My own opinion about rollerblading
I just got this ‘My own opinion about rollerblading’ article on my mailbox. Its author prefers to stay anonymous, so here it is :
There has been a talk lately about our sport growing and finally paying it’s dues among other action sports. We constantly keep comparing us to skateboarding and wondering what is wrong, that we do not get as much mainstream acknowledgement as the skateboarders or BMXers do.. Well, some very influential personalities in rollerblading have explained it in a very simple way….anything, which doesn’t have very strong roots in the underground will die.. We’ve been taken underground, where those who feel their love and passion for what they do persisted and proved themselves to be the pioneers of our development. Those are the people like Jon Julio, Dustin Latimer, Brian Shima, Arlo Eisenberg, Chiaki Ito and many more who didn’t just came and went, but dedicated their lives to Rollerblading.
Just like Arlo said “too many people love it in too many places”…this is the reason why rollerblading cannot die…it is destined to flourish. You see this sport is bringing people of different countries, cultures and mentalities together, making them one.. There is no hate, there has never been…everywhere you go, if you come across fellow rollerbladers, you will always feel welcome.. In a good session, where people get motivated with every single trick which is done, there is no need for a common language, or a common view or attitude towards life…there is just this great feeling of having fun with your friends.
If we want to be taken serious, we should behave the same way.. Imagine someone who doesn’t know rollerblading enough sees a skater somewhere on the street…He witnesses him doing some life threatening stunt, without wearing helmet or any protective gear, his ass is looking out because he has his pants low, or looks like a 15 year old punk rock nerd…He or she will surely be impressed by the stunt, but at the same time will be put off by the appearance and recklessness of the skater…we all know it often ends this way.. How do you expect the mainstream to take us seriously?
Some very talented skaters have lost their lives, or have almost died, because they we’re not wearing their helmets… I know, the trend is that skaters don’t wear them, but things have changed since 94. The obstacles get bigger and bigger and tricks are way more dangerous these days. Some of the people who disagree with me, just read the article in the Be-mag print issue 19. You might see the opinion of the people who have touched the bottom..
I love rollerblading, I feel the same way about it, just like 9 years ago when I got my first pair and went for a ride around our block…There are no boundaries, or a point where you can no longer learn anything new. It develops your personality and your personality develops rollerblading. It makes us forget about everything, it’s too much fun to leave it behind…
-xx
October 28th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
i dont mind wearing a helmet if i have to, but im not doing anything life threatening at the moment so theres not much need
ALSO: the problem with helmets is there dangerous to people if everyone is not wearing one, for instance i collided with a skateboarder one day side of my head hit him in the mouth he cut his lip pretty bad and i had a cut in the side of my head. Imagine if id been wearing a helmet and he hadnt, pretty sure hed have a boken nose, jaw most of his front teeth would have come out, his lip would have been biten off by his teeth. fun 10.
October 28th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Good article, although its not going to make me wear a helmet, as much as I’d like to, they just get in the way/dont look cool
Im always wearing my knee gaskets and my wrist guards tho :)
October 28th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Hmmm I’m not sure what the point of this article is. You start talking about how rollerblading will not die but swiftly move onto the issues of helmets. You seem to make a point and then quickly digress.
Ultimatley the issue of protection is the responsibility of the individual.
October 28th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Don t wear protection it sucks! :)
October 28th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
The issue isn’t whether or not helmets are cool. The question is how much of our appeal to parents is being hurt by not wearing them. When it comes down to it, most of the kids who start, or most of the ones that we want to start, are at an age where their parents are the ones buying their skates therefore the parents are deciding whether or not the kids skate. Football players wear all that padding. I’d rather get hit by a 280 lb player than have to deal with a 15 foot drop onto concrete with no padding. Maybe we need to rethink how we potray ourselves.
October 28th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
SO YOUR THE GUY WHO WROTE THE ARTICLE. GREG, IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME!?!!
October 28th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
so you want every single roller in the world to start dressing different and start wearing protection so rollerblading can get bigger? That’s just stupid, if rollerblading is going to grow you have to go out there and promote it, not dressing different
October 28th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
to be honest,I dont really get your piont on padding and effecting our appeal to new roller and their parents,i think most parents dont like rolling or really their kids doing any dangerous activity but in the end they are going to do it anyway and its up to the parents to imply rules and common sense to their children not us.
