Inline Skate Journal

Roller Derby Maven, Ann Calvello Dies

2006-03-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

Ann Calvello, a spirited and wild personality of roller derby whose outrageously dyed hair and brawling competitive style made her a Bay Area icon, died Tuesday in a Peninsula hospital after a brief battle with cancer. She was 76.
On February 27, 2006, Calvello was featured in an episode of the reality television show Rollergirls that was broadcast on the A&E Network. In the episode, filmed in 2005, members of the Texas Roller Derby league travel to California in search of their hero.
Calvello last resided in San Bruno, California with her cats. She never officially retired from roller derby, but had not competed since 2000. In early 2006, she was diagnosed with liver cancer, and passed away soon after.
More on Ann
Check out Roller Derby in Portland With the Rose City Rollers

Olympic Speed Skating

2006-02-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

Who is J.R. Celski? - The story, by now, is familiar to millions: A young kid from Federal Way, Washington a natural on inline skates, switches to the ice, moves away from home to train like a fiend, wins short-track speedskating medals at the Winter Olympics. Except in this version, the central character isn't named Apolo Anton Ohno. He's J.R. Celski, the next speed demon from Federal Way likely to take the winter-sports world by storm.

How Many Olympic SpeedSkaters Started On Inlines or Roller Skates?

2006-01-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Did you know, Efforts, so far, to make inline skating an Olympic sport have failed, forcing inline skaters to switch to ice skating to fulfill their Olympic dreams. KC Boutiette made three Olympic teams, and Derek Parra won the gold medal in the 1,500 and the silver in the 5,000 at the 2002 Games. Seven inline skaters are on the 18 member US long track team alone.

Roller Rapper Video - at #1

2005-12-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

The Roller RapperPlease check out the video “The Roller Rapper" which is number one on MTV's ifilm.com in the music video rock and pop section. The roller rapper is an indie artist that is planning to skate across rt66 in the spring. Somehow it’s a miracle that his music video is in the number one spot ahead of established artists such as Jessica Simpson and Green Day without the promotion and backing of the major record companies The amazing thing is that the video is number one without sex, drugs or violence.This is a great promotion for skating and we need everyone to give us support. Please go to rollerrapper.com which links to video at ifilm.com to see the video. The video is ranked by viewership so every time the video is watched it will stay at the top.

Sparks of Passion

2005-12-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

Nov 28 2005
Rhythm, passion and speed take shape in the icon of the Torino 2006 Olympic Ceremonies.It will be the Sparks of Passion – Scintille di Passione – the icons symbolising the Olympic Ceremonies, which, on February 10, will be lighting the passion of the Torino 2006 XX Olympic Winter Games making over 2 billion hearts beat as one.
Read More here

2005-08-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Woody and Gen during Competition

RollBounce Skate Off - Seattle

2005-08-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all the teams that braved the skate floor and showed off their stuff at the RollBounce Skate off at the Skate King. It was a fun event with an exhibition by the Rat City Rollers, they look like nice girls! Teams from Portland and Seattle area, competed to join other skaters from across the region in the regional event held in LA August 18, 2005.
Joining them from Seattle are the winners, Genny, Moe and Woody, the awesome skate dancers that always drops my jaw at the strength and skill of their tricks. I am always inspired by them!

2005-07-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Crazy Legs

Venice Beach Skate Dancing

2005-07-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

A whirlwind trip on skates, took us to Venice Beach early Friday morning where we took the taxi to our hotel arriving well before check in. Not wanting to miss a moment, we took turns changing in the lobby bathroom and sorting through our luggage in the hotel lobby to the stares of the other curious guests.
Maria, Jessica and I, stuffed our luggage in a bag check room and rolled out of Marina Del Ray around 10:00am for our skate down to Venice Beach. The weather was terrific, the ocean was beautiful, you couldn't ask for a better place to skate.

2005 Rose Festival

2005-06-15T16:26:00.001-07:00

What a great morning, thank you to all the volunteers that skated in the Grand Floral Parade. Here's to another great "DRY" 2006!

2005-06-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Group With Larry The Light Bulb

2005-06-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

Rock And Roll!

Tuesday Night Skate May 24

2005-06-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a pain, all the construction on Moody directly on OUR skate route.

It was a great night, and our first WARM night of the season. Lots of water, rocks and obstacles saw us through our journey. We had to detour just after the railroad tracks on Moody, several blocks of the pavement had been torn up and replaced with nice pointing gravel.

We headed UP the hill to Macadam, only to find spider web seems, asphalt pits, and more rocks all the way up the road. It was a challenge, but once on top smooth skating on down to the Sellwood.

We crossed the Sellwood, stopped for water at the old church and then headed down the corridor to OMSI. The head winds were pretty intense at times, but we drafted one another as much as possible and just kept putting one skate out to the side and strided along.

Beautiful night, lousy pavement

Rollerblading vs. Inline Skating What’s The Difference?

2005-05-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

First of all, everyone knows what Rollerblades® are, right? A pair of skates that all wheels are in a straight line, vs. side by side, like roller skates. Well that description is partially true, except for the fact that there are several manufacturers of skates with the wheels that are arranged in a straight line that aren’t called Rollerblades®.

That’s right; many of us are using the term Rollerblade incorrectly. Rollerblade® is a Trademark name for a company that manufactures inline skates. Inline skate is the correct term for any skate where the wheels are arranged in a straight line. So Rollerblade®, K2, Bauer, Tecnica, Salomon, UltraWheels, etc are some of the companies that produce inline skates.

