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Several months ago Ben got a pair of roller skates. They are traditional 4-wheel skates, not inline, and he absolutely adores them. He wants to skate everywhere. He has balance and agility like you wouldn't believe. I think he is destined to play a lead in the 2020 Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Starlight Express".
Rolling around inside the house, I am not worried about him at all (although I have to hide the skates after bath time, lest he drive the downstairs neighbors insane in the evening). Outside, however, I am rapidly losing my ability to keep up with him on foot. I am not especially worried about him falling or running into anything, but I do obviously worry about him rolling out into the street.
Combine that with the fact that I am rapidly hitting a plateau with the exercise value I am getting from walking around Greenlake and I reached the conclusions that I should get skates for myself. Aside from the fact that it looks fun, I have done enough research to know that skating would be far easier on my back and my knees than jogging (assuming I am not falling down all the time). I saw that Target had inline skates in my size for about $30 but a little warning light went off inside my head that told me I had better do a bit more reading before buying them. Good thing.
The general consensus on cheap skates (that's two words...) is that they hurt like hell. You wear them once or twice, you get blisters and bruises on your feet, and then you never go skating again. As you spend more money on the skates, most of what you are getting is better and more comfortable linings. I also learned quite a bit about wheel sizes and bearing ratings, and future costs for upgrades and replacements of parts. Finally armed with a little bit of knowledge, I started shopping.
I actually took Ben shopping with me to a few stores yesterday and he had a great time. He got to put on his skates in the store and roll around while I was trying different sizes and styles. First I had to figure out what size skate I wore, since the sizes are generally close to regular shoe size but not exactly so. Then I tried on a variety of styles. I tried really cheap ones, I tried on really expensive ones that I had no intention of buying, and I got a feel for the different liner styles.
The other thing working in my advantage is that the skating season is over, so this year's models are being cleared out to make space for next year. I didn't find any I really liked within my price range yesterday, so I decided to hit the downtown REI on my lunch break today.
As it turns out, they had all of their inline skates up in the clearance attic with the other summer items they needed to get rid of. Right off the bat I found a great deal on safety gear, marked down by over a third. Knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist pads -- I have no doubt that gravity will catch up to me, and I have no desire to be a dumb statistic. Wading through the actual skates I was pretty discouraged. There weren't many left, and the vast majority of them were aggressive skates. Aggressive skates have much smaller wheels which are spaced a little differently, and have "grind plates" to allow you to do tricks like sliding down handrails and such. They are great for urban skating on sidewalks and city streets, but not so good for more long distance skating and for general fitness. I had almost given up when I stumbled across a pair of loose skates -- they were K2 Innova skates, and they were actually in my size. Normally they would have been entirely out of my price range, being much nicer skates than I had any intention of buying. They were marked down dramatically, however, so I gave them a closer inspection. The fit was perfect, and the most comfortable I had yet tried. The wheels, bearings, and brake were all in excellent shape. The liners, buckles, and laces were equally good. A little rummaging around in the clearance room and I was able to find the empty box they came from, and it still had the custom tool used to remove the wheels for maintenance. It was a fantastic deal that I was never going to top, so I snapped them up.
I'll be trying them out tonight, god help me. I have no illusions about the current state of my balance and agility, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will be wobbling around like Bambi as I try to figure out how to keep my wheels under me. I'll have my pads, I'll have my bicycle helmet, and I have a big padded backside, so I don't suppose I will damage myself too greatly. I'll do my best to keep from damaging anyone else by keeping my first few skating sessions away from where other people are trying to walk or skate. I look forward to skating a few laps around Greenlake, but that ain't gonna happen today. At the moment my only real goal is to at least get graceful enough by the weekend so that I won't knock Ben over trying to skate with him...
Rolling around inside the house, I am not worried about him at all (although I have to hide the skates after bath time, lest he drive the downstairs neighbors insane in the evening). Outside, however, I am rapidly losing my ability to keep up with him on foot. I am not especially worried about him falling or running into anything, but I do obviously worry about him rolling out into the street.
Combine that with the fact that I am rapidly hitting a plateau with the exercise value I am getting from walking around Greenlake and I reached the conclusions that I should get skates for myself. Aside from the fact that it looks fun, I have done enough research to know that skating would be far easier on my back and my knees than jogging (assuming I am not falling down all the time). I saw that Target had inline skates in my size for about $30 but a little warning light went off inside my head that told me I had better do a bit more reading before buying them. Good thing.
The general consensus on cheap skates (that's two words...) is that they hurt like hell. You wear them once or twice, you get blisters and bruises on your feet, and then you never go skating again. As you spend more money on the skates, most of what you are getting is better and more comfortable linings. I also learned quite a bit about wheel sizes and bearing ratings, and future costs for upgrades and replacements of parts. Finally armed with a little bit of knowledge, I started shopping.
I actually took Ben shopping with me to a few stores yesterday and he had a great time. He got to put on his skates in the store and roll around while I was trying different sizes and styles. First I had to figure out what size skate I wore, since the sizes are generally close to regular shoe size but not exactly so. Then I tried on a variety of styles. I tried really cheap ones, I tried on really expensive ones that I had no intention of buying, and I got a feel for the different liner styles.
The other thing working in my advantage is that the skating season is over, so this year's models are being cleared out to make space for next year. I didn't find any I really liked within my price range yesterday, so I decided to hit the downtown REI on my lunch break today.
As it turns out, they had all of their inline skates up in the clearance attic with the other summer items they needed to get rid of. Right off the bat I found a great deal on safety gear, marked down by over a third. Knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist pads -- I have no doubt that gravity will catch up to me, and I have no desire to be a dumb statistic. Wading through the actual skates I was pretty discouraged. There weren't many left, and the vast majority of them were aggressive skates. Aggressive skates have much smaller wheels which are spaced a little differently, and have "grind plates" to allow you to do tricks like sliding down handrails and such. They are great for urban skating on sidewalks and city streets, but not so good for more long distance skating and for general fitness. I had almost given up when I stumbled across a pair of loose skates -- they were K2 Innova skates, and they were actually in my size. Normally they would have been entirely out of my price range, being much nicer skates than I had any intention of buying. They were marked down dramatically, however, so I gave them a closer inspection. The fit was perfect, and the most comfortable I had yet tried. The wheels, bearings, and brake were all in excellent shape. The liners, buckles, and laces were equally good. A little rummaging around in the clearance room and I was able to find the empty box they came from, and it still had the custom tool used to remove the wheels for maintenance. It was a fantastic deal that I was never going to top, so I snapped them up.
I'll be trying them out tonight, god help me. I have no illusions about the current state of my balance and agility, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will be wobbling around like Bambi as I try to figure out how to keep my wheels under me. I'll have my pads, I'll have my bicycle helmet, and I have a big padded backside, so I don't suppose I will damage myself too greatly. I'll do my best to keep from damaging anyone else by keeping my first few skating sessions away from where other people are trying to walk or skate. I look forward to skating a few laps around Greenlake, but that ain't gonna happen today. At the moment my only real goal is to at least get graceful enough by the weekend so that I won't knock Ben over trying to skate with him...