Inline skating in Mumbai. (Formerly Bombay).

Click here for inline skating lessons & beginner group rollerblade courses.

Arjav Trivedi is 15, a student here in London and a Serpentine Road regular into Man United, Tolkien and Gnarls Barkley. Arjaf recently traveled to India to see his family and of course to skate around.

It is somewhat sceptical for an Indian to look at Mumbai as a place for skating. Well, it is also somewhat sceptical for a skater to see Mumbai as a skate park. However, with the right attitude and mind, and the will to skate, any place in the world is a skate park, even in the entertainment and economic capital of India. Being an Indian, and visiting India quite a few times, I can safely say that India and Mumbai is a mixed bag.

Where do you find a space to skate?

India is the second most populated country in the world, and Mumbai alone contains 23million people, and is smaller than London. However Mumbai, and especially the Juhu area (also seen as the rich area of India), is radically undergoing land redevelopment. This means more apartments, more car parks, and more car parks means smoother areas, and smoother areas means more skating areas. Mumbai is not an area filled with Royal Parks, and though it has its green areas, Mumbai is a humid and orange hued city, filled with celebration and splendour. Thus it was a pleasure of mine to skate here, and though I was well into the Monsoon season, that didn’t stop me, and nor does it stop anyone in the city.

Skating to me is about freedom, and to not be able to be free for a few weeks while on holiday was disastrous. Skating in London, at home is great, I can do it when I want. However it was still eating away at me as the holiday approached that it was to be 3 weeks without skating. I decided to pack my skates, whatever the weather, whatever the criticisms, and test it out. For all the skaters out there, you will understand my frustration, and so to add a place to my skating passport was really liberating.

All one has to really do is find a decent empty car park, hope that the area is clean, and there you go, one can skate away, even in the rain. Car parks are your best bet for skating, for the roads are rough and not for the faint hearted. Agro away, however for that freestyle touch smoothness is key and a car park is the setting. Indians usually see skating like the rest of the world do (well if they haven’t seen skaters before); they will awe at the sight of a beautiful ‘crazy’ into ‘mabrouk’ into ‘Korean spin’ into ‘compass’ flip back to backwards criss cross to finish. Everyone awes at seeing such things, and Indians are no different. Skating in a car park I remember pulling a small crowd of kids to watch, along with my older cousin. I’m not as great as the Kingpins of this country, or other countries, believe me, however even simple freestyle skating brings the wow factor wherever you are in the world. This is no different to England, where showing your friends your latest routine is exactly the same.

So then, what makes Mumbai the next place to skate in? Well, Mumbai is a great place to be anyway. I am not writing for a tourist magazine, but am writing to encourage skating around the world, and it can be done. It is a humid place, and I warn all of you to always take a lot of water when skating. The Monsoon season brings temperatures down to under 30 degrees Celsius, but the summer of 2006 had temperatures above 30 as standard everyday. You can skate for 2 hours in London and get fatigued, but in Mumbai, you start sweating from the moment you put on the skates, and due to the humidity, you won’t last 15 minutes before you have to take a well earned break. It is worth all the above though.

The Mumbai ‘Dash for cash’ annual race.

Having brought out all the reasons for skating in India , I will go on to the few details needed to be mentioned (more like the small print at the bottom of a contract). India is still a developing place, so to find smooth roads is near impossible, though new legislation is coming in for more road works. Even car parks can sometimes be unsuitable, so pick your spot wisely. Aggressive skaters shouldn’t find this a problem, as they will be more suited with the smaller wheels and added comfort. There is a safety issue with skating in India though: India has no clear traffic codes. It can be very unsafe, so please bear this in mind before trying to street skate. I do not wish for anyone to not realise this and pay the price. Please be careful! Car parks are better as there are many residential car parks, which can be very empty at times during the day.

Young speed skaters.

For those people who like to scroll to the bottom of an internet page just to see how long the essay is, I will try to cut this short and quickly give you a few bulleted points to why Mumbai is great. Oh, and why skating is good there also…

1. Mumbai is a great place, a place known throughout the world, great food, films and so on. Who wouldn’t want to skate here while visiting?

2. When you skate, pulling a crowd is by far the best thing. Seeing the faces of people in awe, especially kids who have not even seen inline skates before is amazing. If it is just to get that “Ah!” or “Ooh” then I definitely recommend it (and at times an ovation!).

3. It is hot, and after 15 minutes you will feel like you have skated for ages and burnt all those calories from the masses of food you WILL be eating (being Indian I know the consequences of being in India and eating many dinners there). The likelihood will be that you will have skated those calories off.

4. Smooth car parks sheltering you from the rain do beat the open rain skating here in London. Indoor skating in London may be an alternative, but fresh air and open ground is better (also you might like to try the warm rain, though it might not be good for your bearings.)

5. To round it all up, Mumbai is a lovely orangey city, and bringing skating to life here is great. Do not be disheartened by the place, because if you want to skate here, you can do it. It can be done. If you need to practise for that competition, take your skates. If you just want to breathe skating again, bring your skates.

Whatever the weather, you can skate. The people of Mumbai are some of the most resilient but warm and kind people you may come across, and wherever you go they will welcome you. That, skaters of the world, is even without showing off your skills to them.

Arjav Trivedi