Inline Skating

The Mountain Dew Xtreme Tour is an internationally successful extreme sport extravaganza, featuring the world's top adrenaline athletes. On Saturday, May 5 the Mountain Dew Xtreme Tour partnered with the Hindustan Times to bring international level adrenaline sports to Great India Place Mall, in Noida.

This event featured top extreme sports athletes from BMX, aggressive inline skating and free style motocross (FMX). Famous inline skaters like Eito Yasutoko (three time world champion and ranked first currently), Takeshi Yasutoko, Sandro Dias, Elliot Sloan, and FMX pros Tommy Glowers, Mike Mason, and Dustin Nowak participated in the event, because they want extreme sports activities to grow in Delhi.

See Eito Yasutoko in action, and then find a lot of exciting promotional materials and action photos on the Mountain Dew India Facebook page.

Three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic Silver Medalist, Elvis Stojko, will take you on an exciting journey of love, laughter, folklore, and conflict while showcasing the artistry and athleticism of skating, dancing, and much more. This one-of-a-kind theatrical event is called Land of the Eternals, and it offers famous dancers and ice figure skaters an opportunity to bring their performances to life on inline Pic Skates.

Fiona Zaldua and Dimitry Zukhanov, the exciting British adagio team will also be performing in Land of the Eternals, alongside Dan Hollander of the United States, Roselle Doyle and many more. With such an exciting cast, this Beau Ideal Production promises to deliver a blend of unique and creative storytelling, diverse music and original choreography. Roselle Doyle's newly formed production company is producing this live stage show in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on September 14th and 15th.

Go to the online box office for tickets, performance times and other information.

Baby bootcamp is still my nick name for drills and fitness skating activities for young skaters. And this summer drop-in sk8 camps are popping up in many rinks in Southeastern Michigan. Combining fitness with training drills is growing in popularity among many skating coaches... and we love it. But, I can't help but wonder what my skaters - and skaters from other rinks and skating disciplines - tell their friends about this and other roller sports training adventures.

Lessons, workshops, camps, teams, clubs and classes are among your choices of ways to learn to inline skate or advance your skating skills in any discipline. Check out some learn-to-skate experiences and tips from other skaters in the sport, and you canshare your own learn-to-skate adventures and tips, too.

Kaylee (age 13 and shown with partner Devin), Annabel (age 10) and twins Pela and Paulina (age 9) are human hotcakes... or that's what our club members call them. They are pairs girls or potential ones. Very petite, but very strong - and perfect for a young man to lift, flip and throw - or something resembling throwing - in freestyle pairs on inline or roller skates. These girls are working hard to become hotcakes.

Inline or roller skating as pairs, on teams or in any skating discipline is a good workout for anyone. But, since any sport-specific skating requires some pre-existing strength, endurance and flexibility, you will need to prepare your body to become a good skater. Skating puts enormous demands on your body and all skating disciplines require endurance, so cardio exercise is needed for stamina. You should not forget to stretch all of your muscles before and after each skating session, so muscles won't get too tight, to increase your range of motion and to prevent any unnecessary muscle damage, too.

Use these balance training exercises to develop more stability for skating. And then take a look at these strength, endurance and flexibility videos to put power and range of motion behind your own balance skills. You may not want to become a roller sports hotcake, but you will help your own roller sports goals.

In addition to North American and International marathon events, there are fundraising races, festivals and local marathons that raise awareness and money for a lot of good causes. Many skaters use these activities and other competitive speed events as the foundation for vacation trips, if the destination is a good one.

Inline skating marathon events are taking place all over the world, so there's probably one taking place near you. Marathons are a wonderful way for you to improve your skating skills, set fitness goals and take on an exciting inline skating challenge. You don't have to be a champion speed skater to participate in an inline skating marathon. The majority of marathon skaters are recreational inline skaters, and many marathons have alternatave routes or distances to accomodate non-competitive skaters, non-pro level skaters. After all, there are a whole lot of people who will consider skating for 26 miles before they will run run that far.

