Beginner roller skating
The Moonwalk Is One Swap, Made at the Same Instant
This one is quad-only, and the reason is the brake. One skate rolls on its wheels, the other rests on its toe stop. Drag the rolling skate back until it passes the other, and at that moment both change jobs at once — wheels to stop, stop to wheels. That single simultaneous swap is the whole trick and the whole difficulty. Inline skaters, your brake is at the back and this step does not transfer. From Najete Kada, a French champion in artistic roller skating.
This one is quad-only and the reason is the brake, so it goes first: the moonwalk on skates is built on a toe stop at the front of the boot. If you skate inline your brake sits at the back of one skate, and this step does not transfer.
Start with a drill that is not the step. Rise onto the toe stop of one skate, then the other, in rhythm. It is there to teach you the distance between your stop and the floor, which is the measurement the whole movement runs on.
The step itself: one skate rolls on its wheels, the other rests on its stop. Drag the rolling skate back until it passes the other one. At that moment both skates change jobs at the same instant — wheels onto the stop, stop onto the wheels. That single simultaneous swap is the trick, and it is the entire difficulty.
Two things make it read. Pull the skate back as though you were about to sit down, and go all the way to the end of the travel with the back leg extended rather than stopping halfway. Quad technique, from Najete Kada's Tuto roller series. She teaches quad skating and skates it herself; nothing on this page is a claim about inline skates.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.