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What We Need... More Young Skaters Having Fun

One of the happy moments of the last week was when I was skating at Country Park and a little girl about of five years or so gleefully exclaiimed to her parents, "Look, Mom, he's ice skating!" I of course interpreted this to mean that I looked like an Olympic Ice Speedskater of awesomeness. (Please don't say there's no way.) I'm convinced kids love inline skating. How can we get them outdoors and skating with us so they can be the future of roadskating? Let's think how and do some of that.
Local girls named finalists in game-inventing contest - Sparta Independent -
[Rollerblading]
Sparta Independent
Sparta Independent - Feb 12, 2009
Everyone wears helmets, rollerblades or skates and knee pads. A netted goal is placed on either end of the court and the game starts with three air-filled ...
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my plan for the future of skating
Yay yipee yowee yoohoo should I say yahoo?
Congratulations
That's so wonderful. Congrats to you, Bethany and Faire.
Good luck finding toddler skates that work, although I did see a five year old getting along smashingly with a pair of Barbie quad skates. We tried the Fisher Price plastic skates with my kids but they really didn't even roll!
what a great question
"I have a pair of Rollerblades in the back of my closet"
Most people learn to ride a bike at a very young age (or at least, it's what people used to do). They remember all it takes is a couple of brake squeezes to stop.
Many people tottered around on skates of some kind at a young age, but may or may not have learned how to brake properly, especially if they perceived their speed to be much slower than when they were on their bikes. Besides, when you're a kid, crashing is never going to happen to you so why bother to learn how to brake?
The predominant fear factor in most adults I've spoken to, prohibiting them from trying those Rollerblades in the closet once again, is that they can't stop. Most folk over 30 want to know how to stop before they even begin skating, so they can learn to go at their own speed. They are so afraid of being out of control. I remember that was my biggest fear at my first breaking clinic in Piedmont Park in 1999. Wow it's been almost ten years!!
A common adult misconception about inline skating is that some people must've just been born on skates and those are the only lucky ones who can swan around the park gracefully.
Another phrase I hear so often from soccer/baseball/basketball/football moms is "Oh I bought a pair of Rollerblades but I couldn't get down my driveway in them so I put them in the back of my closet". Whenever I hear this I tell them that I had to learn from professional coaches, first how to brake, then how exactly to skate properly, and that it's something vey specific that everybody can learn. Of course I'm hardly recruiting depressed, overweight housewives to my thrilling life on skates, so at that point in the conversation they scoff and turn away, uttering comments about how they could never skate like me anyway. My God, if they could only have seen the defeated, sobbing heap I was at my first speedskate workshop.
Free braking clinics of the kind the Nat'l Skate Patrol folks put on are a great service to 'growing the sport'.
zeroth birthday greetings for Cantor
Thanks everyone! :)
Want to add some skate-related greetings to little Cantor? The page is not very spambot resistant so let me point you to it slightly cryptically: it's etherpad.com and then a slash and then "cantor" without the quotes.
Can't wait to see everyone -- hopefully Tanglewood at the very latest!
Good Stuff, Amigo