What the hell?

Take a boot, bolt a row of wheels in a straight line onto the bottom and you’re kind of there. Inline skating was the subject of much sneering and many jokes virtually from its inception, and the participants of the sport were the outcasts of the action sport world.

They might have been faster and more manoeuvrable than their roller-skate cousins, but they just never looked cool really. And they were also never far away from a brutal slam.

Initially seen as the main rival to skateboarding’s dominance of street sports, inline skating was a big enough phenomenon to be included in the inaugural X Games in 1995.

“The line between action sport and synchronized swimming has never been more blurred…”

By 1998 the X Games even had a Vert Triples inline event – 3 inline skaters working together in a vert ramp to, well, who knows?

The line between action sport and synchronized swimming has never been more blurred than it was that summer…

Did anyone actually do it?

Fabiola da Silva was regarded by many as inline’s greatest participant. Dominating the women’s events for years, da Silva eventually changed the face of the sport when the “Fabiola Rule” was created, permitting women to compete in formerly all-male events.

Why it deserved to die…

Was it the constant mocking of the sport and those that did it, or the fact that inline skating lead to more ball-to-rail incidents than virtually any other activity? Take your pick.

With few exceptions, inline skating in now largely the preserve of a handful of Venice Beach fitness freaks.