[HN Gopher] What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
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What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)
Author : type0
Score : 104 points
Date : 2021-09-03 11:11 UTC (2 days ago)
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| pandatigox wrote:
| Interestingly, rollerblading has become trendy again in
| Melbourne, Australia.
| flyinghamster wrote:
| The one time I tried it, I couldn't keep upright. The lack of
| edges (vs. ice skates) really threw me for a loop. I'm not all
| that great on ice skates, either, but I can stay blade-side-down
| on them.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| You fall quite a lot when learning, my hands were very sorry.at
| the end of the day when I first learned. (I was 11 though)
| latchkey wrote:
| Funny this should come up.
|
| I'm now in San Diego near the beach, where there are many miles
| of boardwalk, perfect for blading. First thing I did was buy a
| pair of skates (k2 84 boa). I love going out in the early evening
| to watch the sunset.
|
| As I skate by with a big smile on my face, I often hear tourists
| say they should get some.
| haswell wrote:
| Interestingly, roller blading is moderately popular on the
| lakefront trail in Chicago.
|
| I bike the trail almost daily, and I see a decent number of
| people out on blades each time. It's nothing like the 90s, but I
| always think about how fun it looks as I ride by.
| danbst wrote:
| Brief history of inline freestyle rollerblading in Ukraine. It
| had declined as well, but head a peak much later than US.
|
| 2003-2008 -- this was rise period of skating. Primarily in Kyiv,
| but also Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odessa
|
| 2006 -- Sebastian Lafarge creates SEBA brand and Seba FR1 boot.
| For some reason it becomes #1 choice for "pro" skaters in
| Ukraine. Maybe because it is well suited for freestyle lifestyle?
| Anyway, more and more white-black boots had appeared.
|
| I think French and Russian existing roller cultures greatly
| influenced the whole Ukrainian movement.
|
| 2008-2013 -- "boom" of inline skating in Ukraine. During this
| time originated several different skater subgroups:
|
| * yamakasi -- as a tribute to movie "Yamakasi", where tracers
| gather together to watch sunrise from high point. Skaters chatted
| which hill of Kyiv they plan to watch sunrise, skated whole
| night, gathered in one place and watched the event. Those
| meetings were sometimes up to 100 people.
|
| * Wizards (catchskating) -- basically "freeze tag" on inline
| skates. It turned out to be a good team sport, and more
| accessible than inline hockey. Common teams were 2 catchers VS 5
| runners and 3 VS 7. There were compettions, Luhansk and Donetsk
| teams were best there. I think this game originated from Russia
|
| * Season opening -- yearly spring event when weather becomes warm
| enough for skating, and people from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
| gather together in Kyiv for grand mob skating. I think record
| goes to 1000 skaters of all ages.
|
| * Night riders -- freeskating empty streets at night was common
| and even had weekly schedules. Bikers sometimes participated too
|
| * Downhill -- Kyiv has many hills, so people quickly learn the
| fun of downhill. We had teams, night downhill trainings, maps of
| good and bad DH, and so on.
|
| * all kinds of tricksters -- slalom, slides, jumps. This was
| copied from russian and french FSK tournaments. (at time Kyiv had
| very few skateparks)
|
| 2014+ -- war happened and we lost Russia, Luhansk and Donetsk
| teams. This probably was the most disrupting event for whole
| movement. Ban of Vkontakte had cut many contacts and communities.
| jmugan wrote:
| I stopped because if I did it too much my knees really hurt.
| reidjs wrote:
| Not PC, but I love Bill Burrs take on rollerblading:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMAE0za2-w
|
| He connects the demise of rollerblading to homophobia
| systematical wrote:
| Thankfully, ever city I've moved to has a roller hockey league.
| It's a nice cheap alternative to ice hockey, typically 1/2 or
| less of the cost. Here in DC we have multiple leagues and
| weekly pickup games, you can find us Wednesdays in front of the
| white house: http://www.whitehousehockey.com/
| [deleted]
| bobbytit wrote:
| Specifically the one famous joke (that even made it onto The
| Sopranos)....
|
| What is the hardest thing about roller blading?
|
| Telling your parents you're gay.
|
| I never knew a joke could change the course of history.
| mikestew wrote:
| But why was rollerblading ever associated with homosexuals to
| begin with? As one who did not know anyone in the 90s who was
| both a rollerblader and an out gay person, is it a "yeah, but
| _looks_ gay " thing? I dunno, seemed like one of those things
| one says when they can't afford rollerblades, or can afford
| them but sucks at it and gave up.
| mthoms wrote:
| > or can afford them but sucks at it and gave up.
|
| It's actually the opposite. The term originated with
| skateboarders. Rollerblading was seen as (a) too easy and
| (b) lacking any sort of "culture".
| odessacubbage wrote:
| rollerblading had a lot of associations to sub-activities
| from prior cultural zeitgeists like rollerdisco that are
| frankly, very silly. it was also more respectable and
| sport-like in the eyes of the general public, and following
| the teenager's universal laws of cool: if your parents and
| grandparents do it, it's not cool.
| dehrmann wrote:
| There was also a window where "gay" meant "uncool."
|
| > 2. (slang, derogatory) Used to express dislike: lame,
| uncool, stupid.
|
| https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gay#Adjective
| noduerme wrote:
| To teenage boys where I grew up the '90s, "don't be gay"
| was just a standard egg-on challenge, interchangeable
| with "don't be a pussy." We weren't exactly in touch with
| our feminine sides. Your supposed masculinity was proven
| by doing things more idiotically dangerous than your
| friends. Only danger could lead to teenage glory. (See:
| Jackass). We had a saying for it: "Balls and stupidity."
| Teenage boys are like 2-year-old dogs before they get
| snipped. Rollerblading just wasn't dangerous enough.
