What Happened to Inline Skating?

Growing up, skating or "rollerblading" was one of the most popular activities among myself and my friends.  We did traditional skating, but we were more involved in "aggressive skating".  I put that in quotes because I never really liked the term. Basically, we did grinding, ramps, and tricks.  This was early on when there were not a lot of skate parks.  We used to have to have to get our parents to drive us a half hour to another town where they had an indoor skate park.

Anyway, we used to skate every day.  This was in the mid 90's.  Inline skating was on the X-Games.  It was very popular.  I didn't realize until recently that apparently inline skating's popularity has gone down big time.  Some estimate showing it is down by 50%.  That is a huge decrease!  As I started thinking, I realized it has been a while since I saw people skating outside.  I have been looking up the topic online and have found that it is no longer in the X-Games since the mid 2000's and even the ASA association which was all about skating seems to be no more.

It's pretty sad.  Inline skating is a great sport for people of all ages.  I still have my skates and while I am not as active as before, I still break them out every now and then and go skating.  I even go on ramps now that they actually have them around.  Where were all the skate parks back in the day when we wanted them?

I know skateboarding is still pretty popular.  Those are the kinds of kids that should be inline skating, or at least try it.  I bet many kids these days are not even exposed to it and have never tried it.  BMX is still in the X-Games like skateboarding, so why wouldn't they keep inline?  I think it is time for it to make a comeback.



Update 8-8-11: I posted the question on Reddit and got some responses and discussion on the topic.  Everyone had a theory, but there was not a clear cut answer.  It looks like it may have been a combination of a few things including:

- The sport being considered uncool or "gay".
- Skates being inconvenient because you are not on shoes.
- Just a fading trend.
- Less tv exposure.

I think if the main skate companies look at these things and try to fix it, the sport can regain popularity.  All you need is a good commercial showing skaters doing cool tricks on ramps and rails, put some current music to it and air it during shows that teenage boys watch.  Sales would increase I'm sure.