What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#101

Post by the_third_wave » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

ahartmetz wrote: post #48

the_third_wave wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Go for it, wear some wrist protectors and you should arrive in one piece. That is the only protection I use given that it actually work as intended and broken wrists are fairly common in all forms of skating.

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#102

Post by fxtentacle » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

mkl wrote: post #35

the_third_wave wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 spent >3 hours a day just commuting? I can't imagine doing that. What did you do on the train?

In Germany you can buy a yearly subscription for your daily commute train and that comes with a reserved seat and table and power plug for charging your laptop. From my observations, people are usually finishing powerpoint slides and answering emails during their commute.

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#103

Post by neilv » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

klipt wrote: post #95

neilv wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like, instead of those skaters being free individualists or rebels, they were excessively controlled commercial consumers. If so, how did that happen, in that case?

That sounds like a riddle. Do the trendsetters control fashion, or does fashion control the trendsetters? It's probably a complex dynamical interaction. The fact that the favored brands kept changing though, suggests to me that the corporations weren't exactly in control (otherwise the first winning brand would have presumably preferred to permanently monopolize the market).

Why does fashion of the kind "this is the look right now" and "that look is so last season" exist?

To what degree would we do fashion naturally, if there weren't parties looking to exploit fashion dynamics for selfish advantage?

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#104

Post by grawprog » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

Svperstar wrote: post #12

About 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…

Yeah, that's pretty much how it was. I remember not wanting to rollerblade much after my friends started getting into skateboarding for that reason. That and they were inconvenient because you had to carry your shoes around with you or the rollerblades once you changed to your shoes. It was easier, and cooler looking, to carry a skateboard. I do remember enjoying them though. They were fun to rip around on.

I did grow out of skateboarding though, then that longboarding craze came out and I never really got into it.

Funny enough, these days, I'd probably be more willing to go rollerblading somewhere than skateboarding if I had the chance.

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#105

Post by dharma1 » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

I’ve been looking into buying a pair of roller blades for the past month or so. Any recommendations?

Never really roller skated aside from a couple of roller discos but used to play ice hockey so should be easy enough. I’ve discovered a nice scene in London for this, lots of different ethnicities and ages roller skating/blading and usually always good music and vibes. Looks like a lot of fun

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#106

Post by dharma1 » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

vr46 wrote: post #20

Still hundreds of us in London going out every week and my mate’s skate school has FLOURISHED during lockdown with online lessons being taken up by ice skaters, locked out of rinks everywhere…

Hey where do you recommend skating in London? Also, what blades would you recommend for a noob? Been looking at FR X or FR 2 but have no idea what I’m buying really

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#107

Post by coldtea » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

bobbytit wrote: post #56

coldtea wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, jokes have changed the course of history in far more important circumstances and the fates of nations of millions - so simply making a passtime out of fashion is not much...

What jokes have changed the course of history? It would make a good book.

There's a long list of comedy that affected politics, from Aristophanes critiques of the Pelloponisian war (and obsfuscating relativism introduced by philosophers, which contributed to the charges against Socrates), to Jonathan Swift's "Modest proposal" aimed at then prevalent policies against the poor and/or Irish, US (Twain and others), and Europlean humorous writers and playwrights with considerable influence in their contemporary affairs (from Shaw to Karl Krauss), all the way to modern comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin affecting free speech laws (all the way to the Supreme Court), and tons of similar examples worldwide.

And we shouldn't forget one of the biggest jokes of the 20th century, Chamberlain.

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#108

Post by dharma1 » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

arielweisberg wrote: post #59

I stopped because the injuries from wiping out started to add up.

Anything in particular to look out for? Thinking of starting but don’t want to get injured

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#109

Post by sameerds » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

mkl wrote: post #35

the_third_wave wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 spent >3 hours a day just commuting? I can't imagine doing that. What did you do on the train?

Not the GP, but I used to commute two hours each way for college in Mumbai (including a switchover and long walks to/from the train stations). Used some of that time to finish assignments if I got a seat!

Re: What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

#110

Post by faeyanpiraat » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

the_third_wave wrote: post #101

ahartmetz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Go for it, wear some wrist protectors and you should arrive in one piece. That is the only protection I use given that it actually work as intended and broken wrists are fairly common in all forms of skating.

The first thing hitting the concrete when falling is your palms, so having a glove with plastic protection will help not losing any skin from your palms.

Also wear a helmet.