Saturday morning, 7:45, the participants arrive at the track, some on familiar ground, others looking eager, wowed by the quality of the track after taking a lap by car. It's time for introductions, since some of us, including me, didn't have the chance to see Eddy at work at the "chalk talk" the night before. We talk about our club, about the 24hr relay coming up, about the weather, which has turned out to be perfect, sunny but not as hot as the previous weekend, which is great for us. There are about 25 participants, including ten or so from Roller-Montréal. Eddy arrives, true to himself, pumped up, dynamic, all set to share his love of skating and his love of life! We start with some "dry land" work, getting to know this fellow and the array of expressions he'll use to help us remember the movements as we work through the drills. Honk, pigeon, duck, ampersand, knees-nose-toes-triangle... crazy stuff! A good part of the morning goes by with everyone in running shoes, pulling apart the multiple components of the technique of our dreams (what, do you mean skating isn't just a matter of giving a push to the left, then a push to the right?). After an official stretching session we finally get our skates on. A few quick drills and then it's time for lunch. We go for a lap of the racetrack, hoping to drum up publicity for our sport, soon finding ourselves a shady spot under a tree to relax and eat. The afternoon goes great, Eddy is everywhere at once, giving advice to each skater as we practise the drills, periodically bringing us together for group instruction. We round out the afternoon by playing movie-star: it's time to immortalize our technique on video, naturally for the purpose of pulling it apart around pizza that evening... Sunday morning, ooff... It's significantly hotter than the day before and the temperature will rise to nearly 30 degrees. Everyone sneaks a look at everyone else, wondering if anyone is even able to walk this morning... We're pretty tired, but even so it's not too bad; those of us who haven't done this before don't realize that the worst is yet to come. Eddy shows up, fresh and ready to go, a good sign! And so we get started with what eventually will become super-duper crossovers, a breath-taking "under push" and of course the ultimate reward, the "double push". We work towards all this with a number of drills without our skates on, using partners to help us practise the movements. We jump, push, work really hard, pigeon-walk, duck-walk... It's definitely some of these exercises that are responsible for the front of my thighs hurting today, and I know I'm not the only one. After dissecting the "under push" with dry-land practice, we get our skates on, and off we go to start doing it on wheels! All the participants want to hear their skate-wheels grinding the pavement, and indeed it feels great to hear people succeeding. We skate circles, figure eights, we lean against a partner to get the feeling of the fall and how to get maximum power out of using gravity. I think it's accurate to say the second day is extremely well used, and considering the high calibre of the skaters it's our most satisfying day from the point of view of learning. The enthusiasm is palpable and you can tell everyone is making the most of it. It's a hot day and everyone starts showing the effects of fatigue as well as a few blisters. Rest-breaks become more frequent and gradually get longer... All we have to do is put everything together, tying our "regular push" and "under push" together into a logical chain to end up with a "double push". The day will end with a magnificent train of almost all female skaters, giving us a beautiful demonstration with everyone perfectly synchronized! Since I was watching from the side of the track I can assure you the quality of skating was excellent. It's nearly time for us to say good-bye, but first we have to get our "report-cards", for Eddy has taken the time to write each of us a few comments with a mix of our good points and points that need improvement. This is when we particularly appreciate Eddy's personality and the generosity with which he shares his knowledge. Along with the personal comments, we get a number of special awards. Mélissa gets an award, the name of which I've forgotten, but basically in recognition of the fact she constantly improves and will soon be as good as (or did Eddy say better than??) her boyfriend Jonathan. Another award was given to Mylène, who had the honor of being declared the most promising skater. For all those who watched over the course of the weekend it was clear that if Mylène already had the bug, this time she got the intravenous skate-fever shock treatment. All in all it was a darn good weekend! Annie-Lafontaine