Streetwise course and that you could manage 2 full breakfast skates (without stopping, as it will be about 10+miles - that is the skating part twice, not the breakfast part twice!). You must be confident of controlling your speed and handling uneven irregular surfaces -like cobbles!

Bring a drink! And travel light because there is nowhere to leave anything, so you will be carrying everything whilst on your skates! (now is the time to get a skate bag, we hope you did the Sk8school theory lesson to help chose the right one!).

So when will it be?

A Wednesday! - But which one depends on the weather! So check the event status on the Sk8 M8's page on Tuesday night(s).

Alternatevely...

There are 4 ways to find out when we are going:

1. Check the website Tuesday NIGHT(s)

2. Be part of the facebook group or club

3. Be a subscriber to our RSS feed

4. Ring 07940773295 and ask!

Facebook and RSS mean you don't need to remember to do any checking of course -it's done for you by email!

Please Read the "Rules of the Road" post on the WhealsON blog before setting out!

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Sk8 M8's Beach BBQ

Now another weather dependant event - It is time for another skaters BBQ, but when? It will need perfect weather! So much like the London trip, keep an eye on the weather and if it looks suitable then check the website (or facebook or RSS)

Where : Where everything skatey in Eastbourne starts - the Turning Circle!

When : 7:30pm(ish)

Date : any evening when its not windy and its very warm! (check for confirmation)

How will you know when? - the usual 4 ways:

1. Check the website after 2pm daily (though we'll try to give at least 24 hours notice)

2. Be part of the facebook group or club

3. Be a subscriber to our RSS feed

4. Ring 07940773295 and ask!

We hope to see loads of you there and will attempt to give 24 hours notice (but wind speed is a key factor).

We'll bring the BBQ and coals, you bring your own food and drinks.

Social's, Breakfast Skates and Night Skates

The Breakfast Skates and Skate n Chips night skate sessions are now running from the Turning circle (some of you will have already have noticed the Sk8 M8's page on the website, well judging from the web stats, a load of you have because its about the 3rd most popular page after the lessons pages and WhealsON blog!).
 
The night skates (the Skate n chips - or as John says Quad and Chips) will most likley start this month! (after various skate event clashes and wet weather!) Also keep an eye on the Sk8 M8's page for the treasure hunt...
Subscribe to the RSS feed and keep an eye on the Sk8 M8's page for the latest!

The Breakfast skates and Sk8 n Chips start at the Turning Circle at 9am and 7:45pm respectively.
Next Breakfast Skates: Saturday 7th June and Saturday 21st June
Next Skate n Chips: Thursday 12th June and Thursday 19th June (Moved from the normal Wednesdays for this month due to the need to keep the day free for the London trip)
As mentioned elsewhere there is also a trip planned to London for the Wednesday night Skate and a Sk8 M8's Beach BBQ planned, but the exact dates are not known at this time.

Improvers Coaching Sessions

This is a totally new concept which some of our customers have voiced a need for and we're looking for you to register your interest. Coaching is not the same as a lesson, this is where you can do something, but you are not quite happy with it and can't quite figure out where it's going wrong. I plan to run these hour long sessions by arrangement and usually before or after out Sunday group lesson - by prior booking and appointment only -so don't just turn up!
So what will we coach?
Well that's up to you! Just drop me an email with your contact details and the sorts of things you need "fixing" for example:
Forwards Crossover
Stride 3
Backwards Braking
Transitions
Good old heel brake Stopping!
Whatever you want to improve on!
When ever we get 3 people or more that want the same (or similar enough) thing I'll contact them and we'll run a coaching session specifically to cover those two or three skills.
Simple! Email me gently please - I already have 26 unread mail from last week! Please mark your emails IMPROVER'S COACHING COURSE.

Some of the things we've had WHEALSON!

There has been loads on the WHEALS ON! Blog this month here's some of the highlights:

• How to skate in the rain and wet.
• Pictures of the breakfast skates.
• St. Andrews after school skate club.
• A review of Landrollers.

Take a look and see for yourself, why it is already our second most popular page of all of our websites!

As you know we're experimenting with several "interactive" mediums at the moment to see which ones you like most. Have a look at the RSS feeds and Face book club as well!

SkateInstructor.com London News

Those clever chaps the London Office - Skateinstructor.com have updated and revamped thier whole website (now it's very similar to the WHEALSON blog) go and check it out!

Also they have this to say about thier Newsletters and courses:

The skateinstructor.com newsletter is now being hosted by Google. Those of you who are subscribed to their newsletter mailing list should have received an invite to join the new group but there have been reports of it being marked as spam (entertainingly by Google itself in some cases!). If you haven't received this invite, or want to join their new mailing list, you can visit http://groups.google.com/group/skateinstructor-newsletters and subscribe yourself.

London courses and lessons (At Albert Memorial)

As always our Sunday Beginners course goes ahead on Sunday at 12pm, with the follow-on session running from 1:30pm and costing just £10. Both of these are drop-in session so simply turn up and have some fun!

On Tuesday 3rd June, at 7pm, Matt kicks off a 4 week course that will take you from beginner to doing the Sunday Stroll. There are still several places available on this course so, if you want to attend, contact Matt (details on the course page) by 5pm on Monday. This course has proven to be reasonably popular so we'll be running it again.

And here is a link to the SkateInstructor.com Heelbrake stop class for £5 which is outlandishly cheap for London!

In Next Months Newsletter:

More Mastering half-day intensive courses and some coaching sessions
The Sk8school - Skaters Treasure Hunt
Perhaps a little on the Extreme Festival
Breakfast Skates, Night Skates and so much more...


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