untitles

Article From RollerSkating Magazine April 1980

Cover Rollerkskating Magazine April 1980

Part 1.

Marathon: From Seattle to San Diego with skates and sails

by Jamie Budge

Wheeling with the wind, through the shimmering heat waves they appear like a flock of multi-colored seagulls flying on a two-dimensional plane. They soar and dive, bank into turns and ride up-drafts in a flight as real and exhilarating as might occur in the sky above. Only when they swoop closer do they turn into real people with sails in their hands and wheels on their heels, a species known as WindSkaters.

WindSkaters use standard roller skates in combination with a 7 pound, 10 foot nylon sail on an aluminum frame. Holding the sail in their hands, claim the purists, gives them an intimate connection with the wind that can only be rivalled by a skiers involvement with the snow. Indeed, the WindSkaters ride the wind in a series of tacks, jibes and turns that leave most waterbound sailors envious (to have wings on their feet as well as in the sky!).

The Marathon Gang: (left to right) Terry Caccia, Colin Courtman, Terry Marcellino, Jamie Budge.

We had all gathered together earlier in the day in Los Angeles to load sails and roller skates into various cars and vans. These dozen or so enthusiasts were eager to try an exciting new sport called WindSkating on a dry lake bed named El Mirage, about two hours' drive away. The sport was said to be fun and easy; but it was the lure of getting away from it all to a desert playground that was enough to entice them.

The desert offered all that had been promised by veterans of earlier WindSkate safaris: fifteen miles of desert salt flats surrounded by natural decorations of sage brush, cactus, flowers and low mountain ranges. The sky is deep blue, the air very clean. The wind blew in a steady jet stream that felt free as the whole environment. The actual surface of the dry lake bed is an alkaline base, claylike salt flat. Any roller skate wheels roll easily over the smoother sections. Some skaters used wider trucks (such as Tracker) with larger 70mm soft wheels (such as Red Kryptonics) to stabilize some of the rougher terrain. The major part of the lake bed is easily ride able although criss-crossed with hair-line cracks and fissures, giving it a surreal appearance like the surface of the moon. For a number of the skaters participating today, WindSkating had become a sport within a sport. Terry Caccia is one of the originals who had watched the phenomenon of outdoor roller skating explode all around him in the city of Venice. He had perfected his disco routines, park techniques and outdoor stylized stroll to the level of a pro. Terry was the first person to Roller WindSkate. Today his rides on the desert look more like the low flight of a hang glider. In the difficult side skate position, he cocks one foot behind him and leans over backwards at about forty five degrees. Only the wind in the sail keeps him off the ground. Fred Blood is new to WindSkating but certainly not to roller skating. His antics and triple spins in bowls and pools are world famous. Here on the desert he skates parallel foot, but leans into the sail to gain incredible speeds. He is soon chased by Terry Caccia and Colin Courtman, another Venice veteran renowned for his jivey street style. All three of them head off in the distance for a flag that has been placed for racing. Approaching the flag they shift the sails over their heads for standard turning position. They all but disappear in a cloud of their own dust as they round the flag, re-position the sail on the other sides of their bodies and head back across the wind in the other direction.

And now it was my turn. As inventor of the device, I felt that I had just about mastered every technique that the sport had to offer ... on a skateboard. I could explain in exact detail and with great confidence how to do it, but I hadn't done it on roller skates. It felt very awkward to be starting all over again in something that I had learned four years ago. I joined Terry Marcellino and Connie Cook, two other newcomers to roller WindSkating. I gave them a few brief pointers on how to hold the sail and position it in the wind. Being experienced roller skaters, they both started off competently on the skates, getting used to the feel of the wind in the sail. I picked up my sail and blew easily with the wind, going rather slowly. But to be really sailing, I had to angle across the wind. My right hand held the leading pole straight up and down, just like the mast on a sailboat. My left hand held the lower pole parallel to the ground, just like the boom of a sailboat. I rested the boom on my thigh for a pivot point, and pulled the sail into trim against the pressure of the wind in the sail. The harder I leaned against the wind, the faster I would go. Speed was not high on my priority list, so I let a little wind spill from the sail and slowed down. To turn, I merely shifted the sail over my head and re-positioned it on my other thigh. Going slowly and easily, I wanted to try the more difficult "side-skate" position. I turned my right foot around in order to be skating heel-to-heel. It felt more familiar and comfortable and I gained quick confidence. I leaned against the force of the wind, remembering Terry Caccia's body angle of ·45 degrees.