October 28th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I m agree with greg…
I never wear helmet … even in skatepark when i had to …
However why don t we wear helmet ???
Just cause it doesnt look good ? cause it s not ” cool ”
Think about that and try to find a good reason why we don t wear helmet …
October 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Yea man I honestly dont think dressing differently and wearing protection will give us a better look. i mean… go to ur school and look at all the emo people or they dress rediculous worse than the ounk rock skaters in our sport and they have tons of fuckin friends just because its a trend. i really dont think appearance will help too much. i just thilike perris said. we have to promote it and in a positive way. not so much with like the anger issues in DBMAG. and i think it will prolly just progress on its own, sounds stupid but thats wat i believe, all other action sports have gone through times like this and then recover. we’ve only been around for 14 or 15 years is it? cmon thats not very long for something as big as this to be around but… it has grown so much in that short period of time even if we still are underground. As for the protection i dunno, your gonna have to leave that to the indavidual person to decide for himself. Definatly not gonna make rolling more popular all that much. But you can’t tell us all the just dress different, your trying to change us to be hat the public want. Wont happen sorry man. And I can see where your coming from too man but still…
October 28th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
its just different not wearing a helmet feels more free. i could careless about looking cool or not i useto wear a helmet when i skated everywhere. but just feels better
October 28th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
If there’s no risk then why would we rollerblade in the first place?
October 28th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
exactly^^^
October 28th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
what the fuck are u talking about
shut the hell up and skate bitch
October 28th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Tom 4 the president!:)
October 28th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
yea HC! Are you gay, or what?
October 28th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
my own opinion about rollerblading: we should let it how it is now and stop bitching around. the way it’s progressing is better than excelent
October 28th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
you gotta remember that for the two seconds inline actually was financially stable it was because of its diversity. roller hockey, recreational, fitness and aggressive skating together made up a pretty large market. so i think this dude is saying that we cant forget how important it is to also maintain a strong, professional, helmet wearing, asa, camp woodward, parent’s approved side of skating to keep parents investing their money into rolling by buying valo skates and genre wheels so their children can participate. not to mention a dude died and two cats were in comas less than two years ago which might have been avoided if they were wearing helmets.
October 28th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
well i dunno though cause when rich taylor (R.I.P.) died by running into a light pole im sure it wasnt only head trauma that aided in his death but i dunno.
October 29th, 2006 at 9:53 am
The text is great! It’s all true and i have thought the same. But still I don’t wear helmet. Hmm, but how many streetSKATEboarders you’ve seen with helmet? I have like 1 or 2! An still skateboearding is a growing society. That’s little weird, but maybe it’s just because skateboarders often do just little flatcurbs etc.
October 29th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Omg…who cares if we dont have a croud who just wanna skate to look cool, i skate coz its fun and if more ppl begin to relize and genuinly want to rollerblade then cool but i wouldnt like to see it turn into a fad full of possers who only roll for the image like skateboarding where over 50 percent of them can only just land a kick flip coz they cant skateboard and arnt willing to actualy have a half arsed effort at the sport oviesly coz there doing it to say look i have a board in my hand and am dect out in rad skateboarding gear rad ey guys. i mean fuck thats the last thing we wont. and as for the helmets jesus get real we arnt 10 anymore if we wont to wear them we will we no the risks where taking wat inspired you to right that rubish you nerd got somthing better to do. wake up to yaself go for a skate!
October 29th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
I’ve gotten more hurt skating park then i have skating rails and ledges without helmets. And I dont think a helmet will make our sport grow, having a positive attitude is what will make our sport grow.
October 30th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
I think that we need to stop hiding in the dark and announce to the world how much we actually love skating. we should also explain to them how good it fells to inline skate.
I do everything on skates, I really love the feel of it. It really shows what I am good at.
When you skate your true fellings from deep within your soul come out and shows people who you really are…..That is what we have to show others.
