Comments on: Rollerman

Rollerman

bap98189 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:08:42 -0800

Take some assorted body armour. Attach an assortment of castor wheels to just about every part of your body and you become Rollerman _Flash. His real name is Jean Yves Blondeau, a former design student and proud owner of the world's only rollerblading supersuit. It may be handy for zipping in and out of traffic, but the fun really starts when you roll down an alp _QT, reaching speeds of up to 60mph with oncoming traffic. Is this insane, or an extreme combination of inline skating and street luge.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:12:09 -0800

It's insane.

By: LN

LN — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:26:32 -0800

Good gravy, he looks like a wheeler.

By: tula

tula — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:28:08 -0800

Holy baby jesus on a pogo stick. The rough quality and small screen of the Alps video make it look more like some kind of gameboy simulation. But I know it's not, and that's where the insane gut clench starts.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:34:16 -0800

free-wheeling surrender monkey

By: dontoine

dontoine — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:34:58 -0800

First link should be.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:35:15 -0800

Rollerman_Flash link is borked. This link works.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:35:29 -0800

Or, what dontoine said!

By: DU

DU — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:36:23 -0800

I can't view QT. It this the same video? It's an Alp of some kind.

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:37:40 -0800

He must have scared the shit out of the other motorists, especially the motorcyclist he passes. Does anybody see how he stops??

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:40:28 -0800

Jesus christ, those stretches of cliffside road where the bollards on the egde are about half a metre apart...

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:40:45 -0800

Gizmodo has one of him going against a 600cc sportbike. Awesome suit, piss-poor web design skills.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:40:46 -0800

Streetluge.com -- home of Road Racers Association for International Luge and profession streetluge racing.

By: mosk

mosk — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:40:46 -0800

Jesus Christ, that's insane. Did he buy that suit from the Acme company? A guy could catch a lot of roadrunners with a suit like that.

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:51:12 -0800

Are there any shock absorbers in that suit? He must be bruised as hell by the time he reaches the bottom.

By: djrock3k

djrock3k — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:51:56 -0800

...Maybe he is part coyote...

By: tommasz

tommasz — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:52:53 -0800

In that Gizmodo video he makes what appears to be a 90 deg. turn at speed. I doubt that any motor vehicle could match that particular move.

By: knowles

knowles — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:55:36 -0800

what's the hardest part about rollerblading? telling your dad you're gay! (wocka)

By: splice

splice — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:57:03 -0800

Does anybody see how he stops?? That was my first thought too. Looks ok when he's going in a straight line, but on turns it seems he isn't very much in control. I noticed a few scene changes where he looked like he was going to plow into a parked car, and one instance of him cutting off a vehicle about to engage in the street, seemingly because he was unable to stop. I mean, props for him for building something that crazy, but for taking it on the road amongst traffic and lying down below the sightline of drivers on the road? If he rolled by my car lying down on his stomach, I'd have a mind to follow him and let him know just how much of a dumbass he was being.

By: GrammarMoses

GrammarMoses — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:08:55 -0800

Here's another vote for "insane."

By: kkokkodalk

kkokkodalk — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:12:10 -0800

OMG!!! Thank you so much for posting this! I remembered seeing him on TV as a kid and a little while back he had come up in a conversation and I was trying to explain him to my friend but couldn't because he'd never seen or heard of him before. It drove me nuts. All I knew was it had "man" somewhere in it but all my google permutations with helpful descriptors wouldn't bring him up. Thank you thank you! (Just to explain why Rollerman came up in a conversation: My friend and I for some reason were hotly debating how a human version of a Tachikoma would look, and I was all "He'd be like that French dude with all the wheels on his body," which really didn't help describe it all that well. But it just makes sense when you see how a Tachikoma moves. I couldn't find a photo or anything, but ended up drawing it out in frustration....and....um...yea I realized this makes me sound really really nerdy and weird.)

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:27:27 -0800

Last month I saw some weird old dude shooting down the Manhattan side of the Queensborough Bridge sitting on a skateboard, with a flattened shoe-box under his heel as a brake. Seriously, this shit is the next level. It's already HERE. You just have to take that leap onto your face, and have faith that the wheels will be there when you land.

By: anthill

anthill — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:28:26 -0800

Nerdy, yes. But tachikoma is totally the way to describe this guy's suit.

By: poppo

poppo — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:33:06 -0800

By god we live in a wonderful time

By: elleinad

elleinad — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:37:03 -0800

ohh I'm so glad someone else thought of Wheelers... those things used to freak me out as a kid. On Halloween a few years ago I saw someone dressed in a full-on wheeler costume... it was amazing.

By: freebird

freebird — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:37:19 -0800

I was largely unconvinced until the bit at the end of the Alps video where he's dancing around and under the APCs. That moved it into another plane for me.

