Aggressive Skating

Every year Rampworx hosts a huge international Inline Skating contest called “Laced“. The contest formed in 2012 has seen some of the worlds top athletes fly into Liverpool to compete for the number one spot. Not only does the contest have a prestigious pro contest but it also runs a very high level Am contest, the winners of this contest go through to compete with the Pro riders. As well as big contest we also run a series of more low key events throughout the year. Our “Inline Only Sessions” usually take place on a Monday night and allow all of the inline skaters to ride the park without any other sports in the building, the atmosphere at these events is amazing, everyone is cheering each other on to land tricks and try new things. Make sure you keep checking out our events page for our latest Inline Only Session.

Rampworx Skatepark offers Inline Skating coaching on specific days during the week, all equipment is provided and our skilled coaching staff will help you get the confidence to use the skatepark like a pro in no time! It doesn’t matter if you have never skated before or you just want a little help to perfect your technique we are here to help you achieve your goals!

Interestingly, it was a group of ice hockey players back in 1980 from Minnesota who were looking for a way to practice during the summer who invented rollerblading.  Rollerblade Inc was set up by Scott and Brennan Olson who made the evolutionary leap of skates with four polyurethane wheels arranged in a straight line on the bottom of a padded boot. Quite a contrast from the quad boot commonly seen at roller discos!

Their first aggressive inline skate was released in 1988 called the Rollerblade Lightning TRS. However, it wasn’t until the early 1990‘s that Aggressive inline skating finally developed as an organized sport by a number of enthusiastic aggressive inline skaters who formed the Aggressive Skaters Association (ASA) in 1994 to formulate the rules governing competitions and equipment. In 1995, the sport was a feature of the first X games, which included a ‘vert’ (vertical) ramp and street event competitions.

When Disney released a mainstream movie called ‘Brink’ it became apparent that Inline was now a seriously recognised a global sport. Unfortunately, the popularity of Inline suffered a considerable decline in its popularity and as such was removed from the ESPN X-Games in 2005. However, there remains a traditional hardcore group of skaters throughout the World and this is reflected in its inclusion in the Asian X Games, LG Action Sports Competitions, Montpellier Fise, and other large competitions. A great deal of the sports progression has been documented through a range of inline skate videos, such as T-Bone Film’s ‘The Hoax’ and ‘Videogroove’ series which are no longer trading. If you want to see some sick skate videos the best and most obvious place to start is Youtube and Vimeo.  You can also  google some of the finest riders ever, such as Brian Aragon, Montre Livingstone and Nick Lomax.

When it comes to tricks most riders perform on street obstacles, or ramps. ‘Grinds’ and ‘slides’ tend to be the choice of street skaters, whereas ramp skaters utilise ramps to gain ‘good air’ which helps them perform a range of acrobatic tricks. Most skateparks are set up so that riders can do both. Aggressive skates utilise frames and plastic plates on the base of the skate to perform grinds which are usually done on a single or series of rails and ledges although this can be performed on any given obstacle that allows the rider to slide, such as a curbstone, or handrail. A ‘cess’ slide is similar to grinding, but it involves the sliding on the sides of the skate, and can be performed on any surface that will allow for sliding.

People who ride private and community skateparks are known as ‘park skaters’. This differs vastly from street skating due to the nature of the obstacles that skateparks use. This includes utilising coping which is a metal tubing placed at the top of the ramps (similar to a handrail) to allow riders to slide along and perform tricks on top of whilst moving. Skatepark riders often focus on the technical side of aggressive inline allowing them to complete a variety of different skills and tricks. Skaters will connect a variety of different and complicated tricks often referred to as a ‘run’ with a series of tricks connected over a number of different ramps and obstacles being called a ‘line’.

As you will no doubt appreciate, these stunts, tricks, and maneuvers require an advanced level of skating skills to execute them effectively and with some degree of safety. Aggressive inline maneuvers, like all extreme sports can be very dangerous and this is why this skating discipline is labelled with an “X,” or extreme sport classification.  To enable greater strength and control, inline skates were updated in 1988 to include small, relatively soft inline skate wheels that help skaters accelerate and decelerate quicker. This different inline setup also permits better skate control for stunts and maneuvers. Aggressive skates are slower and the less durable soft wheels need more frequent replacement than other inline skate wheels. The boot shell comes in three styles and is made of plastic that can tolerate hard blows, scrapes and bumps to protect feet from the battering they could encounter in the sport with a sole plate attached under the boot as a solid platform for the feet and for use in some of the stunts. The actual frame, which houses the axles for the wheels, has thicker walls and more reinforcements than other inline skates. And there is a gap and grooves in the center of it which are also necessary for many of the aggressive tricks.