Now when you strap the skates on, and go skating are you Rollerblading®? or Inline Skating……… well again Rollerblading® is an incorrect usage of a name, it's not a verb, so you can’t use the term Rollerblading® to describe what you are doing. The correct term is inline skating, I may be wearing Rollerblades®, but my action is inline skating.

So what is the Big deal about saying it wrong?
In order to protect a trademark, a company is required by the
U.S. Patent Office to make a significant effort to find instances of misuse of the terms associated with the company’s name, such as "Rollerblade" and "Rollerblading". The company is then required to contact the offender an advise them of the incorrect usage. If a company permits their name to be used in common language they could loose their trademark. Companies that have fallen to that fate include windsurfer, aspirin, escalator, cellophane and yo-yo. Xerox and Kleenex are other examples of companies that have to actively protect their trademark.

Celebrities that Skate

2005-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

I was cruising the net, and came across a story of Natasha Henstridge, who like to skitch while skating. It made me wonder what other celebrities skate?? I started to compile a mental list, and my mind went blank..Help me out

Tony Danza (He should wear a helmet!)
Michelle Kwan, (she mentioned it in her Parade Magazine interview as her secret passion.)
Natasha Henstridge (As mentioned above)
Heather Mills (Paul McCartney's wife,She has special prostheses fitted for her inline skates and her ski boots
Tipper Gore (Al's Wife, maybe if he would have been president we would all be skating?

2005-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

2004 Portland Skaters

Grand Floral Parade 2004

2005-05-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

Every year Portland area skaters gather together to do our duty in community service by joining SOLV and the Rose Festival Association to help distribute the bags to help parade goers in keeping the streets clean.

A little history on the event and why it is such a big deal for Portland Skaters; the law used to state that we were not allowed to skate on the streets in downtown Portland. As a way of getting around the law, at least once a year,we decided to volunteer for the parade duty so we could skate the parade route.NO traffic, streets closed and a captive audience of people waiting for the parade to start.

We were breaking the law, and permission to do it! Now this was too cool, people loved us, the police escorted us, and we had the city streets for 4 miles to ourselves!

Now the law has changed, but we would like to think that part of the reason is our work in volunteering for the City helped to change their mind about inline skaters. Every years since 2000, Portland Skaters have joined forces to skate the city streets. Yes this is our 5 year anniversary of the event!

Here are photos from the

2004 parade I hope that you will join us to make this our largest turn out of skaters on the streets. And enjoy the block party event that takes place before the parade begins. So volunteer today to skate the 2005 Grand Floral Parade email me !

Parade volunteer information is available here, get directions, times, and details on how you can have fun too!

2005-05-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Roll Bounce

Roll Bounce, Jam Skate In at the Theatre

2005-05-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

A movie about skating, finally!

Roll Bounce In the late ‘70s when roller skating was a way of life, X (Bow Wow) and his pals ruled supreme. But when the doors of their local skating rink close, it marks the end of an era and the beginning of another that sees the boys venture into foreign territory - uptown’s Sweetwater Roller Rink, complete with its over-the-top skaters and beautiful girls. Through his preparation for the showdown of the season - the Roller Jam skate off with the Sweetwater crew - X manages to find himself and also help his dad (Chi McBride) get back on track.

Coming this Summer
Now how cool is this? I am excited to go to a theatre and watch a movie about jam skating. I think we should all plan to skate to the theatre and have a pre and post jam skate in the parking lot so people can experience the unique sport and art of skate dancing. Let me know what you think? Anyone interested in attending this event? Now the ultimate question, can Lil' Bow Wow skate??

2005-05-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

Volunteers for Rose Parades & Updates

2005-05-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Skaters,

I have been getting the new look finalized for the 2005 PortlandSkate.com web site. Stop by and take a look around. Volunteers Needed For Rose Parades

Please let me know if you are interested in joining us in skating the Grand Floral Parade route, and volunteering some time back to the city we love to skate in by helping out SOLV. It would be great if a few of you that have volunteered in the past, would post a note to here or to PISA and tell a little about your experience so new comers that may be hesitant can hear how fun it is!

2005 Volunteers:REPLY TO nancyh@hevanet.com.

Night Skates section is up with photos form previous years and a few from this year

If you have photos or a link to your photos from a skate, please email them to me and I'll get them posted.

Also I have been working on a new project to help answer questions about inline skating that I often answer via email or from students. It is called the Inline Skate Resource

Remember also that the skate schedule and event schedule for inline skating in Portland Oregon, and beyond can be accessed through the PortlandSkate.com main page.

Nancy

Thursday Night Skate- May 12

2005-05-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday Night was a great evening, the air was warm and the ground was dry. Maria, Jessica, George, Jerry, Shawn, and Sandra and I all head down the Oaks Bottom trail. Sandra was a guest visiting from Germany.

It is fun to meet people that come from other counties that spend an evening skating with us in Portland. We skated along pretty smoothly, Jessica had purchased a new pair of skates and was working them in. I am not sure but I think she took home a few blisters.

George was tearing up the trail, he took off first on his 5 wheels and was out of sight before long. I followed behind with a pretty easy feel to the evening's glide. It feels good when you gradually start firming up the skating muscles and take the trail in a smooth stride. I was starting to think that I had the wind at my back!

We rested at the trail head near Oaks Park then almost uniamously decided to go ahead and return via the trail, versus traveling back over the Sellwood. We got back about 8:15 and a group stayed and danced under the bridge as dusk slowly settled in on the city

PAVEMENT RATING - 6
MUSIC- Upbeat, Queen,U2,Keane,Blackeyed Peas
DISTANCE - 6 miles