Speed skating in Vegas

[bayya]

Hello speedskaters,
I'm an inline speedskater from Poland, and I'm going to visit Las Vegas next summer, but I wouldn't be able to exist for two months without this sport, I'm addicted to it! So, please help me! Do you know any coaches or teams from Las Vegas, and how to contact them? Or if you know any places for inline speed skaing in las vegas, please write here!

[tdellaringa]

Hello Bayya,

I lived in Vegas for 5 months a few years ago. At the time I didn't speedskate, but I did rec skate quite a bit, so as far as organized teams, I'm not sure.

But - I can tell you this, and maybe I'm stating the obvious here but - Vegas is a DESERT. In other words, it's hot. No, it's not hot... it's HOT. REALLY HOT.

People drop like flies during the day from *walking* too much. I used to go for a 15 minute walk during my lunch in the summer, and it would be 115 degrees. At that point, it doesn't matter about the humidity. The sweat evaporates off your body before you even feel it. So needless to say, you'd need to hydrate like a crazy person.

Skating during the heat of the day - say from 10-5 would be unwise, IMO. I simply wouldn't do it during the summer, it would be too dangerous.

I used to do some fitness skating after dinner. I would wait until 7 o'clock usually, when the sun was finally starting to head down but I still had an hour or so to skate. It would still be hot - still often over 100, but doable.

As far as places to skate - I'm thinking you aren't going to find many places suitable, although a lot has changed since I was there. I don't recall any paths or trails at all. They have some nice parks, but none have skateable trails from my memory.

I used to do some laps around my apartment parking lot complex, then skate some residential roads - always tricky with vehicles. It also depends on where you are staying. I'm mainly familiar with SW Vegas - Spring Valley area where I lived. Some of the East LV areas are considered pretty bad areas. You wouldn't want to skate there. In fact, most complexes there are all gated communities for security purposes. It's not the friendliest town around, so you'd want to ask around before you skated in a particular area.

Vegas is a massive grid of roads. I can't recall ever seeing stretches of road where you could train (other than expressways, which are out obviously). Maybe someone more familiar with vegas, or there more recent can say otherwise. Vegas is always booming and they are always building like crazy there.

It might just take some searching out to find a suitable place. Good luck!

Here's a link to my little loop I used to skate. I lived on Durango Blvd. Lots of residential street and sidewalks, it was okay for fitness skating, wouldn't want to skate a lot of it on speed skates though.

Above all though, I cannot stress enough that if you are going to skate there during summer, you need to be very careful of the heat. It sneaks up on you, you may not feel that hot but you really are. People collapse all the time there - it's easy to forget with all the sites that you really are in the middle of a desert.

[bayya]

Thanks for the answer
I was an exchange student in Vegas, and I was doing track and field in high school, so I know the weather in Vegas. I hated it, especially during the practice. I'm going to visit my host family and my friends, and unfortunatelly its the middle of inline season in Poland so I'll have to practice a lot during my stay in Vegas, so when I come back I'm ready for some marathons, especially for Berlin Marathon in the end of September.
I heard that the Target store parking lot is good for skating but only early mornings. Anyway I'm going to skate early mornings or late afternoons, cause of the heat. I also heard of Las Vegas inline racing team, and that they practice at the Crystal Palace at Rancho Drive. Can somebody tell me more about this team? When do they practice, who's the coach, and are there selected people in this team or can anybody skate with them?

[uelsk8s]

Andy Zak is from las vegas. He has been skating marathons in california this year and doing very good.

[mvirtue]

There is also the Las Vegas Speed team. They practice at the Rancho Crystal Palace.

[ElSnapitan]

Does this team still exist at Crystal Palace? If not, are there any other teams here in Vegas. I am wanting to start back up again and I think I have "tricked" my son into it as well.

THanks,


Jeff

[ultrask8]

I think its bad form to give out some ones phone number on the internet without their ok.

Andy Zaks internet handle is "Droid".

[Jim White]

Jeff, I don't know if that team is together yet; they were quite recently. Best to check at the rink. Very unlikey there are other teams. If you can't find anything at the rink, send to me your contact info and I'll pass it on to the coach (or ex-coach if that's the case).

[uelsk8s]

There were a few Las Vegas skaters in Houston this weekend.

I removed the offending phone number, But I did find it on the internet so I don't think it was private.

[ElSnapitan]

Thanks for the replies guys. Hopefully they are still together. I really have the itch to get back out there.

Thanks,


Snappy

[Jan-Terje]

Please tell me if some of you manage to gather some more information on the Vegas skaters. I'll probably visit Vegas next summer too, and it would be great to meet some fellow skaters over there. Thanks!

[ElSnapitan]

I will be trying to contact Crystal Palace to see if there is a team anymore. My feeling is that there is. If I make contact I will be sure to let you know.


Snappy