Being born and raised in Los Angeles, I didn't learn about hockey until my teenage years.  At the time, roller hockey was unheard of and the youth did not play it.  I was forced to play soccer which was OK, but incredibly boring to watch.  In high school, I became obsessed with hockey, but I didn't have the incredible money it cost to learn and my parents didn't help me out.  When I started college, I got into rollerblading while it was in its infancy.  I got my first rollerblades, an incredibly cheap pair of Ultra Wheels called Zephyrs as a gift from my parents who didn't want me to invest too much in it case I didn't like it.  I taught myself to rollerblade and just picked it up naturally by myself  as it was still too early for any of my friends to begin learning to skate.  A month into it, the Northridge Earthquake of 1994 destroyed my first pair under tons of fallen rubble.  Not knowing any better, I had the store replace them (for FREE of course) and got the same ones.  Turns out they sucked.  More can be found in my buying guide below.

    I immediately picked up all of the inline hockey skills on my own including front and backwards crossovers, t-stops, etc.  I joined my first team and basically sucked for the whole season.  My goal was to be a defensive forward and "hold my own" meaning not being scored on or making stupid mistakes while I was out there.  This does NOT work in the offensive minded game of roller hockey which requires a lot of scoring.  I made it through the season, scoring little and being generally lost out there, but our team was excellent and played as individuals so the puck was never passed to me.  We made the playoffs and in the first game of the playoffs, I skated down the left wing, shot the puck on net, the goalie made the save...I continued skating around behind the net, and back into the crease and in between the two defensemen who were over 6 feet tall each.  The goalie gave up a rebound and I dove to shoot the puck up over the goalie from two feet out.  I broke the tied game and jumped into the air to celebrate the goal with my teammates congratulating me.  The two defensemen were upset and in a move not unlike that of the animal Mike Tyson, both cross checked me to the ground while I was airborne.  I tore my Anterior Cruciate Ligament  (ACL) and it ruined my hockey career.  At the time, I didn't know the severity of the injury and managed to finish the game, and in the process, "accidentally running " into one of the defensemen who crosschecked me and taking him into the boards from which I had to be helped up.  After, I drew two defenders to me and flipped a perfect pass to a teammate who skated into and blasted it by the goalie insuring our win and giving me an assist.  I couldn't walk after the game and had a hard time driivng my stick shift car home. I managed to play for a few minutes in our next playoff game the next day, but It was so wrapped up and so much pain that I could barely move and without my heroics, we lost and were eliminated.  More on my ACL injury when I get a chance.  Basically, it required extensive surgery and at least a year of difficult rehab and an addiction to pain medication, Vicodin.......