Then there are the tricksters, who seize the numerous opportunities along the way to jump over park benches, tennis nets and stairs. If that's too much for you to handle, you can always form a human chain of a hundred or so people latching wrists and pulling into a tight spiral under the Palace of Fine Arts. My favorite stop on the tour is Union Square, home to a collection of ramps, staircases and park benches just the right height for jumping, riding or flipping over. Everyone has a chance to be onstage here. If you don't know how to ride stairs, there's always someone who's delighted to teach you.
Adventure does sometimes carry a price.
It's one of the most dangerous things a skater can do, and it also happens to be illegal. Unknown to my friends and me, there was an undercover police car directly in back of us. The siren went off as soon as we started our skitch. Most of The City finds it hard to resist the spirit of the skate. For the dancers among us, that spirit lasts into the night, when we gather our forces and take over some dance club en masse.