Road skating

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Hundreds of skaters skate into Manhattanhenge from Union Square

Road skating is the sport of skating (inline skating or quad roller skating) on roads, much like road cycling. It shares much with inline speed skating.

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Roadskaters often skate in tight packs, drafting each other and sharing the lead, which allows a pack to travel faster than an individual skater. The individual members of a pack use comparatively less energy than the lone skater traveling at the same speed. Even the lead skater in the pack enjoys an advantage from the drafting skaters behind.

While gliding downhill, an inline skater in a tucked position can achieve speeds that exceed the speed of a tucked cyclist. This is due to lower wind resistance. The rolling resistance is similar for a cyclist and a skater — it is only when actively skating (i.e., in the skating stroke) that the skater incurs greater resistance. Skating is roughly 50% slower than cycling on flat ground.

Skaters routinely achieve downhill speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph), similar to cyclists. Compared to cyclists, though, skaters particularly suffer on uphills, when the drafting advantage disappears.

A skating paceline going down hills may easily achieve speeds faster than a cycling paceline of equal length. The reason is that the road skating paceline has a much more efficient draft effect. The draft effect in road skating is superior for three reasons:

  1. each skater can be much closer to the person in front of her, whereas each cyclist is limited by the distance of the wheels;
  2. each skater gaining inertia energy from being in the draft can translate this energy to the person in front of her by maintaining contact (usually by placing a hand on the lower back of the person in front); and
  3. the skater has much less equipment-related aerodynamic drag than the cyclist.

Cross training

Skating (especially road skating) is much more like cycling than running in terms of the muscles employed. Cyclists and skaters commonly participate in each other's sports as cross-training. Runners often switch to road skating due to injuries associated with the impact of running. Many skiers use road skating for off-season and pre-season conditioning as well. In addition, skating is an excellent cross-training activity for a wide range of other sports due to the lateral (side-to-side) motion involved in the skating stride.

Drafting

Road skating in a pack has some common rules that most skaters follow. Such rules include skating in single file except when passing or moving into the back of the pack, rotational "pulling" in the front of the pack to shield the rest of the pack from the wind, and signaling about road conditions, hazards and alike to skaters in the back of the pack. Single-file skating in a pack is mostly dictated by the need to minimize the impact of air resistance on the pack, thus shielding from the wind behind the back of the first person who is "pulling" the pack. "Pulling" is associated with up to 30% higher energy exertion; thus, it is generally accepted that skaters rotate through "pulls," allowing for equal energy exertion through the pack. A skater who has finished "pulling" steps out of the pack and slowly moves into the back of the pack. The skater in front of the pack has a better view of the road ahead and points and calls out road hazards (holes, cracks, water puddles, cars, etc.).

Street skating

Wednesday Night Skate NYC at South Street Seaport Wednesday Night Skate WNS NYC-2022-07-06-IMG 2483 FRD-scaled-2048.jpg
Wednesday Night Skate NYC at South Street Seaport
Street skaters in Paris, France. Rollerbladers pari roller 1.jpg
Street skaters in Paris, France.
Guardes in front of the group Karlsruhe SkateNite 2.jpg
Guardes in front of the group

Street skating is the practice of roller skating (commonly on inline skates or quad skates) in groups on public roads. Street skates can be formal affairs, with prespecified routes, marshals and, at times, police escorts or ad hoc gatherings of like minded individuals.

There are organized street skates in a number of cities around the world. Some of the largest are in Paris (the 'Pari Roller'), [1] [2] [3] Munich and Berlin. London [4] also has an active street skating scene. LondonSkate [5] runs free events on Wednesday evenings; and a smaller scene can be found in Nottingham.

Such events may involve several hundred participants, so to minimize disruption to other road users the events are usually operated in coordination with the police and other relevant local authorities, such as bus operators. Therefore, the route must be decided in advance. Volunteer marshals help to control traffic at busy junctions. Their goals are to minimize disruption to all road users and to ensure the safety of the skaters.

These events are usually free to enter. Normally, the only requirement is that each individual skater can keep pace with the rest of the group and can turn and stop safely. Participants that don't meet these requirements are usually asked to leave the skate and encouraged to practice their skating skills for a few days and return to the next street skate event.

Wednesday Night Skate NYC

Wednesday Night Skate NYC is also known as WNS NYC. It’s one of several well-established groups in the city. WNS is run by volunteers since the late 1990s. Every Wednesday from April to October, weather permitting, organizers show up wearing yellow-green vests at the south-side steps of Union Square around 7:45pm. By then a sizable crowd of skaters have already gathered at the steps. At 8pm an organizer gives a brief safety speech and introduces the route planner of the week, the leader of the day, and the sweeper. The leader signals followers to take breaks at pre-designated stops along the route, so that the rest of the group may catch up, with the sweeper being the last person to arrive at each stop. The route circles back to Union Square, where a day’s skating concludes. On average a trip takes 2 hours and covers 12 miles. [6] [7]

Friday Night Skate

A (often abbreviated to FNS) is a group skate occurring on Friday nights, a common night for a street skate in many cities throughout the world. [8] [9] In Vienna (since at least 2011) and Graz (Austria) once in a year – around resp. on Carfree Day, 22 September – one of the 20–25 km long tours runs for a small part on an urban highway. FNS run there weekly, if streets are dry, since 1999 in Vienna as a "political demonstration" by activists of the Green Party, starting at 21:00 partially in dark night and since 2000 in Graz as a sporting event, that has to pay fees to the city and accompanying police, starting at 19:30, reaching dawn only in late August. [10] [11]

Full Moon Skate

A generic name for an event which typically consists of a group of individuals participating in road skating during a night when the moon is in its full phase.

