Rob's Roller World

My favorite roller artistic freestyle performance: Tim McGuire, of the USA, 1982 Men's World Champion, skating his long program. Tim is now a respected bariatric and general surgeon in Greenville, NC, having applied the discipline he learned as a skating competitor to his his medical studies.

My all-time favorite roller dancers: Swantje Gebauer and Axel Haber,of Gernany, here dancing the Viennese Waltz, are the 1996 & 1997 World Champions and the 1994 through 1996 European Champions. This is sublime roller dancing and an excellent example of why I want to see artistic roller skating rise again and become a summer Olympic event.

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Link to USA Roller Sports (USARS) figure skating information. USARS is the national governing body for competitive roller sports in The United States.

At one time, there were two rival organizations governing artistic roller skating in this country. One was the United States Amateur Roller Skating Association (USARSA)* and the other was the Roller Skating Rink Operators Association (RSROA). In 1972, both organizations became part of a merger that eventually resulted in what is now called USA Roller Sports. The above link will take you to the wonderful site, created and hosted by Jim Kohl, which preserves the data and the memories of the USARSA and its skaters.

Hackensack Arena, in Hackensack, NJ -- where I spent the best part of my youth.

. ALL SKATE

REVERSE

TRIO

SPECIAL

LADIES ONLY

COUPLES

DANCE STEPS

CIRCLE GAME

My favorite part of a session was "Dance Steps" while my least favorite was "Reverse" -- since it meant the session was almost over.

If you have any roller skating nostalgia photos or images that you'd like to see on this site, please send them to me via e-mail attachment. I would be most appreciative.

Also, f you have any nostalgic skating stories you'd like to relate, please be my guest. Thank you for any help you can lend in improving and expanding this website. Your suggestions are welcomed.

The Federation International de Roller Sports is, as you might expect, is the international governing body for all roller skating.

For those who may have wondered about Roller Pairs, here is the quintessential pair: Paul Price and Tina Kneisley, the 1981 Worlds Pairs Champions. If you're interested in the technical aspects of skating, take special note of Paul & Tina's "Pick-up Camel to Pick-Up Back Sit Spin" and also note the incredible unison of the side by side spins toward the close of the program. This video was posted on YouTube by "rolaboi", who in reality is none other than Jayson Sutcliffe, World Champion Roller Skater, who has also had a successful career in the entertainment field.

Here again are my favorite roller dancers, Swantje and Axel -- this time doing a very lyrical and romantic Westminster Waltz. I think you'll agree that this beautiful couple possesses rare talent.

And one last time . . . Swantje and Axel doing a very steamy Argentine Tango. Note how these international skaters don't skate like robots . . . as USA Roller Sports competitors are expected to do. In Swantje and Axel's Argentine, there is very effective use of head and body position, thereby adding the proper tango "flavor" and attitude to the dance. I don't know why US skaters are locked into skating as if they have no personality and no dance ability in their bones! To me, it's appalling and regrettable. The image of penguins on stilts haunts me when watching US skaters "dance".

Click the bar above to be taken to the 2011 World Roller Skating Championship website, where you'll find the final resuts for all events. An interesting observation: The Italians took first place in every discipline!

Rob "Bobby" Russo, is pictured second from left, circa 1960. Other skaters in this photo (left to right) are David Oliva, John Munder & Henry Cure. I was a USARSA competitive skater until 1962, at which time I took a "break" from roller skating -- which was to last almost fifty years!!! The reasons I stopped skating at age fourteen are myriad . . . and may someday form the basis of a memoir I hope to write. Stay tuned.

Please don't be shy about signing the Guest Book. I'd love to hear from you!

Your webmaster, Rob "Bobby" Russo in a photo taken on December 22, 2011, at Christiana Skating Center in Newark, Delaware.

Background: Up until the age of fourteen, I skated competitively out of my home rink in Hackensack, NJ. The years I skated were perhaps the most fulfilling in my life; however, there was tremendous familial pressure, especially from my father (who informed me that my skating would be the cause of my parents' divorce), for me to quit. In 1962, when the pressure became too great, I did leave skating behind.

