Inline Skating: Fun for the Entire Family!

Inline skating, or “rollerblading,” as the Swiss also call it, became hugely popular in Switzerland about 15 years ago. I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but at least in the U.K. and Australia this sport seems to be far less popular than over here. I remember my Aussie mates giggling about the inline skaters in Zurich, because it reminded them of the 1980s. But the Swiss enjoy this sport for good reason: our smooth, hole-free roads and pavements surrounded by beautiful countryside provide a great infrastructure for inline skating, and the many events in the summer months add to the fun, too.

Before we had kids, my husband and I spent many a weekend on our inline skates, exploring the countryside close to home and further afield. We lived in Zurich, and one of our favourite routes was at the Greifensee – a 19-kilometer route all around the Greifensee lake. It can get a little crowded during the weekends, but it’s a beautiful area and the route offers many opportunities to stop for a swim or an ice cream in a lakeside café. Another really fun route is the one around Zurich Airport; it is mostly separate from motor traffic and offers many spots to see departing and arriving airplanes up close, which is pretty unique. According to the website Skatingland, “Zurich Airport and Glattal are among the ‘historic’ trend-setting regions for inline skaters. Years ago, the region around the military barracks was overrun by skaters at weekends. The new airport company, Unique, and surrounding municipalities have taken up the trend and created virtually unequalled conditions for skaters.”

While the Zurich airport area has been excellent for skating for a long time, these days all of Switzerland offers great infrastructure for inline skating for young and old. Route maps can be found, for example, at Skatingland. Furthermore, the Inline Skate Guide has compiled a guide of over 600 kilometers of skate tracks. And the really keen skater finds all she needs on the website Swiss Skate Tour: competitions, training tips, tours, training camps, clubs, groups, and like-minded people.

Countryside skating is not all Switzerland has on offer. Several Swiss cities (currently Zurich, Aarau, Lucerne, Basel, Zug, Geneva and Kreuzlingen) offer a regular Monday Night Skate: every Monday evening from May through September the city streets belong to the skaters. The roads on a designated route through the centre of the city are blocked to cars, thanks to the hard work of dozens of volunteers and the police. The event is free of charge and lasts for about two hours, and the atmosphere is very relaxed; the pace is slow. The Monday Night Skate (MNS) was born in Zurich over ten years ago when a few inline skaters and roller skaters started getting together on a regular basis in Zurich on a Monday night. More and more skaters joined in and the tours through downtown Zurich gained insider tip status. In 1999, the official MNS was founded, offering a predefined route through Zurich. I remember those early Monday Night Skates very well; we were still only a small group of a couple of hundred people, skating through Zurich on warm summer nights, much to the annoyance of the people in cars who had to wait for the skaters to pass for up to 30 minutes. Apparently, the record evening in Zurich was one evening in July 2003, when 8600 people took part.

Other great family outings on inline skates are the slowUp events, which take place all over the country in the summer months. The concept is to make 30-kilometer stretches of road, carefully chosen for their lovely countryside settings, free of cars and motorbikes for a day. The roads are mainly flat and therefore great for the entire family to be explored by bike, on foot, or on inline skates.

Inline skating is a great pastime for the entire family. A good age for children to learn to skate is from ages four or fives years upwards. If you’re not a skater yet don’t despair! It’s not that difficult to learn if you’re already a grown-up – I only learned it in my twenties and it wasn’t a big deal. There are courses for children and adults but it can easily be learned alone. The many easy and family-friendly routes make a great Sunday trip, or you could invest in two ice hockey or floor ball sticks and a ball, for hours of fun on a quiet road or in the park.

As for equipment, besides the inline skates, I’d recommend, for grown-ups and children alike, a bike helmet and a set of elbow, knee, and wrist protectors. There are some rules as to where inline skating is allowed and where it is banned; you can find a handy overview on this website. Our skates are currently packed away in boxes, but as soon as our kids are old enough to learn to skate, we’ll get them out of the cellar and join in the fun again!

By Franziska Wick

Fran is a Swiss mum of two small girls who spent many years in London with her family. She runs a small online shop with British kids’ things, called Goose and Parrot, and blogs about British food and other British stories on the Goose and Parrot blog.

Illustration by Kiki Kaisserian

Kiki Kaisserian is an Australian artist and maker who works in many mediums. She has two adult children and lives in a small country town. Her work can be seen here.