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What the Heck Happened to Rollerblading? (2017)

110 points by type0 5y ago

Finnucane 5y ago
It sucked to be cycling on a shared path with rollerbladers. They’d take up the whole lane. I’m glad they’re gone.
- futhey 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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 5y ago
    Roads should be broad. Like in northern Alberta roads. Great skating.
- elcapitan 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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 5y ago
      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.
- pcmaffey 5y ago
  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 .
ctack 5y ago
2017
reidjs 5y ago
Not PC, but I love Bill Burrs take on rollerblading: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMAE0za2-w https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMAE0za2-w He connects the demise of rollerblading to homophobia
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- bobbytit 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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.
    - bobbytit 5y ago
      My recollection is that the flamboyant gay rollerbladers zipping around places like Venice Beach became a meme of sorts.
      - laurent92 5y ago
        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.
    - ehnto 5y ago
      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.
mtVessel 5y ago
Spoiler: Does not answer the question.
Apocryphon 5y ago
> "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?
- xsmasher 5y ago
  The same critique applies to skateboarding, and that seems as popular as ever.
  - therockspush 5y ago
    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.
    - type0 5y ago
      Rollerblades could have become more popular if all parks had pavement instead of gravel tracks.
    - ludston 5y ago
      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 5y ago
        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.
Svperstar 5y ago
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 5y ago
  Yeah, I think the fruitbooting label killed it more than just that one joke.
- watwut 5y ago
  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.
  - pram 5y ago
    Scooter hate also isn’t new, they were popular in the very early 00s
- cowmix 5y ago
  I had no idea, how stupid. This makes me want to get a pair now.
- the_third_wave 5y ago
  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.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
vr46 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 5y ago
  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
  - Hasnep 5y ago
    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.
  - crtasm 5y ago
    My experience was quads are way, way easier to learn and skate on than inline. Give them a try too maybe.
  - vr46 5y ago
rurban 5y ago
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-shows-how-rollerskating-mirrors-the-black-american-experience-15939537 https://www.bustle.com/p/the-hbo-documentary-united-skates-s...
- BLKNSLVR 5y ago
  So much talent and so much passion for the activity in that great documentary.
nwatson 5y ago
Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon on a bike pulling Kip on online skates ... https://youtu.be/eprEOkxJ2Eo https://youtu.be/eprEOkxJ2Eo
ajay-b 5y ago
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.
BLKNSLVR 5y ago
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 5y ago
  > 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 5y ago
    FYI, that's not what "kindred spirit" means.
    - ehnto 5y ago
      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 5y ago
        We still have kin in English
voisin 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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.
eggy 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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
  - twobitshifter 5y ago
    It’s implied that at that point they were still married.
apgwoz 5y ago
The decline of (popularity) Aggressive Inline is talked about in this documentary “Barely Dead” (https://youtu.be/DArRi_PooDc 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.”
- hef19898 5y ago
  That documentary was the first thing that came to mind. That and Jon Julio, crazy guy.
- odessacubbage 5y ago
  another part of this that is important imo is that inline was in a large degree absorbed by its more successful analog: freeskiing.
  - cortesoft 5y ago
    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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeskiing
    - apgwoz 5y ago
      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.
arielweisberg 5y ago
I stopped because the injuries from wiping out started to add up.
- dharma1 5y ago
  Anything in particular to look out for? Thinking of starting but don’t want to get injured
atlgator 5y ago
Rollerblading was popular with the Millennial generation. It died when we got our driver's licenses.
hateful 5y ago
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.
BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 5y ago
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.
elliottkember 5y ago
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 5y ago
  SF also has the Church of 8 Wheels at like Fell and Fillmore.
- ohwaitnvm 5y ago
  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)
blacklion 5y ago
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.
pandatigox 5y ago
Interestingly, rollerblading has become trendy again in Melbourne, Australia.
- bobbytit 5y ago
  I live in Melb and have not seen a blader for ages.
  - pandatigox 5y ago
    More common near Exhibition Building
foreigner 5y ago
There were a few years in the early 90s when I probably rollerbladed more than I walked.
tingletech 5y ago
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.
inetknght 5y ago
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.
latchkey 5y ago
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.
jmugan 5y ago
I stopped because if I did it too much my knees really hurt.
dharma1 5y ago
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 5y ago
  FR skates are the best currently out there IMO
- sgarman 5y ago
  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.
Wyndsage 5y ago
Still big in NY https://www.youtube.com/c/BladeInNY/ https://www.youtube.com/c/BladeInNY/
haswell 5y ago
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.
teekert 5y ago
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 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stunt%20steps&iax=images&ia=images
- Joeri 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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.
flyinghamster 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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)
sails 5y ago
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46SP1Uc7ek [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAHj04HHQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAHj04HHQo
SteveGerencser 5y ago
I always assumed that the movie Airborne killed it.
micro_cam 5y ago
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-windsurfing-58e0222d9cbe 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.
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  Fat biking is dead now? I see them everywhere.
  - micro_cam 5y ago
    They were defiantly a fad 2015 ish with sales booming. They are still around and popular where they make sense but the number of available models and sales have dropped back...still a ton out there obviously though. There are a bunch of e fat bikes being sold at the moment as part of the e bike trend...who knows how long that one will last.
1_2__5 5y ago
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.
danbst 5y ago
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.
nate_meurer 5y ago
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!
MrDresden 5y ago
In my case I borrowed my skates to a friend in '98, who then shortly after moved quite far away without returning the them. I was at that point though where after having fallen numerous times, the skates were destined for long term storage

110 points by type0 5y ago

Finnucane 5y ago

It sucked to be cycling on a shared path with rollerbladers. They’d take up the whole lane. I’m glad they’re gone.

futhey 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 5y ago
  Roads should be broad. Like in northern Alberta roads. Great skating.
elcapitan 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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.
pcmaffey 5y ago
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 .

ctack 5y ago

2017

reidjs 5y ago

Not PC, but I love Bill Burrs take on rollerblading: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMAE0za2-w https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMAE0za2-w He connects the demise of rollerblading to homophobia

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bobbytit 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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.
  - bobbytit 5y ago
    My recollection is that the flamboyant gay rollerbladers zipping around places like Venice Beach became a meme of sorts.
    - laurent92 5y ago
      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.
  - ehnto 5y ago
    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.

mtVessel 5y ago

Spoiler: Does not answer the question.

Apocryphon 5y ago

> "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?

xsmasher 5y ago
The same critique applies to skateboarding, and that seems as popular as ever.
- therockspush 5y ago
  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.
  - type0 5y ago
    Rollerblades could have become more popular if all parks had pavement instead of gravel tracks.
  - ludston 5y ago
    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 5y ago
      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.

Svperstar 5y ago

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 5y ago
Yeah, I think the fruitbooting label killed it more than just that one joke.
watwut 5y ago
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.
- pram 5y ago
  Scooter hate also isn’t new, they were popular in the very early 00s
cowmix 5y ago
I had no idea, how stupid. This makes me want to get a pair now.
the_third_wave 5y ago
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.

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vr46 5y ago

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 5y ago
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 5y ago
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
- Hasnep 5y ago
  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.
- crtasm 5y ago
  My experience was quads are way, way easier to learn and skate on than inline. Give them a try too maybe.
- vr46 5y ago

rurban 5y ago

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-shows-how-rollerskating-mirrors-the-black-american-experience-15939537 https://www.bustle.com/p/the-hbo-documentary-united-skates-s...

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
So much talent and so much passion for the activity in that great documentary.

nwatson 5y ago

Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon on a bike pulling Kip on online skates ... https://youtu.be/eprEOkxJ2Eo https://youtu.be/eprEOkxJ2Eo

ajay-b 5y ago

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.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago

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 5y ago
> 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 5y ago
  FYI, that's not what "kindred spirit" means.
  - ehnto 5y ago
    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 5y ago
      We still have kin in English

voisin 5y ago

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 5y ago
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.

eggy 5y ago

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 5y ago
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
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  It’s implied that at that point they were still married.

apgwoz 5y ago

The decline of (popularity) Aggressive Inline is talked about in this documentary “Barely Dead” (https://youtu.be/DArRi_PooDc 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.”

hef19898 5y ago
That documentary was the first thing that came to mind. That and Jon Julio, crazy guy.
odessacubbage 5y ago
another part of this that is important imo is that inline was in a large degree absorbed by its more successful analog: freeskiing.
- cortesoft 5y ago
  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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeskiing
  - apgwoz 5y ago
    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.

arielweisberg 5y ago

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

dharma1 5y ago
Anything in particular to look out for? Thinking of starting but don’t want to get injured

atlgator 5y ago

Rollerblading was popular with the Millennial generation. It died when we got our driver's licenses.

hateful 5y ago

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.

BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 5y ago

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.

elliottkember 5y ago

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 5y ago
SF also has the Church of 8 Wheels at like Fell and Fillmore.
ohwaitnvm 5y ago
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)

blacklion 5y ago

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.

pandatigox 5y ago

Interestingly, rollerblading has become trendy again in Melbourne, Australia.

bobbytit 5y ago
I live in Melb and have not seen a blader for ages.
- pandatigox 5y ago
  More common near Exhibition Building

foreigner 5y ago

There were a few years in the early 90s when I probably rollerbladed more than I walked.

tingletech 5y ago

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.

inetknght 5y ago

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.

latchkey 5y ago

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.

jmugan 5y ago

I stopped because if I did it too much my knees really hurt.

dharma1 5y ago

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 5y ago
FR skates are the best currently out there IMO
sgarman 5y ago
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.

Wyndsage 5y ago

Still big in NY https://www.youtube.com/c/BladeInNY/ https://www.youtube.com/c/BladeInNY/

haswell 5y ago

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.

teekert 5y ago

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 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stunt%20steps&iax=images&ia=images

Joeri 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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.

flyinghamster 5y ago

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 5y ago
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)

sails 5y ago

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46SP1Uc7ek [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAHj04HHQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfAHj04HHQo

SteveGerencser 5y ago

I always assumed that the movie Airborne killed it.

micro_cam 5y ago

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-windsurfing-58e0222d9cbe 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.

twobitshifter 5y ago
Fat biking is dead now? I see them everywhere.
- micro_cam 5y ago
  They were defiantly a fad 2015 ish with sales booming. They are still around and popular where they make sense but the number of available models and sales have dropped back...still a ton out there obviously though. There are a bunch of e fat bikes being sold at the moment as part of the e bike trend...who knows how long that one will last.

1_2__5 5y ago

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.

danbst 5y ago

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.

nate_meurer 5y ago

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!

MrDresden 5y ago

In my case I borrowed my skates to a friend in '98, who then shortly after moved quite far away without returning the them. I was at that point though where after having fallen numerous times, the skates were destined for long term storage