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39 responses total.

I guess I have a question, why is rollerblading legal, and skateboarding
illegal?  I must say I have been close to being run over far more often
by rollerbladers than skateboarders.

Bicycles are illegal on the sidewalk in downtown Houghton, probably to
prevent pedestrians from being run over by bicyclists doing 30+ mph down
the steep hills here. ;)  They make up for it with a nice bike path that
runs behind downtown, by the canal. 

Yeah, it's unfortunate that personal forms of transportation that lack
transmissions and good brakes, like blades or boards, don't work well 
in hilly environs.

Uhh...I don't think either rollerblading or skateboarding are illegal.
There are some small areas where one or the other are not permitted. As
I recall, general both are not permitted. Beyond that, I have observed
that skateboarders do things on their board that are much more likely to
cause injury to others than rollerbladers do on their blades - or perhaps
that is how it has worked out.

re # 4 OTH Skateboarders tend to stay out of peoples way doing there
>tricks in parking lots or late night on ramps and steps when people
>aren't using them, rollerbladers OTH I have seen push through *crowds*
>of people.  Skateboarding as far as I know  is illegal at least in all
of dowtown A2 if not all of the city limits.  Rollerblading is not 
illegal in downtown as far as I know.

Before skateboarding was illegal in downtown AA, skateboarders commonly
sped through crowds of people, and did tricks around parks and steps 
where non-skateboarders hung out, or would have had there not been lots
of skateboarders flying through the air.  I found skateboarders more
threatening than rollerbladers, safety-wise, as well as more of a
sound nuisance in otherwise peaceful parks.

Wow, this item took off askew pretty fast.  I suspect that as far as
rollerblades vs. skateboards goes, there are arguments on each side. 
Rollerblades are quiter and their users tend to be less into wild stunts,
but you can step off your skateboard and walk in a crowd.  Rollerbladers
rollerblade everywhere.

Getting back to the original topic, yes, I rollerblade.  I'm not terribly good
at it, but I am getting some confidence.  It's cool (you get a nice breeze),
and graceful (no hunching over a bicycle), and a reasonable amount of
exercise.

The only really good places I know are Gallup Park, with it's nice long paved
path along the river, and Hudson Mill MetroPark.  Hudson Mills has a very nice
paved loop trail, almost 3 miles long, with only mild hills.  But it is far
from town and costs an entry fee.

My dog pulls me on my rollerblades...

Well, there's all those nicely repaved sections of Central and North
Campuses... :)  I rollerblade, and am OK at it.  I do it mostly for
transportation, because it's much faster than walking.  (As to the nusience
thing, there's a group of middle/high schoolers who come onto campus and do
tricks on the stairs, even between classes when you can barely walk, it's so
crowded.  I can see why people outlaw these things.  Still, if UM was to
outlaw rollerblades, there would be quite an uproar.  Maybe just outlaw
tricks?)

(As I understand it, skateboards were made illegal because of the damage
they were doing to cars parked in public lots.)
 
I'd love to try rollerblading but have enough other things to keep me busy.
I just wait till the lakes and Huron river freeze over and strap on my ice
skates ;)

The dog pulling thing looks scarey to me.  I saw a young woman recently being
pulled by a very enthusiastic dog.  She yelled "stop! stop!" but the dog
hadn't learned that trick and kept barrelling along.  I suppose it is OK if
you are willing to let go the leash (in which case you have to figure out how
to get the dog back) or if you are really good at braking.

Rollerblading at NMU was an experience due to the hills.  My favorite thing to
do was to watch freshmen take their rollerblades up-campus to skate down Kill
Hill (the hill you take from the dorms to the classrooms...great for
sledding).  By time they got to the base, they were screaming and flapping
their arms.  It was dangerous because Circle Drive (a main commuter street)
went through there, and the rollerbladers couldn't stop before the crosswalk.
After one girl stopped herself by going headlong into Payne Hall and another
young man almost got hit with a car, the campus Public Safety outlawed
rollerblading down Kill Hill.  You'd get a speeding ticket (yes...that's how
fast you could get up to).  Just shows how stupid people can be when they're
bored.  Rollerblading makes excellent transportaion, though, since I can't
ride my bike anywhere downtown.

Back to Dan's comment about how upset people would be if they outlawed
rollerblading on the UofM campus...  Maybe they could just say that it's
illegal for your blades to leave the sidewalk?  I mean both at once...  =)
<birdy tries to picture rollerblading without pushing off and laughs>

I've been meaning to try roller blading for a long time, but have never quite
pushed myself to spend the money.  One of these days...

I rollerblad all the time, mostly to play hockey...A good Place though to just
skate is Kent Lake recreational area...They have a trail that goes around the
entire lake

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Kent Lake is SE of Brighton - near I96. About 1/2 hour from AA.

I thought it was cheaper than $25 a weekend to rent skates.  The number that
sticks in my head is $14.

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I can get specific directions to you if you are interested..I  fished in a
tournament there about a month ago.  I rode with someone so I wasn't comletely
aware of the path we took, but I can ind out...

BTW, that should be "in-line skating" as "Rollerblades" is a brand name.  I
have to keep it in mind when I do the "Ann Arbor News" Saturday Freebies (i.e.
list them as "in-line skates," not "Rollerblades.")