| Especially with a bunch of pads on. Also, older people
| started doing it. You'd see lawyers rollerblading to work
| holding a latte. That more than anything probably killed
| it for teenagers.
|
| After living in Spain and watching teenage boys do
| mindlessly dangerous moto dirtbike tricks for audiences
| of girls on the street, I had an insight that this was
| probably how Bullfighting started... some kid daring
| another kid to go stab a bull, and him doing it for
| attention from girls. And that sport is still heavily
| associated with machismo.
|
| One other thing on the macho side - like, my _mom_ roller
| skated when she was young, and even she got a pair of
| roller blades. You can 't really be dangerously cool
| doing something your mom does.
| ehnto wrote:
| My intuition from my scene was simply that skateboarding
| was the cool kid thing to do, and if it wasn't
| skateboarding it must be lame. That stigma had it's
| application on BMX, scooters, even different types of
| skateboards weren't free from the mockery of skateboarders.
| It's not skateboardings fault, it was just the culture. I
| like to think it's changed and thanks to the internet you
| can always find people doing what you like.
|
| Back then all I had was rateaskater.com to share the sport
| with.
| atkailash wrote:
| It's also not a far leap from this to gay as in
| homosexual since for the longest time "that's gay" was
| used as "that's lame".
| pengaru wrote:
| figureskating
| bobbytit wrote:
| My recollection is that the flamboyant gay rollerbladers
| zipping around places like Venice Beach became a meme of
| sorts.
| laurent92 wrote:
| Also in Malcolm in the middle, the father teaches Malcolm
| rollerblading, and uses this kind of flamboyant clothing
| and the camera emphasizes the tight clothes.
| Fricken wrote:
| Lower back tattoos were popular amongst young women in the
| 90s. Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and
| the practice came to an abrupt stop.
| q-big wrote:
| > Then the term "tramp stamp" caught on like wildfire and
| the practice came to an abrupt stop.
|
| In Germany, the same happened, but via the term
| "Arschgeweih" ["ass antler"].
|
| For the readers who understand German: there also existed a
| song "Bye Bye Arschgeweih" by Ina Muller:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIY1SZ_boEQ
|
| (the song title is of course a pun on the refrain line
| "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie" of the song American Pie by
| Don McLean)
| bobbytit wrote:
| Ass antler. That is hilarious.
| q-big wrote:
| I just found out that the variant "arse antlers" actually
| seems to be used in Britain (source:
| https://deen.dict.cc/?s=Arschgeweih).
| watwut wrote:
| It is always disappointing when bullying campaign works.
| coldtea wrote:
| 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...
| bobbytit wrote:
| What jokes have changed the course of history? It would
| make a good book.
| coldtea wrote:
| 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.
| bobbytit wrote:
| Bill Burr was blaming that one specific joke for the
| demise of blading. Can you think of an example where a
| single joke has changed the course of history in a
| significant way? I don't doubt the impact humour has had.
| It is the favorite method that our rulers use to feed us
| propaganda.
| tellersid wrote:
| I use to rollerblade in the 90s. I never heard of this at the
| time I couldn't have possibly cared less if I had.
|
| IMO the problem is I rollerbladed for 3 years and I never
| learned to stop properly. I basically had to fall on grass or
| cruise. IMO it died because it wasn't a good hobby for the
| average person. A skateboard doesn't have a speed problem like
| rollerblades. A bike has nice easy breaking system.
|
| It was a giant 90s fad that was not a good idea for the average
| person. I loved them and wouldn't even consider getting a pair
| now based on the almost certainty of taking a massive spill.
| toxik wrote:
| I wonder if you could make some kind of handheld brake lever
| cable system for inlines. That'd be sweet.
| pengaru wrote:
| > A skateboard doesn't have a speed problem like rollerblades
|
| Nonsense, utter nonsense.
| mthoms wrote:
| It's easier to both bail (jump off) and control speed (by
| dragging your foot or doing power-slides) on a skateboard.
|
| So yes, skateboarding does have a speed problem but it's
| easier to control for.
| pengaru wrote:
| Dragging your foot on a skateboard leaves your other foot
| planted on the board, meaning the board is vulnerable to
| catching on any crack or edge while carrying most your
| weight, which will send you tumbling.
|
| You can drag your foot exactly the same way to lose speed
| on skates by dragging one perpendicular to the direction
| of travel, while your other foot is still perfectly
| capable of jumping you over any cracks or edges since the
| skates are strapped to your feet.
|
| I'll admit it's easier to never go too fast for comfort
| on a skateboard, by simply not riding the skateboard; you
| get off and walk on shoes. Which is a problem for
| rollerblades. But that's kind of irrelevant beginner
| territory isn't it?
|
| Once you're competent enough to be riding either at
| speeds above a run, the skateboard has significant speed
| governing challenges, as do rollerblades.
|
| I street skated for years and never became competent
| enough to use power-slides for governing speed on
| anything but the most ideal uniform asphalt surfaces. To
| propose that as some kind of accessible braking method
| strikes me as disingenuous at best. For most, attempting
| that'll be a spectacular prelude to a broken clavicle.
| jhchabran wrote:
| To shed some lights on why power sliding is so
| unreliable, doing so requires to be familiar the surface
| on which you're attempting it. Being familiar with it
| means that you basically failed to and fell down
| multiples times before getting it right, which already
| requires a good skill level.
|
| And you cannot assume that power sliding on a surface
| will be similar to another one that looked the same
| because a slight change of humidity, dust or grease may
| totally change the outcome and transform the slide into a
| hang up that will throw you at the floor pretty hard.
|
| So if you combine a really thin margin of error with the
| inability to confidently execute it on new surfaces, it
| makes powersliding a pretty unreliable way of braking
| unless it's an emergency, in which case jumping off the
| board is much easier.
