Newb searching for some skate advice

[Zenocc]

I'll go a bit different from what others say. Go plastic plate, like a probe or sunlite, or other respectable plastic plate(not gtx skates lol). Basically this: Cheap 10 deg plastic plate, sure grip super cushions purple and yellow sets, cheap bearings, cosmic superfly wheels in 90A(best cheap wheel I've ever had on comparable to an 88A RBT's as a matter if fact at almost 1/4th the price). Now the important part an AWESOME boot. I CANNOT endorse this enough. If your feet aren't happy, you wont be happy. You can always get a nice metal plate, but you can't always have comfort. Plastic plates are more comfortable to ride on period. This being for just general skating where your not going hard like at a hockey game in overtime...

When I went back to quads after a long time on inlines(20 years?) I had a plastic plate. A sunlite as a matter of fact. Was it a great plate? No. Could I wear people out with it? You betcha. About 6-8 months later I had saved some money to get a better plate. A metal one. I believe had I just splurged when I bought the used quad and put a metal plate on it, I would have been a bit in over my head. Quite frankly my ankles weren't conditioned for the types of movements in quads, and while the metal plate I chose FAR out performs the sunlite, it wasn't so much that I would EVER make a trade off in footwear for a slightly better plate.

As for your kids, theres a LOT of "how to" mounts for soccer shoes. You could recycle their ckeats to skate boots easily(since they are gonna outgrow them anyways) or goodwill/thrift store some cleats hella cheap. They can try the shies on. You can make your own heel from cutting boards, wooden blocks etc and find out what heel height they like. This will get your kids involved in their skates.

Theres a kid I skate with who rolls a sure grip carrera(boot style #2, the ladder looking one) and it cost me 45 bucks shipped, I modified it a bit by regluing the boot and gluing the plate to the boot(done with shoe goo) and he can stay right with me in the rink, I'm a slightly better skater but we're both fast, I've skated his modified skates and its very good

The skate you end up getting will only be able to do what you can make it do. I haven't really seen anyone be "limited" by a plastic plate where just changing to a metal one would solve their problems. I weigh 185-190 btw.

The biggest bang for your buck is cushions, then for performance(speed/cornering) wheels. Theres a lot of little things you can do to skates to get the most out of them without breaking the bank.

Here's another way of looking at it. If your spending so much to get nice gear that it takes away from your funding to go get "skate time" better to just get time spent on skates, than look at your pretty skates sitting on a shelf at the house