By NEIL MARCOVITZ

Special to The Globe and Mail

Wednesday, November 20, 2002 – Print Edition, Page T7

LONDON -- It's a scene that has been repeated in London most Friday nights since May, 2001: Accompanied by music blaring from a moving sound system, hundreds of in-line skaters follow black cabs and double-decker buses through Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Blowing whistles and horns, they continue past crowded Soho bars and West End theatres, across bridges over the River Thames, and past landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral. Onlookers cheer (and occasionally jeer), fire trucks sound their sirens, and motorist honk their horns -- usually, though not always, in support of the mass of people on the streets.

The London Friday Night Skate, or FNS, and its friendly rival, the London Wednesday Night Skate (WNS), are part of a growing trend in Europe in which hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of in-line skaters meet for a weekly night skate through city centres.

In cities such as Paris, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Ljubljana and Tallinn, skaters, with the co-operation, or at least acquiescence, of local police, block cars at intersections and skate for kilometres. Organizers usually change the route each time so that skaters can pass different landmarks and neighbourhoods. The skates are deliberately held at night, when streets, bars and restaurants are full, and are a mixture of a workout and a moving street festival.

The mix of atmosphere and exercise is what draws many participants. "It's loud, exciting, and free -- a rare thing in London," says Paul Daly, who recently started coming to the FNS. "You're too busy having fun to know you're exercising, except when you're going up one or two of those hills."

In Paris, skates don't begin until 9:45 p.m. Fridays and finish well after midnight. Yet summer turnouts sometimes top 20,000, and winter skates often draw thousands, turning the "Pari-Roller" into a giant street party rolling past such sites as the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris. On hilly sections, something the Pari-Roller is known for, thousands of people snake at high speeds through the streets. When the city permits it (about twice a year), Pari-Roller skaters take over the cobbled Champs Élysées.

The skates are probably most popular in Germany, with large skates in several cities including Munich, where summer numbers on the Monday Munich Blade Night have reportedly topped 30,000. And the trend is spreading: The New York Wednesday Night Skate gets crowds of several hundred in midsummer, and several other North American cities have been holding night skates over the past several years. Even in Toronto, small groups meet for skates on some evenings. But numbers in North American cities are still small compared with Europe. The largest is probably in San Francisco, where turnouts topped the 700 mark earlier this year.

In every city, the skates start at a meeting point, usually the same one each week. In London, where FNS numbers were edging toward the 1,000 mark last summer, locals and visitors -- sometimes coming as organized groups -- begin congregating at Hyde Park Corner about 7 p.m. Friends meet up, and out-of-town visitors introduce themselves and try to find out about the coming skate by asking questions such as "Is it fast?" and "What are the surfaces like?"

The skaters are a mix of experts and beginners, regulars and first-timers, in-line skaters, "quad skaters" on traditional roller skates, and the occasional cyclist. Although most are aged between 17 and 35, children and older people come as well.

At about 7:30 p.m., FNS marshals identified by reflective vests move to one end of Hyde Park Corner and wait until red lights halt oncoming traffic. A few marshals move out in front of the cars and the skate starts with a chorus of cheers and whistling, led by a group of marshals who stop to block cars at coming intersections as the rest of the skate moves past. Within minutes, the skate stretches out several hundred metres along the road. A powerful sound system mounted on a sit-down bicycle plays a selection of recent club hits and old favourites. Sometimes skaters, particularly quad skaters, break out in spontaneous dancing.

The London FNS usually takes skaters several kilometres from central London, passing Underground stations along the way to allow tired skaters to return home by tube. Some weeks, the FNS gets as far as Tower Bridge, Notting Hill, Camden Town, or Clapham, running through quiet residential neighbourhoods and busy downtown streets.

The FNS stops after about an hour for a break, allowing skaters to relax and buy food and drinks. About 20 minutes later, it starts again and continues for another hour or so, ending in an all-out sprint back to Hyde Park Corner. After the skate, many participants meet up at the Victoria, a pub just north of the park.

Although a decent skater wearing protective padding and a helmet should be reasonably safe on any of the skates, there have been serious injuries and even deaths. Two ambulances trail the Pari-Roller, and for good reason: Its Web site claims that some skaters reach speeds of 60 kilometres an hour on downhill sections. A serious head injury on the London FNS last year encouraged organizers to push participants to wear helmets -- when free trips to the Pari-Roller were handed out during one FNS, only helmeted participants received them.

But skaters need not travel at breakneck speed on any of the skates. The London FNS divides its route into red, blue and black sections, the colour codes equivalent to beginner, intermediate and advanced ski hills on European mountains. Skate marshals ensure that the skate starts out relatively slowly as it passes through the busy West End, and gradually speed it up until its ends about two hours later with an all-out sprint. Slower FNS skaters can usually stay toward the back, but those who can't keep up are asked to leave by marshals, who usually hand them a pamphlet on skating lessons and encourage them to return when they improve.

The London WNS is slightly slower and larger. Some skates, particularly the Pari-Roller and Frankfurt Tuesday Night Skate, have reputations as fast skates, but slower skaters often still manage to find a place in them.

Increasingly, visitors -- both individuals and groups -- are participating in the night skates. Groups from other cities regularly organize visits to each other's skates. Pari-Roller representatives report that some travel agencies now organize skating trips to Paris and that visitors have come from as far away as South Korea.

If you go

European night-skating Web sites:
London FNS:
http://www.LondonFNS.co.uk.
London WNS:
http://www.londonskate.com.
Paris: http://www.pari-roller.com.
Frankfurt: http://www.t-n-s.de.
Hamburg:
http://www.tuesday-late-skate.de.
Munich:
http://www.muenchner-blade-night.de.
Amsterdam:
http://www.fridaynightskate.com.
Rotterdam: http://www.rotterdamrolt.com.
Vienna: http://www.inlineskate.at.
Tallinn: http://www.fns.ee.
North American night-skating Web sites:
Toronto:
http://www.geocities.com/cityblading.
New York: http://www.weskateny.org.
San Francisco:
web.cora.org/friday.phtml.