|
| Meanwhile, you can power slide at will in the skate park
| because you know the surface by heart, and it's easy to
| get it consistent by how many times you just rode it.
| watwut wrote:
| No, absolutely not. If anything, having controll on
| skateboard is harder pretty much no matter what context.
| And you have zero control over where the board goes once
| you abandon it on top of it - meaning you are more
| dangerous for anyone else.
| foreigner wrote:
| There were a few years in the early 90s when I probably
| rollerbladed more than I walked.
| voisin wrote:
| For 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?
| p1mrx wrote:
| Bike wheels (and feet) are effective across a wide variety of
| surfaces. Skates have small wheels, so even a stray pebble can
| knock you to the ground.
| tingletech wrote:
| it became really popular in Oakland since the pandemic started.
| When things first shut down in 2020, there was nothing to do but
| hang out at the lake. The parking lot at the boathouse turned
| into roller blade scene. I also see folks roller blading in the
| bike lanes sometimes.
| mtVessel wrote:
| Spoiler: Does not answer the question.
| [deleted]
| micro_cam wrote:
| See also windsurfing, snow blades, fat biking and a bunch of
| other sports that were briefly the next big thing.
|
| Some of this is just the nature of fads but an interesting case
| can be made that, with the rise of the internet sports and
| decline of local shops the instruction infrastructure isn't there
| anymore: https://fredhasson.medium.com/how-the-internet-killed-
| windsu...
|
| Obviously some sports are thriving but many of them have figured
| out a way to maintain a local presence despite online sales. Ie
| bike maintenance focused shops, the preference for locally shaped
| boards in surfing, ski and bike lift tickets, climbing gyms.
| ajay-b wrote:
| 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.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| > "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?
| Nasrudith wrote:
| Heelys wound up recalled and banned in schools over safety
| issues with the shoes themselves - as opposed to the lack of
| helmets.
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| Now there is this:
|
| https://kickspeedrollerskateshoes.com/
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| This would look so much better, if the wheels were hidden
| by the sidewall when collapsed inside... they'd look like
| normal sneakers when worn inside, and then "bam!", skates!
| gherkinnn wrote:
| Same applies to skiing. And surfing. Countless activities that
| are all about complex movements at speed.
|
| I don't think that point is relevant.
| xsmasher wrote:
| The same critique applies to skateboarding, and that seems as
| popular as ever.
| therockspush wrote:
| I bladed and still skateboard.
|
| What made blading lame is having to carry around a pair of
| shoes if you want to go anywhere. Otherwise you're like the
| guy clicking around the coffee shop in your clip in bike
| shoes and tights.
| ohwaitnvm wrote:
| Look up "Doop" skates. I have a pair of three-wheeled
| (100mm monsters) doops that I can step into somewhat like
| snowboard bindings. I much prefer my roller hockey skates
| most of the time, as the ankle support on Doops is almost
| nonexistent, but after the first couple minutes each time
| you adjust and can go for a while. I don't know if this is
| true for all of their models, but mine disassembles each
| skate into a boot and a wheels+rail section, meaning it's
| very easy to pack them in luggage for a trip.
| ludston wrote:
| Been that guy. What's the problem? I mean I can see the
| problem with walking into a shop wearing rollerblades, but
| what is wrong with bike shoes?
| mingus88 wrote:
| It's incredibly uncomfortable. I don't want my cleats to
| score up someone's floor so I end up walking on the side-
| edge of my feet. And every step makes inordinate amounts
| of clicking so that I feel like I'm a hot girl in heels
| walking on tile, drawing attention to myself.
|
| And let me tell you, drawing attention to myself while
| I'm sweaty and wearing bike clothing is the definition of
| uncomfortable.
| ludston wrote:
| Don't get me wrong, I'll just take them off and ruin my
| socks because walking with your toes pointed up is killer
| on the ankles. I didn't realise it was something worth
| being self-conscious over.
| knicholes wrote:
| I'd be more concerned about lounging around a coffee shop
| with spandex revealing all I've been given.
| samatman wrote:
| More of a ristretto-and-go kind of moment, I would think.
| aix1 wrote:
| I don't race and so having optimal power transfer isn't
| important to me. I do like cleats though, so I ended up
| standardising on SPD across all my bikes (including
| road).
|
| I have a pair of Vaude Sykkel shoes. They're leather,
| super comfy, look great (IMO) and the cleats are
| recessed: when I walk around the cleats don't make
| contact with the floor.
|
| https://www.vaude.com/en-GB/Women/Shoes/Bike-
| Shoes/Sykkel-Bi...
| kbrosnan wrote:
| Depends on the shoe. I have definitely marred wood floors
| with SPDs and Shimano lace up CX shoes. Looked like
| someone took a hammer and smacked it at an angle in
| random places on the floor.
|
| I thought much like you that SPDs were recessed enough
| not to make contact. I was wrong.
| aix1 wrote:
| > Depends on the shoe.
|
| That's definitely true and something to bear in mind.
|
| I generally don't wear outdoor shoes (of any kind) in my
| own or other people's homes, which is where this sort of
| situation is most likely to arise. Commercial
| establishments (shops, hotels, pubs, offices) tend to
| have sufficiently hardwearing floors for this to not be a
| concern. I'm usually more worried about bringing in mud
| than about damage to floors.
| stevesimmons wrote:
| Then get mountainbike shoes, which have the cleats
| recessed into a proper sole. You can walk normally
| without any clicking...
| type0 wrote:
| Rollerblades could have become more popular if all parks
| had pavement instead of gravel tracks.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| I have a pair of 5-wheel skates which clip to a (special)
| pair of boots. Those boots looked a bit like motorcycle
| boots, the skates have a hard shell which is strapped over
| the boots. This is a practical solution to the shoe problem
| unless you're looking for something more fashionable.
| 1_2__5 wrote:
| This brings back memories of the Friday Night Skate in SF in the
| 90s (still going but not weekly I don't think). Started out after
| the 89 earthquake on the closed sections of the freeways and
| continued as a skate through downtown. As a neat anecdote, it was
| regularly attended by Tsutomu Shimomura, the guy whose team
| caught Kevin Mitnick. A number of other folks from the
| hacker/phreaker scene were regular attendees too.
| rurban wrote:
| According to the excellent roller doc "United Skates" the venues
| are closing due to rent increase.
|
| https://www.bustle.com/p/the-hbo-documentary-united-skates-s...
