THE BEAUTY OF SKATING.

Skating has been a sport mainly feared by many because the fear of it's fatality when falling or the fear of the speed. For my time as a speed skater in Mombasa I have experience the good and bad of the sport itself, but the passion will never reduce no matter what.
Skating is a technical sport and requires professional  training and perfection of the technical skills which are quite technical. It requires one to be both mentally and physically fit at any time, because it requires alot of time and its quite expensive.
Apart from all that, skating has been a part of living for some people and they are using skating as a means of living. Some of the knowned professional skaters in the world have also adopted this and are earning from the sport. Some of the most knowned international skating clubs like Power slide, Takino, Bont, Rollerblade, MPC, Gila etc. are recruiting the professional skaters around the world and provide facilities to them for their daily training, and they also get stepids as a commission raging from $1000 per weekly.
Even in Africa we also have some of the renowned skating clubs which have some of the best skaters in Africa, for example Sprint Skating Club of Kenya (SSCK), the club has produced some of the best skaters in Kenya who recently represented Kenya in the Africa Roller Games. They didn't fail to raise our flag high by taking position 2 overall with the second highest numbers of medals and trophies after Benin, who took the first position.
Skating has highly growned in Africa and thus making a stiff competition from other countries. In 2018, Kenya took position 1 in the Africa Roller Games with the leading man Peter Kamau locally known as Kamaa. He was named as the fastest man in Africa on skates, even now holding the position  of the captain for the national team.
Locally, what I can say, we have alot of potential  speed skaters, freestyles and also ice skaters but the facilities has been quite a challenge to them. For a person who want to specialize on freestyles, the cost of the perfect skates for such activity goes for upto $100 (Ksh10,000). From the hard time the country is undergoing, the economy has become so drastic that has made the common man to have a hard time to even be able to afford the amount, hence becomes a big challenge. Now, for someone who want to specialize on speed skating, the price of the speedboot is so shocking, the cheapest one goes for $150 (Ksh15,000) and the one which is quite expensive goes for $1000 (Ksh100,000). The speedboot are quite delicate in assembling and using but are quite comfortable and the speed is quite intriguing, going for a speed of 60km/hr and offers the perfect technique in pushing using less energy at a high speed.
In Kenya, there are various club which usually hold events in the aim of creating competitive moments and exposure to different skaters from all over the country. The Federation has also been holding National Qualifiers in selecting the best skaters to represent Kenya in the upcoming skating events like Africa Roller Games and  even the World Roller Games, in both seniors and juniors categories.
Some of the reknowed international skaters like Bart Swings form Belgium (World record holder for the Berlin Inline Marathon creating a world record of 54min in the 42km marathon in 2015 and 6 times winner in the Berlin marathon and gold medalist in track and elimination races holding records hard to be broken, his also from the Team Power slide), Felix Rijhnen ( who happens to a cop from Germany and a track and elimination gold medalist, Berlin gold medalist 2019),  Edwin Estrada from Colombia (world gold medalist in elimination and 100m, 200m and 500m gold medalist and record holder), Elton De Souza William from France and many more are some of the best skaters with the best techniques on display.
Some of the speed skaters use a world wide technique called Double Push, this is a technique that requires little energy but displays a high speed ever recorded. Its a hard technique to adapt compared to other techniques but most international speed skaters have adapted to it and hence making it difficult for the opponent  to fight back at the technique.