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Freeskates Buying Guide
To find the best freeskates for you, you’ll need to find a pair of inline skates that matches your style and the surfaces you skate on. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key aspects of urban inline skating and freestyle skating to help you find the perfect pair of freeskates that aligns with your style and goals.
Whether you want to learn about urban inline skates or what features make freestyle slalom skates more agile, we hope you will find answers to any questions you have about freeskates in the chapters below.
Overview
Overview
What Are the Best Inline Freeskates for Beginners?
If you’re new to freeskating, you should get a versatile pair of freeskates that let you explore different styles within the sport. As you progress, your choices will likely be guided by the specific style you wish to pursue. The following advice is of a general nature and is targeted towards beginners who are curious about inline skating styles like freeskating, freeriding, freestyle, and slalom.
When choosing inline freeskates look for these features:
- Comfortable liners: Quality liners with good padding and ventilation are essential for extended skating. Look for moisture-wicking and breathable materials to keep your feet cool and comfortable.
- Efficient buckle system: A secure, adjustable buckle system ensures a snug fit, giving you maximum control and stability. A combination of buckles, laces, and straps allows for fine-tuning.
- Boots: A solid hard boot is recommended for freeskating. Hard boots are durable, stiff and impact resistant, and they provide great ankle support, which helps you to remain stable. Additionally, hard boots tend to be more responsive than soft boots.
- Ankle Support: It is essential that you get a pair of skates with proper ankle support to prevent injuries and to help keep your ankles straight when performing tricks.
- Wheel sizes: Ideally, you should look for 80 or 90 mm wheels as it will give you extra stability. With larger wheels, the center of gravity is higher up, and therefore the skates are more difficult to control.
- Wheel hardness: Generally, softer wheels are considered easier for beginners. They grip better on rough surfaces and absorb vibrations from the surface on which you skate.
Consider the above rules of thumb when you browse our selection of freeskates. Additionally, you can filter the products by skill level, so that you will only be seeing the models that are recommended for your level.
What Is Urban Skating?
Urban skating, also known as street skating, is about navigating the city with speed and style. It involves jumping over obstacles, descending stairs, and moving fluidly through the cityscape. While it shares elements with aggressive skating, such as stair-bashing and wall-riding, it doesn’t include grinding. Urban freeskates aren’t built for tricks involving rails, but they excel in dynamic, intense skating.
What Are the Best Urban Inline Skates?
Urban skating demands a hard boot for durability and a sturdy frame that can handle impacts. Since you wear the skates for extended periods, comfort is essential. Look for skates with well-cushioned liners that provide both comfort and support.
What Wheels Are Best for Urban Skating?
Urban skates feature wheels designed for speed and agility, with common diameters ranging from 80 mm to 110 mm. If your urban skating involves long distances, larger wheels will help with speed and keeping momentum, while smaller wheels offer more control. For tricks, you’ll likely feel more comfortable using 100 mm wheels than 110 mm ones.
Wheel hardness for urban skates ranges from 82A to 88A. If you skate in an area with rough and uneven surfaces, softer wheels provide an advantage by absorbing more vibration.
Learn more about wheels for inline skating:
What Is Freestyle Skating?
Freestyle skating is all about precision and technical movements, including spins, jumps, and slides. Primarily, freestyle skating takes place on flat ground, and often, lines of cones are used for the skater to weave through in various patterns.
Flow in Freestyle Skating
Flow is essential in freestyle inline skating. It refers to the ability to transition seamlessly between movements while maintaining control and balance. Freestyle skating often resembles figure skating, and accomplished freeskaters almost seem like they are hovering above the ground.
What Is Slalom Skating?
Slalom skating is a discipline focused on weaving between cones with speed and precision. It requires agility, balance, and excellent footwork. Skates used for slalom typically have smaller wheels and a shorter frame for enhanced maneuverability.
What Are Good Slalom Skates?
When choosing slalom skates, a shorter frame and smaller wheels are essential for agility.
Advanced slalom skaters prefer a rockered wheel setup, where the two center wheels are larger than the front and rear wheels. This setup improves maneuverability and assists with executing tricks. However rockered setups are difficult to control for beginners, making it more difficult to learn basic moves.