Find a Marathon Near You:

• North American Inline Skating Marathons
• World Inline Skating Marathons and Events
• Inline Skating Charity Events and Fundraisers

Kayla is keeping me on my toes. And keeping her mom and the primary care physician busy, too. We are all working to help keep Kayla skating through some wrist problems and some unidentified ankle pain. The skating is important to us all, but the long-term effects on her overall fitness are the focus. She loves to skate, so we have to make sure that she does not compound these injuries by continuing to skate without resolving them.

The first thing we had to do was to carefully inspect three pairs of sport-specific skates, because Kayla is a roller figure and freestyle skater, and also skates junior roller derby with the Atomic Cupcakes. After getting some professional boot help and resolving some fitting and support issues, we are now carefully following her doctor's directions for scheduled skating.

Coaches and instructors have a responsibility to help skaters figure out when it is not a good time to skate - as well as teaching good skating techniques when they are able to train.

Roller Sport South Africa(RSSA) is hosting the 2012 South African Open Inline Speed Skating Championship at Sun City, North West from March 30 through April 1, 2012.

RSSA expects more than 200 South African skaters from 7 different Provinces to participate in the Senior, Junior, Masters and other age group categories of this championship.  Skaters from 20 clubs will participate in their first championship in the Beginner section.

In addition to RSSA athletes, skaters from Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Pakistan and the USA have confirmed their participation.  These international skaters include world championship medalists, world record holders and European champions.

Skaters ranging from 10 year old youth to 35 year old Masters and older will participate in the championship and will skate distances from 200m to 42 km in events including:

• 400m road circuit racing

• 30 and 31 March - Full days of competition from 09h00 - 12h00 and 14h00 - 18h00

• 1 April - Half day racing marathon and long distance races from 08h00 - 11h00

The championship will take place on the parking area of Sun City.  Spectators are welcome to come and watch the entire event free of charge. For more information visit the RSSA website.

It is suddenly  summer, or so it seems. So much for getting ready to skate in better weather.

If your skating gear is in order, all you need is a few new places to roll to get the season off to a good start - and clean, safe rails-to-trails skating paths are always easy to find. Most have smooth asphalt or concrete surfaces, and if they were level enough for a railroad train in another life, they will be level enough for any inline skater today.

The force behind the development of all these wonderful trails is the non-profit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The Conservancy publishes a magazine, newsletter, and a directory of known rail trails in the US, entitled 1000 Great Rail Trails.

The inline skating tour guides at Zephyr Adventures have also selected their version of the World's Top 10 Inline Skating Trails, and K2 Skates has a nice collection of skating trails.

So, let the trail skating begin, if it hasn't already!

The World Inline Figure Skating Association (WIFSA) has announced their second World Open competitive event for inline figure skaters only. The 2012 WIFSA World Inline Figure Skating and Dance Open will take place on Friday June 29th, Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st 2012 at the Gymnasium de la Plaine 75015 in Paris, France.

WIFSA was formed in January of 2010 at a meeting of coaches, skaters and figure skating club officials at the 5th Paris International Open of Inline Figure Skating. The president of this organization is Jean-Pierre Faugere who is also the founder of G.R.I.P., Glace et Roller Inline de Paris. All WIFSA members are dedicated to promoting inline figure skating and providing training, test centers and competitive events for inline figure skating athletes.

• WIFSA provides the rules and standards that are used to conduct competitions.
• They provide judges and also sanction inline figure skating events.
• Their rules are similar to those established by the ISU and ice figure skating in the Olympics.
• Founding members represent France, Spain, Cypress, Romania, and the United States.
• Clubs and individuals are invited to join.

There is information about the World Open event, WIFSA membership information and more on the official World Inline Figure Skating Association site.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would roller skate in the basement whenever there was not enough money to go to the rink and weather didn't allow sidewalk skating. Our parents would chuckle, but skating in or close to home was a kids playtime activity in their eyes.

Now, if you want a fun activity for the whole family that you can do at or very close to your own home and that won't cost you anything - or at least not very much - take up home roller skating. To get your whole family involved in roller skating, all you need are some roller skates for each family member, and enough space to skate.

Just brush up on safety tips for kids to make sure that children do not skate out in the street without your supervision or participation, that they understand and know how to take the necessary safety precautions to avoid traffic, and that they maneuver well enough to prevent them from hitting or running into other obstacles or people indoors or outside.