Agressige Inline History

Agressige Inline History

Publication Date: April 1999

The basic idea for in-line roller skates has been around for about 300 years. In the early 1700's, a Dutchman tried to simulate ice skating in the summer by nailing wooden spools to strips of wood and attaching them to his shoes. The first patented skates, registered in 1819 in Paris by M. Petibled, were in-line skates. There were many other models that were made for decades in Europe and the United States.

In 1979, the stage was set by a young hockey player named Scott Olsen for the explosion that would become known as "rollerblading." Olsen had found an old pair of in-line skates in a sporting goods store, and immediately fell in love with the feeling. Realizing the potential of the design, Olsen hitchhiked to Chicago to buy the Chicago roller Skate Company's dormant in-line design. Olsen's new company, Rollerblade, changed the design to include lightweight ski boots, dual precision bearings, and urethane wheels. The stage was set for an explosion that would become known as "rollerblading."

In-line skating has grown in leaps and bounds since 1979. Industry figures peg the growth of the in-line market at 22.6% a year since its introduction. The 1997 in-line market included more than 30 million participants in the US alone. In-line skating ranks as the fifth largest participatory sport in the US, and the number one participatory sport among 6 to 17 year-old males.

Aggressive in-line roots can be traced to skateboarding where vert ramp and street skating tricks were born. The sport got its start in 1981 when people like A.J. Jackson, Pat Parnell, Doug Boyce and Chris Morris began using in-line skates on the same types of street and vert domains as used in skateboarding.

Along with growing awareness of the sport, came skates designed to take the abuse of aggressive in-line skating. In 1988, the Rollerblade Lightening TRS appeared. This was the first skate with a nylon reinforced frame. This innovation allowed skaters to grind on the street and vert ramps, coping with much more control. Around this time, Chris Edwards, now one of the sport's icons, started using the skates to jump on stair railings and grind his way down to the bottom of the staircase.

As a second generation of skaters began to come into the sport, Rollerblade began organizing small contests. In 1994, Mark Shays, Mark Billik and Rick Start founded the first ever national skate comp tour. In 1995, the first ESPN Extreme Games in Newport, Rhode Island marked the first time the sport got mainstream, worldwide media attention. In line with this sudden notoriety came a boom in sponsorship opportunities for pro skaters.

In 1996, aggressive skating teamed up with skateboarding and bicycle stunt for a multi-sport tour across the country. These sports were also selected to be featured in the 1996 Olympics closing ceremonies.

The sport has matured in the past five years to the point where the level of competition is more consistent and professional. At the same time, the average age of the competitors has dropped considerably. Reasons for this include a wider audience due to media exposure and an accompanying increase in the number of skaters out there.

These days, it's not unusual for the "older pros," around 17 and above, to be outnumbered by the new generation of up and coming pros, averaging around 14 or 15 years-old. Younger skaters entering the pro scene are increasingly prevalent due to the Aggressive Skaters Association (ASA) amateur circuit, which enables skaters to climb the ranks to professional status through a series of qualifying events.

Aggressive in-line skating is becoming more organized and sponsor dollars may be more corporate in nature, but the inherent anarchist attitude of the sport has not changed. Skaters will be the first to tell you that aggressive in-line skating was born on the street and despite the almost cookie-cutter baggy pants and loose T-shirt garb found across the board, the sport will never lose its roots as the past-time of a universal tribe of aspiring (and occasionally genuine) urban refugees.