Roller skates

I used to do a bit as a kid but nothing since except for the odd trip to the festive ice rinks. now the my kids are learning and inspired by the skate board thread I’m thinking about getting some for myself.

Any tips on makes / types to get.

I liked to get a board too but I don’t think my balance is quite what it needs to be, so skating feels like it may be easier to pick back up.

One thing worth mentioning, on a board, neither foot has wheels on it, you’re just standing on a plank with wheels you can at least jump off, or put a foot down onto tarmac.

With the skates, they’re tied to your feet…

I got into skating again after taking the kids a few years ago got into a regular thing. We had a great local rink.

I used to skate a lot years ago so treated myself to the skates I always wanted back then. It’s got to be Bauers. I used to have Turbos but they don’t make them any more.

I’ve got a pair of Bauer Nexus with playmaker plates, ACS-651’s and Sims Street Snakes

Now sporting wider trucks and the obligatory Roces laces

Oil’s skate shop have a good range. They do Roces, Ventro and Supreme too, which are replicas of the old Bauer Turbo’s

Ooooh Bauer! I remember lusting after those when I was a kid!
Taking about skating, I used to be able to go fast and also cross the skates over in the turns when Iceskating….me and the missus a few years back now went to Oslo for a long weekend in winter and there was a public rink there….I advised I’d be happy to show her the ropes……well it was like I’d never skated in my life! I was horrendous! Like “needing a kids support” bad. Luckily I don’t myself to seriously so we laughed it off but I’ve never lived it down 🤣🤣

I recently returned to rollerskates after a 40 year gap. Broke my wrist second time out.
Ive invested in the best wrist braces I can find and cant wait to go again. While waiting for dry weather I’ve been watching rollerskate videos on youtube and everyone is smiling in them.
I got some ventro turbo pro with airwave wheels second hand used once off ebay for about £70, probably off some other old mug who broke his wrist :)

That’s what you get for using public skates. Lucky if they’ve ever been sharpened.

OP are your kids learning to roller skate or roller blade? Because there’s a marked difference between the two to the point you may struggle to get any use where they want to go (at a guess, skate parks).

You soon get back into it. A few of us ended up going down to the far quieter, kid-free midweek evening sessions as well as weekends with the kids. The rink has decent music and a bar, so it’s like I’d reverted back to being 17 😂

This takes me back. I skated everywhere when I was a teenager (had some Bauers too), Even skated to school which was 5 miles away. Could do spins in the air, go backwards faster than most people could go forwards, happy to go down very steep hills etc,. but I bet if I tried 40 years later I would be useless.

Have briefly had a go at rollerblading and ice skating over the years thinking I would be okay as so good as roller skating but I wasn’t great at all – very different things.

Aside from those who didn’t own them who didn’t lust after a set of Bauers!

First things first I think what pad and guard recommendations!

One kid has blades the other skates(presents)! they’re both still quite young though.

Last thing I did was blading so them I think, although I did have a hankering for a nice set of Bauers quads.

CZ – that’s a good point. My memories of boarding are largely eating dirt but skating certainly want spill free! Pads and protection – where /what to go for this?

If it’s inline skating you’re after joining back with, I’d recommend Rollerblade, K2, Roces or FR Skates. Assuming that you just want recreational type of skating that is.
Go to locoskates website and have a look around, then get them cheaper on eBay as there is always loads. Sizing can be a pain sometimes but loco is usually pretty good for support on that, and offer a free return of size is wrong.
I’ve been skating for over 20 years on and off, skatepark stuff though. Trying to get back to it more recently but finding time to do it regularly is very difficult.

Plenty of pads on locoskates too, any wrist guard is better than none. Kneepads, if you’ve got any biking pads just use them.

I used to Inline skate many years ago then last year I decided to do a 100 miles skate in May for Cancer Research Challenge. I have been skating most weeks ever since, some months actually skating more than biking as I love it again so much.