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| So much talent and so much passion for the activity in that
| great documentary.
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| Roller 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.
| ehnto wrote:
| > so much so that it makes me question my own maturity /
| adulthood, but nowhere near enough to suppress that enthusiasm
|
| Part of maturing is realising that a kindred spirit is
| something to cherish. Trying to maintain a facade of maturity
| is what becomes immature.
| quelltext wrote:
| FYI, that's not what "kindred spirit" means.
| ehnto wrote:
| So it isn't!
|
| I had assumed it was evolved from the the germanic word for
| children, kinder, but it looks like it evolved from the Old
| English word kinraden, which meant related in lineage more
| or less.
| chana_masala wrote:
| We still have kin in English
| BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote:
| Toronto traffic moved me from a bike to blades. On a bike you are
| totally at the mercy of the driver coming up from behind. With
| blades I could skate facing traffic and transition to the
| sidewalk or boulevard if oncoming traffic was too close. Also
| blades are harder to steal than a bike locked up where you can't
| keep an eye on it while at work.
| vr46 wrote:
| 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...
| OJFord wrote:
| When I played ice hockey, roller hockey seemed pretty popular
| (never tried it myself) if nothing else than a way to do more
| of something a bit similar, since ice time is pretty limited
| (by rinks being few and far between, and mostly not used for
| hockey) here.
|
| (Haven't skated since coronavirus, hadn't realised missing it
| so much until your comment.. I'd only just managed to get in
| with a new team's rec session too, having not really played or
| even skated much after graduating.)
| dharma1 wrote:
| 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
| crtasm wrote:
| My experience was quads are way, way easier to learn and
| skate on than inline. Give them a try too maybe.
| Hasnep wrote:
| Not the person you're replying to but my advice would be to
| first make sure you know what type of skating you're going to
| be doing, because city skating/freeskating has different
| needs to fitness skating.
|
| If you're looking at freeskates then you can't really go
| wrong with FRs, Rollerblade's RB series or maybe some
| Powerslide skates. Just check how wide your feet are because
| they can fit very differently, even within the same brand the
| RB skates are quite wide and Twister Edge skates are narrow.
|
| Ideally try them on and get a feel for what's most
| comfortable for you, you can swap out the frames and wheels
| for something better later on, and usually the liner too.
| Svperstar wrote:
| 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 rollerblades "fruit boots" and that
| killed it for a lot of people who didn't want to associated with
| something seen as weak and "gay".
| bobbytit wrote:
| Yeah, I think the fruitbooting label killed it more than just
| that one joke.
| WalterBright wrote:
| When I was young, skateboarding was considered something only
| kids did, something you grew out of. Of course, the boards in
| those days were pretty primitive, just roller skate wheels on
| fixed axles.
| odessacubbage wrote:
| inliners got a reputation for waxing the absolute shit out of
| spots which is considered a somewhat major party foul,
| especially in the more cloistered, local centric skate scenes
| of the 90s and early 2000s. bmxers were disliked for similar
| reasons; pegs absolutely destroy ledges. there is also the
| perpetual problem of access to a limited resource, i've
| observed my dad going through similar flame wars concerning
| motorized and non motorized access to backcountry trails,
| albeit he called hikers the trail gestapo rather than fags. i
| imagine similar cultural clashes can be observed around lake
| and beachside hobbies and the tensions between skiiers and
| snowboarders, bolt vs trad climbers, etc are well documented.
| skateboarding has always been run by and for 16 year old boys,
| which is the way it should be, and they labeled these things
| with the vernacular they knew. if it's any consolation, that
| kid with the shaved head & blind jeans who called you a
| fruitbooter in 1995 probably called his dad, his biology
| teacher and anyone else within earshot names that were several
| magnitudes worse.
|
| also in a final twist of irony, skateboarding's transition into
| an olympic sport with leagues and rules has put it under the
| control of world skate, a rollerblading organization.
|
| >https://skateboarding.transworld.net/news/from-bad-to-
| worse-...
| cowmix wrote:
| I had no idea, how stupid.
|
| This makes me want to get a pair now.
| amelius wrote:
| > 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.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_hockey
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| There is, I'm sure plenty of roller hockey players are gay.
|
| That said, though roller hockey uses rollerblades, I would
| view it as a separate hobby from roller blading.
| grawprog wrote:
| 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.
| ThrowMeXY wrote:
| It's definitely an American thing. It did not stop me from
| roller blading here in Europe, but it's always in the back of
| my head.
|
| Proof:
| https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-1217603/Th...
| fao_ wrote:
| > Skaters started calling rollerblades "fruit boots" and that
| killed it for a lot of people who didn't want to associated
| with something seen as weak and "gay".
|
| Their problem, a lot of fellow queer people rollerblade and
| they have a hell of a time.
|
| It's actually extremely funny how homophobes will stop having
| fun specifically because something gets coded as queer. Like
| they're deliberately cutting off their nose to spite their
| face.
| toxik wrote:
| I think people who don't want to be called gay are
| homophobes. It seems like you implied that though. It's very
| normal to not want to do things that make you unpopular.
