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 Surfy66], 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
Exxon 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.
- Number of skating activities
- Specific distances reached
- Marathon
The ideas above are shared agreeing to the Terms of Use described in Garmin’s Ideas Form.