It felt great! I realized that I could be an expert roller WindSkater in no time. As I gained speed however, my right foot forgot to follow the direction set by my left one. In an instant, I was turned around backwards and then flipped into a spin by the wind in the sail. I tumbled along the dry lake bed and rolled over in white chalky powder. Fortunately, the desert surface is very forgiving, but I was marked with the white dust for ail to see my wipe-out!

Author Leads Desert Pack The author leads a desert race.

I felt relieved to learn that the "side-skate" position was not mandatory for WindSkating. I returned to the group of newcomers to give some more lessons. They were all comfortable on roller skates and catching on very quickly. All they needed were a few tips on sailing techniques, and all I needed was a little practice roller skating. It was a very co-operative effort, and we all learned from each other. By afternoon, all of the novices (including myself) had become competent WindSkaters. It is late in the day and the bright orange ball of the sun sinks into a dark expansive horizon. The sky is various shades of orange and red, and the chalky surface of the desert glows with an iridescent pink from the sun. The tow mountain ranges from a dark line that splits the scene in two and the sage brush ranges cast long dark shadows across the glowing salt flats.

Far off in the distance come the last half-a-dozen riders. Like triangular UFO's, they leave fiery hot dust trails behind them as they eclipse the globe of the sun. The back light gives a golden glow to the reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens that denote their different identities. The WindSkaters lean one way, then flipping the sails over their heads as they turn, they lean the other. In a rapid succession of turns, they criss-cross the sage brush mogul field as if it were a giant slalom course. As the riders break free of the mogulfield, they enter the last cove of ice-smooth surface and it is time to play. They shout with enthusiasm and drift in and out in a grand finale of flight maneuvers that would leave the Blue Angels a little envious. A campfire has been lit, and the roller sailors make a few last circling approaches before coming in for the final landing and the warmth of friends by the fire. It has been several hours of WindSkating and complete detachment from all forms of urban civilization. There has been no noise of traffic, no stoplights to control the flow, no hamburger stands to pollute the skyline or your stomach, no ten-cent toilets to remind you that capitalism exists everywhere. You have been alone on the high seas of a new experience, and there is nothing unnatural to mar the sensations or the purity of the encounter.

After an experience like this, it is easy to feel a great pride in my own involvement in the development of WindSkating. The sport had come a long way since my original discovery with two broomsticks and a plastic dropcloth five years ago in a Santa Monica parking lot. On that first windy day I had approached speeds of 20 miles per hour with an elated sense of consciousness as I flew by parked cars, telephone poles, office buildings and a security guard (who told me insurance regulations wouldn't permit me to do whatever it was that I was doing there). Undaunted, I had taken to another parking lot down by the beach where a bunch of kids rolled down a hill with skate wheels attached on the bottom of wooden boards. They stared and snickered and told fairytales about that strange person with the funny contraption on his board. But one by one, I convinced them of the joy that these wings could bring with the sea breezes of late afternoon. Soon, the skateboarders had learned to WindSkate, and surfers who rode the waves at the adjoining beach would ride these skateboards and sails on the afternoons when it was too windy to surf. And the surfers brought bikini-clad girls who would sail down the bike path on breezy summer afternoons. The surfers knew skiers who knew motorcycle riders who all liked WindSkating, and soon, I was no longer alone with my new sport (and pleasant " companions they were)!

Terry Marcellino skating parallel stance through the farm lands of Northern California

After about two years, a new kind of person rolled down the bike path. He had wheels on his feet instead of on a board. He had rented these devices in a nearby fairyland known as Venice. And he had plenty of company, with more roller persons coming in every new day. One day a roller person name Terry Caccia asked to use a WjndSkate sail. We stared and snickered and told fairytales because we knew you had to have a board to sail. But we were wrong, and Terry converted even more roller persons to the joys of WindSkating.

