We played the second round of beach volleyball at Kohimarama beach last night. The weather was fantabulous again, with a very slight wind coming across the courts. I thought that the shells were slightly less sharp this week, but I was the only one to think that. Everyone else either wore socks or regretted not wearing them.

Once again, we were trying to win both of our pool C matches to move up to pool B. We started by playing Balmain after having watched them win their first match quite easily. They were playing a fairly average game, but we were playing slightly less than average. They beat us in two sets (21–15, 21–19).

Having lost the first match, the best we could do was hold our position, but that seemed reasonably assured, having seen Chippies play earlier as well. We still had a few errors popping up from time to time, but we easily held that match, taken in two sets (21–8, 21–13).

Easily, the most exciting match took place in pool D. We got to know Beach Bums last week, and we’re happy to be their official cheering section. The two matches they played were the only matches to go to three sets. Unfortunately, both matches went against them. They lost to Opus Wipeout by the narrowest of margins (19–21, 21–16, 12–15) and then lost to Westies as the sun was dropping over the horizon, which made the ball difficult to see (15–21, 22–20, 13–15). Best of luck to them for the next round. They’ll stay in pool D this time, but here’s hoping they take our spot in pool C after we make our way into pool B in two weeks’ time.

I’m sure I’m going to get in trouble for this eventually, but I haven’t run into a problem yet. When I’m in the mood for doing a lot of rollerblading, I’ll go back and forth between downtown and St. Helier’s, following the waterfront, until I’m done. That’s not too much of a problem on its own. The problem is that the footpath is often very crowded and progress can be quite slow at time. Yesterday, I found myself acting out of impatience a little more than I should have been. Over the course of 3 hours, I managed to not give right-of-way to the cycle lane at least 4 times, almost ran over a child that magically appeared out of nowhere (not even a puff of smoke), and got caught on a small path with oncoming traffic and no escape route. In the end, everything was avoided and not a single person was injured, but I was still skating too aggressively for the conditions.

The lesson to be learned is that I really shouldn’t listen to Mindless Self Indulgence while skating. Maybe something a little more passive. Or maybe leave the music at home.

At least I’ve been getting some distance behind me again. I need to get my leg stamina up to where it once was. 3 hours seems like a long time to be skating these days.