As a select group of in-liners
began pushing the limits of the sport they joined their skateboarding
friends in street skating and doing tricks on ramps. In 1988, the
design of in-line skates caught up with this trend, providing these new
"aggressive" in-line skaters with equipment that would allow them much
more strength and control and that would lead to now classic tricks
like grinding, which is when a skater jumps up on a railing and rides
it down on their skates.
Different disciplines in aggressive in-line skating include: downhill racing which uses a specialized skate with a longer wheel base; park competitions, in which a skater uses an entire park filled with jumps, ramps, and rails to show their stuff; and the "vert" competition, where skaters show their best tricks in a vert ramp, or halfpipe (That’s the structure that looks like a watermelon cut in half the long way and hollowed out with the ends cut off).
