In-Line Skating: The New Thing

May 4 1991
^PM-Blade Runners
^Rollerblading Craze Cuts a New Figure on City Streets
^LaserPhoto NY4 of May 3
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   NEW YORK (AP) _ The weekend joggers and cyclists who once reigned supreme on park sidewalks across the nation are being elbowed aside by a new breed of knee-padded, Lycra-clad creatures who whiz by on polyurethane wheels at 30 mph.
   These high-tech roller skaters are ushering in a booming new leisure fad - rollerblading, also known as in-line skating.
   Their skates - molded boots with four or five wheels in a row - have also created a booming new leisure industry. Retail sales rocketed from $150,000 in 1984 to about $10 million in 1988 and are expected to double to $300 million in 1991, said Mary Haugen, a spokeswoman for Rollerblade Inc.
   For roller skaters, the advancement in skate technology adds a whole new dimension of thrills and fun to their pastime.
   "It's an unbelievable rush," said Max Langstaff, who spent a recent balmy day skating in New York's Central Park. "It's a cross between ice skating and downhill skiing. Imagine skating down a hill, it's like ... aaaahhhh 3/8"
   As rock music blasted from a portable stereo, hundreds of people gathered on a recent Sunday to watch skaters speedily weave through a sloping obstacle course of cones. The crowd cheered when skaters, some on only one skate, others going backward, negotiated the course without knocking over a single cone.
   Bladers as they're called propel themselves much like speed-skaters on ice, swinging their arms.
   In-line skating has also become a hit in California, and in the Midwest where the two largest manufacturers of the skates are based: Rollerblade Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn., and First Team Sports in Blaine, Minn.
   Rollerblade Inc. got its start in 1980 when two brothers, Scott and Brennan Olson, both high school hockey players, sought a way to keep in shape during the summer.
   They sold their first pairs of the skates out of their parents' basement.
   In 1984 the Olsons sold the company, which began promoting in-line skating as a new sport in 1986.
   At Peck & Goodie, a skate rental and sales shop near Central Park, customers can rent skates for $10 for two hours, or buy a pair for $95 to $320.
   New skaters making their way through Central Park traffic look like ducklings trying out their legs for the first time.
   Many of the park's hard-core skaters go by nicknames like Blur, Blade and Gladiator. Some travel far to compete in rollerblade races.
   "It was only last year that we started to see competitors come out, class athletes, so racing is still at a rough stage now," said Steve Novak, also known as Thud, a monicker he earned crashing into a car while skating.
   Now the sport is poised to go international.
   Nordica, a large Italian manufacturer of ski boots, bought half of Rollerblade Inc. in March and will market the skates in Europe and Japan, said Nordica spokesman Adalberto Muzio.
   Suzanne Winick of New York began skating when she bought some blades last November.
   "It's great," she said. "When you find a road that's smoothly paved you feel like you're on a sheet of ice. You just go."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME PAGE: https://andrewap-nystories.blogspot.com/