Inline Skating - Does Anyone do it Anymore?

Soldato
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Posts
13,678
Location
Drunken badger punching
Right, this is going to be embarrassing, because, as everyone knows, inline skating is gay.

That aside, after 15 years of not being anywhere near a pair of inline skates (well, I have a pair of Salomon ST8s festering in the loft with completely seized bearings and mould all over the liners, they don't count), I was somehow prompted to look at skates on eBay. Probably after seeing a Scotty Cranmer video with some other YouTuber taking the mick out of skating as the character Emo Skyler and remembering how much fun we all used to have anti-rockering our way from waxed kerb to waxed kerb in hilariously baggy jeans.

My eBay search lead me to a pair of back-in-the-day holy grail skates with knee pads and wrist guards that look barely used. They were high-cuff Roces Majestic 13 Twelves. I bought them after my wife showed interest in putting hers on again (Rollerblade Dirks), incidentally her skates are a lot less knackered than my old ones (I actually got hers out the loft and gave them a bloody good clean after gathering mould, dust and spiders for about 15 years). I then told her to put them on and rolled her down the hallway. She looked like a washing machine being rolled along on one of those appliance trolley things, such was her grace.

Anyway, I haven't got my new skates yet, but intend to roll about a bit for some time at some point. Probably with my 4 year old daughter in tow on her scooter. I say in tow, I really mean miles off in the distance whilst I shimmy along the pavement grabbing onto fences and lamp posts in an effort to stay upright/alive. I bought aggressive skates because that's what I used to be into and have the most sentiment towards. I found an archive with scans of lots of magazines such as Unity and Daily Bread and read them with maximum sentimental fuzziness. I had most of them back in the 90s, proper trip down memory lane it was.

My only real defence to the opening sentence is that I have a wife and kids, so maybe I'll fall into the bi-curious category?

Has anyone else picked skating back up after a very long break? Indeed, does anyone still skate on inlines? I found mushroom blading on YouTube and imagine that's where I'd be now, at 35, if I'd never stopped.

My biggest fear is gobby 13 year olds on scooters. Falling over is secondary to that.

I bet I'm the only one here, aren't I?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2006
Posts
10,637
I've been thinking about this for a while as well. I'm 'only' 27, but haven't been on a skateboard for ~13-15 years, and inlines for at least 10. Very tempted to pick up a pair of skates, but most likely a skateboard. Just to re-learn it all again, plus it helps I've been watching the Braille Skateboarding channel on YouTube which makes it seem a lot easier and fun than it's likely to be!

I'm kind of just thinking who cares what others think and just go for it. Nobody likes the gobby scooter riders anyway (your kids excluded, of course) so you're probably fine :p
 
Associate
Joined
5 May 2012
Posts
431
Damn I had the same feeling Im 34 and I haven't been on skateboard for 12 years now ^.^, been watching yt vids for quite a wile and I do realy want to go back. I know 34 and 12st aint going to be grinding ledges but some trick on flat who knows, and as person above Braille Skateboarding channel is on every day in my house.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Posts
13,678
Location
Drunken badger punching
Yeah, this whole thing is almost entirely down to YouTube channels - Braille is a brilliant channel even if it's 'just' skateboarding. I often watch Scotty Cranmer's channel as well - probably my favourite channel at the moment.

I'm not exactly in great shape - I was a lardarse when I first started skating at 15 ish and lost loads of weight pretty quickly. I was basically a carbon copy of Big Boy on the Scotty Cranmer channel when he first featured.

Anyway, this should be fun if I don't break anything! Not sure I'll get back into doing tricks, but you never know!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
3 Apr 2003
Posts
15,618
Location
Cambridge
Used to be an inline skater in the 90s and it was awesome.

Would love to do it again, but have other stuff to spend my hard-earned on... As well as the injuries to be avoided!

I liked vert skating the most, and those seem hard to come by where I live...
 
