The Best Places To Skate

Brighton & Sussex Seafronts

Brighton's seafront is great for recreational skating, certainly at the Hove end. Here you have "BladeMarc & Suzi Jeffries territory", just around the St Johns Café area, with wonderful wide tarmac & plenty of skaters to say hi to (myself included).

Some of the other promenades along the South Coast are also good, for example Bognor Regis, around the bandstand area, Worthing, by the pier & lets not forget Skate2000’s venue, Eastbourne, where you will see Tim Wheals working the newbies in a lesson. All these places recently featured in an article in the UK skate magazine, Skatermag.

Bognor Regis

  • Surface : 10 out of 10, great around the band stand area, pebbles though if its been bad weather & a high tide!
  • Skater numbers : Lots, especially from the Butlins complex on holiday & especially weekends.
  • Skater quality : Learner to competent, Instructor available.
  • Night life : Good along the main seafront around the main skate areas.
  • Food : Pub food & good old fish & chips.
  • Accommodation : Average at reasonable prices.

Eastbourne

  • Surface : 8-10 out of 10, watch the pebbles at rough times though!
  • Skater numbers : Plentiful to masses - especially weekends - all day.
  • Skater quality : Beginner to Competent. Instructor available
  • Night life : The main skating area is away from about 2 miles from the town centre.
  • Food : Fair to good quality and all reasonable prices.
  • Accommodation : Good quality at a fair price.

Hastings

  • Surface : 7-8 out of 10, Tarmac & paving slab seafront with one rough bit past the pier.
  • Skater numbers : Not so crowded a scene in its infancy.
  • Skater quality : Learner to competent.
  • Night life : Fair along the main seafront & town centre.
  • Food : Pub food & good old fish & chips.
  • Accommodation : Average at reasonable prices.


London

Central London
Hyde Park - Dawn Irwin's teaching place - around the Serpentine lake is probably the Mecca for London inliners. The main part of the park itself is good for skating, but the paths tend to get a bit crowded with people.

Finsbury Park - supposedly the Mecca for inline speed skaters. They meet on Sundays around 12pm.

Stockwell/Brixton - there is an old skateboard park at the Brixton end of Stockwell road. Free entry, watch out for debris & dodgy characters.

South London
Dulwich Park - the central pathways are fairly smooth, but are usually too crowded. The perimeter road is pretty good; the cars are usually traveling very slowly so they do not mind the skaters. The spur road near the A205 is good for learners, as it is smooth & blocked off as a parking area.

Crystal Palace Park - very good, lots of smooth wide pathways (it used to be a car race track!). Watch out for the leaves in autumn.

Herne Hill Cycle Track - 5 wheel heaven! Brand new banked track for bicycle racing. Probably free use if you speak nicely to the groundsman.

West London
Richmond Park - central paved paths are quite good. Can be very busy at weekends. Why do people go to a huge park & still walk on the paths when there is 5 square miles of grass? The perimeter road would be good for speed freaks, watch out for the steep hill ending at a junction.

Marble Hill Park - not bad, fairly smooth. Thames footpath is a bit rough towards the West.

River Crane Walk, Twickenham - very smooth & flat pathway along the side of a stream. It leads into a nature reserve. Very pretty, but tends to get crowded with dog walkers.

This is sort of a review of Hyde Park (from the novice point of view):

Last night a friend Philip and myself went skating in Hyde Park, London. It is the first time we have ventured to this 'Mecca' of British skating & we were both pleasantly surprised.

We arrived at about 7:30pm & after kitting up we headed down to the Serpentine & skated along the marked skate track, which runs east/west along the edge of the lake. There were quite a few families with small children & prams, but these did not prove too much of a obstacle providing we kept our speed down to a gentle stroll.

We then head to the west of the park, where we found the 'infamous' gritted tracks (park authorities have placed grit on some tracks to discourage skaters), these were very effective at stopping skaters. Unfortunately they also stop pedestrians & cyclists as well, thus cramming everybody onto a narrower section of track. This probably causes more of a hazard.