| cortesoft wrote:
| Do you mean "I don't think"? The rest of your comment makes
| it seem like you do.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| 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 if not
| faster than most cyclists. Every now and then I skated to my
| parents, an 75km trip which took a while.
|
| I never - and I mean never - heard anything about "skating
| being _gay_ , that might be an American thing? To even consider
| _homophobia_ ( _fear_ of homosexuals?) in this context is
| completely foreign to me and probably says more about the
| polarised society in the USA than about anything else.
|
| Skates are practical means of transport in flat countries with
| good infrastructure like the Netherlands. They are not in the
| part of Sweden where I now live, otherwise I'd still be on them
| every day. A bicycle works fine here so I reverted to my
| original means of locomotion.
| hjfhjkh wrote:
| Homophobia is the accepted term for this kind of thing in
| both Dutch and Swedish, so you shouldn't feign surprise that
| "fear" comes into the terminology.
|
| The Netherlands and Sweden are among the most LGBT-tolerant
| countries in the world. Not having to worry (much) about
| homophobia is a huge privilege.
|
| The way you are talking, it sounds like you are neither gay
| nor have you ever given much thought to the plight of gay
| people in the large parts of the world where homosexuality is
| not tolerated, including the many places where it is still a
| crime.
|
| The "polarized" US is not as gay-friendly as the typical
| European country, but other places are much worse.
| dochtman wrote:
| Yes, homophobia is a thing even in NL; what I think the GP
| post was trying to point out is that there's been no
| connection between inline skating and any particular sexual
| orientation in NL. That rings true to me as another
| Dutchman who owns inline skates (though only for three
| years).
| silverpepsi wrote:
| Well there's a more fundamental dependency we don't have
| an answer to -
|
| Is it common in either language (or perhaps English is
| used in this context) to make fun of things that disgust
| you by calling them gay? Growing up in the Midwest of the
| US in the early 90s, I knew to call things 'gay' if I
| wanted to discourage my friends from doing them much
| earlier than my Christian parents allowed me to find out
| the secret of males/females having different genitalia.
| (A much younger neighbor boy finally leaked the secret to
| me when I was 12.)
| pastage wrote:
| Yes in Sweden I did it in 1990 even though I grew up in
| an evironment were being homosexual was normal. Still
| being gay was not cool in society, and they were gravely
| mistreated. We still have a long way to go.
| odessacubbage wrote:
| it's easy for people to look at 90's/2000's vernacular
| and assume a level of explicit bigotry that simply was
| not necessarily present. kids will always be drawn to an
| easy shorthand to use as a pejorative, preferably one
| that distinguishes them from earlier generations and
| makes their parents mad. they will probably start using
| the term through osmosis without even understanding its
| webster definition because that won't be _their_
| definition. gay /fag has basically been superseded by
| cuck/cringe/simp etc and those terms will similarly be
| replaced by something else within 5 years but
| functionally all these terms end up fulfilling the same
| purposed which is very quickly divorced from their actual
| dictionary meaning, should one even exist.
| foldr wrote:
| Not sure. We all knew what it meant when I was a kid in
| the 90s. That doesn't mean that people were thinking
| homophobic thoughts every time they called something gay.
| But the underlying idea that being gay was icky and bad
| was perfectly well known to all of us at the time.
|
| Society finally seems to have figured out that using
| 'gay' as an insult is homophobic and wrong. However, on
| the way to that realization, we did have to go through a
| long period of various groups of people insisting that
| they had their own special definitions of 'gay', 'fag',
| etc. that allegedly had nothing to do with the ordinary
| meanings of these words. It retrospect I think it's clear
| that protests of this sort were all entirely specious
| (with the exception of young kids who simply didn't know
| what they were saying).
| comprev wrote:
| There is a surprising amount of homophobia in Friends -
| possibly one of the most famous TV shows of all time.
|
| Like the extensive racism in Fresh Prince, the homophobia
| in Friends is brushed aside because "it was the 90s"
| teekert wrote:
| To come to OPs defense, I also used the term gay a lot as a
| negative word growing up. I never knew any gay people, we
| just used it as an alternative for softy. My parents never
| explained what being gay meant, I had no openly gay
| relatives. I understand now it is painful for gay people
| and I probably did know some, they just laid low, partly
| because of using gay as a negative. Needless to say I don't
| use the term like that anymore. But it was never
| consciously anti-homosexuals. Like Eminem who did a duet
| with Elton John to prove his point. Doesn't make it right
| of course. I apologize for using the word. I also used to
| think nothing of black face, even defended the tradition,
| now I changed my mind.
| emodendroket wrote:
| "Homophobia" also refers to more generally negative attitudes
| about homosexuality, not just the fear the name suggests.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| To add to this, -phobia suffix is used to express aversion,
| not just fear. For example, hydrophobicity.
| foldr wrote:
| 'Homophobia' is the standard term in English for prejudice
| against gay people. It does not mean 'fear of homosexuals'
| (regardless of etymological considerations).
| Supermancho wrote:
| > It does not mean 'fear of homosexuals' (regardless of
| etymological considerations).
|
| It does mean "fear of being perceived as homosexual". There
| are backwards people. The stigma that some may ascribe, is
| rarely removed. If they are in a position of power, this
| can hurt you professionally or socially, despite modern
| moral standards.
| hamburglar wrote:
| Fear of being perceived as a homosexual is a type of
| homophobia, but homophobia is not necessarily a fear of
| being perceived as a homosexual.
| Supermancho wrote:
| I don't think most people are arguing about that. Some
| post that puts forth "it doesn't mean this it means that"
| can be charitably added to with additional interpretation
| rather than "wrong. it's THIS". Dead-end true-scotsman
| argument.
| foldr wrote:
| I think you've got slightly the wrong end of the stick.
