Freeskating
Freeskates are the crossbreed of a skateboard and rollerblades. You stand on it similar to a skateboard while rolling sideways, but they are 2 completely independent platforms. You propel yourself by applying a perpendicular force while slanting the wheels, similar to how you propel yourself with rollerblades. However, in contrast to both rollerblades and skateboards, you never lift your feet. You simply continue making a zigzagging pattern with your feet, similar to the motion on a ripstick.
My history
Instagram's feed kept showing me really cool videos from JMKRide of people performing cool tricks on freeskates. Even just the motion of moving around on these already looked very satisfying and instantly spoke to me.
One day when seeing yet another one of their videos, I decided to do a quick search to see how expensive such "freeskates" would be. It turned out that you can buy a set for 40 euros on amazon, which was considerably cheaper than expected. I very impulsively ordered a pair, and after around 3 weeks they finally arrived, exactly at the start of the summer break of 2022.
I first practiced the motion in my kitchen/hall. After around 2-3 hours I started getting the hang of the motion and could propel myself. I then decided to go to my university's library, because there is a very smooth concrete floor in front of this library which is popular among skaters. After about an hour I started being able to somewhat keep my balance and ride some distance.
I practiced for a couple of weeks and started to slowly become more and more agile on the skates. I also started feeling the limitation of these cheap skates by then, and decided I liked the skates well enough to put down the 150 euros for branded JMKRide skates, which I customized to have a black and blue color theme.
These new skates ride much smoother and turned out to be well worth the money. I sometimes use the skates for transport by riding on bicycle lanes in my city, and I'm starting to learn some of the tricks you can do with the skates. It will however still take a very long time before I will be consistent at these tricks, and there are plenty of more tricks to be learned.
Some fun videos
Below are some videos of me riding on my skates and practicing things. They are vertically recorded because they were intended to be posted on instagram stories instead of on youtube.