What Happened

I grew up in era when aggressive skating was at its peak. When hoax3 just came out and brands like FR progressors, rise above, 976, hangers were all around. What happened to skating? I went back to subcultre in Roselle Park, NJ today and they don't sell inline stuff anymore. The owner told me they haven't sold stuff in years. And what is with ESPN X games. Can anyone who has remained in the scene help me understand how this sport could possibly be like this.

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Permalink Reply by Roll2create on June 25, 2010 at 1:03am
the sport was at its biggest decline in 2005, thats when we just got kicked of the line up on Xgames USA and the fact that Arlo Eisenberg at the time was really pissed of at the organisers because they allready had planed a way to minimise our part in the xgames by useing a camera man on rollerblades to film the course etc.... and then when Arlo expressed his anger and left , 6months or so later he gets a email saying to him, "sorry we have gone another way etc.... and from what i know ESPN\Xgames did ask us if we wanted to come back in 2007 i think but after the way they treated us , Arlo who i think they asked, said F no , not interested, which is a shame because we could have used that extra exposure to build the sport to a strong point.


in saying that i know we will make a come back as a sport and community, and we are as we speak, for every roller that did roll back in the day and has come back again, YOU will help make the difference, stay up to date on www.rollernews.com , ONE Magazine www.believeinone.com , www.Be.mag.com .

senate is working on kids aggressive skates that Kevin Gillan who is now one of the USD allstar team riders , to release this skate into the masses , places like Toys R us , target, Kmart and amny other stores with a dvd as well i hope;) , ui also run a blog on blogger called Rolling-a-mindgameinfocus , you might find the links here or on my profile.

so in the end like mentioned , every sport has its peak times and low times and its been 5years and we are doing all we can to gain respect and recognition and just do what you love to do , do both skateboard and rollerblade , no such thing as " roller fags " or what ever anymore... and why should you care??

PlanetX sports channel is on a come back soon so we ll be seeing much more of rollerblading aaand their spreading to Australia so good times are ahead ;)

new kids are getting into the sport all over the world, weather it be Sweden,Denmark,Poland,Australia,Germany... all of which ive seen have a steady solid growth in new kids into the sport.
Permalink Reply by Russ Morgan on July 20, 2010 at 7:21pm
Hey guys new to the site, just bored and searching the web on what happened to our sport. I used to skate Long Island and NYC in the mid 90's and came across this old photo of a 12 or 13 year old me. Can anyone name these two on the left? Any way just thought I'd share. Keep on skating fellas.

Permalink Reply by Robert Randall on August 5, 2010 at 8:49am
but year after year companies go under the pros have to struggle and have 2 or maybe even three jobs to even survive...it is not good for our industry to be like this. our pros love and we love it but it need to boom again so more companies come out with newer and more innovative thinking and our pro can just skate that it not work construction and a night job just to get by they need to just wake up and skate and our sport would be crazy at that point....that is what i want to happen just for the sake of our pros living like they should for dedicating their life to something we all love

Devonn said:
tis very true....but in a way i like it better this way everyone isnt doing it cuz its the "cool" thing to do

Mike said:
Money. We weren't making enough. I have no clue how this happened. I remember those days too man, doesn't make sense.
Permalink Reply by Jarrod Alfrey on August 1, 2011 at 10:40am

Hey guys,

 

I found this via Google as I am researching ways to revive rollerblading.  I apologize for bumping this year old post, but I think it is important since rollerblading is on it's deathbed.  Aggressive skating is long overdue for a revival.  I think the only way to do this is for someone to swallow their pride and embrace mainstream support and corporatism the way skateboarding did.  The following is a message in response to one of the more popular rollerbladers (and good friend) here in Chicago who thinks rollerblading should remain out of the X Games.  I think this sums up my opinion on what is killing the sport and what needs to be done to keep it from dying completely:

 

"[The] X Games didn't screw rollerblading...rollerblad​ing screwed rollerblading. When rollerblading was included in the X Games, it took off! The public loved it because we could go higher, faster, and rotate more times than skateboarders or bikers (Eito Yasutoko, "1440", 2005) . But rollerbladers hated it because made our sport "mainstream". So they bought in to the independent companies instead of the corporate adverts that could have supported the sport and kept in the X Games. Had rollerbladers embraced mainstream support like skateboarding did, the job of "pro skater" could have been extended to rollerbladers. Maybe Chris Edwards would have been our "Tony Hawk" and Alex Broskow our "Shaun White"....and you, J**, could have been our Rob Dyrdek! LOL!!

