Inline Roller Skate Info

[mnrjpf99]

I came across something interesting and you may think so too. I saw a video on Youtube about inline roller's that are called "Snow White inline skates". Basically you can do just about everything on them that you can do on ice; including jumps and spins.

Here is a link to a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGVwPnVJX3Y


[Mod Note: Thread split from discussion about figure skating blades.]

[riley876]

There are also "PIC Skates", "Off Ice Skates", and probably lots more brands of artistic inlines.  But a) the artistic inline scene is at death's door,  almost everyone just skates roller skates instead, and b) you don't need pretending-to-be-ice-skates to skate artistically,  e.g. the whole sport of inline slalom, and e.g. here's Harry Wing demonstrating an axel on regular inline skates:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPrKB3SG7oM  One will notice 4 wheels and NO TOE STOP/PICK.

[Loops]

There are also "PIC Skates", "Off Ice Skates", and probably lots more brands of artistic inlines.  But a) the artistic inline scene is at death's door,  almost everyone just skates roller skates instead, and b) you don't need pretending-to-be-ice-skates to skate artistically,  e.g. the whole sport of inline slalom, and e.g. here's Harry Wing demonstrating an axel on regular inline skates:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPrKB3SG7oM  One will notice 4 wheels and NO TOE STOP/PICK.

Ooh careful. You can see the odd hockey player doing artistic moves in hockey skates, including axels. PIC, Snow white etc are ROCKERED inline skates. I don't have a set, but would like too. They mimic the rockering on an ice blade quite effectively I'm told, and friends of mine, both here on forums and "in the real world" say the transition is seamless.

I do have a pair of rollerblades. I can skate just fine on them, but would never attempt a spin. Too much of the blade is in contact with the ground and I don't want to spin on my toe....I have enough bad habits lol. Simple jumps would probably be doable, but I'd shy away from any with a toe pick assist take off.

The technique is different....even on quad skates you land your jumps flat footed...on ice the toe makes first contact. I think spins are self evident in terms of technique differences. I know it's advanced for roller, but you'll never see a figure skater spinning on their heel!

As for it being dead....I'm not sure about that. It is definitely less popular and certainly less well known. I have a friend though who is an elite level figure skater turned coach, who is just starting to coach artistic inline in southern California. I see people in parts of the uk talk about doing it. And even the (very) odd commercial featuring artistic inline skating. It's such a recent thing, I feel like rather than it being dead, it's just growing. If I thought I could successfully get a club going here I'd be tempted too....but skating in general...ice roller hockey....is so much less popular in France than in other parts of the world it'd be tough going.

As someone who grew up in figure skates, I am certain that I would feel far more comfortable on a pair of rockered inlines (and figure boots) than I ever will on my rollerblades. They really aren't the same thing.

[riley876]

Only the masochistic would try to do anything but plain skating, speed skating or hockey on unrockered skates.   Inline slalom is done exclusively on rockered skates.  Traditionally this was achieved by using smaller wheels in the end locations,  but these days the frames themselves are rockered, at least for the better quality skates.   But there's no functional difference in these approaches,  apart from limiting your opportunities for exchanging wheels to even up wear.   i.e. the point is that you can rocker ANY skate, no matter how cheap and tacky, simply by juggling wheel sizes.

Personally I do both.  i.e.  smaller end wheels on a pre-rockered frame.  With my two middle wheels on the ground, the end wheels are flying 5-6mm up in the air.  I have been told (by slalom people) that my setup is mad,  but it works well for artistic type skating.  The idea is that the second and third wheels are available to pivot on (with a little bit of unweighting), which means you can 3-turn in roughly the same sweet spot as on ice figure skates.   Because I  have a "rear sweet spot" too, I've found back 3s easier on wheels than ice.

I can even do tight loops, which surprised the heck out of me the first time it worked.   You just have to get the leans right and stay on the exact middle of skate.  But it feels pretty much just like it does on ice. 

