Vice: Who Killed Rollerblading?

[Sandwich Marty]

Skateboarding>rollerblading but rollerbladers>skateboarders

[Garfiled L. Asagna LLC]

this made me feel kinda bad for how mean my friends and i were to the rollerbladers at school, like to the point of physical fighting. it’s just so childish. the irony of getting called gay for skating, and turning around and being even more homophobic to kids because they rollerbladed.

Nah theres gotta be something else besides the frutibootin aspect. Kids in America were called "grass fairies" and "sissies" for playing soccer growing up in the 90s. To the point youd not wanna even admit to playing soccer it was so bad. American soccer has only become stronger despite this and more broad in its appeal. Theres gotta be something else to it. Its very fascinating collectively people just gave up. Especially since it wasnt just an American fad, those Japanese dudes used to kill the xgames.

Anytime I watched one of those "faces of death" dvd extreme sports accidents compilations. It was always 99% rollerbladers specifically landing fakie from some big drop and going straight to the dome. Cte probably killed rollerblading. If you wanna be good at rollerblading you had to be able to do the fakie landing. Every other bail is a head cracker when you landing like that. Thats why the helmets were so prevalent too.

[Steely Daniel]

You guys are insane. Rollerblading is just like scooter kids: they can definitely do some gnarly shit but aesthetically it sucks so brutally hard that the gnarly shit doesn't even matter. Even the ugliest skateboarding looks MILES better than the best rollerblading. Good for them for doing what they like, but it's terrible looking and because of that it can't ever be cool.

Rollerblading still looks better than anything done on a scooter. It is impossible to ride a scooter without looking silly. A lot of them have such fake style too it's comical. Feet together knees touching while doing some kinda dope dance swag. Plus bladers have to full commit to everything since they are attached to their feet. Far less of a hazard at parks too. There's some awful "inward heel" flare kind of inverted whip thing scoot bros do that's like they're trying to tomahawk you to death with their scooter. Almost took one to the head a few times.

[Alberteinstein]

Imagine caring that another person rollerblades

[Skatophile]

Imagine caring that another person rollerblades

Carnie gives off the biggest "peaked in college" vibes. Dawg get off your high horse i bet everybody else in that video ollies higher than you.

That lady who started the blade magazine seems to be on Elissa Steamer levels of radness.

[Atiba Applebum]

Expand Quote

Imagine caring that another person rollerblades

[close]

Carnie gives off the biggest "peaked in college" vibes. Dawg get off your high horse i bet everybody else in that video ollies higher than you.

That lady who started the blade magazine seems to be on Elissa Steamer levels of radness.

He’s got townie who claims he writes papers for all the college guys vibes.   

[decoi1]

I used to hate on rollerbladers cause like ya had to or some dumb shit. I still think it’s kinda silly looking but the amount of hate it got was stupid. Around 10 years ago I used to hang out with this dude around the bars that was a blader. Super cool dude. We talked a lot of shit to each other about our respective forms of skating. I found out they called us ‘wood pushers’ One day I pulled up to our local diy and he was there and it was just the two of us. I was actually pretty decent at skating at the time. Mostly ledges, mannies, flat bars and shit but I thought it was cool we were finally gonna get to see each other skate and settle which was cooler. Well a couple of his pals showed up and they were goddamn fucking flying over everything and hitting every obstacle out there and actually getting really gnarly. They were way better at their craft than I was at mine and I’m sure that dude felt like he won the battle. They were all super cool and my perspective changed from then on.

[crescentfresh]

i had to rewind that grind at 15:20, how tf?

[MOE SYZLAK]

i had to rewind that grind at 15:20, how tf?

That’s called a Torque grind and they are hard as fuck.
Think of it like a switch crook.

[RoaryMcTwang]

Haven’t watched yet but was it us?

[Atiba Applebum]

Haven’t watched yet but was it us?

Maggie Simpson

[Fongstarr.]

