Aggressive inline skating in Encyclopedia

In 1980 a group of ice hockey players in Minnesota were looking for a way to practice during the summer.^[1] Scott and Brennan Olson formed the company Rollerblade, Inc., to sell skates with four polyurethane wheels arranged in a straight line on the bottom of a padded boot.^[1] In 1988, Rollerblade introduced the first aggressive inline skate, the Rollerblade Lightning TRS. Aggressive inline skating finally developed as an organized sport in the early 1990s.^[2] The Aggressive Skaters Association (ASA) was formed by a number of aggressive inline skaters in 1994 as a forum to develop rules governing competitions and equipment.^[2] The sport was included in the first X-Games in 1995 and included vertical ramp and street event competitions.^[3] It reached its height in popularity in the late 90s, with mainstream movies like Disney's Brink! and other films. Aggressive inline skating was removed from the ESPN X-Games in 2005 although it is still included in the Asian X Games, LG Action Sports Competitions, Montpellier Fise, and many other large competitions.^[4] Much of aggressive inline skating's progression has been documented through inline Skate videos, such as T-Bone Film's The Hoax and Videogroove series (both defunct). As of 2011, skate videos have in large part become distributed on the Internet through YouTube and Vimeo rather than by VHS or DVDs sold through skate shops.

Description

Tricks in aggressive skating can be performed on street obstacles or on ramps. Street skaters perform more grinds and slides, whereas ramp skaters have more air-time and therefore can perform other, often acrobatic tricks. Aggressive skaters can perform grinds by using the frames and plastic plates on the bottom of the skate. Grinds are usually done on rails and ledges although they can be performed on any obstacle which slides such as a curb or even chains. Similar to grinding, a cess slide involves sliding on the sides of the skate so the wheels aren't touching the ground, and can be performed on any surface that will allow for sliding.

Types

Street

In street skating, also known as freestyle skating, the skater performs tricks by utilizing features existing in a common, everyday environment.^[5] This involves skaters grinding hand rails and concrete ledges, jumping stairs, ramping off of embankments and generally turning anything on the regular street into an obstacle, ramp, or grind rail.^[5] Creativity is often seen as an important aspect of street skating, since skaters are able to invent or link tricks specific to a unique environment, rather than performing more standard maneuvers on predefined obstacles as in park and vert skating.

Park

Park skating refers to skating that occurs in various private and community skateparks. This style differs from street skating due to the specific nature of skate parks, which are designed for skaters to do tricks, e.g. on the top of the ramp (coping). Park skating often emphasizes the technical side of aggressive inline, focusing on the variety of tricks a skater can do and encouraging skaters to connect tricks. A series of tricks connected together in a fluid motion over different obstacles is known as a 'line'. Skate parks often feature quarter pipes and half-pipes, curved ramps and other features that are not usually found in a regular urban setting. A better quality skate park will have good lines making it easier for skaters to perform tricks. Good skateparks have a flow to them.

Vert

Vert, short for vertical, skating is a style of skating performed within a half-pipe.^[6] It focuses on complicated aerial maneuvers, such as spins and flips. The intent of the skater is to build speed until they are of sufficient height above the edge of the ramp to perform various aerial acrobatics.^[5] They may also grind the lip of the half-pipe sliding their skates from one point of the lip to another. In competitions skaters have limited time, often less than a minute, to impress the judges by landing numerous and difficult tricks.^[5]

Skate description

A pair of Edwards Chocolate aggressive inline skates. This is an older model, which uses grind plates instead of an H-block.

Part	Definition
Cuff	an ankle support cuff with an adjustable strap
Shell	a boot made of high-impact plastic that surrounds and protects the feet
Liner	a soft inner boot
Soul plate	a flat, hard plastic plate on the sole of the boot
Negative Soul plate	a flat, hard plastic plate on the inner sole of the boot
Frame	a hard plastic chassis for the wheels
Backslide plate	a grinding area flush with the soul plate, near the middle of the boot, used for grinding on the boot
Wheels	two to four polyurethane wheels with bearings
Anti-rocker wheels	two plastic wheels that sometimes replace the inner two wheels

Typically each part is replaceable, and certain manufacturers provided parts that have been divided into individual sections, so a skater can replace specific worn areas.

Frames

The chassis of the skate, called the frame, bolts to the bottom of the skate. Skaters grind on the frames, which are designed for this purpose.

