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Inline Skating: ✓Activity, ☐ Data & ☐ Badges

Frederick
over 1 year ago

Update (01/07/24): Inline Skating was added to Forerunner 945 LTE
Update (12/04/23): Inline Skating is finally an activity profile (for the following models: Forerunner 255, 265, 955, 965, Fenix 7/Fenix 7 Pro, Epix 2/Epix 2 Pro, Enduro 2, Quatix 7, Marq 2, Approach S70)
Update (10/31/23): Inline Skating added to Forerunner’s beta version 17.18.
Update (10/26/23): Inline Skating has been added to the beta version 15.68.

Things that appear strikethrough below have already been implemented.

The purpose of this thread is to bring attention to a topic that has been written about here 18 times since 2014, which is to have Inline Skating as a native app in our watches. Inline skating is a sport that has a good number of participants in the Garmin community. Well known professional skaters also use Garmin for their training, so the suggestions below have the purpose of allowing skaters to "make the most of the time they spend pursuing their passions."

Please take a minute to fill the Ideas form with a request for this app and the link to this thread. It’s the most effective way to have our voices heard.

Though it’s true that there are great apps available in Garmin IQ store [read the comments to learn and try an app by ], having a native app will provide a richer experience with Garmin’s data fields, Connect App and other IQ data fields that one would like to see (ex. muscle oxygen). Gathered here are past ideas from older threads and new ones that are inspired by other activities. 

Activity

 wrote in: 'Please consider supporting Inline Skating natively on Fenix'

"There's support for much more exotic sports, but Inline skating, with 4.9M participants as of 2021 in US alone is still missing (as per • Inline wheel roller skating participants US 2021 | Statista)"

Data

Besides having its own activity, the addition of the following data insights within the app would be beneficial to anyone using Garmin for this activity/sport. For example, you can record Pace, Elevation and Heart Rate, but is missed as map layers.

Graphs: Brackets of Speed*

* Something similar to this could display the different ranges of speed one goes through during a race (tempo, threshold, sprint). They could be selected by default or manually set by the skater like we do with Heart Rate or Power zones (Ex. 8–12 mph), so that a skater can know his different speed zones even when influenced by elevation. Or put more simply, distinguishing from cruising/rolling (with no effort), skating (obtained from moving time) and idle.

Edit: A similar graph can be obtained from the Training Calendar 'FinalSurge.com'

 Other Data: Self evaluation*, Totals, Personal records

* Not visible for 'Other' sports in Connect Mobile

           

Miscellaneous

When selecting skates in the gear section to be the defaults for Other—which is what the majority uses to track Inline Skating—every other activity in that category has that gear assigned, even breathwork! A clear distinction would prevent this even if it recognizes that it was changed from Other to Inline Skating from the long list of sports.

   

When setting up a race event in calendar 'Other' sports can't have an event goal assigned like cycling does for example.

 

Another thing that results from the ‘Other’ category is the inability of viewing avg. Heart Rate data in Garmin Connect Mobile's laps view when reviewing a custom workout, and also not being able to set a secondary target to workouts. PacePro Pacing strategies can't be set for races in this sport since the fastest pace one's able to submit is 4:00/mi. Finally, when using auto export feature, one needs to recategorize every activity on multiple platform (Ex. Strava).

Here’s inspiration on the type of data that’s most interested from a race (Ex. 200 meters) collected by Speed Skating Data on Instagram:

• Fastest lap
• Slowest lap
• Number of total pushes
• Number of pushes by segment or lap (in a skating track it’s divided into: first corner, second corner, first straight, second straight)

Badges

For some of us that mainly use Garmin for inline skating, and other sports too, we miss out on much of the badges available in the app. The following are a few ideas for inspiring badges for Inline Skating.

  1. Number of skating activities
  2. Specific distances reached
  3. Marathon

The ideas above are shared agreeing to the Terms of Use described in Garmin’s Ideas Form.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I personally would like to see Inline Skating added as a built in activity.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I used to use 2 different apps, one turned out to need a fee every year (I don't like that), another is not ported to the F7. So now its just a general multisport app. I'm lazy, I want the recording to be in the correct category afterwards and not edit that on my own on Garmin and Strava (as it is synced immediately in the state it was saved as, so if you use running it gets copied as running to Strava, so you end up having to edit both).

    Native support with the options to setup own pages and control over what GPS system to use as usual in Garmin would be the best.

