Rollerblading

Rollerblading started more than 250 years ago in Belgium. A man named Merlin took a pair of shoes and attached wheels to them. The one thing he forgot to do was to create a brake system. The story goes that the first time he tried to use these skates he flew out of control and slammed into a very expensive mirror severly injuring himself.

In 1840 rollerskating became a big hit in Germany. They even had bars where young girls on rollerskates served drinks to customers. By the early 1900's rollerskating made its way to the United States and roller rinks started popping up all over the country. By this time a braking system had been developed in the front and usually the skate had 4-6 wheels.

In the 1980's two brothers from Minnesota started redesigning the skate so they could use it to practice hockey in the off season. They added a break on the back and set the wheels inline so that it felt more like skating on ice rather than wheels on pavement. This is how modern day rollerblades came to be.

Inline skaters are seen at many skateparks today that are shared between BMX bikers, skateboarders, and rollerbladers. There are many different types of tricks for skateboarding that have been adopted for rollerblades, such as the grind and flips.