Almost overnight, the fairytale beginnings turned into very real recognition for the new sport. Hundreds of articles appeared in newspapers, magazines, films and TV shows around the world. Orders flooded in and we set up shop to keep up with the demand. But my personal motivation was not the manufacturing aspect, rather the challenge of developing a sport as serious as soaring or sailing with all the fun of skating. I wanted WindSkates to sail down wind, up wind, turn on a dime and still be easy to use. To be valid, I knew WindSkating would have the simple joys as well as the difficult challenges that were part of skiing, sailing and skating. In parking lots and on bike paths a group of us worked on the designs that would separate toys from sporting equipment and develop the techniques from real sailing. When I could turn on the skateboard by flipping the sail around the front of the board, Terry Caccia would make the same turn on his skates by flipping the sail over his head. Where our basic position was resting the mast on a pivot point on the skateboard, Terry's basic position was parallel foot while resting the boom on a pivot point on his thigh. To add challenge, we leaned into the sail against the wind in a position called "back sail." On his skates, Terry leaned out over the ground in a position called "side skating." Whatever we could come up with for skateboards, Terry could emulate or innovate on roller skates. We found plastic sails would tear and a wood mast would break. The sails had to have the right curve and aerodynamics to tack up into the wind. The perfect size for a large person would be far to unwieldy for a smaller one. Light weight sail cloth did the job best and aluminum would neither break nor bend. It all seemed so obvious, looking back after two years of experimenting !

By 1977, we discovered the desert's dry lake beds of El Mirage. It was as if some benevolent being had prepared the perfect WindSkate resort just for us: A fifteen square mile outdoor roller rink with a backdrop that no artist could paint. Soon El Mirage had become the main target for all our photo sessions. We would wait for the strongest winds and lean into the most radical back sail tacks. Terry would elaborate on his sideskating with one heel cocked in a "shooting star." It all looked so exotic on film with glowing dust trails against crimson skies of the desolate landscape.

End of Section 1.

For More Information Contact:

Windskate Santa Monica
P.O. Box 3081
Tel: 310.453.4808
FAX: 310.829.9511
email: windskate@windskate.com