As it turned out, it was only after my retirement in 2010 that I finally had the time, the means and the resolve to return to the sport I love. With a little luck, I intend to compete again in 2012 -- exactly fifty years since I last put myself in front of the judges. It's a very sad affair when parents don't support their child's passion and push him in directions contrary to his nature -- but at least in my case, I have been fortunate to have found my way back home . . . and I shall cherish every moment I still have left to skate.

A Note on the skates pictured: They are an example of today's state-of-the art equipment. The skate frame (the bottom part) is made of aluminium and titanium in Italy by the Roll-Line Skate Company. The white wheels with the chrome hubs are Roll-Line Dance, the blue ones are Giotto Freestyle (also a Roll-Line product), and the light blue wheels are Komplex USA (made in Italy). The boots are custom Harlicks made in California, USA

Rob's Roller World was last updated: May 12, 2012

This website is dedicated to fostering a rebirth of interest and participation in artistic roller skating in the United States. Once a flourishing sport with thousands of participants, artistic roller skating has declined in popularity over the last four decades as many factors coalesced to bring the sport's status to near extinction. In the 1940's and 1950's, beautiful roller rinks were to be found in virtually all metropolitan areas of the country. On the east coast, for example, there was a large chain of rinks operating under the corporate banner of "America On Wheels" or "AOW " for short. Starting in the 1970's, AOW began closing rinks as insurance costs skyrocketed, as cultural changes saw Americans shying away from artistic endeavors, as urban centers became hotbeds of violence (requiring that many rinks owners hire security personnel during weekend skating sessions), and as encroaching sprawl caused the real estate on which the rinks sat to become much more valuable than the business itself. The AOW rink in Levittown, New York, is a case in point. Once the revered home of multiple national and world champion skaters and their illustrious coaches, the rink was sold (for the land on which it sat), then torn down in order to make way for a large chain drug store. This unfortunate scenario was repeated all over the country . . . until today, roller rinks are a rarity. Where they do exist, they seldom have artistic skating programs. Instead, most tend to cater exclusively to today's hyper-active youth and young adult crowd -- offering party rooms, amusement arcades and using hip-hop music (instead of the traditional organ music) to provide a deafening and mind-numbing background beat. While competitive artistic roller skating thrives today in countries like Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Germany and Australia, the American presence at competitive events gets smaller each year and the quality of American skating is noticeably declining. It is my belief that this corrosive trend can be reversed and that artistic roller skating can once again flourish in the United States. This website is intended to be my contribution to the regeneration of the sport I love.

Rob's Roller World has a new, simpler web address (URL). It's www.robsrollerworld.com

The 26th Annual Valley Invitational Championship in Donora, Pennsylvania, was held March 16th through 19th, 2012. Click to be taken directly the the Valley Skating Center website's 2012 championship results page! Congratultions to all the winners!

Here's a little bonus video for all you roller dance fans. As you might guess, its another video featuring my all-time favorite roller dancers, Swantje Gebauer and Axel Haber of Germany. In this video, this extraordinary couple dance The Starlight Waltz to perfection!

An important note: I do no own the rights to the Gebauer and Haber videos; however, I have written to Swantje about my linking to them, and she responded in an extremely gracious manner -- congratulating me on creating Rob's Roller World and wishing me luck wih it. As I'd hoped, Ms. Gebauer is not only a great champion, but also a lovely human being!

NOW! Enjoy The Starlight Waltz!

Special congratulations to Paula Soloby of the Mt. Laurel, NJ, Skating Club for placing in all three of the events she entered at the 2012 Valley Invitational Championship! Here are Paula's placements: 2nd, Veteran A Women' Figures; 2nd, Veteran A Women's Solo Dance; 3rd,Premier A Women's Solo Dance. Way to go, Paula!

An Important Video Message From Rob

This kindly blurb appeared in the March 2012, Volume 16, Issue 5, of the Roller Skater's Gazette Newsletter (Editor: Kathy 'Miller' Ferreira; Advisor & Columnist: Chester Fried

Many thanks to skater Kathy O. Long for passing this information on to me!