I rollerbladed before I skated. Actually the reason why I started skating so late in life (19 years old) was cause I rollerbladed first. Went to the X Games in SF too to see “aggressive inlining” which was odd to think now cause Tony Hawk did the 900 the day after I was there and I didn’t really care. I had a lot of fun doing it though and no real skateboarders messed with me but there was a point it did just die. For me it was cause I had a girlfriend but then Tony Hawk Pro skater came out and skateboarding was the thing thereon after.

[Burt Ward]

Expand Quote

i had to rewind that grind at 15:20, how tf?

[close]

That’s called a Torque grind and they are hard as fuck.
Think of it like a switch crook.

In that case she willied half of it.

I was such a cunt to rollerbladers cos magazines told me to be. I was also a cunt to bodyboarders cos magazines told me to be, and they were a massive shit to surf with, so I guess that was deserved.

[layzieyez]

Haven’t watched yet but was it us?

Heelys. All the grinding without the rolling.

[Benicio El Toro]

[S.]

Expand Quote

this made me feel kinda bad for how mean my friends and i were to the rollerbladers at school, like to the point of physical fighting. it’s just so childish. the irony of getting called gay for skating, and turning around and being even more homophobic to kids because they rollerbladed.

[close]

Nah theres gotta be something else besides the frutibootin aspect. Kids in America were called "grass fairies" and "sissies" for playing soccer growing up in the 90s. To the point youd not wanna even admit to playing soccer it was so bad. American soccer has only become stronger despite this and more broad in its appeal. Theres gotta be something else to it. Its very fascinating collectively people just gave up. Especially since it wasnt just an American fad, those Japanese dudes used to kill the xgames.

Anytime I watched one of those "faces of death" dvd extreme sports accidents compilations. It was always 99% rollerbladers specifically landing fakie from some big drop and going straight to the dome. Cte probably killed rollerblading. If you wanna be good at rollerblading you had to be able to do the fakie landing. Every other bail is a head cracker when you landing like that. Thats why the helmets were so prevalent too.

No. Rollerblading killed rollerblading. I rollerbladed from 12 to 13 years old until I discovered skateboarding. Progression was really easy as a beginner rollerblader. Basic mini ramp and flat rail tricks came real easy and were very consistent, but progressing any further was kind of gnarly and required serious acrobatic training. (It also started to feel real silly as soon as I discovered skateboarding.) The best rollerbladers I knew all eventually transitioned to skateboarding or stopped altogether. Rollerblading just isn’t all that fun at a certain point. Skateboarding was the opposite for me. Really difficult at first, but the more I kept doing it the more challenging and fun it was. Even after twenty years it has not become boring and I don’t need to kill myself to learn new tricks.

[Texas_Tone]

I remember hating on rollerbladers, and the only rollerblader my town had ever seen was me, 6 months earlier

[TwisT]

just, watched it, and my immediate takeaway is, I forgot "fruitbooters" was a word. I do remember hating on roller bladers even though I thought roller blading was sick. Had a pair, and could actually do a few tricks.

[GardenSkater77]

Video killed the Rollerblade star.

[bluntfullofmid]

a girl I went to high school with was a pro rollerblader while we were in school and a little after. funny enough her dad was the one who opened the first x games skatepark (it had a couple different names thru the years due to management changes) at the mall outside the city. I used to get free entry cause her dad knew we had been classmates since middle school and she would sometimes show me some of the videos her and the other rollerbladers in the city would put out. she dated this really famous rollerblader, Julian Bah, but he turned out to be an abusive piece of shit and was exhiled from that industry after what he did. all that to say this thread brought back a memory of the only "aggresive inline" video that I would sometimes throw on back in the day in between watching other skate videos on youtube circa 2005. thought it was sick they happened to be the first ones to skate white water before Grant and the Maka/DTE LOC crew got to it but what Grant did there is still hands down the best shit.

[TwisT]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

this made me feel kinda bad for how mean my friends and i were to the rollerbladers at school, like to the point of physical fighting. it’s just so childish. the irony of getting called gay for skating, and turning around and being even more homophobic to kids because they rollerbladed.

