Friday, July 8, 2011

Pic Skate

Long ago, when we knew we were going to Greece, we checked into ice skating rinks. We had a budding young ice skater who loved above all else to skate. This of course, was after we bid on and got Greece. We found to our sadness, no ice rink, while the web said, yes of course! The rink had closed perhaps two years earlier.

As a result, we knew not what to do. However, our wonderful ice rink shop manager, Jimmy, put us onto the idea of Pic Skates. My mind is now murky as to the details as this was 5 years and two cities ago. He had the frames and he had boots and we wed the two.

Funny enough, one of the coaches at the rink, who she had watched giving lessons had created the Pic Skate. Nick Perna had created the skate as a way for ice skaters to practice off the ice.
My daughter also took a Delta level class from his wife, Michelle.

So we sallied forth to Greece in August of 2006 with Pic Skates in the suitcase. If they weren't in the suitcase, then they were in the airfreight!!

Well, finding smooth places to pic skate in Greece was difficult. First of all it was hot and dusty.
Then, of course, we were still on the young ones need to be in bed at a reasonable hour. We ate at the normal western times, as we didn't want to be in bed on a full stomach. Not only did we not understand how the Greeks ate, large meal at noon, we didn't have the opportunity with our work and school schedules to do such.

We found a local school with an asphalt and concrete yard which was open to go to on the weekend afternoons and a few evenings. Being alone on skates didn't make it much fun, however she worked a bit some moves and skated.


While in Greece I found a link to some Inline competition in Italy perhaps a year or so before. However, I could never find a person to email or ask questions about an inline community.

A friend in our community went with her to skate where we had found a nice smooth spot. It was the pad built for the 2004 Olympics for parking. I believe it was built for the press parking nice and flat for satellite link equipment and trucks. It sat right to the northwest of the new Olympic Stadium.

Little did we know that 5 years later, she would once again be on Pics even when she was skating on ice.

more soon....

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