A SKATING CONVERSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9103, 1 June 1908, Page 5

A SKATING CONVERSION.

ATTRACTIONS OP THE SFOKT. AND HUMOURS OF THE RINK. (By a Convert.) There is a saying "no enthusiast like the golf enthusiast," but I beg to differ. I would paraphrase that "no enthusiast within coo-ee of the skating enthusiast." A friend of mine whose ardour for the rink is only a first-season creation, and yet is such as to almost cause him to wish that the seasons comprised one long winter, and that alt means of locomotion were one protracted skate, prevailed on me to accompany him to his favourite rendezvous one night last week, and from what I saw I firmly believe there are others in Masterron besides my friend who measures all pleasures, and perhaps duties, by the standard 01 the rollerskate. I had previously regarded skatirg rinks with a large amount of suspicion, firmly believing that the sounds which emanated therefrom indicated a mediaeval conception of pleasure a bloon-thirsty, limbsmashing, brain-crashing pastime suitable only lor degenerates. However, as beforesaid, I went with my friend to have these suspicions confirmed, and t«) ahow my friend that his sporting taste was grossly vitiated. To give the pastime a fair trial on its merits before finally condemning it, I even consented to don a pair of the vile little articles which I felt sure carried all to ultimate destruction —it was a question of time. I entered the rink, with its gay decorations overhead, its streamers and flags, and its cosy soft drinks bar in the far corner. "All in keeping," I thought, "with a Satanic sport." There were two assistants adjusting skates for patrons who were in a perfect fever to get on their feet—the skates couldn't be adjusted half soon enough. I joined these with a sort of a grim, determined notion that I was a hero —something akin to a patient approaching a dentist's chair. Screwing up the clamps of the skates was to me for all the world like a dentist probing with his lance prior to the extraction. The pull would come later. There were only one or two skaters on the floor up to the time rcy skates were finally adjusted, and as they appeared to know something about the game, gliding about with wonderful grace and tpced, I felt a little less severe towards the proceedings. "Ever skated before?" queried the assistant. "Not often," I replied guardedly. I felt then somewhat like the bad dancer ready to excuse his blunders at the expense of the floor. A lady next to me arose for her first spin of the evening. She got away with a great sweep, whirled in and out of the fast-increasing throng on the floor, and returned to get a clamp tightened up—all in about twenty seconds. Not having moved, I felt rather sheepish, and ventured to stand up. I stood up alright! 1 moved cautiously along, clutching the friendly wall railing, for several yards—quite five. The thing wasn't so bad after all. Meantime there were sundry evolutions being carried out close to m<3 by a fancy skater, and a perfect maze of humanity, young and otherwise, flashed by wtth one

wild resolve, apparently—to get the very last inch of speed out of their skates. By the time I had covered once round (clinging to the railing, of course), I bejan to melt considerably. One or two tremendous-sound-ing spills had occurred, involving several peoplfi in each, but to my surprise this seemed to add more determination than ever to individual effort. Certainly no one appeared hurt. Even when one man, weighing quite fifteen stone, came down backwards with an emphasis that told of Herculean efforts at balancing, the descent being preceded by a loud and hurried staccato of bashes on the floor (I pitied the skates), the victim arose smilingly and returned to his frolics with the utmost complacency. I ventured away from the wall myself then, and performed admirably for a novice. My record was excellent for the first three rounds—two collisions and ihree capsizes. Still there were no casualties. I then endeavoured to put on a turn of speed. I succeeded. A lady with a straw hat convinced me that I must have, for the ball-bearing skates specially sup plied me gathered an unexpected momentum, induced by some hard case giving me a gentle shove (evidently knowing my skill), and sending the lady and myself clasped in a fond embrace speeding towards the gallery where we "took our seats" with more precipitation than grace, the straw hat playing a useful part in hiding the lady's blushes. I progressed, however, not wisely, but too well, as in an hour's time I felt the giddiest person in the room, I believe, and with all previous ideas dispelled. Skating was rapturously grand. What mattered it if one went "biff" into a wall and sat where seats were uot provided? What harm if one did, in a despairing effort to preserve the perpendiacular, clutch a lady's hair like a drowning man and the proverbial straw? It is all part of the sport—a wild, rollicking, exhilarating pastime, where try as you might you simply cannot break the floor with your head, nor leave an impression on the brick wall with your skating neighbour's head. From a bigot I became in one short hour a convert, and though more stars were seen by me in that hour than those on the American ensign drooping overhead in the rink, I have He kindly towards skates and skaters ever since. The humours of the rink are many and varied. There is always the lady skater who asks for a size three skate for a size six foot, and thinks it "must be the skate wrongly numbered." But the assistants have some worldly knowledge of value. Then there is the sixteen stone lady skater whose ambition is to excel the efforts of more agile fair votaries, with disastrous consequences to floor, skates, and the skating public. Then, again, there is thtj budding racer who enters a competition for the first time and imagines himself a veritable "skate king," but when the crucial moment for showing his fine points arrives he succeeds only in landing the whole line of competitors full length on the floor! A man with one leg arrived one evening with the request, "One skate, please!" It wus gently hut firmly declined, the management not caring to accept such a heavy responsibility. Skating is a great game.