Vice - Who Killed Rollerblading?
Just finished watching this doc. I’m new to rollerblading and was originally sucked in through watching wizard skating. I come from skateboarding so this video was interesting. Big Brother issues were before my time but I certainly remember the Tony Hawk games having the dorky rollerblading NPCs. I definitely remember the fruit booter term along with the other jokes about rollerblading being gay. I knew skateboarding had a huge influence on popular culture, but I didn’t know how huge. I thought it was just other skateboarders that chose to hate on rollerbladers, I didn’t know they convinced the public.
I agreed with the conclusion, skateboarding blew up and became pretty corporate. It doesn’t usually matter if you see another skateboarder on the street, we just keep going. But since starting inline / rollerblading, I’ve had people stop and talk to me and vice versa because we share the same activity. Rollerblading feels more authentic (not sure if this is the right word) culturally in comparison to skateboarding right now in a weird way. I can kind of compare it to fixed gear riders, it still seems like the community is tight knit and no one is too big to talk to.
Like I said, I’m new to the sport so I’d appreciate insight from others about this. Do y’all agree with the doc? Did Vice talk to the right people? Or is there a ton of context missing here?