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 | Planet Extras! | | Report From Korea: Despite Growing Pains, Inline Skating Continues to Flourish in South Korea A Big Chunk of the Korean Population Already Owns Skates (Page 2 of 3) But at the same time, Home Shopping Last year, I could watch lots of TV home shopping shows in which more than 10,000 pairs of inline skates (mostly fitness skates) would be sold in an hour. They were sold at considerably lower prices than the skates popularly sold at traditional skate outlets. The quality of the skates may have been questionable. But they were cheap and had 84 mm wheels, ABEC 7 bearings, and boots with good design and colors. They usually came with free protective gear and inline skate bags. Nontheless, they still cost less than half the price of other popular skates with ABEC 5 bearings and 78 or 80 mm wheels. Beginners Prefer Inexpensive Skates People who are just learning to inline skate tend to think they don't need expensive, high-quality skates. They are also afraid they might ruin their new skates with their poor skating technique. They prefer to buy good, expensive skates when they become skilled. These days, a lot of Koreans already have more than one pair of inline skates. Which is another reason why skate sales are slowing down. It's also a reason skate shops are closing now. Jeju Marathon Attendance Some people say that the low attendance [reportedly around 600 skaters] at the recent Jeju Island marathon is a sign that the inline fad is fading. It is true that there weren't very many participants in the marathon. But consider this: It was the first inline competition of the year in Korea; it was in one of the southermost islands of Korea; and the weather was very cold. (They skated under falling snow.) Many people anticipate that many of last year's skating events won't be held this year because of financial problems. But this doesn't make sense to me, because last year's skating events always attracted more than 1000 participants. Seoul Inline Cup The Seoul World Inline Cup will be held on the 10th of April. The organizers had hoped to have 7000 people register. But by last week, only 6600 people had registered and 500 hadn't paid their fees. So they extended the registration period for a week. I think the reason the organizers didn't register 7000 skaters as quickly as last year is that they raised the registration fee from 30,000 to 40,000 won [$40 U.S.] for the elite open category. Furthermore, they scrapped the 5 K competition for kids and beginners, killing the interests of future applicants for inline skating.
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