This article speaks of the benefits of skating for children but it follows the benefits extend to teens and adults as well. 

….Skating … when mastered works such muscle groups as quads, thighs, buns and calfs. Serious skaters who twist and make tight turns are strengthening their backs while also working their abdominal muscles. Moreover, crouching while skating benefits the arms and chest while toning muscles.

Roller skating provides a complete aerobic workout, and involves all of the body’s muscles, especially the heart.

Read more in Skating for Life, (East Texas Review).

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RST received this letter from a soulful Island skater:

I am certainly happy to have found your web page. My name is Henry Harper and I have been roller-skating since I was eight years old.  I will be sixty three on April 2nd 2008! 

I live in Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean and roller skate on weekends around what is known as our Queen’s Park savannah, a three-mile, almost-circular route. I have roller skated in London (UK) - where I lived for ten years - and in Paris.

In Trinidad & Tobago very few people roller skate. In days of old when men were bold we had a club called the Red Circle Roller Skating Club. We put on exhibitions and had racing competitions. For one reason or another the sport is on hold in T&T. So, I stand out like a sore thumb when skating on my quads around the savannah on weekends. 

Fact is, I enjoy it! I skate to electronic music and our local “Soca” music.

Thanks for sharing your skate love with us, Henry.

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 In early March, I visited Chicago, Illinois and had the pleasure of rolling at The Rink’s 30+ Sunday night Smooth Groove session from 5-9 p.m. I arrived an hour and a half into the session and found the parking lot full and the rink packed with 300+ adults who love getting their weekly roll on. Smooth groove R&B was definitely the theme with the DJ mixing it all up right with precision and skill.  At one point, he even, (to my surprise), threw in “Emotion” by the BeeGees on the backward, trio skate and it was very enjoyable watching those trio sets with their smooth crossovers and synchronization. True skate class indeed!!

While in the area, I also visited Rich City Skate on a Saturday night but it was the 1^st weekend of the month which is reserved for the monthly teen skate/juke jam. The rink was packed with young folks – skaters and dancers – so no rolling was in store for me, however, it was nice to see a Black owned rink providing such an outlet for the youngsters rather than see them out on the street.

Visit the RST Roll or Black Rinks pages for more on rink locations and session times for The Rink and Rich City Skate.

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Check out new listings on the Links page for:

Orbit Skate Center and

Sk8 Addix

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Visit the RST Roll page for updated adult sessions at these Illinois rinks:

The Rink

Rich City Skate

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The list of Black owned/managed rinks keeps expanding.  Visit the Black Rinks page for the latest additions:  New Skateland Arena in New York and Dekalb Hollywood Skating in Georgia.

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You have the opportunity to share your skate story with StoryCorps, a non-profit organization which travels the country recording individuals telling their life experiences for preservation in a Library of Congress archive. Recorded stories are regularly heard on public radio stations and are also available via the internet.

For months now, StoryCorps, in conjunction with Our Family Skate Association, has been recording skater histories (on CD) which then become part of the National African American Roller Skating Archive based at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University.

StoryCorps mobile booths will be in the Denver, Colorado and Buffalo, New York areas this summer and interested skaters are greatly encouraged to reserve a time to have their unique skate experiences recorded so that many generations in the future can benefit from listening to them.

Tentative schedule dates include:

Denver – July 17 to Aug. 5

Buffalo – July 17 to Aug. 5

Grand Junction, CO - Aug. 9 to 23

For more information, contact Tasha Klusmann at tashaklusmann@yahoo.com.

Tags: Skate News // 3 Comments »

It is time for a change at RST so for 2008 we are adopting this new blog format as we continue to evolve from our original “online newsletter” in 2002 to the resource station we are in 2008.  It is very clear RST is not putting out many feature articles as before or attempting to stick to a regular weekly, bi-weekly or monthly publication date.  No, however, we are continuing to go with the flow which has led us to this current change.

Thanks to our regular readers, visitors and supporters who, unlike the previous site layout, can post comments, suggestions and feedback here on the blog and interact with others in that way. 

Take a tour of RST’s new home and get familiar with the site layout and most of all, keep our style and love of roller skating alive.

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