[close]

Nah theres gotta be something else besides the frutibootin aspect. Kids in America were called "grass fairies" and "sissies" for playing soccer growing up in the 90s. To the point youd not wanna even admit to playing soccer it was so bad. American soccer has only become stronger despite this and more broad in its appeal. Theres gotta be something else to it. Its very fascinating collectively people just gave up. Especially since it wasnt just an American fad, those Japanese dudes used to kill the xgames.

Anytime I watched one of those "faces of death" dvd extreme sports accidents compilations. It was always 99% rollerbladers specifically landing fakie from some big drop and going straight to the dome. Cte probably killed rollerblading. If you wanna be good at rollerblading you had to be able to do the fakie landing. Every other bail is a head cracker when you landing like that. Thats why the helmets were so prevalent too.

[close]

No. Rollerblading killed rollerblading. I rollerbladed from 12 to 13 years old until I discovered skateboarding. Progression was really easy as a beginner rollerblader. Basic mini ramp and flat rail tricks came real easy and were very consistent, but progressing any further was kind of gnarly and required serious acrobatic training. (It also started to feel real silly as soon as I discovered skateboarding.) The best rollerbladers I knew all eventually transitioned to skateboarding or stopped altogether. Rollerblading just isn’t all that fun at a certain point. Skateboarding was the opposite for me. Really difficult at first, but the more I kept doing it the more challenging and fun it was. Even after twenty years it has not become boring and I don’t need to kill myself to learn new tricks.

I can see this. I learned a few grinds, could air the fun box. Drop in and do some grabs. This would have been the same summer I learned how to drop in on a skateboard. I can't ollie the box, but I can float it in skates. Then it felt like I had to start jumping down hubbas and shit in order to feel like I'm doing anything that matters. Inline was either high-level X-Games competition or Power Rangers movie intro. Finding a middle ground, in progression or a culture the dive into didn't feel as accessible with skateboarding.

Anyway they're right, inline is definitely cooler than skateboarding right now.

[natenola forever]

A lot of the rollerbladers from the late 90s are doing it again and it's funny cuz they look like fucking Lemmy or some Hells Angel and theyre flying around at the park on blades, if yall know about food stuff the guy that dude Mason Hereford from Turkey and the Wolf is a huge rollerblader and he's actually really good last i saw he had a bunch of boxes and rails at his restaurant . We always gave the bladers shit here cus why not but i went SF one time and they were being super dickheads to them, it was pretty lame actually, yeah they suck but who cares.

[Fongstarr.]

I know this is sort of a different from aggressive rollerblading but what do people think of the roller skate scene with girls mostly doing it? For some reason from what I saw, I feel like they all got a pass.

[carcinisation]

Wasn't there already a documentary on YouTube about the same topic some years ago?

yep.

[Sandwich Marty]

It was always a one sided beef with skaters being the bullies.  They hated on rollerbladers the same way jocks hated on skaters. Just passing the beating down to the next in line like it’s always been. Now they do it to scooter riders or whoever doesn’t fit the criteria to better mirror their desired self image. Nice to see not everyone here is that stupid, but holy shit what a stained past we have as a subculture. Same idiots who wax poetic about skateboarding being some ideological brotherhood of merry misfits who will accept anyone are the same to bash trans skaters or still call rollerblading gay. We’ve never really grown out of it.

[LOU.502]

I actually have a SICK rollerblading story. In the summer of 2008 I was a on a trip with my family in Europe, I was 15. We got to Paris and finally one day we made the trek all the way to that Paris 18 skatepark. I had been looking forward to it the whole time, I was beyond excited. When I got dropped off I learned that whatever day of the week it was (I think it was Tuesday?) was a “rollerbladers only” day. I explained the situation, that I was from the US, and that “I’d really love the opportunity to skate the park if possible, but I totally understand if it’s a no go, I totally get it, no worries at all.” I even asked if I could just go in and check it out real quick without my board and watch them skate cuz the park just looked so cool and I wanted to see it up close. The dudes behind the counter talked for a second, and they decided to let me skate!

