Skating the Country Lanes of SE Hampshire

by Peter Maisey

After a winter of skating restricted to the local, dimly lit sports halls, summer finally arrives. The roads dry out and the country lanes are there to be skated on. My home area Portsmouth has a few cycle paths, but for me the rural back roads, just a couple of miles north the city boundary, have a far stronger appeal. Not that they are without the odd problem or two.

Checking out potential routes was a necessity prior to skating them. Not wanting to drive blindly around searching for somewhere suitable to skate, I used Ordnance Survey maps. I looked for single track roads that weren't crossed by too many contour lines - the aim was a pleasant skate, not a major sweat-fest. Not all locations turned out to be suitable. Some roads proved to be steeper than the OS map suggested. Some had blind bends. Some had poor quality surfaces. And some had too much traffic.

Having found a venue and having decided to skate it, high on the priority list was safety. The roads may be single track, with "passing in lay-byes only" but still have a theoretical 60mph speed limit. Not that drivers do that kind of speed around these roads, which is partly why I chose them. And there aren't that many cars on these roads either. Traffic flow seems to peak at around  half a dozen cars in an hour. And there has never been any aggression from the drivers I do meet.

But horses? I cannot believe how dumb these animals are. I skate slowly, they panic. I stop skating, they still panic. I stand in grass long enough to hide my skates. You guessed it. On the positive side, evidence of their passing makes good natural slalom cones. Falling over is not a smart option though.

Some sections of road require "skinny skating", reducing stride length or pushing with one leg, to cope with steep camber or grit on the road. Not a problem downhill, but not so good going up. I sometimes skate through the grit to check my downhill speed. Conversely, on some of the rougher sections it's speed and scissoring and blasting on through.

Skating along tree lined roads, with dappled sunlight breaking through sounds great, but has problems of its own. Shadier stretches stay wet long after open stretches have dried. Even after a few dry days, some sections are still damp and slippery.

You will begin to appreciate that there are a host of potential problems skating on roads. In spite of that, for me, the enjoyment of skating the open road far outweighs the drawbacks. It has also given me a skating confidence I would never have found by limiting myself to indoor venues. I feel very fortunate to have found what appears to be a rare set of circumstances coming together for some great skating. I think it is what I learnt to skate for.

Some negatives...

Talking to others about skating the open road, I am surprised at some of the negative comments I have received. I shouldn't encourage others to skate on the road.  It's dangerous etc. But it is something I do because I enjoy it.  Those who have skated with me have recommended it to others. But ultimately it's an individual's choice.

Bear in mind that much of the preceding is about problems rather than pleasures. Grit, cars, horses, camber, hills, wet tarmac, rough tarmac, potholes, dogs, etc.

 I wonder if I'd have had the same negative reaction if I was talking about the virtues of riding a bike around the country lanes of England. Coincidentally, I recently took part in a sponsored bike ride over the lanes I skate on. There were quite a few of us, cycling faster that I skate. Nobody seemed at all worried. On the contrary, the attitude was more of "wasn't it good that we dads were out doing something with our teenage kids". Isn't life peculiar.

LondonSkaters disclaimer

I'd rate this sort of skating as only for expert and experienced skaters.  Peter was very sensible in carefully choosing his routes and checking them out beforehand.  The two most serious hazards I would expect are bad and unpredictable road surfaces, including the grit, camber, etc, and then also downhills making it easy to skate outside your envelope of control.  These two hazards together are the main cause of most skating injuries, but there are of course many others.  If you do decide to skate like this, it's of course entirely your own decision and at your own risk.

I say this having twice skated the London to Brighton charity bicycle ride.  I also share Peter's bemusement at the negative comments by others, but I suppose it's not that surprising when so many people feel that way about cycling too, and also with no justification.

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