Kent Lake is in Kensington Metropark, at the Kent Lake Road exit to I-96, the
second exit east from 23.  You can also get into the park from Kensington Road
and Milford Rd.  There are shorefishing piers, boat rentals, launching ramps,
cross country ski trails, nature trails, bike rentals, and a golf course. 
I sail there sometimes, and it is large enough that you are not crowded too
badly by others.  
For the truly bold, just up milford Rd is Mill Pond, the headwaters of the
Huron River.  If you start there, or in Kent Lake, you can canoe all the way
down to Ann Arbor, and beyond to Lake Erie.  Hard to roller blade that far
though.  (Just to get this paragraph back on topic).  

I suppose I could rent them, but if I'm going to get good at I think I'd need
to do it more than I could just renting them.

So why are rollerblades so expensive to rent?  A set of rollerblades 
costs maybe 1% of what a car costs, but rents for 25-50% of what a car
rents for.

  It's probably because there's a small market for the rentals; many
car rental facilities rent hundreds of cars at a time.  There are also
certain costs of doing business - employees cost about the same whether
they're renting cars or skates.  There might also be some liability
insurance built in there, too, though I imagine they make you sign away
your first-born child before you get the skates!  :-)

But you can get some incredible skates.  :)  My roommate last year rented
brand new $400 skates for like $12 for the weekend.  They were pretty cool
(although not much better than my girlfriends $200 skates, if any.  Go figure.
)

Well, if you know you want to get into it, obviously buying skates is the
best deal.  If you just want to try it first, renting is a good deal.  If
you have some kind of previous ice-skating/skiing experience and you aren't
a total klutz you can get by OK on your first try and have a fair amount
of fun.  (Just stay away from hills.)

I've hit speeds on my bike that could probably have netted me a speeding
ticket, though I doubt a police officer would bother unless I did
something blatent, like pass a cruiser. ;)
The street that goes down from the freshman parking lot to the back of
Wadsworth Hall here at MTU is steep enough that I can top 30 just coasting
down it.  The speed I hit is kinda limited by a sharp switchback halfway
down -- I'm afraid of wiping out into the guardrail.

janc: what do you consider mild hills?  It's amazing how a slight incline or
decline can get your momentum going.
as for renting: I know ind the DC area you can rent balades by the hour (which
is good for first timers) and then 1/2 day and full day. I rented for almost
3 yr before I bought (but not that often).
In DC, skateboarders are a real problem and noisy! But then bladers are so
plenttiful that they are becoming a problem too!

If there is a "Play it again Sports" in your area I recommend renting skates
from them...I personally havent but I have friends who did and found it was
the perfect evolution for them..they first got to see if they liked it first
before going and dumping $100.00+ on a pair of blades....

And if you have a "Play it Again Sports" in your area, you don't need to drop
$100+ on good skates, because you can get them used for much cheeper. :)

Yeah and then spend $40 to replace the bearings that were shot when the old
owner sold them, oh yeah and then maybe the chassis breaks on you in the
middle of a little skating you are doing...
Sorry friend of mine went through that...
just had to vent...

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There's a Play It Again Sports in the Westgate (Kroger) shopping center at
Jackson and Stadium/Maple.  When I rented my skates there, they had a very
good selection of used skates.  The best buy on skates that I found then
(mid-july) was at Sun and Sports (or something like that) down the street on
Stadium by the Dairy Queen.  

RE #33 I believe that store in question (near the Dairy Queen) is called Sun
& Snow.

I got used skates (Roller blades, none the less) at the PIAS in westgate, and
have had no problem with them since.  I did replace the berings, but it didn't
cost me a red cent, because my dad's company makes them... :)

Yo!  I need some bearings too!  ;-)

(actually, they recently instituted a "one set per person" imit because people
were taking so many :)  Of course, I laready had three... :)

This item is now linked to the Ing conference.

Time to resurect this item...   

As a kid, I used to love to rollerskate and was fairly good at it. Though I
never could ice skate at all... Something about having to balance on a blade
never seemed to work, as my ankles always wobbled and the skates themselves
always hurt my feet [even with trying various styles/brands of ice skates
ranging from standard figure skates to hockey skates.

A number of years ago, I remember seeing a bunch of Ann Arbor folks
rollerskating around town and that looked like such fun [as well as great
exercise]!  I wanted to get some rollerskates back then but was too busy
working 2 jobs, so I didn't invest.  Now rollerblades are the thing... But
to me, rollerblades look too much like ice-skates [with the exception of the
'boot' part looking sturdier than the boot on ice skates].  

So, I guess I want to ask, for those of you that HAVE bladed AND skated, is
there any hope whatsoever of someone that can't ice-skate to be able to
rollerblade?  Now that its spring [at least for this weekend its nice], I want
to find some new ways of exercising [to go along with my swimming and
walking].  Right now, I'm leaning more towards buying roller skates instead
of the blades, though I rarely see anyone rollerskating any more. To me, I
like the idea of having more stability under my feet-of having 4 wheels in
the side/side/front/back format than all in a row!  I've been scoping out
prices to some extent. Though I'm planning on going to a local rollerskating
rink and trying a few kinds, first, before deciding for sure that this is what
I want to do!

Oh, and another reason why I want more 'stability' under my feet is the fact
that here in my part of NC, its very hilly-so I need more stability [as well
as the fact that I'm no longer a thin and in-shape sort of person that I was
as a kid!!]

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