Q: How often do you patrol at Hyde Park?

A: Skate Patrol will patrol at Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens on week-ends (weather permitting), every afternoon from 1pm to 5pm (from late spring 2003 to late October).

Q: What exactly do you do when you are on patrol in the Park?

A: Skate Patrollers will share their time between skating all areas attended by skaters within Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, and providing a free stopping clinic on the Serpentine Road in Hyde Park.  We will also provide first aid as necessary.

Q: How does this differ from what you do when on the street skates?

A: In the park, we really have all the time we want to talk to skaters about what we do and to show them the correct way of using the heel brake at the stopping clinic. This is much more difficult to achieve on the street skates since everyone has to move along with the skate.

Our role on the street skates is to sweep the back of the group and help out anyone having difficulties stopping or who is skating too slowly (getting everyone to skate together in one group is paramount for a safe streetskate). We're also there to skate with anyone who is unable to keep up with the back marshals and wishes to return to the park accompanied by one of our members.

Q: Are you planning to patrol anywhere else?

A: Patrols are only planned for Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens at the moment.

Q: What are your primary 3 goals as Skate Patrol?

A: The three primary goals of Skate Patrol are encourage the uptake of skating within the general community, to provide assistance to skaters, and to promote safety (IISA's "Skate S.L.A.P", SLAP = Smart, Legal, Alert, Polite).

Q: How do you to help people to learn to stop with the heel brake?  I mean do you skate up to people who look like the classic beginner, or do you set up a stand with something like a "Free braking lesson" banner?

A: We hope to have (soon) our own banner displayed next to where we'll be doing our stopping clinic. At the moment, we have no banner on display so we just skate up to anyone who looks like a beginner and inform then about what Skate Patrol does and can offer them.

Our stopping clinic is located half-way down the Serpentine Road in Hyde Park, between the car park and the Dell restaurant, just opposite the boat hire facility.

Q: Roughly how long do you spend on each person who requests a heel braking lesson?

A: We spend on average about 10-15 minutes with each skater, but if needed we spend as long as necessary as stopping is a vital skill to master in skating.  This is because stopping is a skill which significantly boosts a beginners' confidence, and often determines whether they will carry on skating or just give up after a few hours.  If we can, we do a one-on-one lesson - otherwise small groups are organised.

Q: What about beginner skaters that see free lessons, and then want to be taught other things?

A: We can show people a few basic skating techniques (safe-T, ready position, scissoring, V-walk...). We don't give a full lesson and can't teach everything people need to learn to become proficient at the sport.

Q: Will you recommend instructors to these skaters? If you do recommend any, how will you choose which instructors to recommend out of all those available in London?

A: People who want to learn more than we teach might want to consider private or group tuition with a qualified instructor. Skate Patrol have 10 qualified instructors within its ranks in London alone, but when "patrolling" they will teach how to stop with a heel brake only. Skate Patrol don't have a policy of recommending anyone in particular -- there are enough instructors out and about in the park for people to choose from.

Q: Many of the Skate Patrollers are IISA certified instructors. Does skate patrolling not conflict with their (and other instructors' in the Park) ability to earn money by teaching beginners?

A: Skate Patrol is about giving something back to our local skating community, especially to the people starting up. Patrollers don't teach privately when on duty or with their Skate Patrol uniform on. We hope that by showing beginners how to stop, they will feel more confident being more in control of their skates, and that they will keep on enjoying skating. Too many people buy skates then realise they can't stop very well (or turn, etc.) and give up completely. We would like to turn casual skaters into regular skaters.  The Skate Patrol clinic only covers a small part of what an instructor would teach over a lesson. We offer the very basics for inline-skaters to get started and grow in confidence.

See the IISA website here http://www.iisa.org/index.htm

OK, so what you're saying is that Skate Patrol will only teach enough to help a skater skate safely.  There's so much more to learn from an instructor that Skate Patrol shouldn't significantly affect instructor business, especially once you take into account that Skate Patrol will be helping more skaters to stay with the sport.

Q: So you encourage people to wear helmets and protective gear? I know this is a controversial issue. Does that mean you will suggest to every helmet-less skater that they would be better off wearing a helmet, or will you only suggest this to those that come to you for help?

A: We do encourage skaters to wear protection when they skate, and will always promote the wearing of headgear to skaters, particularly new ones.  Falling is an integral part of the learning curve of this sport, and people need to be aware of the risks they take.  Often new skaters don't realise that skating can be a dangerous activity and underestimate the risks they take.

Everyone should be aware of the risks they take when choosing not to wear one, but often the absence of helmet-wearing is the result of a lack of information and education.  Unfortunately they might consider wearing one ONLY after they have hurt themselves badly.

We won't skate up to people telling them to wear a helmet, but hopefully as people see more of us in the park as well as on the street skates, they will follow our example (helmets, a heel brake, and protective gear are an integral part of the Skate Patrollers' uniform) and eventually we will see more inline-skaters with a helmet in the future.

Remember, you only have one head, and it's worth protecting it!