Roller Skating / Quad skates / Inline Skates 4s and 3s

Like buying vinyl records, I’ve got back into roller skating on quads after nearly four decades. Last week I found a teacher who gives street skating lessons. 4hr boot camp on Saturdays I’m learning loads, great workout, great for mental health, banging club tunes. All this to improve fitness

https://youtu.be/0vuBlSgqXiE

I found my old roller blades at the start of lockdown 1, bought new wheels and bearings, but have not yet mustered the courage to use them.

I was shit BITD and now being 40, it seems like I am trying to give myself a permanent injury.

Will use them to commute when I get invited back into the building

@DethBeard I never had a lesson in my life as a kid. Getting back on skates has been very daunting. So I had to start from the beginning. Falling correctly, getting up, learning to stop, I find it harder stopping going forward then going backward, because I have toe stoppers on quads. It’s been ace though, my daughter has joined my classes, I bought her a pair pink suede moxi quads should last a lifetime

The boot camp sessions are hard and I get knee pain, probably an old injury from running. So instead of easing up, I now need to invest time doing yoga..

My primary goal is to ski better, with stronger core and resilience especially lower body joints, skating will condition my ankles etc for some fun on my trick skis.

Good luck with getting back on it. I’ll probably get some 3WD inlines for commuting (9 miles each way) next spring.

https://youtu.be/7LTrv2sPRjA

Well that was cool!

I don’t think I’ve put a pair of skates on for nearly 20 years. Used to rollerblade with mates at university and was quite comfortable jumping down flights of stairs on them but I never got the hang of quads. Had a pair of secondhand Bauers before, complete with pink and green wheels but I couldn’t coordinate the steering. A girl at work who does roller derby keeps trying to talk me into getting some skates but I dunno, something doesn’t sit right.

Edit: wow, fuck me, the price of a pair of Bauer Turbos now!

I started skating when I was about twelve, everyone had stopped skateboarding (apart from Stephen Fitzgerald, who was a couple of years above me at Pimlico School, he was the last skateboarder standing at South Bank around 1980-81) and one summer me and my mates all decided to get quads... There were about ten of us who used to skate at Battersea Park and South Bank, Sundays we'd be back and forth between both spots multiple times at breakneck speeds, old bill trying to grab us as we went past parliament, was so much fucking fun...

We started the second street hockey team in London, The Cruisers were the first, we, The Speed Merchants (lol) were the second... There'd be massive free-for-all games where the British Genius exhibition had been at Battersea, up to fifty kids chasing one ball around, it was mayhem!

Most of the other skaters were soul heads, cut-off Muscle™ sweat shirts, silky running shorts and legwarmers, boxing boots for skates, hanging out looking beautiful and dancing to tunes but we were all in combat pants, Bauer Turbos and leather jackets, spiky hair and jumping off steps and flying down hills as fast as we could, no one else was doing that at the time, we were deffo the odd ones out... I'd take my ghettoblaster down and we'd be listening to The Birthday Party, The Gun Club, The Fall, The Cramps and The Ramones... Hehehe...

I kept two sets of wheels, a set of black Kryptos and a set of black Sims Street Snakes, and bought a pair of boots and trucks for them in the early 00s, but I felt like a massive plonker so gave up on it...

Right before I came to Oz I finally decided to let go of the dream and left the boots and both sets of wheels on top of the bins outside our flat... They were gone in five minutes, hope they got some use...

Anyway, massively cool story... Great times as a teenager, I get very misty eyed about them...

PS Who remembers Slick Willie's? There were two branches, one above Our Price on the Kings Road and the other next to Kensington Market on HSK...

PPS My rig was Bauer Turbos, Variflex plates and Kryptos or Street Snakes on NSK bearings... Smooth as silk...

I never studied the blaaade lol but I do have 7 of 8 NOS Sims conical Roller Snakes in the stash. These are from the Tim Altic/Frank Blood days of roller-booting. 78/79-era skate wheels (and therefore roller skate wheels!) were given a conical back to make them disengage coping more easily. Heh. As if.

I suppose pictures would make sense.

Slick Willies is still around. Has a shop on Gloucester Road.

And…

(two flat-backed lime RollerSnakes in the top pic too). Somewhere, I have a pair of Alpine Sports boots from c.1980. I’d intended to get a full set of conical Snakes on them to make an interesting conversation piece at dinner parties. Before turning the gun on myself. ENDS.

That's right, I worked around the corner for a little while...

Alpine Sports

Haven't thought about Alpine Sports since the early 80s... 🤯

These are GREAT!!

Anyone remember the halfpipe in Crystal Palace park?

I only mucked about on a pair of white boots that were handed down to me but loved skating about as kid. Would love to try and learn again. 10 year old disco skater kid with a bowl cut.
They were like this but with deep red translucent wheels

Some great stories here.

I’ve gone hardcore with my quads. Bauer boots, Sims Street Snake wheels with MVM Hoodoo Race bearings. Toe stops are shite need to replace those. Otherwise great purchase from Skate Attack in Finsbury Park.

I grew up on a huge council estate in Gospel Oak NW5 aka ‘the flats’, mostly asphalt surface was a dream to skate on.

Our mis-spent youth going to the south bank around the undercroft in the early 80s mixing it up with the bmx and skateboard crews.. zooming up and down Waterloo station concourse before heading to the underground, sliding down escalator handrails at speed, to land on our feet. No protection pads, gloves or helmets.

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@Rich_G

pm me for boot camp training details, Canning Town on Saturday’s 12-4pm. The guy charges £20 for the entire session as opposed to skate pros in Hyde Park asking upto £80 for a couple hours.

Aww man I'm down in the west country if I make it back to the smoke I'll give you a pm. Keep us updated on here with how it goes.

Anyone been to any of the skate meetups?

https://www.lfns.co.uk/

Or this at Clapham Common

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7W8VfvSBDQ

Thanks for sharing, great to see skate meet ups around London. We have our own sound system at Canning Town. If anyone wants to join us, PM me.

Partner has been skating through lockdowns. Mostly artistic stuff. Had to build these today for something a bit different.

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Thanks for sharing @atk your custom build post has reminded me of this documentary, released in 2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kxl0/storyville-united-skates

I suppose it's all about being resourceful and part of a scene. roller skating has grown in the UK, I have forgotten how much joy it brings. Also our participants in Canning Town are either in their 40s/50s, or pre teens.

Roller disco on a Sunday night at my local sports centre many moons ago was the highlight of my week.
So figured it was time to have another go on quads... Went cheap to start with some from decathlon that I'm happy with so far and did my first group lesson last Tuesday with Roll Happy. Nice group. She had us attempting Shoot the duck. Never attempted that before. Really enjoyed it and hoping to keep it up.
I like the sound of your canning town session @almac68
Let me know more please when you have time.
Hope to go big with Bauer's one day. We'll see!