So I go in there, I’m a kid, I’m alone, I don’t really speak French, I’m literally the ONLY one with a skateboard and I’m surrounded by older rollerbladers who are obviously talking to each other about me. I was super shook. I was hesitant to even start skating. I just kinda felt it out and watched other peoples lines, and slowly started to work my way in and start pushing around, but I was super hesitant to do anything but still like 5-0s, Crooks, etc… on the ledges. I was scared to actually go into the heart of the park, so I was mostly just skating some peripheral stuff up top.

Eventually I got approached by a couple of guys and they started talking to me, they could tell I was nervous but they were super cool. I said something like thank you for sharing your park with me today, I’m sorry to intrude, I really appreciate the hospitality. They were like “non, non, it’s good, you okay!”. By the end of the day it felt like we were all homies, they were so fucking cool. They didn’t have to let me skate, they didn’t have to be nice to me, and they certainly didn’t have to go out of the way to make me feel comfortable when they could tell I was nervous. Rollerbladers seem like rad people. I’ll never forget that day. Sorry for the novel length post, just a cool story. It’s a SICK park too, hope it’s still around. If any of those dudes are on slap, much love!

[j....soy.....]

I’d say in the mid 90’s there was one of those prefab parks by the space needle in Seattle and I was there skating for the weekend.  There was this beefy roller blade guy rolling around and to this day, it’s always tricky figuring out their lines.  I go up the vert wall or whatever, come down and the dude was right there.  POW, I smoked him.  I then look up and he’s right in my face.  ‘What the fuck dude!!’ I yelled.  And he’s just smiling….it was then I realized he was now carrying me.

Ok put me down please…..

There’s a super rando crew of bladers here and when they posse up it sucks because they don’t ever stop moving and they wax the shit out of the quarters which is currently a no-no…when you try and tell them this they get super offended and pile on.  No joke I had this Josh Kalis looking guy tell me : ‘I can’t help it if this obstacle can’t handle my abilities….’ 

[D10S]

It's important to remember that the homophobia seen in 1990s skateboarding did not exist in a vacuum. At the time, words like "gay" and "fag" were commonly used as insults throughout mainstream culture, from high schools and colleges to sports and entertainment. Skateboarding reflected many of those broader social attitudes, so the hostility toward rollerblading was not unique to skateboarding as a subculture but part of a much wider cultural environment.

Still, it was fuct up to be the rolleblading bullies. Sorry rollerdudes, I too was an impresionable grom that thought blading was lame. Happy to see they are in a cool spot today.

[Gabriel]

Expand Quote

this made me feel kinda bad for how mean my friends and i were to the rollerbladers at school, like to the point of physical fighting. it’s just so childish. the irony of getting called gay for skating, and turning around and being even more homophobic to kids because they rollerbladed.

[close]

I was gonna comment the same thing about the irony of being called skater fags then doing the same thing to rollerbladers. There's gotta be a psychological term for that like projection or displacement. Admittedly, I was a hater back then because it was part of the culture, and rollerblading and scootering look fun to do, but aesthetically speaking skateboarding is still superior. That doesn't mean we should bully other people for their different hobbies though.

I usually call it “a lack of Paulo Freire”


“When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to be oppressors.”

[layzieyez]

I know this is sort of a different from aggressive rollerblading but what do people think of the roller skate scene with girls mostly doing it? For some reason from what I saw, I feel like they all got a pass.

Quads are skateboarding’s foundational past.

Handplants originated from roller skating, too.

I have a set of quads and I absolutely suck really bad on them. They give me the same terrifying feeling/excitement/thrill I had when I started skateboarding just pushing around. Barely any control and to be completely honest, I don’t even know how to stop using toe stops or any other means so I just eat shit to stop a lot of the times.

I’m much better at ice skating.

My younger brother (RIP) was an aggressive inliner when it was at its height and heavily into it when I visited home one summer. He had constructed a foot high ledge at our parents house and luckily we shared the same boot size. Within 10 minutes, I was grinding his ledge and trying/getting close to rolling away from 360 to 5050 grinds. It was fun, but not nearly as challenging or felt rewarding like skateboarding for me.