I wanted to be a pro-blader. I wanted to skate forever and with the likes of Tom Fry and Cesar Mora and Fabiola De Silva, but there was a reason why my generation rollerblader had stopped in the first place...there was no future in it."

Permalink Reply by Nate Snow on August 1, 2011 at 12:47pm

bro, the sport went underground. companies are mainly still skater owned, but the owners don't want/need to seek out the mainstream spotlights.

 

local shops don't carry stuff because there aren't enough kids rolling anymore to make it worth their while. you have to buy everything online now, or go to a few select shops, to get what you need.

 

and don't even get me started on x-games....

 

it is a hard, cold world in the skating scene now-a-days, but the dudes who are still here are shredding harder than ever, and the sport has progressed a ton in the past few years. tricks are tech and hammer, clothes aren't baggy anymore, and crews all but don't exist.

 

but skating still lives, and this site proves there are still alot of us out here who are serious about what we do.

Permalink Reply by Nate Snow on August 1, 2011 at 12:49pm
Is that Julio?

Russ Morgan said:
Hey guys new to the site, just bored and searching the web on what happened to our sport. I used to skate Long Island and NYC in the mid 90's and came across this old photo of a 12 or 13 year old me. Can anyone name these two on the left? Any way just thought I'd share. Keep on skating fellas.

Permalink Reply by Jonny Muerte on August 1, 2011 at 2:10pm

Is that Rene "the viking" Hulgreen, next to Julio?  That guy was totally Bad ass and crazy...got to love it.

 

Permalink Reply by Russ Morgan on August 1, 2011 at 8:02pm
You are correct sir, that is Julio and Rene. If my memory serves me correctly this photo was taken in 95'- 96' @ woodward.
Permalink Reply by Nate Snow on August 3, 2011 at 8:25am
So true! I may just watch Harvesting the Crust today, now that you say that...

Cory Bollinger said:

.....watching Harvesting the Crust, spray- painting my TRS's white like Brook Howard Smith, skating all the time until that one trick was perfect.....i miss those days. at least now the skates have interchangable parts, so if you break something, you don't have to buy all-new skates...

as for the x-games.....to hell with them. i mean, there use to be all sorts of cool shit on there. Not just Inline....but Surfing, Wakeboarding. you could go to any nieghborhood spot and find kids working on tricks saying "Man, I'm going to be in the X-Games one day." Now they have Rally Car Racing on there?!?!?!?! WTF! How is someone suppose to afford a $100,000 car to compete in the X-Games? It's Stupid!

Permalink Reply by Nate Snow on August 5, 2011 at 8:11am

Also have Nickle and Dime, Fast Shoes and VG 5!

 

My favorite videos of all-time have to be the Mindgame films. They were awesome. But I just watched Dom West's Vine St. and it blew me away. Nothing can match the cinematography and skating shown in this video.

 

Old school is nice, but the new school is magic...

Cory Bollinger said:

Here are a few more of my favorites: Nickel and Dime, Fast Shoes, VG5, Plastic Balance, The Medium Cult...

 

Permalink Reply by Lord Brian on August 7, 2011 at 8:55pm
Blading reached a peak and went downhill unfortunately but from what I have been seeing lately from The Last Man Standing comp and the Blading Cup rollerblading is back and stronger than ever. Even though it may not be in the limelight, our presence is being noticed by those on the outside looking in.

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