There are several different variations on frame design. Originally a skate had four wheels on each skate, with a gap between the middle wheel where a plastic insert called an H-block was used for grinding. During earlier times, a plastic plate, known as the 'grind plate' was attached to the frame on the outside of the two middle wheels instead of an H-block. This allowed normal recreational skates to be converted into aggressive skates, and it was how most aggressive skates were built at the time. On aggressive skates with H-blocks, the grind plate could be used to increase the life of the H-block. But as frame manufacturers began making removable H-blocks, the grind plate fell out of favor. As the sport evolved, skate companies started manufacturing wheels that were intentionally hard and undersized, in order to facilitate grinding. The undersized wheels are called anti-rockers, and replace the two middle wheels.

Generally, there are three different types of modern frames: Flat, Anti-Rocker, and Freestyle. Flat, as described above, means you have four wheels per skate. There is another variation of this called the Hi-Lo setup. This means it has large outer wheels, but small inner wheels to make grinding easy. The inner wheels' axles are closer to the ground so that all the wheels touch the ground.

Anti-Rocker, as also described above, is the most popular setup. Freestyle frames have no inner wheels, giving the user a large amount of space in the middle for grinding. Another setup that's gaining popularity, called tri-rocker, means that there are three wheels per skate. The remaining axle hole is left empty or replaced with an anti-rocker wheel. This combines the benefits of a flat setup (going fast and turning easily) with the benefits of an anti-rocker/freestyle setup (grinding easily). The frame company Create Originals makes frames that are meant for tri rocker to be a possibility.

In the late 1990s, the Universal Frame System (UFS) was introduced by frame manufacturers to allow the user to easily customize their skates.^[7] This led to increased customization of skates within the sport by allowing the user interchangeability between different company's frames.^[7] Today, all major frame and skate manufacturers support UFS.

Wheels

Modern skate wheels have undergone many years of development and iteration. The development of the main material, polyurethane (usually simply called urethane), has been dependent on advancements in the polymer industry. The balance between hardness and grip is the key to an optimum skate wheel. Aggressive skate wheels are usually between 54 and 60mm, while anti-rocker wheels are between 40 and 47mm These are usually two plastic wheels or high density polyurethane wheels, replacing the inner two wheels.

Anti-rocker wheels

Two high density polyurethane or plastic wheels with high hardness, replacing the inner two wheels. Some skaters prefer replacing only one of the inner wheels with anti-rockers (called tri-rocker). Anti-rocker wheels enable skaters to grind obstacles with a relatively high diameter. These wheels, unlike normal wheels, give skaters a relatively large margin of balance error while grinding on a concrete curb or ledge. While normal wheels get stuck on concrete surfaces, the much harder anti-rocker wheels will simply slide because of the friction being less, allowing skaters to lean out of their center of balance without tripping. Some people prefer a four wheel setup because grinds must be done perfectly to succeed.

Popular Male Pro Skaters

Eito Yasutoko, Takeshi Yasutoko, Franky Morales, Brian Aragon, Nils Jansons, Walt Austin, Julian Bah, Don Bambrick, John Bolino, Micheal "Gumby" Braud, Alex Broskow, Abdiel Colberg, Chris Farmer, Aaron Feinberg, Demetrios George, Robert Guerrero, Chris Haffey, Stefan Horngacher, Jeph Howard, Mike "Murda" Johnson, Rachard Johnson, Jon Julio, Jacob Juul, Eddie Kelly, Dustin Latimer, Montre Livingston, Connor O'Brien, Billy O'Neill, Dre Powell, JC Rowe, Erik "Ski" Perkett, Chaz Sands, Brian Shima, Eric Schrijn, Matthias Silhan, Dominik Wagner, CJ Wellsmore, Damien Wilson and Sean Kelso.

Popular Female Pro Skaters

Once considered a sport primarily for males, Fabiola da Silva, born June 18, 1979 in S o Paulo, Brazil, set the stage for female skaters to exhibit their talent in worldwide competitions. In 2000, the Aggressive Skaters Association created the Fabiola Rule which allowed females to compete in vert competitions that had previously been limited to male skaters. Since then, notable female aggressive inline skaters around the world include: (alphabetized)

Katie Brown, Jenna Downing, Katie Kethum, Jenny Lougue, Kelly Matthews, Jodie Tyler, and Chynna Weierstall.

Films

As with most action sports, the film is an important part of marketing and exposure. Some of the most important early films include: - Hoax - Hoax II - Harvesting The Crust - High Rollers - Future of Rollerblading - Saltless Water - Forest Fire - Burning Bridges - Beyond - VideoGroove Series 1-12

Some recent legendary films that have been published in the past decade include: - Coup De Tat - Future of Rollerblade II - KFC II - Brain Fear Gone - Bang - Underestimated - Minnesnowta - Film - Killer Boots - Apples That Fell Far From The Tree - The Truth 1 & 2 - Choose Your Genre