SKATING ROM ROSARITO TO ENSENADA
by Dan Benveniste
It all got started,
when I announced to the Los Angeles Friday Night Skaters, that I was planning to crash the
Rosarito to Ensenada Bike Run. Twice a year, about 15,000 bikers
gather in Rosarito Mexico and cycle 54 miles down the public coast
highway to Ensenada. It a hell of a
run. 60% of the route is up-hill, and some of
the hills between those two Mexican cities are
incredibly steep.
After finishing the Friday Night Skate at about
11:00 p.m., about 6 of us decided to do Mexico. By 1:00 a.m.
we were all packed in my car and on our way.
At 3:00 a.m., we arrived in San Diego, slept for about 4
hours, skipped breakfast, and by 7:00 a.m., we were on our way to
Mexico.
We finally reached Rosarito about 20 minutes before the start
of the event.
Cyclists were
every where, thousands upon thousands, all lined up at
the starting line, and going back for blocks on end.
wasn't long before I lost my group in the
crowd. I figured I would catch up with them at the
end of the ride....
Somehow I was able to work my way
over to the starting line just as the starting gun
went off - BAM!!
The starting gun went off,
and everyone took off.
It was an endless wall of speed bikers. I started off by drafting a speed biker as he
was weaving through all the other bikers.
We were packed in tight! I was about 3 inches from the biker
in front of me and there were more bikers right behind
me. I was also boxed in on both sides, and we were
going about 25 miles per hour. Suddenly, my right skate clipped
one of the Sol Cervsa sponsored pro bikers and down he
went. He crashed into the side of the road, feet over
head, forming a big cloud of dirt.
Normally, I would
stop to make sure he was OK, but his angry shouting
After about 5 miles, many of the speed bikers
past me and the crowd thinned out. The road was a lot
rougher than I expected, but it was skatable. The
route was extremely hilly, and some of the hills
seemed to go up and up forever. It's a crazy feeling
getting to the top of some extremely steep hill and
then seeing that the next hill is twice as long
and just a steep. One hill, call El Tigre, went
straight up for 3 miles. Of course for every uphill
there was a downhill. And those downhills were a
skaters dream. After 37 miles, I reached the largest
of the down hills, 7 miles down, and closed to traffic. It
was orgasmic. It felt like I was freefalling on skates,
zipping through the countryside, the ocean on one
side, the mountains on the other, doing somewhere
around 30 mph. You can't beat that feeling!
There were crowds all along the road, and because there
were no more than 25 skaters, the crowds
would start cheering every time I passed them. Of
course, being a bit of a show off I would skate past
the larger crowds on my toes, or backwards, or doing some other trick to rally up
the crowd a bit.
There were also hundreds kids on the side of the road, all along the route.
It is a tradition for the bikers to throw candy at
the kids, who would patiently wait for these free
hand outs. The kids would also cheer me on because I
stood out from the endless steam of bikers. Most of
them would hold out their hand for me to slap, as I
skated by. On some of the downhills,
there would be about 20 kids lined up, all holding out
their hands. I would skate down really low, on toe and
heel, so I would be at their level, and then
slapped their hands as I zoomed by at 20 miles per
hour. All the kids
would laugh with excitement.
The road seemed like it would never end. But finally
I saw Ensenada in the distance. I was so relieved.
I finished the run under four hours. And because I
was the first skater to finish, the crowds at the
finish line just went nuts. The crowds must have
lined the roads at least 4 blocks from the finish line
and they were just cheering and yelling. It was a real
party atmosphere, and a good portion of them had done
their share of drinking, so that would explain some
of their excitement.
I would definitely recommend this run to
other skaters, however it is very difficult. You have
to me very good at skating up hills and skating on poor roads.
I skated this in my 4 wheel Roller Blade Pro 4 skates,
and I left my my speed skates at home. It wasn't a race, so
I gave up speed for comfort and more maneuverability.
Copyright © Dan Benveniste
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