Article From RollerSkating Magazine April 1980 Part 1. Marathon: From Seattle to San Diego with skates and sails by Jamie Budge Wheeling with the wind, through the shimmering heat waves they appear like a flock of multi-colored seagulls flying on a two-dimensional plane. They soar and dive, bank into turns and ride up-drafts in a flight as real and exhilarating as might occur in the sky above. Only when they swoop closer do they turn into real people with sails in their hands and wheels on their heels, a species known as WindSkaters. WindSkaters use standard roller skates in combination with a 7 pound, 10 foot nylon sail on an aluminum frame. Holding the sail in their hands, claim the purists, gives them an intimate connection with the wind that can only be rivalled by a skiers involvement with the snow. Indeed, the WindSkaters ride the wind in a series of tacks, jibes and turns that leave most waterbound sailors envious (to have wings on their feet as well as in the sky!). The Marathon Gang: (left to right) Terry Caccia, Colin Courtman, Terry Marcellino, Jamie Budge. We had all gathered together earlier in the day in Los Angeles to load sails and roller skates into various cars and vans. These dozen or so enthusiasts were eager to try an exciting new sport called WindSkating on a dry lake bed named El Mirage, about two hours' drive away. The sport was said to be fun and easy; but it was the lure of getting away from it all to a desert playground that was enough to entice them. The desert offered all that had been promised by veterans of earlier WindSkate safaris: fifteen miles of desert salt flats surrounded by natural decorations of sage brush, cactus, flowers and low mountain ranges. The sky is deep blue, the air very clean. The wind blew in a steady jet stream that felt free as the whole environment. The actual surface of the dry lake bed is an alkaline base, claylike salt flat. Any roller skate wheels roll easily over the smoother sections. Some skaters used wider trucks (such as Tracker) with larger 70mm soft wheels (such as Red Kryptonics) to stabilize some of the rougher terrain. The major part of the lake bed is easily ride able although criss-crossed with hair-line cracks and fissures, giving it a surreal appearance like the surface of the moon. For a number of the skaters participating today, WindSkating had become a sport within a sport. Terry Caccia is one of the originals who had watched the phenomenon of outdoor roller skating explode all around him in the city of Venice. He had perfected his disco routines, park techniques and outdoor stylized stroll to the level of a pro. Terry was the first person to Roller WindSkate. Today his rides on the desert look more like the low flight of a hang glider. In the difficult side skate position, he cocks one foot behind him and leans over backwards at about forty five degrees. Only the wind in the sail keeps him off the ground. Fred Blood is new to WindSkating but certainly not to roller skating. His antics and triple spins in bowls and pools are world famous. Here on the desert he skates parallel foot, but leans into the sail to gain incredible speeds. He is soon chased by Terry Caccia and Colin Courtman, another Venice veteran renowned for his jivey street style. All three of them head off in the distance for a flag that has been placed for racing. Approaching the flag they shift the sails over their heads for standard turning position. They all but disappear in a cloud of their own dust as they round the flag, re-position the sail on the other sides of their bodies and head back across the wind in the other direction. And now it was my turn. As inventor of the device, I felt that I had just about mastered every technique that the sport had to offer ... on a skateboard. I could explain in exact detail and with great confidence how to do it, but I hadn't done it on roller skates. It felt very awkward to be starting all over again in something that I had learned four years ago. I joined Terry Marcellino and Connie Cook, two other newcomers to roller WindSkating. I gave them a few brief pointers on how to hold the sail and position it in the wind. Being experienced roller skaters, they both started off competently on the skates, getting used to the feel of the wind in the sail. I picked up my sail and blew easily with the wind, going rather slowly. But to be really sailing, I had to angle across the wind. My right hand held the leading pole straight up and down, just like the mast on a sailboat. My left hand held the lower pole parallel to the ground, just like the boom of a sailboat. I rested the boom on my thigh for a pivot point, and pulled the sail into trim against the pressure of the wind in the sail. The harder I leaned against the wind, the faster I would go. Speed was not high on my priority list, so I let a little wind spill from the sail and slowed down. To turn, I merely shifted the sail over my head and re-positioned it on my other thigh. Going slowly and easily, I wanted to try the more difficult "side-skate" position. I turned my right foot around in order to be skating heel-to-heel. It felt more familiar and comfortable and I gained quick confidence. I leaned against the force of the wind, remembering Terry Caccia's body angle of ·45 degrees. It felt great! I realized that I could be an expert roller WindSkater in no time. As I gained speed however, my right foot forgot to follow the direction set by my left one. In an instant, I was turned around backwards and then flipped into a spin by the wind in the sail. I tumbled along the dry lake bed and rolled over in white chalky powder. Fortunately, the desert surface is very forgiving, but I was marked with the white dust for ail to see my wipe-out! The author leads a desert race. I felt relieved to learn that the "side-skate" position was not mandatory for WindSkating. I returned to the group of newcomers to give some more lessons. They were all comfortable on roller skates and catching on very quickly. All they needed were a few tips on sailing techniques, and all I needed was a little practice roller skating. It was a very co-operative effort, and we all learned from each other. By afternoon, all of the novices (including myself) had become competent WindSkaters. It is late in the day and the bright orange ball of the sun sinks into a dark expansive horizon. The sky is various shades of orange and red, and the chalky surface of the desert glows with an iridescent pink from the sun. The tow mountain ranges from a dark line that splits the scene in two and the sage brush ranges cast long dark shadows across the glowing salt flats. Far off in the distance come the last half-a-dozen riders. Like triangular UFO's, they leave fiery hot dust trails behind them as they eclipse the globe of the sun. The back light gives a golden glow to the reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens that denote their different identities. The WindSkaters lean one way, then flipping the sails over their heads as they turn, they lean the other. In a rapid succession of turns, they criss-cross the sage brush mogul field as if it were a giant slalom course. As the riders break free of the mogulfield, they enter the last cove of ice-smooth surface and it is time to play. They shout with enthusiasm and drift in and out in a grand finale of flight maneuvers that would leave the Blue Angels a little envious. A campfire has been lit, and the roller sailors make a few last circling approaches before coming in for the final landing and the warmth of friends by the fire. It has been several hours of WindSkating and complete detachment from all forms of urban civilization. There has been no noise of traffic, no stoplights to control the flow, no hamburger stands to pollute the skyline or your stomach, no ten-cent toilets to remind you that capitalism exists everywhere. You have been alone on the high seas of a new experience, and there is nothing unnatural to mar the sensations or the purity of the encounter. After an experience like this, it is easy to feel a great pride in my own involvement in the development of WindSkating. The sport had come a long way since my original discovery with two broomsticks and a plastic dropcloth five years ago in a Santa Monica parking lot. On that first windy day I had approached speeds of 20 miles per hour with an elated sense of consciousness as I flew by parked cars, telephone poles, office buildings and a security guard (who told me insurance regulations wouldn't permit me to do whatever it was that I was doing there). Undaunted, I had taken to another parking lot down by the beach where a bunch of kids rolled down a hill with skate wheels attached on the bottom of wooden boards. They stared and snickered and told fairytales about that strange person with the funny contraption on his board. But one by one, I convinced them of the joy that these wings could bring with the sea breezes of late afternoon. Soon, the skateboarders had learned to WindSkate, and surfers who rode the waves at the adjoining beach would ride these skateboards and sails on the afternoons when it was too windy to surf. And the surfers brought bikini-clad girls who would sail down the bike path on breezy summer afternoons. The surfers knew skiers who knew motorcycle riders who all liked WindSkating, and soon, I was no longer alone with my new sport (and pleasant " companions they were)! Terry Marcellino skating parallel stance through the farm lands of Northern California After about two years, a new kind of person rolled down the bike path. He had wheels on his feet instead of on a board. He had rented these devices in a nearby fairyland known as Venice. And he had plenty of company, with more roller persons coming in every new day. One day a roller person name Terry Caccia asked to use a WjndSkate sail. We stared and snickered and told fairytales because we knew you had to have a board to sail. But we were wrong, and Terry converted even more roller persons to the joys of WindSkating. Almost overnight, the fairytale beginnings turned into very real recognition for the new sport. Hundreds of articles appeared in newspapers, magazines, films and TV shows around the world. Orders flooded in and we set up shop to keep up with the demand. But my personal motivation was not the manufacturing aspect, rather the challenge of developing a sport as serious as soaring or sailing with all the fun of skating. I wanted WindSkates to sail down wind, up wind, turn on a dime and still be easy to use. To be valid, I knew WindSkating would have the simple joys as well as the difficult challenges that were part of skiing, sailing and skating. In parking lots and on bike paths a group of us worked on the designs that would separate toys from sporting equipment and develop the techniques from real sailing. When I could turn on the skateboard by flipping the sail around the front of the board, Terry Caccia would make the same turn on his skates by flipping the sail over his head. Where our basic position was resting the mast on a pivot point on the skateboard, Terry's basic position was parallel foot while resting the boom on a pivot point on his thigh. To add challenge, we leaned into the sail against the wind in a position called "back sail." On his skates, Terry leaned out over the ground in a position called "side skating." Whatever we could come up with for skateboards, Terry could emulate or innovate on roller skates. We found plastic sails would tear and a wood mast would break. The sails had to have the right curve and aerodynamics to tack up into the wind. The perfect size for a large person would be far to unwieldy for a smaller one. Light weight sail cloth did the job best and aluminum would neither break nor bend. It all seemed so obvious, looking back after two years of experimenting ! By 1977, we discovered the desert's dry lake beds of El Mirage. It was as if some benevolent being had prepared the perfect WindSkate resort just for us: A fifteen square mile outdoor roller rink with a backdrop that no artist could paint. Soon El Mirage had become the main target for all our photo sessions. We would wait for the strongest winds and lean into the most radical back sail tacks. Terry would elaborate on his sideskating with one heel cocked in a "shooting star." It all looked so exotic on film with glowing dust trails against crimson skies of the desolate landscape. End of Section 1.

For More Information Contact: Windskate Santa Monica P.O. Box 3081 Tel: 310.453.4808 FAX: 310.829.9511 email: windskate@windskate.com