I'm surprised I've never heard of this, but looking back,... it fits.
Back in the late 90s, myself and a few friends popped on our first pair of inlines[0]. I think years of attending "skating parties" as schoo
This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands. ‘It’s Very Freeing’
Roller skating has going through something of a renaissance ever since the commence of the pandemic. Back in the days of bread-making and home workouts, people got into the sport as a way to exercise and plunder a breath of fresh air. In the past couple of years, brand-new roller skating clubs have popped up in cities all over the society, many of them are queer and inclusive.
There’s the Los Angeles-based Queer Skate Alliance and We Got This and Queer Skate LDN in London; Toronto has the Gender non-conforming Quads; Berlin the Jam Skate Club; and Amsterdam’s skaters have jumped on the bandwagon, too, with the Gay Skate Club.
I spoke with Job Bulder, owner of THE Derby Shop, a roller skating shop in Amsterdam. She confirms that she’s also seen more and more people interested in roller skating since the pandemic, and lgbtq+ people in particular. “The roller skating community is generally very open,” Bulder explains. “I ponder that makes homosexual people feel more comfortable than in heteronormative sports.”
I decided to hang out with the Gender non-conforming Skate Club, which has been gathering in front of the EYE Movie Museum in Amste
How a Generation of Skiers Was Robbed of Rollerblading—And What Brought it Back
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2020 was a momentous year for rollerblading, and with days getting longer this year looks to be no different.
It started last spring when skiers were forced off the lifts and trails of ski areas as the world came to grips with the pandemic. Sales of rollerblades soared, and skiers reopened their lives to carving turns on pavement and skating distance on ski town bike paths.
Olympic gold medalist Johnny Mosely posted a write-up and video reviving his blading workouts with his kids Wayne Gretsky chimed in with his support. The X Games reran the blading vert finals from 2005 and media outlets from Sports Illustrated to The Wall Street Journal ran blading revival stories, if only for the excuse to make ‘90s jokes.
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But the most seismic moment of this resurgence involved JSkis, a brand founded by Jason Levinthal, who previously founded Line Skis and played an inherent rol