The rivalry between rollerbladers and skaters has been there for decades. Now, saying all skaters hate rollerbladers would be an overstatement. But there is an obvious tension between these two.
The skaters around the world have a shared hatred towards rollerbladers. This is mainly because of their mindset where they think they are superior. Skaters also think rollerblading is a kids’ sport as it is easy to master.
In this article, I’m going to try my best to explain why this rivalry persists and why do skaters hate rollerbladers. So, keep reading till the end to get a complete picture.
Reasons Why Skaters Hate Rollerbladers
Skating and rollerblading are almost similar type of action sports. But historically, skaters always have had a distaste for rollerblading. This distaste is not some toxic relationship, rather a friendly rivalry between skaters and rollerbladers. Some of the reasons why skaters hate rollerblades are given below:
1. They Think Rollerblading is Just Too Easy
Skaters think that compared to skateboarding; rollerblading is much easy to learn. For those who are new, it is true that learning rollerblading is much easier compared to learning skateboarding. The first reason is that stopping a skateboard is harder than a rollerblade. Maneuvering and jumping are also easy in rollerblading.
It requires a great level of dedication, practice, persistence, and time to achieve even a mediocre skill level when it comes to skateboarding. Take a look at the simplest and easiest skateboarding trick the “Ollie”. This is a jumping maneuver. The trick is jumping off the ground with a skateboard.
To perform the ollie trick: first, a skater needs to push the back of the skateboard to the ground with the back foot, then slide the front foot up and out toward the front end of the skateboard, and at the same time pushing off with both legs to jump off the ground with his or her skateboard. To perform this trick perfectly, Skaters need to all these actions quickly and with extreme accuracy.
Now let’s compare that to the simplest roller jumping trick “Straight jump”. To perform that trick, all rollerbladers have to do is speed up to gain some momentum, and jump normally when enough momentum is achieved. Anyone can do that with just a few tries.
Skateboarding tricks are nothing like a person did in their life. The Ollie is the most basic skateboarding trick, and it requires an extreme focus of the skaters to perform all the actions correctly to get a good height and with the skateboard flat.
Rollerblading is similar to movements like walking, jumping that every human performs in their lives. This is why it is very easy for even a kid to figure out how to rollerblade. On the other hand, skateboarding requires learning a lot of new movements that almost nobody performs in their regular lives. This is what makes skating very hard.
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2. The Superiority Complex Among Skaters
At first glance, one might think skateboarding is all about just pushing and rolling above the surface. But skateboards don’t have any reliable way to stop when propelling at high speed, which makes it less tempting for beginners. It takes lots of time, patience, practice, dedication, and persistence to master skateboarding.
The amount of persistence and time it takes to learn even the simplest of skateboarding tricks like the “ollie”, which sometimes takes months of practice to perform that trick to a decent height and with a skateboard nicely leveled out. That doesn’t mean that rollerblading is too easy.
Some rollerblading tricks are very hard. But these tricks do not require the same amount of dedication, time, practice, and persistence to master as skateboarding tricks. The amount of effort and dedication skaters put into improving their skill level makes them think like they are superior, but no in a toxic way where skaters think that rollerbladers as beneath them. Rather their mentality is like “Anyone can rollerblade, but not everyone can skate”.
3. Skaters Think Rollerblades Are for Kids
Most of the skaters think that rollerblades are for kids. This is mainly due to the fact that learning rollerblading is easy compared to learning skateboarding. But that doesn’t mean that everyone who rollerblades are kids. Rollerblading, especially aggressive rollerblading is extremely popular among adults.
But to be frank, kids are partly responsible for the hate rollerbladers get. Kid rollerbladers, though not all of them, most of the time don’t follow the skate park rules like forming a queue and waiting for their turn. Rather they just drop in the skating rink while others are skating disregarding their safety. They don’t have any situational awareness.
When these kids drop in the rink while other people are skating, they can cause serious accidents and people can get hurt badly if things go sideways. Sometimes these kid rollerbladers start to perform tricks using their rollerblades in public places. This causes problems for people who are just passing by and sometimes leads to accidents. Accidents happen, but reducing the risk is extremely important.
4. Rollerblading Can Be Dangerous
Rollerblades have a higher chance of for accident compared to skateboards. In the case of skateboards, skaters have two points of contact given both of their feet are on the board when skating. Their feet are not permanently attached to the skateboard. When propelling on a skateboard with great speed or performing any tricks, if things go sideways, skaters can just bail out or jump out of the skateboard.
If skaters fail to perform some actions correctly while skating, they can just kick the skateboard out and land on the ground with both feet. But in the case of rollerblades, bailing out is not an option. Rollerblades are inline skates where wheels are attached to the boot. So, if things go sideways, they can’t jump out to ditch their rollerblades and land safely.
Although rollerblades are easy to control and maneuver, accidents can happen. And in the worst-case scenario, it can lead to fatal injury. That’s why whether you are rollerblading or skateboarding, it is advised to always wear good quality protective gear like a helmet, knee pads, wrist guards. These protective gears can reduce the physical damage caused by accidents.
The Similarities Between Rollerblades and Skateboards
Rollerblades and skateboards have many things in common. Both of these have wheels and pushed forward using your foot. Although rollerblading and skateboarding styles and skating gears are different (other than protective gears, which is the same for both), both skaters and rollerbladers can do mind-blowing tricks.
Both skateboarding and rollerblading can be performed in the same obstacle course and the same spot. Both skateboards and rollerblades can be used to grind, jump, stall, slides, do a flip. Both rollerblading and skateboarding are featured in videos, contests and have a huge fanbase.
Rollerblading and skateboarding, no matter what, are almost similar types of action sports that are popular among people of all ages. The hate that exists between rollerbladers and skaters are not something toxic. It is just a friendly rivalry between them to prove who’s the best when it comes to skating skills.
Conclusion
The hate between skaters and rollerbladers mainly originated from their friendly rivalry. This rivalry between skaters and rollerbladers has continuously encouraged them to push the limits and master the art of skating.
I hope that this article “Do skaters hate rollerblades?” was of some help to you. Thank you for having the patience to go through the entire article. Have a nice day!