When I moved to America I was given a pair of Rollerblades and nearly got myself killed. It required a skill I could not safely master.
What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
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Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#42Roller skating and inline skating have been gaining popularity for the last five years or so. I took it up (sort of again) in my late thirties, due to my son being invited to a roller skating birthday party, and discovered how much I enjoy it as both a challenge and Zen-like experience of focused concentration on both nothing and 'everything going on around me'.
I only do it at a rink and in that context I love it. I look forward to it in a way that makes me feel like a child, so much so that it makes me question my own maturity / adulthood, but nowhere near enough to suppress that enthusiasm.
I'm currently learning to skate backwards, and enjoying the total inability to learn it theoretically, you can only improve by doing, and at my age it has to be done slowly and incrementally because injuries mean you have to wait so long until the next time you can go again - so there's a brake on the speed of improvement.
I really still feel that childish excitement about going skating.
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#43> "It's hard to look good on skates. Once you get good, you'll look good, but there's nothing you can buy that will make that easier. It's a balance point that has to be learned and earned." What about the whole Heelys fad?
Same applies to skiing. And surfing. Countless activities that are all about complex movements at speed.
I don’t think that point is relevant.
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#44> "It's hard to look good on skates. Once you get good, you'll look good, but there's nothing you can buy that will make that easier. It's a balance point that has to be learned and earned." What about the whole Heelys fad?
Heelys wound up recalled and banned in schools over safety issues with the shoes themselves - as opposed to the lack of helmets.
Now there is this:
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#45For me, it seemed like a lot of people I knew got injured on rollerblades vs biking or running. Never gave it much thought but is it inherently more dangerous?
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#46About 10 years ago I read a bunch of former roller bladers and skateboarders talking about the death of rollerblading in the 1990s. It is much easier to do tricks on rollerblades, also it was viewed as a "gay" activity in a much more homophobic time in society. There was a picture of a rollerblader in a skating mag and they photoshopped pink makeup on his face and made his rollerblades purple. Skaters started calling…
> also it was viewed as a "gay" activity in a much more homophobic time in society.
There's hockey on rollerblades, I'm sure there's nothing "gay" about that.
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#47About 10 years ago I read a bunch of former roller bladers and skateboarders talking about the death of rollerblading in the 1990s. It is much easier to do tricks on rollerblades, also it was viewed as a "gay" activity in a much more homophobic time in society. There was a picture of a rollerblader in a skating mag and they photoshopped pink makeup on his face and made his rollerblades purple. Skaters started calling…
What happened is that I moved to the Swedish countryside and as such was confronted with hills and unpaved roads. When I lived in the Netherlands I used skates for transport in lieu of a bicycle because they're far easier to take along on public transport. I skated to the station, skated into the train, skated off it after 1.5 hours and 150 km, skated to my job and repeated this on my way home. I was just as fast as…
‘Homophobia’ is the standard term in English for prejudice against gay people. It does not mean ‘fear of homosexuals’ (regardless of etymological considerations).
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#48About 10 years ago I read a bunch of former roller bladers and skateboarders talking about the death of rollerblading in the 1990s. It is much easier to do tricks on rollerblades, also it was viewed as a "gay" activity in a much more homophobic time in society. There was a picture of a rollerblader in a skating mag and they photoshopped pink makeup on his face and made his rollerblades purple. Skaters started calling…
What happened is that I moved to the Swedish countryside and as such was confronted with hills and unpaved roads. When I lived in the Netherlands I used skates for transport in lieu of a bicycle because they're far easier to take along on public transport. I skated to the station, skated into the train, skated off it after 1.5 hours and 150 km, skated to my job and repeated this on my way home. I was just as fast as…
You might have just given me a solution to a problem I thought about this weekend: a place I need to visit for work is >= 1 km from the next public transport stop - the walking is a little tedious. I was using my car for pandemic (currently: train strike) reasons, but I want to stop that again after, and I do own rollerskates... still from the 90s.
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#49I had been quad skating since the 80s during the day for recreation, and then Sunday nights for dance skating, jamming, not figure skaing. Roxy would have skate nights too. It was a blast. I started blading in the early 90s, and would head up to NYC Central Park with my ex-wife to the skate circle to dance all day Saturday and Sunday, and blade home to our apartment in Hell's Kitchen through side streets and avenues in traffic. Interesting recollection: nobody on quads or blades were wearing helmets or pads except for noobs. I have never had more than bruises and scrapes from the skateboarding, quad skating, or blading in my life. My injuries are mainly from falls at height. I learned early on how to roll when I fell off of homemade skateboards, bikes, skates, etc. I have gone through three pairs of blades, and I just bought a new pair of quad jam skates. I can dance on both. I have skated on blades in Montreal, Macau, various US states. When I was dance skating in Macau in 2007 and later, China there were not many bladers, or they were only doing laps or fitness skating. Now, I see some great skaters on blades doing some really cool moves on YouTube all over SE Asia. I would say it has taken off there while lulling in the US. I grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and dance, especially dance skating, has been a special thing in my life ever since. The community is amazing all around the US. I still go to a rink in NJ with my family now, and I hope to get out on Thursdays and Sundays for adult skate night more often. It's a blast! I am in my late 50s and love to groove. No more doing the long stairway at Central Park though! I tried jam skating with a blade on my left foot and a quad skate on my right foot while living in Las Vegas at Crystal Palace, the one on Boulder not Ranchero. Try it before you knock it!
Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
#50About 10 years ago I read a bunch of former roller bladers and skateboarders talking about the death of rollerblading in the 1990s. It is much easier to do tricks on rollerblades, also it was viewed as a "gay" activity in a much more homophobic time in society. There was a picture of a rollerblader in a skating mag and they photoshopped pink makeup on his face and made his rollerblades purple. Skaters started calling…
I was a skater from '85-'89 in the San Fernando Valley.
I remember there being a narrow lane of what was cool... most activities that weren't skateboarding weren't, because it was a lifestyle, and if you weren't fully dedicated to it and had a good sense of what was currently accepted in the brands/decks, clothing, how you setup your board, etc, you could quickly be labeled a poseur. And this was a moving target. If you skated a Hawk board in '85 it was okay... but by '87, you should have been riding Santa Monica Airlines, and legacy brands were not cool. By '89 it was H-Street and having an SMA deck could be a questionable choice.
Some of my friends and I bought some rollerblades as they hit the scene but didn't really get into it in any meaningful way, just riding in our neighborhood and at the local skating rink. We wouldn't be caught riding them out in the wider public lest we could be seen and ridiculed by one of the other skater gangs in the area.