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By DIANA SULTENFUSS
Battalion Reporter
A new breed of Texas A&M Uni
versity student seems to be emerg
ing — with four wheels attached to
each foot.
Most estimates show that 28 mil
lion Americans roller skate, about 7
percent of the population.
“Whenever good weather rolls
around, so do I,” said Carole Cris-
tiani, a 21-year-old junior physical
education major. “It beats the heck
out of walking.”
Several students have been
trying out their wheels in different
environments. Cristiani said she
has attended all of her classes on
skates. Sheryl Morgan, a 20-year-
old junior in marketing, was a groc
ery checker on wheels in Dallas last
summer. Morgan and Jenny
Dorsey, a 20-year old junior market
ing major, wore their skates in the
rice-eating contest before the
Texas A&M-Rice University football
game.
“I’ll bet we were a first,” Morgan
said.
Ann Franke, 20, first floor resi
dent adviser in McFadden Hall, be
gan skating “on a whim” when her
younger brother received a pair of
skates. The junior special educa
tion major borrowed them for the
exercise and ended up skating
through the local Skaggs grocery
store.
Jody McKnight, 20, moved from
Dallas to California two years ago.
When the junior in civil engineering
returned to Texas A&M, she
brought the roller skating bug with
her. The bug bit several other resi
dents of Mosher Hall where she
lives, including Cindy Terry, Liz
Fleming and Ruth Schmidt.
A group of roller-skating Texas
A&M students formed a club,
Wheels. The club began late in the
fall semester and president Joey
Wasilewsky, 21, said he hopes for
many activities in the spring semes
ter. Wasilewsky, a senior in zoolo
gy, has already discussed the pos-
sibility of an indoor skating facility
on campus with someone planning
an intramural facility to be built in a
few years.
Currently, indoor facilities are
available at Pooh's Park, owned by
Don Dale. Dale reported a 30 to 40
percent increase in customers per
year since he opened the rink in
1972.
"But now it’s hard to tell because
we’ve opened other facilities that
are also attracting customers,” he
said. In U.S. News and World Re
port, the owner of a California rink
said his business increased 65 per
cent in the first five months of 1979.
Different sources estimate be
tween 3,000 and 6,000 rinks in the
United States.
Roller skating is invading every
phase of American life. Television
commercials are featuring roller
skates and Playboy magazine said
roller skating is sexy.
Texas A&M skaters have diffe
rent viewpoints on what pedes
trians think of them.
"People are very friendly,” Mor
gan said. ‘They’re always asking
for rides.”
Schmidt, a 20-year-old junior
pre-pharmacy major, said skaters
get a lot of negative feedback that
she believes is hidden envy.
Terry, a 20-year-old junior in
dustrial engineering major, said,
“You can tell they'd like to be out
there, too, if they had skates.”
The development of
polyurethane wheels seems to be
the foundation of the new roller
skating craze. The new wheels,
borrowed from precision-made
skateboard wheels, are quieter and
have a smoother ride with more
maneuverability. They allow
speeds of up to 35 or 40 miles per
popular
hour downhill. Outdoor wheels are
softer to absorb the impact of rough
ground, but can be used indoors for
better traction. Indoor wheels are
harder and should not be used out
doors.
A new development has been the
“jogger,” jogging shoes on wheels.
Some specialty stores will put
wheels on anything, including west
ern boots and high heels.
The roller skating habit can be an
expensive one.
“You need to really look into it
before you buy them," Cristiani
said. An average pair of skates
ranges from $30 to $50 at most loc
al stores. Sears also has a pair for
$74. Wyatt's Sporting Goods sells
skates with leather boots for $150 to
$170. National price levels range
from $25 to $150 for the amateur up
to $1,000 for professional skaters.
Despite these prices, Peck &
Goodie, a manufacturer of skates
since 1925, reported in a December
1978 article in New York magazine
that sales were up 25 percent in
1978. Most other manufacturers re
ported a 25 to 30 percent increase
per year for the past few years.
A Time magazine article of Au
gust 1979 lists skate sales at
300,000 pairs a month. Business
Week predicted in an August 1979
article that sales would reach $200
million in 1979.
Extra equipment and accessor
ies are also available to the skater,
including knee and elbow pads, hel
mets and gloves. Disco skaters
may want to buy shorts, leotards,
pants outfits, short skirts or other
such items.
Admission costs to the rink are
another consideration. Pooh’s Park
charges $2.50 for a two-hour ses
sion. Pooh's is open on Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Roller skates were invented by
small boys in Europe who tied
spools to their shoes. They were
first patented by Joseph Merlin, a
Belgian, in 1760 — with only two
wheels on each skate. In 1863,
James L Plimpton patented the first
four-wheeled roller skates in New
York. He also opened the first roller
skating rink in Newport, Rhode Is
land, in 1866.
Promoters are calling roller skat
ing “the sport of the 80s.” The U.S.
Amateur Confederation of Roller
Skaters administers all competi
tions in dance, freestyle, figure and
speed skating. There are 26,000
registered amateur competitive
skaters.
The first national roller skating
championships were held in Detroit
in 1937. Another form of competi
tion, the Long Beach Marathon,
was the first event of its kind and
was held in May of 1979. Roller
skating was included in the 1979
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Paul Willett, a member of the Pepsi Cola SKATE team,
demonstrates some trickier roller skating moves with the
aid of a ramp.