Do’s and Don’ts

• There’s a lead marshal at the front – DO stay behind them.
  Listen to the announcement at the start to find out who the lead marshal is. He or she is usually wearing a red vest with flashing lights.
• There’s a rear marshal at the back – DO stay in front of them.
  If you’re lagging behind the rear marshal, the traffic’s not stopped for you, and for your safety and ours we’ll ask you to leave the skate. Don’t be discouraged: see the Too slow? section below for some helpful hints.
• KEEP LEFT!
  The marshals wearing yellow vests stop traffic at junctions until the rear marshal passes, then sprint back past all the skaters to the front of the skate and block again. If the marshals can’t get past you to block traffic, the skate has to stop.
• Sometimes we’ll be e.g. turning right on a roundabout and the blockers may want to go around the outside instead of the middle. Listen to the marshals’ instructions, use your intelligence and be aware of what’s going on around you.

• DON’T skate in oncoming traffic or force the marshals into oncoming traffic. We skate on two-way streets: stay on the left-hand side of the road.
• DON’T skate on the pavement. In some parts of town it’s illegal; in any part of town, knocking pedestrians over is very bad karma and will lead to your being stamped to death by a forty-foot-tall giant granny in a future life. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
• DON’T cause trouble with the traffic.
  We have to share the road with it and annoying the drivers only makes our lives more difficult. If you see an incident brewing, leave it to the marshals to calm things down: crowds will only aggravate the situation.
• DON’T touch or hang onto vehicles. It’s illegal, and drivers get extremely angry about it.

You will need:

• A clear head: Alcohol is a no-no: it affects your judgement and dehydrates you more quickly.It also creates a bad impression of the skate in the eyes of bystanders, other road users, and the police. If we see you skating with an open alcohol container, or if you’re apparently drunk, we will ask you to leave the skate.

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