Sponsored New Brand Introduction: Rollerblade!

[Philpug]

From Stowe's Skate Park back in the 90's.

 

[mdf]

I used to rollerblade around a local lake (Quanapowett) quite a bit. One loop is just over 3 miles, and there is a wide sidewalk and (for most of the way) a bike lane painted on the road edge.

But the mix of speeds just got to be too much. There were walkers, joggers, runners, skaters, and bicyclists. Plus enough cars that using the road itself to pass was often not feasible. When there was a pair of runners side by side ahead of you in the bike lane and a bike coming up fast behind you.... awkward.

 

[cantunamunch]

I

When there was a pair of runners side by side ahead of you in the bike lane and a bike coming up fast behind you.... awkward.

the only worse thing is pedestrians on bikes side by side.

 

[neonorchid]

I used to rollerblade around a local lake (Quanapowett) quite a bit. One loop is just over 3 miles, and there is a wide sidewalk and (for most of the way) a bike lane painted on the road edge.

But the mix of speeds just got to be too much. There were walkers, joggers, runners, skaters, and bicyclists. Plus enough cars that using the road itself to pass was often not feasible. When there was a pair of runners side by side ahead of you in the bike lane and a bike coming up fast behind you.... awkward.

Sad to say I know that scenario all too well.

 

[neonorchid]

...and I do realize this could never work in Philadelphia

 

[Fuller]

What a coincidence. I was at Tecnica Groups headquarters yesterday and had an interesting discussion about Rollerblade and their “Skate to Ski” program.

I think a complete Skate to Ski program needs to include equipment that addresses balance and movement skills as well as overall fitness. There's a huge difference between a 3 wheel 110mm marathon set up and and an "Urban Skate" set up for dodging hot dog vendors. I'm as fit as almost any 65 yr old male but my balance is sub par so my needs might be different from a 65 year old hockey player gone to seed.

https://www.youtube.com/user/PintoPonyProductions This fellow is quite entertaining in a quirky Canadian way and is a damn good skater.

 

[cantunamunch]

I think a complete Skate to Ski program needs to include equipment that addresses balance and movement skills as well as overall fitness.

I confess I cannot picture what you mean.

I am with you thus far: Certainly balance and movement skills are necessary. Certainly a 3x125 setup is not going to have the same balance dynamics as a 4x80 or 4x90 hardshell setup.

In my idiom 'overall fitness' is a byproduct. The first goal, the absolute essential before anything else can happen, is the ability to glide on one foot. Without the ability to glide on one skate, skate-to-ski programs might be fun but do little for snow skill except create bad habits.

I assume we are generally agreed to that point?

Right, so I cannot picture what you mean by 'equipment that addresses balance'. Do you mean having sufficient hardshells with various internal volumes and offsettable frames? Do you mean having quad skates like the Skorpion? I'm just spitballing possible concepts that might fit those words here, I really don't know. AFAICT, if they fit and allow one-foot balance, any of the RB models from the Twister through the Macroblade should be just fine in a skate-to-ski progression.

 

[neonorchid]

...maybe this -
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002796999/slomo.html?partner=socialflow

 

[neonorchid]

...or this -

 

[neonorchid]

...then again could be this -

 

[cantunamunch]

OK, I'm sure we've all gotten old in the last ~15 years, but seeing PB now shocked me a little.

 

[neonorchid]

 

[neonorchid]

...and he makes it look so easy

 

[cantunamunch]

^great point about the hip recovery

 

[Fuller]

...maybe this -
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002796999/slomo.html?partner=socialflow

Thanks for posting that, I remember it from a while back. It's very well done.

 

[Fuller]

I confess I cannot picture what you mean.

I am with you thus far: Certainly balance and movement skills are necessary. Certainly a 3x125 setup is not going to have the same balance dynamics as a 4x80 or 4x90 hardshell setup.

You might be overthinking this a bit - but I appreciate your attention to detail!

I guess my original thought was along the lines of "should I get a set of skates that would make it easy to do all the turns, stops and freestyle stuff (and get a feel for using all the edges in different situations) or just blast down the trail at a high rate of speed on 3 big wheels. And which would ultimately enhance my snow time the best?

I am but a simple man...

 

[James]

You might be overthinking this a bit - but I appreciate your attention to detail!

I guess my original thought was along the lines of "should I get a set of skates that would make it easy to do all the turns, stops and freestyle stuff (and get a feel for using all the edges in different situations) or just blast down the trail at a high rate of speed on 3 big wheels. And which would ultimately enhance my snow time the best?

I am but a simple man...

Well, get something you can go down the halfpipe with. That'll teach one to balance into the future.

 

[Philpug]

...or this -

Philadelphia Art Museum. Probably Land Skaters. I could never get the going down the stairs backwards thing...I just took to jumping them.

 

[neonorchid]

Philadelphia Art Museum. Probably Land Skaters. I could never get the going down the stairs backwards thing...I just took to jumping them.
View attachment 45000

Yep, ah-ha, and Noam who is the guy in the video had told me the mechanics of descending steps backwards absorbs the shock. He does it forward too but it's very jarring.
Btw,@Philpug, Way to send it!

 

[cantunamunch]

You might be overthinking this a bit - but I appreciate your attention to detail!

I guess my original thought was along the lines of "should I get a set of skates that would make it easy to do all the turns, stops and freestyle stuff (and get a feel for using all the edges in different situations) or just blast down the trail at a high rate of speed on 3 big wheels. And which would ultimately enhance my snow time the best?

I am but a simple man...

That was my point above with the 'every stride is a turn' comment - it's very simple indeed - all of them will enhance snow time if one puts in enough time and refinement into one's basic skating stride. Every skate stride has the components of a ski turn. No slalom gates needed. You can do cone work but you don't have to. You can do park work for fun, but that's on top of working on basic stride.

Taking your basic stride - the motion you will be using at 40-70 strokes per minute for approximately every moment you are on skates- to level 3 and beyond into regimes like crossovers in a straight line - is where the returns on skate-to-ski truly lie. And every properly fitting skate can do that for you.

At least half the current topics in the Ski Instruction forum, from the Outside edge-to-Outside edge drill to Pinky leads the way to all the debate on skating downhill - have direct analogs in skating, and the answers are either intuitively apparent or available as super clean Youtube drills from guys like Pascal Briand.

There is a dark side. If you don't work on your skate stride to get to that point, if you just go up the trail and back, every stride you make will be ingraining heel-pushing, ingraining A-frame balance, and ingraining uncontrolled upper body mannerisms. And no amount of park work, no amount of cone work can correct that.