``I go around our development at least once a day,'' said Vollmer, 36, a resident of Westbury Chase.
``I look for the new stages, because the older the road, the worse the skating,'' he said, sporting black, hockey-style skates minus the heel stop he severed from the boot.
Vollmer also cited the partially secluded roadways of the Greentree industrial park - ``really smooth'' - off Route 73 near Greentree Road in Evesham. He said - and others concurred - that Kings Grant, the massive housing development off Taunton Lake Road in Evesham, also guarantees silken road surfaces and almost no heavy traffic.
But in search of roomy roadways, some local blading experts insist that premier skating spots are the province of the cities.
Philly offers windy, smooth paths along the Schuylkill on Kelly Drive and West River Drive, the latter of which is closed to motor traffic on summer weekends. Even the Big Apple cordons off miles of hilly roads through Central Park all summer long.
But South Jersey resident John Sutcliffe, who co-owns Skaters Edge, with stores in Philadelphia and Evesham on Route 73 just south of Route 70, produced a pocket guide to skating hot spots. But only one is listed in New Jersey: Washington Lake Park in Washington Township.
``We have a lot of people who rent skates from us for the weekend to go to the shore,'' Sutcliffe said. ``But Washington Lake is probably the best park around here.''
A quick tour of some parks and pathways around here turns up several roadways with surface conditions similar to the urban experience.
Camden County Park almost stands alone as the place to blade in the county. Along the Cooper River near Cuthbert Boulevard, skaters travel along a riverside path, but some have complained about its narrow width and the varying condition of the pavement.
County officials also list Maria B. Greenwald Park, between Grove Street and Kings Highway in Cherry Hill.
