INLINE SKATING   Welcome to "Blading Vancouver," the first edition of inline skating tips from Lorne Milne, blading instructor and coordinator of the local volunteer "Inline Skate Patrol".

"BLADING VANCOUVER" - part 1 beginner areas | intermediate areas | advanced areas route map of downtown | check out part 2 Vancouver is one of the best (and most beautiful) places in North America to blade! With miles of seawalls, existing bike/skate paths (due to a history of friendliness to bicycles) and varied terrain (due to mountainous hillsides and winding trails around ocean bays and harbours) there is lots of variety for the skating and the views! There is a great range of places to skate that are suitable for beginners to experts, so keep an eye on future installments as we update you with info on events and other places to skate. Beginner Areas First things first...you need to start in a safe flat area (yes, you should take a few hours of lessons and should wear all your safety gear including wrist pads, elbow pads, knee pads, helmet and at least one brake). There are several popular areas to learn: Sunset Beach Parking Lot, English Bay: Sunset Beach is nestled between the Aquatic Centre (under the Burrard St Bridge) and the lifeguard shack to the North-West of the Aquatic Centre. This parking lot has been probably the premiere location for blading in Vancouver for the past four years. Many people learn here, there is a newly established roller-hockey rink on the South-East side of the lot and Thursday nights have traditionally (for 3 years) been the free drop-in night to come ride through slalom cones, watch the local stunt team members do their tricks on their grind rails and have free demo's on new skates from various skate companies. UBC Parking Lot B: This is probably one of the largest and most open areas to learn in the lower mainland. It is situated to the South-West of UBC Health Sciences Hospital and on the weekends there are very few cars parked there! UBC Rose Garden Parkade: (Bottom floor-2 floors down). UBC has been extremely gracious by not objecting to people blading down on the bottom floor on rainy days. The bottom floor is virtually car-free, clean a constant temperature, large and well-lit. Remember Wherever you blade, you do so under your own liability and it is your responsibility to avoid accidents and to skate safely. It is vital that we avoid the American mentality of scatter-gun lawsuits to anyone who had the remotest connection to an accident, so that some bozo can try to make a windfall due to their own irresponsibility!! Even though it is unlikely that they could win, the hassle and legal costs are enough for a location to ban blading (which we never want to see!). Presently there are bans on the seawall in West Vancouver, the Boardwalk and Marine Drive in White Rock, the Downtown core in Victoria and the downtown core in Portland Oregon. Locally the Volunteer Skate Patrol has done a huge amount of work to promote safe skating and avoid bans in places like Stanley Park, Seymour Demonstration Forest and UBC. Intermediate Areas In future installments we will give more details on intermediate blading routes such as: The path under the Skytrain to New Westminster blade trail in Port Moody from Rocky Point to Ioco The road on the North side of the Richmond Airport heading to Iona Island Tug Boat Landing (in South-East Vancouver on the Fraser River) Sunset Beach to Science World Stanley Park (see route map) The bike/skate path on the North side of the Burnaby Golf Course The bike/skate path around the perimeter of UBC Day trips to intermediate skate routes in Seattle (such as Green Lake and Alki Beach) Advanced Areas We'll also expand on these in future installments. Whistler: Although most of the skate paths at Whistler are only intermediate, due to the narrowness and occasional black diamond steepness on a few hills this has to be considered a potentially advanced area. Seymour Demonstration Forest: The Demonstration Forest is definitely advanced intermediate to expert with blue square difficulty to black diamond to double and triple black diamond hills!   ABOUT LORNE MILNE Lorne is a blading instructor (certified Level 1 and 2 with the IISA, the International Inline Skating Association) and also co-ordinates the local volunteer Skate Patrols with fellow coordinator and instructor Brian Larsen. In addition to general in-line and street skating skills, Lorne also specializes in hill skills, utilizing his background as a level 1 and 2 ski instructor and snowboard instructor, all of which he teaches through the 'Lorne Milne Blade, Board and Ski School.' If you are interested in becoming a member of the National Skate Patrol (a branch of the IISA) or are interested in taking beginner or advanced lessons call Lorne at (604) 708-1055, on his cellular at 805-4810 or he can be reached by fax at 708-1062. The above information remains the personal opinion of our guest writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of englishbay.com.

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Rollerblading guide for English Bay, located in Vancouver's West End