| No-one thinks that rollerblading went out of style
| because people were _afraid of_ gay people. So the OP's
| inaccurate (or at best overly narrow) assumption
| regarding what 'homophobia' means is leading them to
| misunderstand the claim about what happened. These days
| the term 'homophobia' is very rarely used to refer to a
| literal phobia of gay people.
|
| (The OP said 'fear of homosexuals', not 'fear of being
| perceived as homosexual'.)
| ahartmetz wrote:
| 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.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| 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.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| 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.
| noduerme wrote:
| When I was a 13 or so, in the early '90s, I took an
| "extreme rollerblading" class on the weekends. The class
| started by teaching various kinds of stops (T-stop where
| you drag one skate behind you sideways, spin stop ...no
| one ever used a brake), and then moved on to going down
| stairs, performing jumps, and so on. We were required to
| wear elbow, knee and wrist guards as well as helmets. But
| one thing they taught us early on was how to fall
| correctly, or come to a falling stop. You want to try to
| go down with a kneepad first followed by the wrist guard,
| so you're using the knee to brake. This was something we
| practiced.
|
| It's been over 20 years since I was on rollerblades and I
| don't even know if I'd have the balance anymore, but I
| wouldn't do it without at least one knee guard and both
| hard wrist guards.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| I nearly entirely rely on the T-stop, most of my skates
| never had any brakes and I removed it from the ones which
| did since it is only in the way and of questionable
| efficacy. The disadvantage of dragging a skate is the
| enormous wear it puts on wheels but apart from that it
| serves me well. Knee protection might work for some but I
| never felt the need and just feel those things are in the
| way, the same goes for elbow protection. Having skated
| for decades without damaging either knees or elbows I'll
| probably be OK but by all means use them when you're just
| starting off, I did this as well.
| noduerme wrote:
| My favorite were spin stops - I'd do that 90% of the
| time, or drag a T until I was slow enough to do one. The
| other problem with a T is your foot can catch if you're
| on a sidewalk. But playing hockey I would intentionally
| take a knee sometimes, so I think that would still be
| something I'd do automatically.
| scrollaway wrote:
| If you're looking for good gloves for rollerblading I
| recommend looking at motorbiking gloves. They're a bit
| expensive but they can be super comfortable _and_ have a
| ton of protection around the wrist and knuckles.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| Motorbike gloves do not include the essential part of
| wrist protectors, namely the hard plastic backbone which
| is meant to catch the fall and keep the wrist joint from
| overextending. If you want to wear them, fine, but make
| sure to use wrist protectors - with a rigid backbone - as
| well.
| scrollaway wrote:
| Not all of them do but as far as I can tell some of them
| definitely do. I don't ride motorbikes so I'm not an
| expert in this but my friend who does showed me her
| gloves which do include wrist protectors. I'm in Europe
| if it makes a difference...
| motardo wrote:
| > The first thing hitting the concrete when falling is
| your palms
|
| Yes, if you're young and have good reflexes, you can
| break your wrists. If you're old with slower reflexes,
| you can't get your arms out in time so you break your hip
| instead.
| elliekelly wrote:
| This is exactly why I stopped rollerblading. I had a
| coach who made us all sign "contracts" promising we
| wouldn't rollerblade because so many players were
| injuring their wrists.
| runarberg wrote:
| When I lived in the Mission in San Francisco 10 years ago, I
| found rollerblades to be the best way of traveling medium
| distances in the city (e.g. to the Civic Center). I didn't
| have a safe place to store a bike, busses are super slow (and
| if I'm going longer distances, I can take them off and hop on
| a muni). I never heard of the homophobia angle either.
| mkl wrote:
| You spent >3 hours a day just commuting? I can't imagine
| doing that. What did you do on the train?
| the_third_wave wrote:
| Read, work, speak to people, look out of the window, drink
| some tea, nothing at all - there are many ways to spend
| time in a train. The commute would have been just as long
| (if not longer) by car but that would be time wasted
| instead of time for myself. Seeing those traffic jams from
| behind the train window (in the morning, by the time I went
| home the evening rush was already over) just was the icing
| on the cake, imagine sitting there in a tin can, waiting
| for the tin can in front of you to move, with another tin
| can behind you waiting for you to move...
| emodendroket wrote:
| If my commute were 3 hours, regardless of mode, I'd
| either move or find a new job.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| I did, eventually, first by going to Canada and Alaska to
| paddle the Yukon down to the Bering strait, then to
| Sweden 'cause I met a Swedish girl. Had I not met her I'd
| have moved to Canada instead, that was my original plan.
| But... the job was fun, it paid well, I was single, I
| bought a house which I sold for twice the price after 6
| years (before I moved to Sweden) so in that respect
| everything worked out as intended. I would not do this at
| this time and place given that I'm not single, I have
| children, I live on a farm in the woods and I have
| gigabit fibre which makes it possible to reach the world
| at the speed of light...
| vanderZwan wrote:
| More likely twice a week: at the start of the weekend when
| going home to parents (and their washing machine), and at
| the end of it when going back to uni.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| Nope, 5 days a week, left home around 07.00, came home
| around 21.00. I even had a washing machine all of my own
| together with a house to put it in. I actually had a
| washing machine as a student as well, it was old but it
| worked - until a house mate destroyed it, that is.
| hamburglar wrote:
| What did you teach that washing machine? :)
| sameerds wrote:
| 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!
| masklinn wrote:
| > You spent >3 hours a day just commuting?
|
| Sad to say but a lot of people have _car_ commutes in that
| range. The Bay has tens of thousands of "supercommuters"
| whose commute is 90mn or above.
|
| In Europe train commutes in that range are probably more
| reasonable: you can sleep in the train (super common for
| the early HSRs), or it can count as part of your work-day
| (e.g. handle your mail or whatever, a good train seat often
| works just as well as an office desk).
|
| I've known quite a few people who worked in large cities
| but wanted to live in the countryside (or at least in
| smaller cities, way out from even what's usually considered
| suburbs), they'd take regional or even high-speed train
| into and out of paris. Not necessarily cheap (especially if
| you take HSR), but frequent rider and (usually) company
| contribution made that surprisingly realistic.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| 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.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| I had a Dutch "OV Jaarkaart", a pass which is valid in
| all forms of public transport in the whole country, at
| any time. No reserved seats and no power plugs in the
| 90's of the last century, laptops were not as common as
| they are now and I got quite a few looks when I hooked up
| a Sony mobile brick to mine to remotely dial in to my box
| in the IT cave we called home. I usually wrote articles
| and proposals, hacked on random stuff or tried to build
| software I'd found on freshmeat.net or elsewhere.
| watwut wrote:
| Skateboarding has a culture of hating anyone else having fun
| and liking something that is not "properly difficult". Now they
| hate scooters for being "too easy".
|
| And it is ridiculous every single time.
| brandall10 wrote:
| 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.
| neilv wrote:
| 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?
| klipt wrote:
| 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).
| [deleted]
| neilv wrote:
| 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?
| klipt wrote:
| Dr Seuss explained it in "The Sneetches", it's all about
| status signalling.
|
| > if there weren't parties looking to exploit fashion
| dynamics for selfish advantage?
|
| What parties are those, the elites using fashion to
| signal higher status, the people selling the elites the
| latest fashion, or the underdogs trying to catch up to
| what the elites are wearing so they can attain high
| status too? Aren't they _all_ following selfish motives?
| brandall10 wrote:
| The shift usually was to newer, smaller, more underground I
| guess companies with the best up and coming skaters. Skate
| mags/vids were a big part of this. There was always a sense
| of transition and growth, esp for street as people did more
| aggressive things.
|
| So yes, there was a commercial aspect to it, but from a
| marketing sense, it was driven by being iconoclastic, being
| super in tune with where the industry was heading and
| style/trends/tricks/skaters was heading.
|
| Being a rebel is chucking away societal norms, and I do
| feel that was how most skaters felt back then... you were
| definitely in a bubble.
| analog31 wrote:
| I suspect that it has to do with any trend that gets too
| big, and the only antidote is to make the rules into a
| moving target. This happened with punk rock when I was into
| that. At some point, the punk bands rebelled against punk
| fashion, and started showing up in worn but otherwise
| regular looking street clothes.
| hef19898 wrote:
| I used to be a _street_ skater in the mid nineties in a small
| German town. Was pretty cool, doing all the street skating
| stuff. And we made _sure_ to not be associated with
| "Rollerbladers", the guys and girls (obviously girls were
| different so) using the stoppers to brake. It stopped being
| cool so, no idea why exactly. Hell, we even had people with
| home made half and quarter pipes in their backyards back
| then...
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| I bladed A LOT when I was younger, still take it out sometimes.
|
| And your argument is new to me ( Belgium), I've never witnessed
| any harassment.
| alisonkisk wrote:
| They called it gay because thet didn't like it, not vice versa.
|
| Roller blades are cringy and awkward by nature, because they
| are stuck on your feet and you can't get off them as needed,
| unlike a skateboard or bike, and they awkward to balance on
| when you aren't zooming, unlike rollerskates.
| inetknght wrote:
| When I was a child I loved to rollerblade. I stopped when I moved
| and there wasn't a lot of pavement.
|
| Now I walk some of the parks around Houston. There's plenty of
| people using a diverse set of leisure/exercise activities. I see
| more rollerbladers than rollerskaters on the bike paths.
| Rollerblading isn't dead.
| sails wrote:
| The somewhat fringe downhill rollerblading scene is pretty epic,
| with 100++kph races [1] and some nice technical descents [2].
| What is interesting is that it made a somewhat resurgence in the
| past 5 years after disappearing from the downhill scene for a few
| years.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46SP1Uc7ek [2]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAHj04HHQo
| arielweisberg wrote:
| I stopped because the injuries from wiping out started to add up.
| dharma1 wrote:
| Anything in particular to look out for? Thinking of starting
| but don't want to get injured
| dharma1 wrote:
| 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
| iancmceachern wrote:
| FR skates are the best currently out there IMO
| sgarman wrote:
| Checkout inlinewarehouse. FR Skates, Powerslides are great. FR
| was made by previous Seba skate creator. The three wheel skates
| are the way to go if you are at an intermediate or greater
| level.
| eggy wrote:
| I 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!
| chana_masala wrote:
| I'm curious how you would hang out with your ex-wife.
|
| Edit: seems like I didn't manage the tone here. I didn't mean
| it as any kind of insult. I've just genuinely never heard of
| anyone getting along with their ex partner in this way, so I am
| curious to know more about the dynamic
| atlgator wrote:
| Rollerblading was popular with the Millennial generation. It died
| when we got our driver's licenses.
| nwatson wrote:
| Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon on a bike pulling Kip on online
| skates ... https://youtu.be/eprEOkxJ2Eo
| Wyndsage wrote:
| Still big in NY https://www.youtube.com/c/BladeInNY/
| SteveGerencser wrote:
| I always assumed that the movie Airborne killed it.
| elliottkember wrote:
| If you're in SF, there's a rink in GG park by 6th ave on the
| north side. There's always music playing, it's a good time. Very
| popular
| tingletech wrote:
| SF also has the Church of 8 Wheels at like Fell and Fillmore.
