At a time when inline skating has taken the side stage among the action sports empire, one skater has continued to perform in and out of the spotlight.

Fabiola da Silva's passion for the sport began at age 14 when she received a pair of skates from her dad in her hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"I just started to skate around my neighborhood and got really into it," said the 28-year-old da Silva, who recently competed in an Action Sports World Tour event at Belmont Park in Mission Beach. "I saw this skatepark by my house and tried it out and started skating small ramps and stuff, and the sport became more popular, so more parks (opened) with bigger ramps so I just started skating every weekend. Since then, I never stopped, I fell in love with the sport."

Da Silva was soon discovered by American inline competitors Chris Edwards and Arlo Eisenberg.

"We exchanged addresses and after like six months I got invited to come and compete here in the United States," da Silva said.

Da Silva took the women's inline skating scene by storm.

"She not only affected the inline world, she's affected all women's sports when it comes to extreme sports," said Azikiwee Anderson, owner of Empire Distribution and Able Frames and Hardware, one of da Silva's sponsors. "She set a new standard. The very first picture I saw of her was in an inline magazine where every other girl was standing on the deck looking up at her with their mouths gaping as she was airing like 7 or 8 feet when every women up to that point was lucky to get 3 feet. All of a sudden she came and was like a superwoman."

At 16 years old, da Silva won her first contest and turned professional.

"It was an (Action Sports World Tour) stop in Miami and then the 1996 X Games," said da Silva of her first contests. "I won the contests and got sponsored in the same year and started traveling back and forth."

As times were changing, less girls were getting involved with the vert division of inline skating. Stand alone competitions would consist of two or three girls, something that had to change.

"Contests were not at all exciting," said Todd Shays, chief operating officer of ASA Entertainment, which runs the Action Sports World Tour. "No one wanted to watch it. So we started dropping women into the men's format, but still breaking it into a women's division."

The only difference was that if a female were to place in the top 10 against the men, she would ride in the men's final.

"They could be winner of the women's contest and the men's top 10 as well," Shays said.

It was a controversial change in format at the time, and it became known as the "Fabiola Rule" because she was consistently finishing in the top five in the men's final.

"I've been skating with guys for such a long time that it doesn't bother me. If I have to skate against them, I mean it's hard, I have to work hard, but if I see a guy doing a trick why not myself."

According to Shays, the change in format pushed the women to skate better, which made events much more exciting for the crowd.

"It's not like 'Oh Fabiola is good for a girl,' " said friend and sponsor, Anderson. "She's good, period."

Throughout da Silva's career the rollerblading industry has gone through ups and downs. It was pulled from the X Games lineup in 2005, a move that cost it a lot of TV coverage.

"The money that you can make is no longer there, so then what becomes your force to continue is your respect within the community you've been raised," Anderson said. "You are part of a lifestyle and you want to hopefully see it rise again or at the same time, still let everyone know that just because you don't see us every day doesn't mean we aren't amazing. Rollerblading in general is the red-headed stepchild of extreme sports."

"That's the part about Fabiola that we should all respect," Anderson said.

"Whether or not she's being paid, she's still doing shows for kids and starting the next generation."

Da Silva understands the ups and downs and has continued to stay positive. In the meantime, she has been teaching at her skating school in Brazil and exploring another of her passions.

"I like to work out a lot. That's my second passion," said da Silva. "I'm going to go to school. I wanna become a trainer for sure."

"I never started rollerblading because I wanted to be famous, or wanted this to be my career. I never looked to be like that, it just happened really fast, and I guess I was in the right place at the right time."

- Contact staff writer Heather Hawthorne at hhawthorne@nctimes.com.

Perfect 10s

Mick Fanning

The Australian won a men's World Championship Tour event for the second time this season with a victory at the Quiksilver Pro France. He defeated Greg Emslie with 18.43 points in the final round. Fanning's win put him in place to possibly clinch the overall crown at the Billabong Pro Mundaka, which runs today through Oct. 14 in Spain.

Twitch

Winchester resident Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg won the FMX Championships on Sunday in Pomona. The man-on-man heat-style format was popular and produced high drama at the freestyle motocross event. Stenberg won out with a strong performance in the final and ended Nate Adams four-year event winning streak.

Total wipe outs

Kelly Slater

Just a few weeks after throwing himself back into the world title race with a victory at the Boost Mobile Pro at Lower Trestles, Slater fell a ways behind by falling in the third round of the Quiksilver Pro France last week. Slater trailed by less than 200 points before last week's contest. Now he's more that 1,000 points behind.

Adam Jones

This year's X Games gold medalist was injured in a major crash during the semifinals of the FMX Championships and had to be carried off the course.

Check this out

SDSF Open

The San Diego Skaters Foundation is hosting one of the biggest inline skate contests around Saturday at Escondido Skatepark. The SDSF Open has a $12,000 purse and has attracted some of the best inliners in the country to North County for the contest, which begins at noon Saturday.

Association of Surfing Professionals

Men's World Championship Tour

Overall Standings (after seven events)

Surfer?Points

1. Mick Fanning?6,470

2. Kelly Slater?5,450

3. Taj Burrow?5,243

4. Joel Parkinson?4,905

5. Andy Irons?4,741

6. Pancho Sullivan?4,062

7. Damien Hobgood (Encinitas)?4,049

8. Bede Durbidge?3,692

9. Dean Morrison?3,658

10. Taylor Knox (Carlsbad)?3,392