A New Sport (1912)

Paris. The new sport of “Cycle-skating“. Five men sit beside a car and fasten small wheels to their boots. They look very serious. The wheels are like small individual unicycles and they fasten at the knee. C/U of boot which has special grips which holds the wheels on to the feet. Man moves to show the camera how they work. He wheels his feet backwards and forwards - good C/U. A smooth surface is not essential for this sport, thus we see the men moving towards us through a forest on their wheels. They hold sticks and use them rather like ski poles to help them balance and propel themselves forward. L/S of the men “skiing“ along a wide avenue in the forest, they move quite quickly. L/S of one of the men doing figure skating on the wheels. Very good! Quite a cool quirky invention. Precursor to roller blades! Was probably a Pathe Pictorial item. Note: flashframe title and intertitles. Safety print exists. FILM ID: A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITIS