5 ms·

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.
- odessacubbage 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    Do you have any links? I am still unable to find anything besides snow versions when googling.
  - gorbypark 5y ago
    For a lot of people there was an intermediate step in there. Ski boards (aka ski blades) were super popular with the rollerblading crowd and suffered a similar fate as rollerblading (I remember being called a fruit booter a number of times on my ski boards). It was in the X-Games before skiing was, but they eventually just cancelled ski boarding and pretty much all the pro's went on to ski, and that was more or less the last nail in the coffin for the sport. It's actually way more dead than rollerblading, as it didn't really just move "underground". People figured out that twin tip skis were actually much better at nearly everything than little 100cm ski boards.

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.
odessacubbage 5y ago
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 5y ago
  Do you have any links? I am still unable to find anything besides snow versions when googling.
- gorbypark 5y ago
  For a lot of people there was an intermediate step in there. Ski boards (aka ski blades) were super popular with the rollerblading crowd and suffered a similar fate as rollerblading (I remember being called a fruit booter a number of times on my ski boards). It was in the X-Games before skiing was, but they eventually just cancelled ski boarding and pretty much all the pro's went on to ski, and that was more or less the last nail in the coffin for the sport. It's actually way more dead than rollerblading, as it didn't really just move "underground". People figured out that twin tip skis were actually much better at nearly everything than little 100cm ski boards.