October 30th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
The only time i wear a helmet is at required parks
October 30th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Skating to me is like my 2nd shoe……in an odd way i guess you could say we are good on our feet…..Aggressive walkers!!!!
October 30th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
we should get our own show on tv or y’no like the x- games, but just for inline only! it could be called Xtreme inliners or something
October 31st, 2006 at 5:13 am
nah forget the ” xtreme ” part lol thats too trendy haha y not agressive :D
October 31st, 2006 at 6:56 am
Uhuh, the accidents with Yuri and Brandon would have been avoided if they had used an helmet, maybe they would have a concussion, but that’s it…
But hey, i think it’s kinda sad nobody of the pro’s wears a helmet cause they’re really doing some sickly rails sometimes and yeah….they set an example for many of the bladers including me….When i’m skating some really steep rails with a big drop on the side and such i don’t wear an helmet cause it wouldn’t look good on camera or photos, probably because were not used to it, to the look of an helmet…it just looks weird, having footage of sick rails with a helmet…i’m always like “that’s not how bladers do” so my helmet stays in the car… off course it’s my choice to not wear it !!! but if some of the top pro’s would wear an helmet, i would surely follow the example cause then it would be acceptable, u know….k peace
October 31st, 2006 at 2:32 pm
man the dude that wrote that article is gay. rofl
November 1st, 2006 at 5:48 pm
if you wear a helmet on video, you could’t see your face. people would be wonderin who u r
November 1st, 2006 at 5:56 pm
name of show could be “truebladers”
November 1st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Okay….. poorly constructed, but I don’t think that adjusting out image to make others think we are cool will work. Maybe it works for all the highschool kids that follow the latest trend but just like others have said, its diversity that sets us apart from skateboarding and BMXing. Look, if the solution to rollin not being mainstream was to conform to the other “extreme” sports then we would have been weeded out long ago because in that conformist mind state we would have dropped the skates and started to put “mommys and daddys” money away for the newest tony hawk game and whoever else the fuck skateboards deck.
Common people. The whole “Conform to what society would like more” idea is trash, because society does not want us!
Now, lets all put our keyboards away and start doing the only thing that is going to help us grow. EACH ONE TEACH ONE. community love.
Peace
Geoff
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:27 pm
I don’t give a sh*t if we become mainstream or not.
If there’s enough money so that we can buy skates, buy skate-branded clothes and do what we want to do, then brilliant.
I think being in the mainstream could be detrimental.
Remember skateparks a few years back? There were two people:
One set wore Mindgame EVERYTHING and did the same tech tricks as every other Mindgame wearing guy in the joint. Once they got to a certain level and had respect from others in the park they stopped proressing and were always cocky as sin.
(p.s. I don’t hate Mindgame, I love their clothes, wheels and vids, but I’m trying to loosely label a roller stereotype here)
(also, I’m by no means saying all “good” skaters are cocky)
Then there were the young kids with the torn up clothes who weren’t all that good at rollin’ but when they missed a trick they tried again 20, 30 even 40 times until they got it. They’d clamber up the 8ft quarter pipe and NEVER gave in and the “good” skaters looked down upon them as “n00b scum”.
I don’t know about you, but mainstream to me= trends and trendy tricks. If I turned up in a skatepark and saw every single guy in the place trying the same “in” move purely because that move was in fashion, I’d be bloody disgusted.
Just my view, not saying that I’m “right”.
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:45 pm
i dont personally mind, at our local skate park in southport there are more rollerbladers than anyother sport, and when we go to rampworx n shit there is allways a good rollin atmospher, so to me its all good at the moment
growth in our sport could only make it better in my view :D
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Its very true that most of us follow the trends that pros set. Most of us think we are individuals but we are all influenced by either our fave skaters or the industry in general. Point is- even though helmets make us look funny, it is a good idea to wear one. And it is the responsability of the big name pros to wear them . They and we might not like the idea, but alot of people have and will be unnessicerilly injured because of this notion that you have to look coll when you skate.
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:24 pm
(cool) when we skate. My spelling sucks.
November 5th, 2006 at 12:48 am
I THINK…wear what you want except emo pants… and that stuff
November 5th, 2006 at 6:17 am
For ex.:No condom is dangerous too!@#:D:{