Beginner roller skating
Rink Rules Nobody Says Out Loud
Skate the same direction as everyone else. Fall toward the middle, never toward the wall line. If you stop, get off the track first. Faster skaters pass on the inside, so hold your line instead of stepping aside. Knowing this is what makes a first rink visit stop being frightening.
Everyone skates the same direction, and the rink will tell you which one. Going against it is the only thing that genuinely annoys regulars, and it is the easiest rule to follow.
Hold your line. Faster skaters pass on the inside and they have already planned their gap; stepping aside to be polite puts you exactly where they were about to be.
If you need to stop, adjust a skate or catch your breath, get off the track first. And if you fall, fall towards the middle rather than the wall — the wall line is where the traffic is densest.
Keep going: this is one section of the full Roller Skating for Beginners guide — sizing, gear, stopping, and where to skate, in one page.