There is a lack of decent shops about, I mainly use SlickWillies (https://www.slickwillies.co.uk/) or Locoskates (https://www.locoskates.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIha_h05Ch_AIVAu7tCh3KnwyCEAAYASAAEgK18_D_BwE) But cant emphasize the point of getting correctly fitting skates for comfort and also for control. I actually downsized and the difference in skating was light night and day.

Padding wise I use the ENNUI CITY WRIST GUARDS, quite expensive but mega comfortable. also wearing my TLD helmet all the time.

You tube has loads of information about, skatefresh asha is well worth watching, as is Bill Stoppard.
https://www.youtube.com/@SkatefreshVideos
https://www.youtube.com/@BillStoppard

Also wished I lived closer to London as the skate scene is the place to be for learning and also organised street night skate.

Binners – nice skates. Ah yes, Roller disco do they still do them?! Sounds ace, although the bar sounds good, the combo of skating and drinking sounds like a risky one!!

my 8yo lad asked for roller skates last christmas, since then we have been going pretty much every week. Still had my 30 odd yo Bauers in the attic which fell apart when I picked them up! Have bought new ones since as above, as has my wife and lad… Take a look around on social media for discos etc… loads of them around. I thought I would be out of place as the only bloke in his late 40s skating but it is certainly not the case. It’s deffo more quads than inline skates from what I can see

As others have said check on social media for roller discos as skating has had quite a resurgence since Covid, some even offer lessons as well. Some local parks also have a few weekend catchups. I am more of an early bird before the parks get to busy, just be careful of dogs not on leads!
Also, everyone seems to smile when you’re on skates,
“Too old to skate young”

oh, in the bad weather you could also try the local indoor carparks to practise in when they are quiet.

So I still need quads to be cool at the disco – nothing changed in 30 years then!

This takes me back. I skated everywhere when I was a teenager (had some Bauers too), Even skated to school which was 5 miles away. Could do spins in the air, go backwards faster than most people could go forwards, happy to go down very steep hills etc,. but I bet if I tried 40 years later I would be useless.

Same here. We had a great rink in Warrington, but we all had Bauers (I had Turbo’s with Tracker Midtracks and Santa Cruz OJ2’s) and skated everywhere, especially the multi-story car parks at night. You’d be amazed how quickly you get it back. Its like… erm… riding a bike

Unfortunately our brilliant local rink (in Bury) didn’t survive lockdown. I really miss it

I thought I would be out of place as the only bloke in his late 40s skating but it is certainly not the case.

Not at all. We started going down for midweek evening session which were full of … ahem… people of a certain age. Got to know plenty who were going every week. Some serious skaters too! The best was an old guy in his 80’s who put his headphones on and would skate round all night listening to classical music! Who wouldn’t want to be him in their 80’s?

So I still need quads to be cool at the disco – nothing changed in 30 years then!

Nope. Bauer quads are the still the thing

Anyway.. if you’re into your skating then check out the absolutely amazing BBC Storyville documentary United Skates of America about the cultural significance of skating to the black communities in America. The skating is absolutely off the chart. Its unfeasibly cool!!

Curses! Its no longer available on iplayer. I’ll try and find it somewhere for you

Binners – nice skates. Ah yes, Roller disco do they still do them?! Sounds ace, although the bar sounds good, the combo of skating and drinking sounds like a risky one!

Roller world in Derby is still going!

http://www.derbyrollerworld.co.uk/

I’d definitely avoid a skateboard unless you’re just planning on bimbling about. In my experience definitely the most dangerous option. Good luck OP and have fun!

I was actually wearing wrist guards when I broke my wrist, and the x-ray guy said it wasn’t the first time it had been broken. With that in mind I went for the best I could find and got these
guards
Found them online for less than here, they seem popular with electric unicycle riders and I assume they need protection more than most.
There seem to be a fair few ‘pop up’ roller discos at leisure centers if you look online.

@sweepy I’m a bit concerned by this! Obviously no protection is fail safe but being reminded is always sobering! I assume those guards are the ones you upgraded to and not the ones you were wearing when you crashed?!

I was wearing my snowboarding guards, da kine I think, I’m a fair bit heavier now but apparently my wrists have been broken before but hadn’t bothered to go to the hospital so not sure when, might have been before I got the old ones but I decided to try to protect them as much as possible.
Those flex meters are the new ones yes, not tried them out yet so fingers crossed. I’m not letting it stop me anyway though.

I dabbled in in-line speed skating for a few years – got a marathon PB of under 2 hours and completed the Inline 111, Europe’s longest inline skate race at 115km in Switzerland with 1,000 participants. There’s nothing quite the same as being in a 50-person+ pace line going at 40km/hr+ along roads, through towns and villages – first downhill was quite an eye-opener 😳 no brakes! You actually rest your hand on the skater in front so you get a real ‘shove’ from those behind. At one point, there were 2 lines of skaters side-by-side as we went into a village – one of the skaters in the other line clipped a parked car and there was a huge pile up. The line I was in stayed left and missed the crash, but because someone shouted “Links, links!” The skaters on the front took it as an instruction to take the next turning on the left whilst going full-chat – the resulting whiplash meant a few skaters missed the turn, clipping the pavement and someone nearly went through a shop window 🤣

I used to go to the one in Warrington to Binners. (Tainted Love?) ACS 651 trucks and slime wheels.
Had a pair of Bauer Turbos bitd. Used to play roller hockey for Southport YMCA too.
Happy happy days

@monkeysfeet – do you remember the figure-of-8 speed skating on a Friday night? That was insane! We used to do it every week but how the hell nobody died 😳

It was utter madness! You’d never get away with that shit nowadays

The half pipe too. I remember them having some of the best skaters in the world riding that. It was bonkers! We were so lucky to have that place. Spent every Friday night there and midweeks when it was quieter. With the skate shop at the side, It was a great scene.

Happy days indeed

I’m an old school skater who picked skates back up in 2010 when I split up with the ex and my daughter wanted to go skating, low and behold, Wigan has one of the biggest rinks in Europe.

2010 to 2016 I used to spend 20+ hours a week on skates at the rink and 10 + hours a week playing/training roller derby. Skating is a way of life for me and to be honest, was the nail in the coffin for MTB for me.

Everyone has nostalgia for Bauer Turbo’s and a lot of the older guys like me, still think they’re cool. I personally thought they were crap first time round and still are.

Skating rinks are disappearing fast, Rollerworld in Colchester has just closed down after landlord tripled their rent, so the South has lost one of the biggest and best floors in the country, it was sublime and had a great vibe.

The only two true roller rinks left are Rollerworld in Derby and my local, Wigan Roller Rink which is now the biggest, by far.

You don’t need quads to be cool, plenty of us skate on fairly top end inlines (£800 a pair) and it’s about personal preference.

Cheap skates don’t last, it really is that simple. I bought a £900 pair in 2013 and used them for 20-30 hours a week until I sold them in 2018 and the lad who bought them still uses them 10+ hours a week now, only thing changed on them is wheels, they have their original bearings etc.

We organising a STW skate night in Wigan then?

I’m in

Slightly OT, and only really on the edges of my mental ‘want’ list, but does anyone have useful insight into ‘trail’ or ‘off road’ inline skates – the ones with oversize wheels?

Mrs Noise got into running a while back but injuries (aggravated by high impact activities) have stopped that and I have the notion that trail skating round the local fire roads might be something we can do together?

@colournoise, I mainly skate around parks were they are fairly smooth, unless the fire roads are fairly smooth I do not think you will like skating on them. I did try Cannock Chase once on their paths and was much too bumpy and pretty much stop/start skating and very unenjoyable.
I normally skate with 4 x 84mm-90mm wheels, but for distance and less smooth surfaced I use 3 x 110mm which do smooth out the paths a bit if asphalted and on quite roads.