Most freeskates can be used for slalom skating if you're a beginner, but once you develop more skill, you can start exploring features that enhance precision and control. A rockered wheelbase will greatly improve your flow during slalom skating. Another key consideration is the liner – advanced skaters often prefer built-in liners because they provide increased precision and responsiveness.
Urban Skating vs. Freestyle Skating
Urban skating and freestyle skating share many similarities, and you'll find that they don't need to be strictly divided.
Urban skating focuses on tackling city obstacles and various terrains. If you pursue urban skating, you’ll likely find yourself jumping, rolling down stairs, or maneuvering around tight spaces. Urban skating integrates elements from both fitness skating and aggressive skating.
Freestyle skating, on the other hand, is more about grace and precision. Think of it as dancing on wheels, with movements designed to be fluid and elegant. Freestyle skating is sometimes almost synonymous with slalom skating.
While these styles overlap in many ways, urban skating is more about traversing the city, and using its architectural features creatively, whereas freestyle takes place on flat and smooth surfaces. In urban skating, you weave through traffic, whereas in freestyle skating you weave through cones.
Do you prefer the fast-paced and rougher urban skating, or do you find yourself more attracted to the artistic elements of freestyle skating? The answer to these questions will guide the choices you make when it comes to future upgrades of your freeskate setup.
Should I get 3-Wheeled or 4-Wheeled Freeskates?
Here’s a breakdown of the key factors to consider when deciding whether to opt for 3-wheeled or four-wheeled inliners:
- Always four wheels for beginners: Four-wheeled skates provide greater stability, making them the better option for beginners on inline skates.
- Advantages of triskates: Three-wheeled skates offer significant advantages for more experienced skaters. Their shorter wheelbase enhances maneuverability, allowing skaters to make tighter turns and execute tricks more easily. They can also accommodate bigger wheels, which is great for those intent on covering distance.
- Wheel size: Triskates can accommodate larger wheels without increasing the length of the skate, which contributes to higher speeds while still allowing for good agility. This is especially beneficial for experienced skaters looking to enhance their performance.
The choice of going for either 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled skates is not a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of style and preferences.
Is a Rockered Wheel Setup Preferable for Freeskating?
A rockered wheel setup can be a game-changer for experienced freestyle skaters. In this configuration, the front and rear wheels are slightly smaller than the middle ones, creating a curved wheelbase that enhances maneuverability.
However, for beginners, a rockered setup can feel unstable and harder to control, making it more difficult to learn basic techniques. If you're just starting out, a flat wheel setup will provide more stability and ease of use, allowing you to build your confidence before progressing to a rockered setup.
If you look at the frame types of different models, you will notice that some skates are ‘rockerable’. This means you can move the front and rear wheels to a higher position for increased agility. You can also achieve a rockered setup if you rotate your wheels in a pattern where the outer wheels wear down faster than the center wheels.
Care for Your New Freeskates
To keep your freeskates performing at their best, there are a few things you need to consider. After skating for a while, you'll need to switch the positions of your skate wheels in the frames and flip them, so that they wear evenly on both sides. Wheel rotation is an area where most skaters develop their own preferences and routines, but be sure to check out our guide if you're unsure how to get started.
We also have guides to cleaning and lubricating your bearings, and general maintenance of inline skates, including how to wash them and avoid smelly liners.
Freeskate Sizing Guide
For a smooth and comfortable freeskating experience, follow these tips when choosing the right size:
- Refer to the size guide: Check the size guide provided on each product page to ensure a perfect fit.
- Match your shoe size: Select a size similar to your regular shoe size for the best comfort.
- Opt for a snug fit: A tight, snug fit gives you more control and stability while skating.
Importance of Skate Protection
We strongly recommend using certified protective gear for the highest level of safety and durability. At SkatePro, our protective equipment complies with the EN 1078 standards and has been rigorously tested by experienced skaters. Wearing quality protection not only keeps you safe but also boosts your confidence to learn new tricks and master technical skills faster, as you’ll feel more secure when pushing your limits.
