Roller skating
[2]: 7–9 Waitresses in an 1840s beer hall in Berlin used roller skates to serve customers.
[2]: 9–13 The popularity of roller skating has fluctuated greatly since then; it is typically called a "craze" at its high points.
Many skating rinks offering electric organ music were built throughout the United States in this period.
This style of skating originated with disco music predominantly among Black and gay skaters.
[17] In the early years, competitors representing the mid-west states, primarily Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio dominated the sport.
By 1950 as rinks hired speed skating coaches who trained competitors, the east and west coast began to compete effectively for the national titles.
But in the early years, national titles were dominated by Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Variants include indoor, track and road racing, with many different grades of skaters, so the whole family can compete.
In 1989 the small 15–20 group that became the Midnight Rollers explored the closed doubIe-decker Embarcadero Freeway after the Loma-Prieta earthquake until it was torn down.
[25] At which point the new route was created settling on Friday nights at 9 pm from the San Francisco Ferry Building circling 12 miles around the city back at midnight to the start.
The Sunday Skate Night in Berlin also attracts over 10,000 skaters during the summer, and Copenhagen, Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo host other popular events.
The current Official Guinness World Record holder is Nightskating Warszawa (Poland) in number of 4013 participants from 19 June 2014, but their real record from 25 April 2015, is 7303 participants and over 38 000 skaters total in 10 events in season 2015.
This form of roller skating usually involves performing air tricks like spins or flips, grinds, and various types of stalls on the coping.
[31] Most roller derby leagues adopt the rules and guidelines set by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association or its open gender counterpart, Men's Roller Derby Association, but there are leagues that play on a banked track, as the sport was originally played from the 1930s.The Fédération Internationale de Patinage a Roulettes was founded in 1924, and in the 1960s it was renamed the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports.
It is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, also home of the National Museum of Roller Skating.
[32] Nationals are held each summer with skaters required to qualify through state and regional competitions.
