About two months ago, a friend of mine mentioned that she'd been taking log rolling classes at the Midtown YWCA (where we are also members), and I should join her. I was like, log rolling??? I told Aaron about this and he said that he'd seen people rolling while he was with the girls at their swim lessons, and it looked like fun. The member's price for a class was pretty cheap ($27 for a four-class session), so I decided what the heck, I'd give it a shot.
Turns out, it's really fun! My first class was terrible - I could hardly stay on the log at all. But at the end of the class, my stomach hurt from laughing so much. I was positively hooked! And I wasn't the only one... Maisie and Dylan spent the whole 45 minutes of my class session hanging off the rope that separated our class space from the free swim area, watching and cheering for the rollers.
When it was time to register for the next session, I asked Maisie and Dylan if they wanted to sign up. They gave a resounding YES! And it turns out, they're much better at it than I am. David, our instructor, told me that kids always do better than adults do... they have a lower center of gravity, so they're more stable on the log. Plus they weigh less, so the log doesn't move quite as much under them. We had the first class of the new session yesterday (the kids' second session/5th class, my 3rd session/9th class) and they've blown me out of the water. My P.R. is around 10 seconds, while Maisie's at 18.47 and Dylan's is over 27 seconds!
So anyway, as a part of Aquatennial's Beach Bash, there was a log rolling tournament this weekend at Lake Calhoun. It was sponsored by Keylog, a company that does classes and also manufactures and sells a hollow fiberglass log (which is much more portable than a real log that weighs upwards of 400 pounds). If you haven't seen it, MPR did a nice profile of the family that runs Keylog... you can find it here.
I competed in the adult prelims on Saturday afternoon/evening, and didn't make it too far... but had a lot of fun anyway. :) I discovered that the Keylog log is REALLY different than what we're used to rolling on at the YWCA. The fiberglass surface is much more slippery than the indoor-outdoor carpet that our logs are covered with. It took some time for me to get used to it... and by the time I did, I'd lost my matches. :)
With my experience in mind, we all made sure to show up early on Sunday morning so that Maisie and Dylan could get some practice time in with the Keylogs!
Instead of rolling against someone, as the adults did, the kids were doing speed rolling - seeing how many complete revolutions they could get in a minute, first with a front step, then with a back step.
One other feature of Keylog logs is that they have removable fins, which look like the paddle wheels on a paddleboat. They slow the log down, so it doesn't roll as fast, so a beginning roller doesn't get frustrated and quit. But with speed rolling, it presents a challenge... you want to stay up there, but you have to be able to get the log around!
Both Maisie and Dylan ended up choosing to use one fin. Maisie started with two, but it turned out she was then too light to spin the log at all.
And at the end of the contest... she won a blue ribbon!
She was very proud of herself, and I was proud of her too! There were a lot of people watching, and it would've been easy to get nervous about it. But she did a great job!
As it happened, only five kids registered and they were all in different classes, so everyone won a blue ribbon. :) I'm glad it worked out that way... while Maisie and Dylan have only been rolling for a month, the other three kids have been rolling for several years.
We can't wait for next year's tournament! And in the mean time, we'll keep rolling and practicing and improving. The competition won't know what hit 'em! :)
