BULLFROG NOTEBOOK / PAUL McLEOD : Sport Is Rolling With Technological Changes

The roller hockey industry is evolving faster than even cutting edge-types anticipated.

In-line skates caught on slightly more than 10 years ago, setting the stage for professional roller hockey associations to become reality. Now debate rages in Roller Hockey International, the league that includes the Bullfrogs.

Topics range from the type and color of playing surfaces, new wheel chassis, slight adjustments in wheels for greater speed and the use of four or five-wheel skates for better control.

In mid-July, league coaches and owners are expected to gather at the third RHI All-Star game in St. Louis to accept or reject some of the latest technological advances. What comes out of those meetings could alter the nature of professional roller hockey forever.

“With any new product or league, we have to go by trial and error sometimes,” RHI Commissioner Ralph Backstrom said. “We’re not afraid to take some chances or experience with different products until we find the right products. You have to be aggressive in that area.”

Take playing surfaces. RHI started using a playing surface called SportCourt this year. The floor sits on tiny peg-shaped legs set about three-eighths of an inch apart, according to Southern California distributor Robert Bissin. The surface is a series of slick, equal-size plastic tiles joined together like a big puzzle. The product is touted as being safer than concrete or hardwood floors because it absorbs shock better. It supposedly makes it easier for hockey pucks to glide along the floor and it is relatively easy to install. It takes eight men about eight hours to do the job.

Such floors are also a favorite of ESPN and other television outlets.

When the RHI began in 1992, most teams skated on dull-gray concrete coated with a urethane-like substance. That made for fast skating, but bad TV. The league had to find a way to spice up its look.

The under-promoted league was pressured heavily by television camps to come up with a viewer-friendly surface. More TV deals mean more exposure.

Not every team has jumped to synthetic floors this season. Although the league required their installation, it did not make them mandatory because some owners say they just don’t have the $50,000 available. Synthetic backers, such as SportCourt distributor Bissin, point out that wood costs up to five times as much. Still, the San Diego Barracudas, who play host to the Bullfrogs June 29 at the San Diego Sports Arena, skate on concrete.

Costly or not, Sacramento Coach John Black, a pioneer in roller hockey, is a wood man. Before his team’s 14-9 loss to the Bullfrogs at The Pond last Sunday, Black stood in the corner of the area, just a few feet from where his players were warming up on SportCourt and expounded on the benefits of wood.

In Black’s view, playing on wood floors makes both the puck and the skate wheels move faster. He also believes players can’t turn as well on synthetics as they can on wood.

Bullfrog Coach Grant Sonier sees a benefit, primarily from television exposure and the way the puck moves, in the installation of SportCourt at The Pond this season. Previously, the Bullfrogs skated on treated concrete. But he is cautious about the future.

“As a league we have to be open to whatever is best for our league,” he said. “SportCourt is the option we went to this year and it is an improvement. But the way technology in roller hockey is happening, in six months someone might come up with a surface that is different than what we have now. We need to be open-minded as a league and we certainly don’t want to get locked into something for long period of time.”

As for the color debate, SportCourt, controlled by the owner of the now-defunct RHI Las Vegas franchise, Dan Kotler, comes in three shades. The light blue surface (called Ice White) is used at the Forum for the Los Angeles Blades this season. A slightly darker version, (Ice Blue) is the color at The Pond for the Bullfrogs. A third color, Ice Green, is a lemon-lime shade.

Around the RHI, the feeling is the Forum floor is slightly more spectator-friendly than The Pond’s for following the puck.

Another manufacturer has produced a floor of brilliant yellow plastic. It reportedly plays havoc with television cameras. But it makes following the puck a cinch.

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Wheel changes: Another topic rolling to a head concerns wheels. Those little things on the bottom of the skates that gave this game its name are in for big changes.

Labeda Inline Wheels and Frames, a sponsor of the Bullfrogs, is pushing a five-wheel design, which they claim will revolutionize the game. The RHI allows only a four-wheel chassis.

Labeda spokesman Richard Donine said the five-wheel design makes skating on a surface like SportCourt more manageable.

“You have five points touching the ground,” he said. “With five wheels you get a wheel right below the ball of the foot and that’s the power point.”

Donine said the five-wheel design allows skaters to gain top speed much faster. Labeda plans to ask the RHI to approve the five-wheel design for use in 1996.

Craig Forrest of Huntington Beach-based Hyper Wheels, officially licensed manufacturer of wheels for the RHI, said a five-wheel design puts the skater closer to the floor, because to fit five wheels onto the same chassis at the bottom of the skate boot, the wheels have to be scaled down to 59 millimeters in diameter. Four-wheel designs use 76- or 72-millimeter wheels. Being lower to the floor could increase initial top speed, Forrest said, but he isn’t so sure a five-wheel design is that fast overall.

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Wheels of fortune: What is the right wheel to use? When Sonier was pressed to explain the subtleties of skating on a surface such as SportCourt versus skating on concrete, he cringed.

“This stuff is so technical, I can’t keep up with it. We have wheel guys who do that,” he said.

The Bullfrogs will use one set of wheels on concrete in San Diego and another back at The Pond on July 2 against the Barracudas.

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Bullfrog Notes

Two teams going in opposite directions play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at The Pond, when the Bullfrogs (4-0) face the Oakland Skates (1-4). Oakland opened with four losses before beating Oklahoma, 7-6, Saturday. The Skates lost, 8-2, Wednesday night at Los Angeles. . . Bullfrog player/assistant coach Brad McCaughey on the team’s quick start: “We got off to the same start last year and then lost four of our next eight. This time around we need to do better.”. . . Children under 12 pay $5 for any seat Friday when accompanied by a full-paying adult.