See also

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Speed skating Competitive form of ice skating

Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".

Inline skates Type of roller skate

Inline skates are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates typically have two to five wheels arranged in a single line. Some, especially those for recreation, have a rubber "stop" or "brake" block attached to the rear of one or occasionally both of the skates so that the skater can slow down or stop by leaning back on the foot with the brake skate. Invention of the inline skate preceded the quad skate.

Critical Mass (cycling) Group cycling advocating cycling friendly policy

Critical Mass is a form of direct action in which people meet at a set location and time and travel as a group through their neighbourhoods on bikes. The idea is for people to group together to make it safe for each other to ride bicycles through their streets, based on the old adage: there's safety in numbers.

Roller skating Sport, activity, or form of transportation

Roller skating is traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sidewalks, and bike paths.

Inline speed skating Sport discipline

Inline speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates. The sport may also be called inline racing by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice speed skating that many competitors are known to switch between inline and ice speed skating according to the season.

Derny

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Inline skating Sport discipline

Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a metal or plastic frame on the underside of a boot. The in-line design allows for greater speed and maneuverability than traditional roller skates. Following this basic design principle, inline skates can be modified to varying degrees to accommodate niche disciplines.

Peloton Main group of bicycle riders

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Drafting (aerodynamics) Technique where two moving objects are caused to align in a close group reducing the overall drag

Drafting or slipstreaming is an aerodynamic technique where two vehicles or other moving objects are caused to align in a close group, reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream. Especially when high speeds are involved, as in motor racing and cycling, drafting can significantly reduce the paceline's average energy expenditure required to maintain a certain speed and can also slightly reduce the energy expenditure of the lead vehicle or object.

Birdy (bicycle)

The Birdy is a folding bicycle designed by Riese und Müller in Germany and produced by Pacific Cycles in Taiwan. As of 2010 over 100,000 had been sold. Three distinct models have been marketed, in addition to some specialist variations, with the third (Mk3) introduced in July 2015.

Roller in-line hockey Sport discipline

Roller inline hockey, or inline hockey is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. The sport is a very fast-paced and free-flowing game and is considered a contact sport, but body checking is prohibited. There are five players including the goalkeeper from each team on the rink at a time, while teams normally consist of 16 players. There are professional leagues, one of which is the National Roller Hockey League (NRHL). While it is not a contact sport, there are exceptions, i.e. the NRHL involves fighting.

Road bicycle racing Bicycle racing sport

Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common competition formats are mass start events, where riders start simultaneously and race to a set finish point; and time trials, where individual riders or teams race a course alone against the clock. Stage races or "tours" take multiple days, and consist of several mass-start or time-trial stages ridden consecutively.

Team time trial Bicycle racing event

A team time trial (TTT) is a road-based bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock.

Glossary of cycling Bicycling terminology guide

This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport.

Bicycle rollers

Bicycle rollers are a type of bicycle trainer that make it possible to ride a bicycle indoors without moving forward. However, unlike other types of bicycle trainers, rollers do not attach to the bicycle frame, and the rider must maintain balance on the rollers while training. Bicycle rollers normally consist of three cylinders, drums, or "rollers", on top of which the bicycle rides. A belt connects the middle roller to the front roller, causing the front wheel of the bicycle to spin when the bicycle is pedaled. The spacing of bicycle rollers can usually be adjusted to match the bicycle's wheelbase. Generally, the front roller is adjusted to be slightly ahead of the hub of the front wheel.

Roller sports are sports that use human powered vehicles which use rolling either by gravity or various pushing techniques. Typically ball bearings and polyurethane wheels are used for momentum and traction respectively, and attached to devices or vehicles that the roller puts his weight on. The international governing body is World Skate.

Sport in Colombia

Sports in Colombia includes professional sports leagues, as well as amateur leagues for numerous sports. Football, cycling, and roller skating are the most popular sports in Colombia. The Government of Colombia sponsors numerous individuals and teams nationally and internationally through the Ministry of Culture to enable sportspeople to represent Colombia in competition. The achievements of professional sportspeople are a source of national pride for Colombians.

The Israel Roller Hockey League is the biggest Roller Hockey Clubs Championship in Israel.

World Skate Roller sports governing body

World Skate is the only governing body in the world for all sports performed on skating wheels. The organisation is the successor of the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) founded on the 21 of April 1924.

References

  1. "Megacities" by Andrew Marr, BBC, June 2, 2011
  2. The night of a thousand wheels by Matthew Davis, BBC News , 20 July 2002
  3. Left Bank skating, in-line and en masse by Charles Ball, The Boston Globe , 18 February 2007
  4. The London Friday Night Skate and Sunday Stroll The LFNS Marshals Association, 1 March 2009
  5. "Essential Info" LondonSkate, June 2011
  6. Clubs and Leagues: Group Skates, New York City Inline Skating Guide, retrieved July 9th, 2022
  7. NYC Skating Info Links, Empire Skate Club of New York, retrieved July 9th, 2022
  8. Put on your dancing skates by Syrie Johnson, Evening Standard , 27 March 2001
  9. "All you need to know about: In-line skating" by Sam Murphy, The Guardian , 3 March 2007
  10. http://www.vienna.at/friday-night-skating-ueber-die-nordbruecke/3362036 Friday Night Skating über die Nordbrücke, 19 Sept 2012, retrieved 25 Sept 2015. (German)
  11. http://www.cityskating.at CitySkating Graz 2015, 180!!! CityskaterInnen, 22 Sept 2015, retrieved 24 Sept 2015. (German)