| ohwaitnvm wrote:
| And if you're into roller hockey we play pickups at Dolores
| Park rink on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. (18th and
| Church closest intersection)
| hateful wrote:
| No proof, but I think that their short lived popularity is what
| killed roller rinks. Everyone wanted to inline at the roller
| rink, but you can't really skate slow in inline's - so they
| eventually banned them. So everyone wanted to inline, but
| couldn't do it in the rink so they stopped going. Then a lot of
| them closed before the popularity waned.
| nate_meurer wrote:
| Do yourself a favor and wear wrist guards when you skate or
| snowboard. A fall on an outstretched hand (FOOSH) can easily
| rupture your scapholunate ligament. This is an injury that often
| cannot be repaired, and eventually leads to arthritic
| degeneration called scapholunate advanced collapse (SLAC). The
| standard of care for SLAC currently involves fusing the wrist
| bones, which of course means you can't no longer move your wrist.
| So wear your wrist guards!
| blacklion wrote:
| In Russia quad rollers (with suspension like skate's one) are
| almost unheard of. And rollerblades (in-line) is very popular in
| big cities, with schools, clubs, etc.
| apgwoz wrote:
| The decline of (popularity) Aggressive Inline is talked about in
| this documentary "Barely Dead" (https://youtu.be/DArRi_PooDc).
| Spoiler alert: it has to do with being canceled by the X-Games,
| which reduced exposure, which reduced new kids coming on the
| scene.
|
| Really, it just went underground. There are still aggressive
| skates being produced by many companies, with a wide selection of
| wheels, frames, etc. There are even contests still happening;
| they just look different than they once did. Many of them are
| tours of skate spots in a city, mob style.
|
| The surge of cheap video equipment also means that there's no end
| of filmed video parts on YouTube with insane grind combinations,
| "stunt" gaps, and a progression of difficulty that can only be
| described as "jaw dropping."
| odessacubbage wrote:
| another part of this that is important _imo_ is that inline was
| in a large degree absorbed by its more successful analog:
| freeskiing.
| cortesoft wrote:
| What is freeskiing? I have never heard that term
|
| Edit: googled it, and it appears to be a snow sport... not
| sure how that would be a competitor to rollerblading?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeskiing
| apgwoz wrote:
| Maybe they meant "free skating"? Which is an aggressive
| style, but far less technical. Think Parkour on big
| (80-90mm) wheels and fast movement from point to point.
|
| "Aggressive Inline," alternatively, is normally going to
| involve "sessioning" a couple obstacles on the street, or a
| skate park. You might slide a hand rail 50 times trying a
| variety of tricks before moving to the next spot.
|
| The free skater will just speed past, possibly "stair
| bashing" (riding down the stairs) or outright jumping over
| them.
| odessacubbage wrote:
| freeskiing::inline. the tricks and the motions are the
| exact same, you can just go bigger/faster/higher and there
| is more money in it. i can only speak anecdotally but
| pretty much all of the of the 'serious' rollerblade kids i
| knew growing up went over to competitive skiing because
| that's where the opportunities were.
| cortesoft wrote:
| Do you have any links? I am still unable to find anything
| besides snow versions when googling.
| hef19898 wrote:
| That documentary was the first thing that came to mind. That
| and Jon Julio, crazy guy.
| ctack wrote:
| 2017
| Finnucane wrote:
| It sucked to be cycling on a shared path with rollerbladers.
| They'd take up the whole lane. I'm glad they're gone.
| pcmaffey wrote:
| This only applies to people still learning how to skate. I used
| to rollerblade all around manhattan. A good skater takes up as
| much room as a pedestrian, but is moving much faster, can zip
| in and out of crowds like pylons, and use edgework to
| accelerate without the largesse strides. It's incredibly fun as
| a rollerblader's mobility is infinitely greater than a
| skateboard .
| elcapitan wrote:
| I see this a lot on some leisure area in Berlin here (the old
| airport Tempelhof). The problem is that there usually is a big
| difference in skill level betwen cyclists and rollerbladers.
| Cyclists are normally quite experienced in what they do, and
| can control their space usage pretty well. Rollerbladers only
| do it once a week at best, and stumble around like drunk
| teenagers, going very wide and slow. A skilled rollerblader
| wouldn't really need more space than a cyclist.
| djmips wrote:
| A roller blading stride takes more width than a cyclist by a
| bit because you push back and out otherwise you aren't very
| efficient.
| elcapitan wrote:
| Well yeah depends also on the cyclist, if they are going
| rather quiet or out of the saddle. The main issue is the
| super wide and unpredictable path that inexperienced
| skaters take.
| futhey wrote:
| It also sucks to be a single rollerblader on a multi-use path
| with a gang of bikers who can't seem to understand they're
| taking up both lanes designed to be used to travel in both
| directions.
|
| Nobody knows how to use anything even resembling a road.
| frabbit wrote:
| Agreed on both your and the OP's point. MUPs seem to bring
| the worst in some people who do not know how to be
| considerate.
| poetaster wrote:
| Roads should be broad. Like in northern Alberta roads. Great
| skating.
| teekert wrote:
| I went to the skate park with my son (in the Netherlands) it was
| crowded but all the kids were on these [0]. There were some
| skateboarders but I was the only on on inline skates... (I'm 39).
|
| [0]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stunt%20steps&iax=images&ia=images
| Joeri wrote:
| This makes a lot of sense to me. Steps (and to a degree
| skateboards) have a much more forgiving learning curve than
| inline skates. When they slide out from under you, you can just
| jump off and land on your feet. When inline skates slide out
| from under you, you tend to fall hard. What's surprising is
| that inline skating ever gained any popularity at all, not that
| it fell out of favor.
| teekert wrote:
| I also bought a skateboard with my son but it's pretty hard,
| the skates you can use on the road and make some KMs/miles, a
| freestyle skateboard is much harder to get good at in my
| experience. The steps seem to be much easier to get started
| with indeed... But I'm biased.
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