Although this was my third time gliding on a Segway, I still went through the motions during the training sessions. However, the woman providing the instructions must have had a triple dose of espresso and snorted several lines of coke prior to our session because sh
e spoke so fast and bounced from subject to subject like a ping pong ball that the net result was confusion and frustration. Marianne and I got through it somehow and it was time for Danny and Matt to be her subjects. The training took place inside their showroom. After a few minutes up on his Segway, Danny informed Nurse Ratchet that "I'm going to go down to the far wall and stop two feet from the door," which was greeted by her resounding, "No you're not! You're going to do what I tell you to do."We were introduced to a young woman named Christine who would serve as our glide-guide. She was relaxed and confident, and we were happy to be free of the drill instructor. We rolled through the doorway, received a few more tips, and finally it was time to glide.
We began our journey by heading south along the Pacific Beach boardwalk. It was a sunny, clear day and the boardwalk was crowded with tourists, strollers, tourists with strollers, joggers, skate boarders, bikers and bathers. It was fun and easy to slalom through these folks. Within a few blocks we turned east on San Jose Place and crossed Mission Blvd to the walkway skirting Mission Bay. Christine turned off each of our restrictors, which meant we were now free to zoom along at 10mph, or twice as fast as when we left Segway of Pacific Beach.
Danny was understandably uncertain about the whole gliding thing, never having "driven" a vehicle before by himself. Initially his shoulders were hunched, as he focused on the ground immediately in front of him. Slowly, Danny began to relax and by the time we stopped to glide up and down a steep pathway, he had decided he was having fun.
The view was spectacular as we navigated the northern rim of the bay, and then continued our loop to the south and west. We passed under the Ingraham St Bridge in single file and continued north again toward Crown Point. Soon Christine veered off the path and onto a grassy area where we were encouraged to glide in any direction we chose. There was a hill nearby and we rolled up to the top and down the other side. We had a blast on the grass.
After a few minutes, we retraced our path to the boardwalk, this time turning south toward the jetty. It was quite a distance and we eased through the crowd past stacks of rental surfboards near Hamil's, past the old Plunge (now called The Wave House), and past the roller coaster.
At the park near the jetty, Matt and Danny (now fully comfortable and even daring) danced around each other on the grass. Matt took a minor spill as he attempted the always difficult "reverse backwards inside turn split axel double slkow with 3.8 degree of difficulty" and would have received at least 9.5s from the judges had he pulled it off. Apparently it was not his time.
We made our way north again on the boardwalk and turned into the alley near the Segway shop since our 11⁄2-hour time limit had expired. But just as we thought our adventure was over, the impish Christine asked, "Would you like to go north for a while?" Silly question. We returned to the boardwalk near Olaf's
Ice Cream and we were off again.As we passed Kono's at the Mission Beach Pier we heard a squeal of tires and turned in time to see Marianne and her Segway on the pavement. Matt immediately wheeled back to her to make sure she was OK. She was fine, and we continued our bonus time on the pathway above the cliffs north of the pier. We finally stopped at a small, hilly park and enjoyed the incredible views of the sand and surf below.
Christine led us back to the Segway shop where we stepped off our machines and reluctantly removed our helmets. But we were unable to remove the smiles of joy from our satisfied faces.
It was quite a time.
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