Skating Rings

The first recorded Rollerskating was in a play in 18th century London. After initial experiments with various designs, the first widely adopted roller skate was a quad skate, with 2 wheels side by side in front and back. It was not until the 1980's, when the Rollerblade company developed and promoted Rollerblades, that inline skating (now also called Rollerblading) became an internationally popular alternative to the traditional roller skates.

The 1990's saw explosive growth in inline skating — there are approximately 50 million people worldwide who do it. The original inline skates (Rollerblades) had four wheels all in a line, attached to a hard shall boot. Since then, many other manufacturers have created their own inline skates. Today, a wide variety of skates that are specialized for different styles of skating are available.

The various styles of skating include speed, fitness and recreation, aggressive, and artistic.

Aggressive skating is a style that involves advanced skating maneuvers, such as grinds, airs, and slides. It includes a variety of tricks that are performed on obstacles outside of skate parks — "street skating" with tricks performed on railings, benches, ledges, and so on.

Artistic skating is figure skating on inline skates instead of ice skates.

Speed skating is just that — it takes advantage of skates with a longer wheelbase and no brakes.

Recreation and fitness skating is the most popular form of inline skating, and participants engage in elements of all three other styles. Many recreational skaters enjoy the aerobic workout that skating provides. A 155 lb person will burn about 350 calories per hour skating at 8 mph, and 750 calories per hour at 12 mph. You may want to look up your calorie consumption.

Skate construction

The components of a skate are the boot, the frame, the bearings, and the wheels.