I started skating in 1975 and since this date I have been involved to develop skateboarding, first in Germany ( Frankfurt am Main ) and later in France.
During 1989 -1994 I participated in the ISSA organization, first as the French coordinator and later also as the ISSA Vice-President.
Today I'm investing an big part of my free time to develop Longskating in France (responsible national longskate coordinator). Longskate is now officially recognized by the FFRS (Fédération française de Roller Skating). We had an national meeting at Grenoble in November 2002 with 20 participants, mostly of them are actors in Longskating. We have elected 10 regional coordinators which will be helpful to prepare the French 2003 longsk8 season.
So what is longskate ? Some persons would call it also "Longboarding", but here in France we decided to call it Longskate as we want to distinguish from Surfing!
In the official French longskate rules we distinguish (for instance) 4 events :
1. standup
2. luge
3. buttboard
4. Giant Slalom
As you can see Slalom is back again in France! The interest for short slalom is also growing as never before, in other words Old-School Skating is back ...
So what's making Longskate so interesting over Slalom in France? Slalom is fast skating but longskate is faster skating and skating for longer distances, remember the Chamrousse 2002 Freeride where we rode 9.5 km in on time with 60 km/h average speed ! FREERIDE ... This is the key of success of Longskating in France. When Slalomers are meeting they do it mostly with the presence of an Timing equipment having fighting spirit in mind ... Longskaters are placing pleasure on the FIRST PLACE , mostly without chronometer, it doesn't matter if you are the world champion or a beginner. So much more people are interested in participating and celebrating good moments.
Why not to organize one day some Slalom FREERIDES ?
What can I do for the SlalomSkateboarder Forum?
Jani proposed to me to moderate the French section of the SlalomSkateboarder Forum. O.K. My free time is very limited as I'm also the President of the BLC (Bordeaux Longskate Club) .... So don't be disappointed if can't be every day on this Forum.
We have several longskate internet sites in France here one of the most visited sites http://240plan.ovh.net/~surfatti/phpBB2 ... /index.htm .
The BLC (Bordeaux Longskate Club) can be reached at http://www.bordeaux-longskate-club.com .
And my personal site is reachable at http://www.longwheels.com
Keep riding, Dieter
Turns without sliding are boring
![Image](http://www.artcomfrance.com/blc/Dieter_mimi_image.gif)
http://www.longwheels.com