The closest I would say to ‘off road’ skates would be the powerslide 3 x 150, pretty expensive tbh and bear in mind you will be gathering a fair bit of speed going downhill with such large wheels and also pretty painful skating up any inclines. and used with nordic skies for a good workout.

I used to skate when I was young, roller discos at Wigan Pier, almost forty years later my wife and her friends started going and taking the kids, so I agreed to go along, within ten minutes I could skate pretty well, not as well as when I was twenty but well enough, came back straight away, I’ve now bought some skates ( and pads) and go out pretty regularly on my own, I’m in Cardiff and there’s about a km or two of smooth tarmac down at Cardiff Bay so I go there when no one’s about, it’s ace. Apparently Bute Park here is great for skating in the summer, too much debris on the paths during the winter, leaves etc, which is handy as I live nearby.

Learned a lot from skating videos, trying to remember what I’ve forgotten, Skatie is good, not too gung ho or annoying like some.

We organising a STW skate night in Wigan then?

I’m in

+1!

Wigan has an over 18 bar too, so beer can be consumed too…

@ Binners, yes indeed. Our local hang out was Southport YMCA every Friday and Saturday night. We occasionally went to Warrington too. We were all pretty good on skates so we upset a few locals with our awesome moves. Ha ha….
There’s a Facebook page for us with some really good pictures (I went roller skating at the Southport YMCA in the 80’s). There’s even a pic of Jeremy Beadle giving us a cheque for a charity skate we did.

Excellent! 😂

Well Mick has kindly offered to show me round Wigan rink on a Wednesday or Thursday night session in January. Can’t bloody wait!

I just told Mrs Binners that I’ve arranged a nights skating via a thread on the forum, and she replied ‘of course you did’ 😂. She’ll probably join us. She’s a handy skater herself and she used to go to Wigan rink all the time

Any other skaters close enough to the area to join us?

Google says 340 short miles :(

Sadly not due to the distance. Have a great time though 👌👍. hopefully back skating next week, weather permitting

Bought the youngest some skates for his birthday so thinking of dragging the whole family out Friday night to Wigan.
Not my thing but great for the kids to learn, both boys have inline skates and the daughter used to skate, so may just drag her along and hire some quads. Also the other half bought some very cheap things a while back to try out but is terrified.

Slightly OT, and only really on the edges of my mental ‘want’ list, but does anyone have useful insight into ‘trail’ or ‘off road’ inline skates – the ones with oversize wheels?

Mrs Noise got into running a while back but injuries (aggravated by high impact activities) have stopped that and I have the notion that trail skating round the local fire roads might be something we can do together?

Missed this the first time, but here’s a reply – had a pair of the Powerslide Off-road skates that I used to use with XC ski poles, Nordic Skating – whilst you can use them without poles, you can’t move as fast and it gives you less of a workout. Also used to use them on an off-road tarmac circuit that was often used by roller-skiers but the Nordic skates were quite a bit quicker. It does require a bit of practise to get the timing of your double-poling, or your skate-1 or skate-2 techniques, particularly to make sure you don’t put your pole in front of your skates. Even with 6” wheels, they were surprisingly capable off-road but you do need a wide track if using a skating technique – getting past someone on the canal towpath was sometimes a bit of a squeeze and folks don’t appreciate you don’t really have brakes, although some newer models do. Lots of cross-over into cycling building a strong core and quads – the summer I spent doing lots of in-line and came back for some bike races in the autumn and was pretty strong.

I too missed this thread first time round…. I was an avid skater throughout my teens, spent many weekends at Rollerworld Derby. (And Alfreton Leisure centre) Had a pair of Bauer Turbos and hockey socks, bought from Rollersnakes in Notts when it used to be on Maid Marian Way.

Got my lad some skates last winter, and started taking him to Rollerworld again – I had no idea its one of the last remaining rinks. Got myself some Riedell quads so I can join him. Amazing feeling to be cruising round again. Basic forwards / backwards skating came back soon enough, but hockey stops etc are still rusty.