Every Beginning Is Difficult
… as the Germans say. And knowing how scary trying out a new hobby can feel like, I thought it might be a good idea to collect here what I have learned so far about inline skating and what I would recommend you if you are new to this hobby. Even though I am not an expert, I can help you learn the basics and choose the right inline skates for yourself.
Which Skates Should I Choose?
When looking for inline skates to try out, you might have come accross different types of skates and feel overwhelmed by the different options. And that is okay. The more I researched about inline skates, the more overwhelmed I felt by the different things to consider depending on what your goal with them is. Since you are just starting out, I will recommend you what I think is best for starters and try to make it as simple as possible.
The Shoe Itself
First, you would want to get inline skates which provide enough protection for your feet. In other words: The shoe should look like itself and your feet will survive you falling down several times and hitting and skratching on different materials. I recommend getting skates which have strong protective parts surrounding the shoe. The material of the shoe itself should be robust enough to survive being skratched while also providing sufficient airflow for your feet to breathe. For you to have a better idea of how such skates look like, I have provided a picture of my old inline skates below. As you can see, my old inline skates provide a lot of protection – not only by the protecting parts surrounding the shoe, but also by the material of the shoe. They have survived at least 10 years, noticeable by the amount of scratches on the protective parts. I think this demonstrates enough, how important those protective parts are. But the shoes also have parts made of material which lets in some air, allowing your feet to breathe. And of course, you would also want to have a stopper installed, which looks stable enough to be able to be slammed into the ground. Of course, there are different techniques on how to stop yourself from rolling anywhere without using the stopper, but I myself find it more comfortable to use it (as you can see, I have used it quite a bit).
When it comes to the size of the shoe, I recommend the ones which are adjustable. This way you can adapt the size perfectly to each foot individually, making you feel more secure when you try stand in them. Ususually there should be a range when it comes to the shoe size visible on the listing (e.g. 37-39). You can also see this on the tag on the inside of the shoe or engraved by the side of the shoe (where you adapt the shoe to your foot size). Additionally, I recommend getting a shoe with not only shoelaces but also an adjustable skate buckle and strap vor extra security and ajdustment options.
The Wheels
When you are starting out, I would recommend for you to get inline skates which have four wheels which are 70 – 80 mm high. The smaller the wheels, the easier it is for you to balance yourself on them. Plus, you will feel more comfortable the closer you are to the ground. If you are planning to buy your skates on resale-platforms like ebay, you probably will not see the size of the wheels in the prduct description, but you can often see it on the wheels themselves:
The Brand
In general, brands like K2 or Powerslide seem to be the most popular in the inline skating community. However, they can be a bit pricy and might be a bit of an overkill, if you want to just try out inline skating. I believe that any brand should be fine as long as the skates fit the criteria I have mentioned. My parents had bought mine at Lidl (the ones from crivit) about ten years ago and they are still perfectly safe and work flawlessly.
The Right Protection Gear
Especially if you are just starting to skate it is essential for you to wear all the protection equipment. I see a lot of people skating without protection gear and while I like their confidence in their skating abilities, I do not think that this is a good idea. It is similar to all the bike riders out there riding without a helmet, feeling confident that they do not need a helmet – unless they do. And then it is too late. Though inline skating is much safer when you stick to proper skating areas and do not share a street with a car, you just need a small moment of insecurity to loose balance. While crashing down might be less hurtful than crashing with a bike, whole-bodily surfing over the ground without the protection gear is no fun. Trust me. Plus, you can learn how to fall safely in a way that you use your protective gear to cushion your fall, further mitigatin the risk of you getting hurt. I recommend watching videos on YouTube for this for now. You can start with this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzNqdnitT5o. This video covers the basics of inline skating, including how to fall safely.
It is crucial that you find the right size for you. The protective gear should properly cover your whole knees and elbows and insides of your hands. It should sit tight enough so that it does not easily slide off if you fall down. Yet, it should of course not cut off your blood vessels or cause you any pain because it is too tight. So before buying the gear, I recommend having a look at the size table which you can usually find on the company’s website and measure your knees, elbows and hands and compare them to the table accordingly.
When it comes to helmets, I recommend using a proper skating helmet as it is designed differently than one for biking. They cover more of the back of your head which is crucial for protecting against backward falls – a common risk in inline skating. They are also designed to handle multiple impacts and are therefore mure durable for frequent falls while biking helmets are usually built for single high-impact crashes. For finding the right size, I recommend measuring the circumference of your head and comparing it to the size table of the manufacturer, if you are not able to try it out at a local shop.
Never Has a Master Fallen Down From The Sky Before
…. as another beautiful saying in German goes. It is normal to feel insecure and wobbly once you try out inline skating. Every one who skates has started out fighting for their balance. You just have to keep practicing until you find it. Because practice makes the master (another saying, yes). No one was born being perfect in anything. Everyone has to practice to become good at something and the same goes for inline skating. So please do not give up just because you are not able to confidently skate right from the get go. Be patient with yourself and give yourself time to slowly adjust to the new feeling of balancing and moving yourself on wheels.
I hope my blog was helpful to you and I thank you for reading it. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I wish you lots of fun while skating! See you in the next post!
Very informative, thanks a mill!