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Every week our LFNS friends, the lovely people who bring us the ‘Sunday Stroll’ and the ‘Friday Night Skate’ produce a weekly newsletter to keep our fingers on the pulse of the skating world. You can visit them by clicking on the LFNS logo below to check out this weeks route and see the photos of last weeks adventures.

==THIS WEEK==

FRIDAY
Continuing our theme of breaking you in gently, the LFNS is heading on
a brief trip over the river to Clapham Common. At just over 10 miles,
the route is short, but even so it has a couple of pleasant downhills
to help us all get back in the swing of things. As usual, we start at
8pm sharp so please don’t be late.

http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20090123

SUNDAY
This Sunday weÂ’ve put together a special route for Australia Day,
linking all kinds of locations that have a connection with Australia.
To everyoneÂ’s surprise the route map did not turn out to be
accordingly shaped, we clearly must have been doing something wrong.
This skate will be sound tracked by a special, Australia-tinged
WotonoMix, the rumor that we’ll start with the “safety dance” by “Men
without hats” is just that, a rumor, and not an attempt to start
another helmet debate. And no, we havenÂ’t got the date wrong.

http://www.lfns.co.uk/route.php/20090123

==LAST WEEK==
LFNS 0 – DAMP ROADS 2

The SUNDAY STROLL seems to be having much more luck and we have had a
100% success rate this year. Last Sunday Bren led a merry troop of
wheeled people round Regents Park, and also gave those in the front an
architectural lesson on the pavilions that have recently been built
there. Complaints of having to go uphill for the first half were
answered as we went downhill in the second, also there is a clue in
the name of the half time point, Primrose Hill, though if we ever go
to Chalk Farm do not expect to find any calcium carbonated cattle.
Well done to those who completed their first skate and hopefully all
the regulars are getting their stamina back.

At half time two members of the French Miss’ile skate team did a dance
demo for us. Thanks to Cecile and Marjorie, you were great, and thanks
to Naomi for organizing it.

==INDEPENDENT ON GUMBIE==
For the last two weeks the Sunday Stroll, well the start of it, has
had a reporter from the Independent on Sunday joining us as he is
writing an article on the street skate. So here is an article on him
writing an article on us. He put skates on for the first time two
weeks ago and so far has managed to keep with the pack for the first
half mile. At that point he goes independent. See you next week.

==FIREBROX UPDATE==
The team of dedicated music bike technicians (three people in a garden
shed is not F1) have passed messages on to us regarding the progress
of the scheduled maintenance. So far they have lost the main power
switch, monkeyed with the brakes and replaced the duct tape that holds
everything together. Good work. They have found that we now need to
replace the head units, most bikes have one but the brox has three, so
all being well the bike will be back with us in a week or so. Thanks
to StevieB and LondonSkate for the use of the use of the BassFreight
as cover.

== THE MEC, PART II - BREN ==
Bren is serving for his second consecutive year on the committee that
oversees the LFNS and Sunday Stroll. He was elected to the first ever
MEC years ago and has been a Lead Marshal for even longer. “Brenbaz”
as he is known to many people in the skating community is an architect
in non skater mode but he often plans routes around his various
building projects. So expect to stop going down Melbury Road and start
heading towards Clapham Common over the next year. Often thought of as
one of the loudest of marshals you will often hear him shouting at
people at the front of the skate when heÂ’s leading, and shouting at
people at the back of the skate when heÂ’s not. DonÂ’t take it
personally; he is just trying to keep everyone safe. Other hobbies
include falling off his bike, loosing things and not learning French,
all to the dismay of his girlfriend.

== SPOR‘T VICAR ==
In addition to mixing it with the traffic each week our very own Lead
Marshal Alan has been spotted moonlighting for kids TV. Last weeks
episode of Bear Behaving Badly had a guest spot for him dressed as
clergy on skates. See below for the BBC Iplayer link, he appears about
13 mins in. This is not the only skating connection to Nev, answers
through the feedback form for a chance to win one of MarkusÂ’ old wheels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gthd6/Bear_Behaving_Badly_Series_2_Wedding_Belles/

== LE MANS 09 ==
For those that like skating to the point of exhaustion we would like
to point out that “Les inscriptions sont ouvertes” for the 2009 Le
Mans 24 hour marathon. Many marshals and street skate regulars depart
sunny London for a weekend of foreign food and smooth tarmac. This
years event is scheduled for the 11th and 12th July, which is later
than normal and may mean that it does not clash with other marathons.
So if you want to go you will need to sort out team managers and book
your place soon before it is too late. We will be doing a more in
depth piece on Le Mans in a few weeks when we finally get round to
writing it, or find an old article to recycle.

http://www.24rollers.com/

==MEET THE PRESS==
Since the New Year the LFNS crew have been swamped with requests for
information from numerous publications. We are dealing with them, so
if you are one and are reading this we will get back to you. If you
are not one of them but think you can help with answering their
questions (and making sure that that what is published is correct)
please volunteer. We could do with the help.