Yes, spinning using the ice technique seem to be not an easy thing (I can do it, but I don't get much more than 1.5 revs out of it, before I grind to a halt, though to be honest, my ice technique isn't much better),  but one can certainly spin in the roller style which is essentially done on a front or rear wheel (often alternating between the two).   I posted a vid in the media section, of Sofia Bogdakova doing a slalom routine features a ton of one wheel spins, and hers is certainly not the best I've ever seen.    But I'm not convinced it's impossible in the ice technique, given my radical rockering, doing it essentially rolling on wheel#2 and using wheel #1 as a "rolling drag pick".   I currently suck at spins on ice anyway, so I will report back when I'm there.

Yes, you can sort of do toe jumps, and you can definitely do edge jumps.  I have seen axels, toes, loops and lutzes done on them.   I was told that one useful technique for toe jumps is to use the whole skate placed sideways as "one big toepick".  I have managed a toe loop like this, and it works, though I imagine it was rather ugly (but then again, ugly jumps are all the vogue in freeskating at the moment anyway...).    Yes, you do have to land flat, but so what?  So yes, if you screw it up, you can fall off the front,  but you can wear kneepads, and no one will be judging you for aesthetics anyway.

So, yes it's going to be a bit different, but with a decent amount of rockering the core skating skills are totally transferrable.  I go ice skating once in a blue moon, but within half an hour I get my ice feel back and I'm working on all the same stuff I left off on wheels.   With all the same mistakes and fixes.  But then again I don't give a rats about jumping, and only vaguely interested in spinning, I might be unusual there.    I see no reason why rockered regular inline skates couldn't be used for ice-dance style dance.  I intend to demonstrate this, just give me a decade or two more to get my skills up    

[riley876]

As for it being dead....I'm not sure about that. It is definitely less popular and certainly less well known.

In the NZ+AU competition scenes artistic inline skaters would be outnumbered by at least 40:1 by the roller skaters.   And if you want to do competitively dance on inlines, forget it, there's maybe 2 people doing that, and literally no one doing pairs dance.   I hope it's better elsewhere, but it's certainly dire here.   The competition track LTS classes here are exclusively roller (they outright say that).  All of the artistic inliners that I've talked to here are adult/young-adult ex-roller skaters, that got bored with it - i.e. none of them were/are ice skaters.   Ice people and roller people never seem to mix.   It's insanely tribal on both sides.

[mnrjpf99]

I guess in a way with 4 wheel in lines, is like having an 8' rocker as apposed to 3 wheel, which would be kind of like a 7' rocker.

I am sure that a lot can be done with regular modified roller blades, but just in my opinion, I would think that in a way 4 wheels would feel more stable gliding than 3 wheel, but there would be more smooth maneuverability with 3 wheels and less "clunky" feeling.

But this is a pretty awesome video of a girl on in lines. Holey wow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIP2FPelYfo

[riley876]

I am sure that a lot can be done with regular modified roller blades, but just in my opinion, I would think that in a way 4 wheels would feel more stable gliding than 3 wheel, but there would be more smooth maneuverability with 3 wheels and less "clunky" feeling.

If the skate is decently rockered you're only ever on 2 wheels at a time anyway max, so the stability is the same, regardless of 3 or 4 wheels, artistic skate or not.  e.g. Pic skates come in 3 and 4 wheel varieties.  3 wheel skates are going to be lighter and can take bigger wheels, and in more common (i.e. cheaper) sizes.  And they are shorter end-to-end, so you're less likely to click-of-death your back wheel.  4 wheel skates are lower to the ground though). 

I guess in a way with 4 wheel in lines, is like having an 8' rocker as apposed to 3 wheel, which would be kind of like a 7' rocker.

Not really,  but you CAN adjust the rocker simply by using different sized wheels in the different location.   Different hardness wheels also change the feel.

But this is a pretty awesome video of a girl on in lines. Holey wow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIP2FPelYfo

She's gotten older and better since.  There's a clip I posted in the media section, of her doing her routine.