Entries Tagged 'Inline' ↓

Back in the early days of inline skating, that is the late 80′s into the early 90′s, it was easy for skate companies to decide on what size wheels came on each skate in their product range. In general entry level skates came with 4 x 72mm wheels, mid range skates came with 4 x 76mm wheels and high end skates came with 4 x 80mm wheels. Then there were the specialty skates for competitive disciplines. In that arena is was basically hockey skates with 4 x 76mm wheels and speed skates with 5 x 80mm wheels. Continue reading →

I found a bunch of old inline skating wheel stickers from the early to mid 90′s when I was going through some boxes. Some classics in here…

I first came across this video a few years ago on cskroller.com (which appears to now be defunct). It is a great guide by skater Luc ‘Bitum Walker’ Bourdin on how to initiate a slide. You start with a good tight turn whilst getting over on the fat part of your wheels. From this, you start tightening up the turn until it essentially become a quarter flick turn that you slide with.

The only thing this video doesn’t show is how to make it a quick stop like a hockey stop. To do this, you need to transition to stopping more towards the pointy top part of your wheels rather than on the flatter sides. You can start out by transitioning from the flat side to the point in the stop to get an understanding for the dynamic of a faster stop.

Doing a Cess Slide/Hockey Stop on inline skates is truly for the advanced skater, especially outdoors. This technique for stopping on inline skates is very hard on your wheels, and I use it sparingly (or sometimes for something fun to do!). I will use it as an emergency stop, but more out of habit from my days of playing inline hockey.

Note that the term ‘Cess Slide’ is used more in reference to a trick done on inline skates that is similar, but is still valid when talking about stopping.

The powerslide stopping technique for inline skating is hard on your wheels. It relies entirely on the friction from your wheels to stop you, and that equals wheel wear. You will also need solid one foot balance and the ability to turn from skating forwards to backwards to do a powerslide.

Here is a video of the stepping stop on inline skates. It is essentially the only stopping technique that, if done properly, has no impact on wheel wear.

Here is the first of four videos (or five if I get around to doing a T-stop video) on ways to stop on inline skates without a heel brake. This is the slalom stop.

It is not as hard on your wheels and most other non-heel brake stops, but also not as effective. Your kinetic energy is mainly absorbed through bending the knees in each turn, and partly through some wheels scrub.

OK…let me see if I can get a video of the week thing going here. Odds are I won’t get past this week.

I’m going with some aggressive inline for my first one ever, with a clip from AV Media out of New York featuring Anthony Velez. As it turns out, you can royale a tree. Enjoy…Â