By: verb

verb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:39:55 -0800

Weird. It looks like someone played a copy of Kinetica back in the day and decided it looked fun enough to try.

By: quin

quin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:48:27 -0800

As insane as this seems, it still looks waaay safer than street luging. As demonstrated in the videos, he can turn quickly, which is a feat I've never seen anyone on a street luge do well. So, on a scale of crazy; this is lighting yourself on fire while yodeling, where street luging is setting yourself on fire while hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. While naked.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:58:46 -0800

Attach an assortment of castor wheels to just about every part of your body... and if they squeak just apply a little caster oil.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:19:36 -0800

What a cornball. I mean, balls-y and all that but, uh, he's like wearing roller skates all over his body. Do the chicks really dig that?

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:36:55 -0800

What a dork. The little "dance" he does towards the end of the "alp" video reminded me of the geeky game designer/villain in Grandma's Boy.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:09:15 -0800

a former design student and proud owner of the world's only rollerblading supersuit Actually others have "full body in-line skating" suits -- as per his posting here.

By: bap98189

bap98189 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:28:15 -0800

Thanks to whoever corrected the link. I hadn't noticed it was borked.

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:50:20 -0800

Seems like a real-life Transformer. But smaller.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:50:29 -0800

This post needs a batshitinsane tag. Wow.

By: Fezboy!

Fezboy! — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:52:34 -0800

Shattered my femur, shredded my hip, and garfunkled my knee doing similar stunts way long ago. We were just using a skateboard with the trucks tightened to within an inch of their lives. Watching this I'm torn between needing to put together a suit of my own and clenching my sphincter tight enough to make diamonds. That kind of speed is fun as hell but eight weeks in traction sucks balls. Thanks for posting! and now my snarky as all hell comment about the flash site being quite possibly the worst UI I've run across this year...

By: dubold

dubold — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:59:35 -0800

thanks for mentioning wheelers. they really freaked me out too- i think it was the illustrations. I also want to know how he stops. riding that far below the view of drivers seems redonkulously unsafe. The only benefit I can think of is that a wreck at those speeds (going HEADFIRST!) should be immediately fatal, rather than just painful and crippling.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:01:15 -0800

I wouldn't mind watching some movies, but I just can't reward that Web site. That's probably the worst site design I've seen (where someone actually tried) in years. Thanks for the Gizmodo link. I could swear I've seen this guy before...

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:10:37 -0800

So we get three more of them, and some sort of contraption that spits out streamers of rigid light from their hinders, and put them on a giant grid...

By: quin

quin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:24:21 -0800

riding that far below the view of drivers seems redonkulously unsafe And let's not forget the bits of the video where he was doing this at night. Because the world doesn't have enough moving high-speed speed bumps for me to crash into.

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:43:28 -0800

quin writes "Because the world doesn't have enough moving high-speed speed bumps for me to crash into." I propose we shorten "moving high-speed speed bumps" to "speedy bumps".

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:43:40 -0800

Where are you going to roll today, Rollerman? Anywhere I want to! Geez!

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:21:40 -0800

Hanging out with Rollerman must get tiresome pretty quick.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:43:54 -0800

Words fail me (except for one – CERTIFIABLE).

By: yhbc

yhbc — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:32:38 -0800

Flashman - unfortunately, the proper term is Gosh! No favorite for you.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:36:13 -0800

Did you see the speed run video where he goes 110 kph (~68mph)? Someone is going to add a rocket to this to take it to the next level.

By: umberto

umberto — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:39:53 -0800

OK, I haven't read Baum for almost 30 years, but my instantaneous thought was also, "WHEELERS! AAAUGH!" I'm glad I"m not alone....

By: reality

reality — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:40:07 -0800

I definitely see porn potential. Fetish, at least.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:49:59 -0800

Is this insane, or an extreme combination of inline skating and street luge. This is not a mutually-exclusive choice. It is insane and extreme. Within an hours' drive of my place are two superb places for pulling this sort of stunt. One is the Coquihalla, down to the Okanagan; the other is Hwy 6, down to the Needles ferry. Both have an insane incline, several lanes, and little traffic. Hmmmm...

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:50:56 -0800

Awesome, but if he's not careful he'll grease the underside of a LeCar.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:42:37 -0800

I saw this guy cruising down a busy street in Busan last year. They were filming him for a commercial.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:42:10 -0800

This looks like lots of fun.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:26:09 -0800

First pothole...he eats it.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:54:54 -0800

Flashman - unfortunately, the proper term is Gosh! No favorite for you. D'ow!

By: JDC8

JDC8 — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:54:37 -0800

In a balanced universe, his next move would be to become a Spider-man villain.