We played round 4 of 6 last night out at Kohimarama Beach. We were pleasantly surprised by a shift in the weather. The morning was rainy, windy and cold. By 3:00, I was pretty certain that the game wasn’t going to be cancelled, and when I got to the beach, it was warm and calm.

While I was in Aussie, Beach Ninjas had scored 2 wins to put us onto court B, thanks to the help of Beach Bum Kristina. Unfortunately, her magic wasn’t enough to move Beach Bums onto court C at the same time.

We played the first game with 3, since our 4th player was stuck babysitting and Kristina was playing her game at the same time. Coincidentally, the opposition was also playing 3. There were definitely moments where it was obvious that our team is in need of more polish, but there were some moments that looked pretty good. We ended up beating TBA in two well-fought sets.

By the time we finished our first game, the first Beach Bums game was already over. They had squashed Vodiballers in two straight sets as well. Their second game was against the sponsorship team, Health Plus Chippies (otherwise known as Team Canada). The 3 of us guys subbed in 2 players to fill up the court for the girls, but I’m not sure how necessary that was. Beach Bums took the match easily in 2 sets, which puts them onto court C for next week.

The final game for us was against Sets On The Beach. They hadn’t quite finished their match against TBA when we came back, so we had a good chance to see what we were facing. With Beach Bums finished for the night, Kristina was available to be our 4th. The game was relatively long, but pretty much one sided. As the sun was heading down behind the trees, we secured our place on court A for next week, having won in two sets.

We finished up the night with a short game of 2 on 2. Kristina and I against James and Will. It was far from pretty, but it was a good time. I think 2s games are much more fun, but I’m not sure if we’d do well in a 2s tournament. Not yet, at least.

There are two weeks remaining for this league, and want to stay on court A now that we’re there. We’ll need to clean up our game a fair bit, but we have a good chance of walking away with pride, and maybe a prize. We’ll see how that goes.

I stopped off at Cheapskates today to see if I could get fitted with a new round of wheels for my K2s. Selection there is kinda sparse, and the next time I need new wheels, it might be better to just get new skates.

The set of wheels that I’m replacing is a bit of an odd mélange, provided by K2 when I was getting some service work done a while back. I had dual-core wheels on the heel and toe and solid-core wheels in between. I think the solid-core wheels were softer than the dual-core wheels, but I don’t know the numbers for them. Shopping locally kinda makes it difficult to get the same mix, so I ended up buying a matching set of 8. They’re 76mm, 80A density. I need a bit of grip for the corners I take, after all.

I also grabbed a new round of bearings as well. The beach life has been hard on these ones, and they’ve had a relatively long life already. It’ll be nice to ride smoothly again. It kinda makes me wonder how much energy I’ve been putting into overcoming friction.

So I’ll spend some time tonight getting my skates re-kitted, and hopefully get a chance to go for a spin after work on friday and see if it was worth the money.

I can buy Snapple in New Zealand. It’s one of those things that I had put off as a sacrifice made when I moved to the Southern Hemisphere. But here it is, in my hand: lemon iced tea. Of course, I’m not sure if I love it so much to regularly pay $3 for a bottle.

I was poking around to see if there was anything to add to my wishlist just before Christmas. I think I found something.

For all my training needs and wants, Garmin has the answer. The only problem is that I don’t know if I can order one from New Zealand. (Naturally, it would be a Christmas present from myself, to myself)