SouthernSkater Forums

For $20, plus a little shipping, I have to say I don't think I did to bad for my first ever pair! They are very clean, not tore up, 78mm, 78a wheels. I believe a good pair to learn in. So, I laced em up and headed for the garage. My 2 year old said "Daddy you're gonna fall!" Luckily I didn't! Anyways, for the most part, I felt somewhat comfortable on them. Had my balance, could just stand on them, crossover. Course I didn't have a lot of room in the garage. I did take Res's advice about dragging inside skate to turn. Just for the fun of it, I tried leaning in to turn. Yeah it didn't happen! But dragging the left foot when crossing over to turn felt natural. No problems there. I did notice my ankles and calves working a bit harder than I'm use too. Overall though it was fun in our little garage. I feel somewhat confident about taking them to the rink on a slow day or the last 20 or so minutes of a session. I do have some questions as always. 1. How tight are the suppose to be at the top? At first I had the little racket thing snug but I had a little big of wiggle room and started noticing I was bowing the skates in while skating. Tighten the racket as tight as I could and that stiffened everything up. Is that how its suppose to be? Super snug so your leg and skate have no flex? 2. What is good posture on inlines? The majority of people I see at the rink on them kindda look like Frankensteins, all hunched over and upper body and lower body really stiff. I know the posture will be different from quads, but is this how its suppose to be? Lastly, I took the back brake off and now the pins that hold the bearing/wheel, stick out. This alright?

Brakes are for sissies.
They look really nice. You got a bargain. They look basically the same as the ones Catevari sent me. He's the K2 guy, so maybe he will chime in. And don't miss an opportunity to hit up Mitchell at the rink for advise.

Oh absolutely. We are good friends with Mitchell; actually a legend with our kids! Good guy and uncanny on inlines.

I have k2s as well and couldn't ask for a more comfortable and durable inline.. mine are 14 years old and going strong (aside from changing laces and wheel) but I only get to use them about 4 months of the year outside.

Definitely lived up to my screen name or handle last night at the rink. I'm 180 lbs and being on 78a wheels, I felt like I was bouncing along at an excruciatingly slow pace. It's quite a different feel from going in circles on skates to these. I felt awkward nearly the entire time. I worked on getting all 4 wheels down evenly, pushing out, not falling! I just have no idea if my posture is correct, if I'm in control or about to go over. I do know my ankles had enough after several laps.

The boots are made so that you can tighten them and MAKE them keep your ankles from pronating. However, you need to be mindful of that tendency and train yourself to keep your ankles straight.

Actually, the proper stance on an inline, while standing, is to allow it to bow out. Each skate is slightly on its' outside edge, pressure from the boot on each inside of the calf. A lot of folks think the proper way to stand on inlines is with the wheels straight up. Not so. Makes it easier to fall over on your side. With your feet bowed out, if you get off balance, you have instant leverage in the calf area of the boot to keep you from falling.

Night 2 on the blades was really good. Kind of surprised myself! Worked on the same stuff as Thursday and I felt so much more confident. Even kept a decent pace. One of the local bladers said I was doing really good.

The wheels and bearings might be junk. They feel slow and spongy. The guy I spoke to last night skates on 80a's and has no problems getting around. Probably will make an upgrade one day. For now I plan on continuing to spend a little time each session on them trying to get better.

Soft wheels. I went down that road couple of years ago. A change to a harder duro wheel will help cut some of your effort to roll. Keep at it, it takes a lot of retraining time.