    Don't forget to tell Garmin directly: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

    A post in the Forum does not really count, but can be useful to get others to request it directly too.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I developed an application called Downhills, which allows you to track downhill activities (mtb, alpine skiing, etc.) but not only since it also works for flat activities (cross-country skiing in particular). The application calculates all the essential metrics, as well as the positive and negative elevation. If this application could suit you, I just have to add the inline skating activity, which will then be saved as such in the FIT file. Let me know if you're interested, and if so, the addition could be done fairly quickly (available for next week). Once ready, I will come back to this topic to inform you of the availability of the updated application.

    Here is the direct link to the app: https://apps.garmin.com/fr-FR/apps/0f15d864-4fa4-4cb7-9983-2eb93aa41564
    and detailed explanations on its use, here: https://www.jeanmichelgruber.com/applications-garmin-garmin-apps/jmg-app-downhills/english/

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Thanks Frederick for once again talking about this topic, I hope it finally gets the attention it deserves.
    Inline skating is not some niché tradition sport in a small country - it is a common activity practiced all over the world.

    Yet Garmin fails to provide a simple option to track this activity on all their devices that can cost up to 1.000€.
    It shows how little Garmin actually cares about their users that have been complaining about this for years.
    What makes it even worse is the little effort that it would require to fix this inconvenience.

    The FIT protocol supports the activity inline skating. All that is required is for Garmin to add an app for it similar to the other 60+ activities they offer!

    Instead you have to rely on (sometimes paid) 3rd party apps to track a basic sport on your 1.000€ watch in 2022.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to KrapfenKringel
    KrapfenKringel said:
    if you use running it gets copied as running to Strava, so you end up having to edit both

    I was wondering how that worked.

    KrapfenKringel said:
    Don't forget to tell Garmin directly: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

    Yes, of course!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 2478937
    2478937 said:
    I hope it finally gets the attention it deserves.

    Me too! Fingers crossed

    2478937 said:
    it is a common activity practiced all over the world.

    And I would add that even more during and after the quarantine.

    2478937 said:
    users that have been complaining about this for years.

    It's impressive how 18 threads have been written since 2014 basically yearly. That's without taking into account the comments added on non-related threads. Can't imagine how many suggestions have been made through the 'Share Idea'.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Surfy66

    Appreciate the suggestion, ! I read the instructions of your app and found interesting how you measured the downhill after first going up. I've looked up different modalities of inline skating and it would be nice for inline downhillers too. As for me, I mainly do long distance trainings for marathons and some drills sessions. You mentioned your app works for flat activities, and I'll vote up your comment for those who find it useful. Personally i'd like to rely on something from Garmin after having made the purchase of a Fenix.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Frederick

    Here is what I propose to you: I will still integrate the 2 inline skating and downhill skating profiles in the application so you will have the choice to try it and then use it, or not, knowing that these 2 profiles will exist whatever happens in the app.
    You will have 20 minutes of trial every day to get a feel for the application after several tests to see if it really suits your needs or not (you will be able to see the result of your 20 mn trial session in Garmin Connect with all the graphs + dedicated stats, etc), knowing that it may be better to have something that does not come from Garmin than nothing at all. I will come back to this topic to inform you about the availability of the app as soon as it's uploaded to the Garmin store.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Surfy66

    Thank you for your generosity.

    Surfy66 said:
    get a feel for the application after several tests to see if it really suits your needs or not

    I’m willing to test it for a few sessions.

    Surfy66 said:
    it may be better to have something that does not come from Garmin than nothing at all.

    I completely agree, though that’s what motivated this and other threads: to have something from Garmin. I just started this year, but it’s been asked for so long now. Can’t say for sure how hard or not it would be to implement these changes (not a dev), but I believe it deserves more attention than what’s been given taking into account the longevity of this request.

    Surfy66 said:
    you will be able to see the result of your 20 mn trial session in Garmin Connect with all the graphs + dedicated stats, etc

    I’ll share my results and review here if you don’t mind…

    Surfy66 said:
    you will have the choice to try it and then use it, or not

    ... and let you know what I decide. Slight smile

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Frederick

    This will take just a few days to implement the new features + testing phase.

    "I’ll share my results and review here if you don’t mind…" -> no problem at all, I'm quite confident of the results that will come out of it, as the app already exists since 3 years without any issue and pretty accurate results.

    You should know that one of the main advantages of this application is to be able to memorize and store one or more standard routes, which you use regularly (if you wish, of course, there is no obligation in the application). Then, when you run on one of these favorite courses, you can then compare your results and see if you have performed better than the previous times.