Man of Honour
Joined
9 Jan 2010
Posts
13,721
i hope that was sarcasm about Roces being holy grail... they were cheap skates usually sold at market stalls
i was more into BMX's, but the holy grails of bikes go for huge money if you can find them (Diamondback Harry Leary Turbo, Mongoose Pro Class etc)
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2013
Posts
2,731
Location
derby
I DID!

i skated when I was a kid, I would say 50% of our estate was waxed up and it was a big loop perfect skating territory. gang of 8 of us all into anything Extreme yo!!

so 2 years ago I saw some skates I liked. snatched them up put them up skated the street for an hour or two, thought IVE STILL GOT IT

down to the skatepark I went. moments later I was a heap on the floor but that's fine I'm just rusty. keep going and i'll pick it back up soon enough. few hours and lots of falls laters, however lots of laughs... I went home. sat at home thinking what a good day why did I ever stop.

woke up the next morning and quickly realized why I shouldn't be doing it.... I felt like my body had been hit repeatedly with a sledge hammer from all the falls. So I learnt my lesson and sold them onto a younger chap who is still enjoying them too this day.

glad I tried it again but I can't be dealing with feeling like I've gone 12 rounds with tyson every weekend.

saying all that, my friend got a new skateboard at the same time and is still tearing up skateparks. He was always a lot better than me though, even got sponsored when we were kids
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2006
Posts
10,637
To update above.. ended up buying a skateboard off eBay and just finished cleaning the bearings and putting new grip on it. Gonna go for my first cruise tomorrow! Will update on any broken bones/bruises...
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2005
Posts
7,586
Quad skaters are the gaylords, not inliners. :mad:

The Mrs and I recently decided to dust off our skates after a few years off. Hers are fine but mine were leaning up against hot water pipes and got a bit deformed. :(

Ah well, good excuse to order these. :cool:

 
Underboss
Joined
23 Oct 2013
Posts
11,343
Location
Guildford
Remember well the end of the 90's cutting about in my K2 Fatty Pros, I don't think there was a stairs et in all of Plymouth I didn't ungracious fall down.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2003
Posts
5,445
Remember well the end of the 90's cutting about in my K2 Fatty Pros, I don't think there was a stairs et in all of Plymouth I didn't ungracious fall down.

I’d always wanted K2’s. Awesome skates.

Another ex gay/inline skater here. Used to go to Buckmore Park in Kent every Friday or was it Saturday?? night. Also used to skate around our estate with quite a few of us. Tried the aggressive skater thing and pretty sure I must have broke my coccyx a few times so just stuck to jumping stuff and general skating about. I went I’ve skating a few years ago as I thought it’s pretty much the same thing and did ok still. I’m sure it’s just like riding a bike.

What scares me about going back to it is being 36 and stacking it.. I’m not made of rubber and magic anymore like the young ones
 
Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2017
Posts
293
In my 30's now and used to skate (inline and skateboard) when I was around 14. I never really committed to getting good though back then, I just got to a point where I can skate about and then thought, well that'll do.

As I'm sure everyone would, I'd love my youth back but with my mindset now. I think it takes a few hard knocks to learn how to be determined in all aspects of life (career, sports, relationships, etc.) and my childhood was as cushioned as you could get.
 
Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2012
Posts
2,267
Location
Bath
Used to go to roller discos at my local sports centre as a young teen. Inlines were only just coming in, and were pretty niche.
All the popular kids had them, and loved doing the speed-skate cornering and reverse-stoppies and the like, usually when the girlies were around.

I had a secondhand pair of Roces 4-wheel jobs. I was fast, and could corner well, but that was about it.
Sod skateboarding, never got the hang of that!
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2010
Posts
4,806
I had some white Roces Romes. I was ok but some guys I knew were insane!

Back in the day hey, I'm 37 now and led in a bivvy 400 miles from home fishing for 60lb carp in France :D
 
Back
Top Bottom