The Inline Edge ... On the Far Side of Inline Skating: Planet news and information about other things to do on your skates and the equipment you need to do it. Sept. 18, 2007
Frenchmen Take Roller Soccer Title
Teams from nine countries compete in fifth annual championships in Paris; event returns to U.S. birthplace next year.
• Announcement
• More Inline Edge Skater Devises New Extreme Team Sport -  Skater Mike Gorse was looking for a high scoring sport without corners to slow down the action. He blended lacrosse and roller hockey and built a bowl-shaped roller rink in Santa Clarita, Calif. The result is Rokbol, a full-contact team sport. Gorse is forming a league and plans to stream games over the Internet. Viewers will be part of the action, picking teams, making rules and voting out players in mid-game. (Go to Rokbol web site.) (March 1, 2006) Inventor Makes Hybrid Quad-Inline Skate -  Inventor Pat McHale says his skates offer the best of both worlds: the speed of inline and the stability and control of quad. His patented "Street Rails" have five wheels: three mounted on the inside of the frame, two on the outside. (Go to the Planet story.) (Dec. 23, 2005) California Man Invents the Roller Blade Bike - California  inventor Larry Harris thinks his new Roller Blade Bike could be a big hit with the BMX stunt cycling crowd. His invention is a marriage of inline skate and bicycle. It consists of a modified bike frame atop four undersized wheels arranged in a line. Riding it, he says, is "like sitting on a big Rollerblade." ... Harris hopes to have the bike ready for the holiday shopping season. But it doesn't look good. Christmas is only three weeks away, and he still hasn't found a manufacturer. (Go to the story at Gazettes.com) (Dec. 8, 2005) Who Knew? ... Rollerwars Ends First Season With Death-Defying Performance - Ghost has won the  first-ever Rollerwars World Championships in Birmingham, England. Not impressed? ... Consider this: Ghost won even though he's dead! That's right, dead! ... So how can a dead man breath life into a new arena sport? (Go to the Planet story!) (Nov. 3, 2005) LandRoller Wins Sports Product of the Year Award - Sports Edge  magazine has named LandRoller skates the top new sports product of 2005. "Many believe that LandRollers will revitalize the skate category just as inline skates did 25 years ago," said Brian Conners, president and CEO of LandRoller. ... Apolo Ohno is reportedly on board. And so are a couple of speed skaters, who hope to break world records on LandRollers. But will the skating public bite? (Here's the Planet story!) (May 17, 2005) Rollersoccer: It All Started 10 Years Ago With a Skater Kicking a Pine Cone - The Legend of  Rollersoccer goes something like this: One day, Zack Phillips was skating along a street in San Francisco when he came upon a pine cone. Something about the pine cone screamed, "Kick me." And that's exactly what Phillips did ... repeatedly. That led to some informal games of "kick-the-cone" and, two weeks later, the replacement of the pine cone with a soccer ball and the birth of a new sport. Since then rollersoccer has spread to countries all around the world. Last year, England hosted the second annual World Rollersoccer World Cup. (Here's a Columbia News Service story about rollersoccer.) (Here's the official International Rollersoccer Federation web site.) (April 21, 2005) Carpet Skating ... Or What to Do on a Rainy Day, Part 87 - Here's a goofy new  toy that will probably have Mom reaching for a handgun! It's Simtec's FunSlide Carpet Skate ($18). Slip into a pair of the flip-floppy looking things and you'll be able to skate on the living room carpet. Add a couple of hockey sticks and Simtec's devilish Carpet Puck ($5), and you and your buddies will be bouncing slap shots off the family heirlooms. Yeah! Just make sure mom's heavily sedated. ... (Seriously, I want a pair of these things to cheer me up on rainy afternoons!) (Here's Simtec's FunSlides page.) (March 28, 2005) No Chance for the Olympics, But Roller Girls May Be Headed for Prime Time - Those  demure Lonestar Roller Girls -- among them Honey Homicide, Scarlett O'Terror, Miss Conduct and Helena Handbasket -- may get some help this year with their oversized bills for fishnet stockings and dog collars. They've been optioned to do a cable television show. (Read the Planet story!) (February 19, 2005) Skate Without All That Nasty Perspiration! -  Do you like to skate, but hate to sweat? Here's just the thing for you: the Scoota Skate. It's basically a motorized wheel with a handle. You grab the handle and the Scoota Skate drags you along at speeds of up to 43 mph. ... I wouldn't call it skating. But just think of all the noise you could make! You'll really put those whiny leaf blowers to shame! (Scootaskate.com) (On the Inline Edge!) (February 17, 2005) New Wheel Is Said to Allow Skaters to Perform Hockey Stops on Pavement - Sky Skate Products of Colorado has come out with a new wheel that it says makes it possible to perform hockey stops on pavement (although without, of course, the dramatic spray of ice shavings!) ... In case you are unfamiliar with  hockey stops, they are done by abruptly turning your ice skates against the direction of travel and pushing the blades into the ice. The new Hockey Stop Ice Wheels are made of the usual stuff: urethane. But they have a thin layer of some unnamed substance in the middle, which is said to simulate the slipperiness of ice. To brake, the skater turns on the slippery surface of the wheels and then angles them to apply the sticky urethane to the pavement. ... (Here's a discussion about the new wheels on the rec.sport inline discussion group. ... And here's the Ice Wheel web page.) (February 13, 2005) LandRoller Skates Make It Into the Top 5 - The new "out-of-line"  skates drew a lot of media attention at last week's Super Show and were named as one of the five finalists for Sports Edge magazine's New Product of the Year award. ... Judging from the competition, it appears the LandRollers have a good shot at skating away with top honors. Here's the list of other finalists: Gaiam PowerBreathe Trainer, Tanita’s Innerscan Body Composition Monitor, ProTonic Textile Revolution Compression Wear, and Beasley Creations’ Combination Golf and Billiards Table. (There's more about LandRollers in the Inline Edge.) (January 23, 2005) LandRollers in the Running for Title of New Sport Product of the Year - Sports Edge magazine has selected the LandRoller "out-of-line" skate as one of 28 semi-finalists in its annual new products contest. The  new skates (available in March) have two over-sized wheels, which angle down from the outside of the boot. (The monster back wheel actually starts at about ankle level.) The creators say the Landrollers (here's their website) are more stable than inline skates, can handle more surfaces and "are more fun." But are they really worthy of the title New Sport Product of the Year? Also in the running are: the Jock-in-the-Box, which is a jack-in-the-box that plays school fight songs; the Handle basketball shorts with moisture wicking panels for wiping sweaty hands; and the Control Freak Watch, which can control any television, VCR or DVD player from 100 feet away (useful when competing in that favorite American sport: channel surfing!)
Buggy Rollin': Full Body Inline Skating - Ready for a new thrill? How  about Buggy Rollin'. "Why stand up when you can skate on your hands and knees ... or hurtle face-first ... at 60 or 70 km/h with your nose just 10 cm from the ground?" Good question! ... Take Dorothy's Tin Man, sprinkle his suit with wheels, make him as crazy as Evil Knievel, and you've got Buggy Rollin'. (January 15, 2005)
| 
