Aggressive Skating

Aggressive inline skating is a form of inline skating executed on specially designed inline skates with focus on grinding and spins. Participants refer to the activity as rollerblading, "blading," "skating," or "rolling."

Aggressive skating can take place on found street obstacles or at skateparks. Street skating primarily consists of performing grinds on ledges and rails, as well as jumping tall heights known as "gaps." Park skating recreates these obstacles with the additions of bowls and ramps on which "vert" skating can be performed.

Since 1994, the sport has been chronicled in various skating films and "edits."

In 1980, a group of ice hockey players in Minnesota were looking for a way to practice during the summer. Scott and Brennan Olson formed the company Rollerblade, Inc., to sell skates with four polyurethane wheels arranged in a straight line on the bottom of a padded boot. In 1988, Rollerblade introduced the first aggressive inline skate, the Rollerblade Lightning TRS. Aggressive inline skating finally developed as an organized sport in the early 1990s. In 1994, the first ever competition series was launched on the beaches of Southern California by two childhood friends turned promoters Rick Stark and Mark Billik. The event was called The National Inline Skate Series better known as NISS to aggressive skaters around the world. Their company Anywhere Sports Productions sold Taco Bell on sponsoring the series for $150,000 and a six stop series was born. Chris Edwards and Arlo Eisenberg were the eventual champions of the 1994 series. NISS, went strong for 5 years holding contests in LA, NEW YORK, ROME and BRAZIL. NISS, was the first series to put aggressive inline on TV with an ESPN deal for the 1994 series and later moving the competition series to PRIME TICKET-Fox Sports. The Aggressive Skaters Association (ASA) was formed by a number of aggressive inline skaters in 1995 as a forum to develop rules governing competitions and equipment. The sport was included in the first ESPN X-Games in 1995 and included vertical ramp and street event competitions. It reached its height in popularity in the late 90s, with mainstream movies like Disney's Brink! and other films. The "Senate" brand, run by Arlo Eisenberg, was very popular during the 1990s.

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