The west corner of the park seemed to be a little hillier, but was fairly quite & it was easy to skate with confidence & not having to worry too much about running into people or be run into.

By the Royal Albert Hall, there is a slalom track marked with yellow paint (two lanes), presumable the cones come out for the events. my mate Philip had a go & did quite well, but I am not  as good as he (yet!).

At about 9:00pm the police informed us the gardens (west half of the park) were closing & asked us to leave by the nearest exit. We then skated along the pavement of the spine road & back to the skate track next to the Serpentine (the east half of the park does not close), where we skated to about 10:00pm had a drink from a burger stall & then went home.

In general the attitude of the skaters & pedestrians was very good, most gave each other plenty of space to pass although it was mildly annoying that some people walked 6 or 7 abreast. The only real problem I saw was a few teenagers, who had been stopped by the police for skating too fast, I cannot say how fast, as I did not see them before they were stopped.

Overall the experience was a very positive one, two hours of skating on smooth roads is bound to improve your confidence & skill and I came away feeling really good about my skating. It was also fun to watch the other (better) skaters to get ideas of things to try later. It was also good to see some positive action for skaters such as the marking of a skate lane & a slalom course.

The only down side is that I would imagine that the weekends would get far too busy, but the various competitions could be fun to sit & watch.

Skating recommendation is 10 out of 10, good for learner & fair skaters.

Also thought I would mention Richmond Park as a good venue for novice inliners. There are several miles of undulating tarmac, that is traffic free & wide enough to practice stops, turns & even spins. Most of it is through grassland so relatively soft landings/run-outs are available. I have yet to see more than half a dozen people there on skates, though cyclists & pedestrians are plentiful. Watch out for the gravel at Ham Gate & half way along the path from Ham Cross to Spanker's Hill Wood: which is the nicest section by far.

So if you new and/or looking for an alternative to the central parks try Richmond: but not too many please! Hopefully the review on the use of Royal Parks will not ban it.

Jersey

  • Surface : 8-9 out of 10, sometimes better!
  • Skater numbers : Low to rare - a scene in its infancy.
  • Skater quality : Low to average.
  • Night life : Good to excellent and right round the skate scene (nothing is far in Jersey).
  • Food : Good at normal prices.
  • Accommodation : Good & at normal prices.

    Jersey is 35 minutes from Gatwick airport, you do not have to worry about passports and its a reasonable weekend trip. Its a little cheaper than England (no VAT) & does not cost the earth to get there or stay. Additionally its a tiny place so you cannot get too lost! But for all its tiny dimensions, there is a great deal of skating to do!

Paris - France

  • Surface : Everything from 1/10 to 10/10, Cobbles to Tarmac!
  • Skater numbers : 10-20,000 every Friday starting around 10PM.
  • Skater quality : Competent to excellent.
  • Night life : Are you kidding? its Paris! (But its all closed when the skate ends!)
  • Food : Everything French!
  • Accommodation : Average.

    I have always wanted to do the Paris Friday night skate, so when Meridian TV news rang Tim Wheals up & said, "Do you know any one whose organising a trip - because we want to film a news feature". He naturally said he was half way through organising one - & does that sort of thing all the time!

    A quick phone call to Eurostar & a few friends and bingo, 10 people ready to roll - complete with his own private film crew. Which made it much easier to sell the trip! The fact that Meridian were with them meant they were taken specially through Eurostar - Full VIP mode! Then they found a taxi in Paris, organised a hotel & headed for the skate meeting point. I cannot emphasize enough, this is a crowded skate! 20,000 people is busy - 20,000 on skates is incredible. Be visible & follow the advice on the Pari-roller web page. It is an incredible experience - but not for those that cannot control their speed.

    • Skate level: confirmed skaters (you have to be able to control your speed)
    • The first skaters wait for the ones coming up last
    • Do not go past the front line of Staffers
    • "Catching" is completely prohibited (catching on to a motorised vehicles)
    • Only skate on the road & as far right as possible
    • Leave clearing passages for motorcyclists on the side of the skaters
    • For security reasons, cyclists are undesirable