Gene Cook on "The Great EsSkate"

What's So Great about the Great EsSkate?
The Great EsSkate 2008 has just posted its thank yous to sponsors like K2 and to the army of volunteers that pull together this 3-day weekend of rolling paradise every February, but don't miss 2009.

We could talk about the sheer number of miles on the docket every year, about the camaraderie of almost 400 skaters oozing-like lava through the streets of Pompeii-effectively stopping everything in its tracks as they take over Miami Beach and the causeways connecting it to the mainland. We could talk about the late Friday skate, when we haul asphalt through gritty city streets at breakneck speeds, or the bacchanalian atmosphere when everyone puts on shoes and hits the clubs in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We could talk up the charity angle; this year the bucks went to the Miami Beach Police Athletic League.

But it's called the Great EsSkate for a reason. In mid-February, when everyone is freezing their ball bearings off, we promise 80-degree temperatures, the glitz of South Beach and the kind of escape that will get you through a whole 'nother winter. Next year, be one of us. Check it out: www.skatemiami.com