Quick Q and A

The following Q and A aims to answer common questions. Not all answers will apply to you but hopefully these will give you some clarification and if the answer is still not here, do not hesitate contacting us.

Why all these rules

Organizing over the years has proven to be a challenge and it is impossible to please everyone at the same time all the time and based on experience, skaters feedback, quizzes, forms, voting polls as well as massive research done online which included many skating groups has contributed to the need to create rules to maintain a healthy group with actual active inline skaters.

As a group grows, the need to keep it functional requires work dedication,technical organization, discipline are good principles to build anything on.

All this, is the work of one person who spends free time, personal money to keep it going and who consulted with this inline skating expert.

In addition the following resources were also considered:

London (UK) Friday night skate
Cityskate London (UK)
Paris (France) PariRoller group Images
Group skates in Germany
Toronto inline speed skating group
London (Canada) skating club

How do I join the Toronto bladers

• Check joining toronto bladers
• For the safety of everyone, we reserve the absolute right to accept or decline anyone, without explanation.
• The Toronto bladers have several subgroups. Your registration form answers will determine the most adequate for your skills, equipment and preferences to welcome you in and in time as you progress and your skill and equipment improves you will be able to skate with everyone from every group.

Registered but never received invite

• Detailed calendar invites require you to use a gmail account.
• Without a gmail account we will have install extra apps create new accounts for those apps and platforms
• Check your spam box. Unblock the Toronto Bladers. Free space in your account.
• You changed your subscription. Subscribe again but re-registering.

Can I join the Toronto bladers to learn how to skate

• We are not a beginner inline skating group and due to liability reasons we do not instruct. See Article 7 of the waiver
• If you are around us, no one will give you the cold shoulder for asking questions but we are not qualified skaters to act as competent instructors.
• We recommend a certified skating instructor. Check these youtube skating channels list or click here to learn to skate.

Where to meet and skate

• Meeting locations are announced in the events descriptions and they depend on the group and or subgroup. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, long distance/trail events rarely meet in the same location.

Why no guests allowed

• Group organization and good functionality
• Guests have shown up for events for which they had no skill for the activity of the event which caused injury, disappoint and event to stop
• Guests with intentions of using the event for activism, politics, hookups, change event routes/activity and or recruitment for their activities
• Liability and age requirements for the events. (waiver, code of conduct) & whats up with this

Do you have a chatroom

• Group chats are not as effective as intended and we tried it for a couple years.
• The chat closed on December 2022 and there are no plans to bring it back to the general members. Check why

Why was I not invited to that event

• See who will receive invitations
• Organizers reserve the right to manage the events how they see fit.

Why was I not accepted in the group

• If you completed and submitted the skater registration form, some reasons are listed bellow:
• Lack of equipment or skill for the activity, legal or group age requirements, contravention with the waiver and or code of conduct
• For the safety of everyone, the organizers, owners and or paying members of the groups, reserve the right to accept, decline, invite and or remove as they see adequate without explanation. Being part of the group is not a right but a privilege.

Why was I removed from the group

• See Why was I not accepted in the group
• Account legitimacy: Having more than one account, fake account, inactive account, unrealistic fake/profile, not a inline skater (bot, spam, etc)
• Disrespect for the code of conduct, waiver and or event policies

What is the problem with my skates

• No problem if your skates are adequate to practice the inline skating activity of the group and event.
• We do not do certain types of skating. Check the group's activities description. (Check Inline vs quad)
• Does the group wait for slower skaters? See skating equipment.

Where can I see the video and pictures

• See sharing pictures and video of events

Lost access to the account

• If you lost access to your account, do not contact group organizers because they do not manage the platforms and are unable to help you with login credentials recovery.
• Look for login recovery options of the platform that you are using and or register again.

Dating and hook ups

• Casually meeting the love of your life on inline skating is poetic and marvelous but using the group and events for such intended planned goals is not appreciated and in the past there have been occurrences and advances which were not welcome. See code of conduct.
• Please respect that this is all about skating and other groups and services exist that you can use for other topic. The majority of the skaters are already in long term stable relationships (marriage, common law, together, etc)

How do I join the old fogies

• If you are an old fogey, membership is automatic.

Is there a way I can help the group

• Yes. Maintaining the group has costs. You can sponsor with a donation. Donations of $20 and above a year will keep donors the annual membership without the need to attend 3 events a year or no show rsvp's
• Go fund me
• Paypal to torontobladers@gmx.ca
• Interact e-transfer to torontobladers@gmx.ca

Whats up with the age requirements

• Depending on the toronto bladers subgroup, the age requirements change. (see this example)
• The majority of the inline skaters are between 30 and 50 years of age, and some older skaters find it inappropriate to "hang out" with people a lot younger or half their age
• In the past, some young skaters joined the group in hopes to skate with people their age and found out they were the younger ones
• Generational and experience differences due to age gap may make it awkward during social moments
• Younger adults (in the teens and 20s) have more stamina, endurance and recover physically faster than older adults. They also like to do stunts, take risks and have fun that way. However, all that fun stuff we do in our teens and 20's, becomes exhausting after late 30's and 40's.

Where to start which skates to buy

• If you are completely new to the sport, making the decision based on your budget will be the easier way.
• You have to decide what type of skating you want to do we advise some youtube researching and see what appeals to you. It is a very subjective choice.
• If you have cash to spend, buy a skate that allows upgrades and or modifications such as the possibility of changing the frame. Anything between $450 cad and less than $700 will get you a solid skate. Anything from $700 and above should only be considered later after you develop your style.
• Do not buy a skate that looks like it is fashion over function or is very popular on youtube due to some popular skater promoting them.
• Since the toronto bladers is not sponsored by any brands, the platform do not advertise any brands or stores unless this changes in the future
• Best source of equipment comparisons done by very competent skaters can be found on youtube skating channels which is something that we all look for and research
• In order to be able to understand provided information, it is highly advised to have some basic knowledge about inline skating as it becomes very hard to answer questions for which the person asking does not have some basic knowledge in order to comprehend the information that is being provided.