Don't Buy More Roller Skates!

A few of you might be a little mad at me for this one today, but we are going to talk about skates and the skates that you need and the skates that you probably don't need. I get the question all the time, what are the best skates for me to get? And that is a super, super important question. And a lot of it depends on how much you're going to skate, how much you really do enjoy skating. If you're going to be skating for long periods of time, short periods of time, what type of skating you want to do, if you're skating outside, if you're skating inside, there's a lot of questions to ask when people bring me this question. I have a lot of friends that are photographers and they always say the best camera is the one that you have with you. And that is pretty much the same with skating. The best skates are the ones you can get. The best skates are the ones you have with you. So I say this as someone with very good equipment. And I also know that I'm very fortunate to be in a location that has a lot of different stores where I can even go try skates on. So recently I got skates from Backbeat in Huntington Beach, Backbeat Skates, and she has Rydell. And she also has a lot of different plate options, a lot of different wheel options, just great equipment. And you can try them on, you can get fitted. That is the best scenario to get fitted in person. Obviously you can also get fitted virtually and she will do that as well. A lot of skate shops will do that. They will virtually fit you. So there are a lot of options for you to get the skates that you want and the skates that you need. But on the flip side, when you have access to all of these skates and all of these different options, I also work with a lot of people and I'm around a lot of people that end up having like five pairs of skates. And they are constantly searching for the next best thing. And this is where I think people are gonna get a little mad at me, but you don't need that. Like you don't need five different pairs of skates. You really don't. You need one or two if you wanna have a little fun with it. Wheels, yes, you need options for wheels. That I do support. I do support having a lot of options for wheels. And very luckily that is probably the cheapest thing on your skates is your wheels. But a lot of people are in search of the next best thing to improve their skating. And I hate to break it to you. It is probably not your skates. It is probably you. A lot of the things that I teach in my membership and my course and in my lessons, it is all surrounding your strength. What you need to work on, what you need to develop, where you need to focus your energy in your own body, where you need to focus your weight. That is what's going to make you a better skater is training, building muscle, focusing on those very technical, very specific things. And then you can have more fun with it. I teach drills and then skills and then choreography every month. And there are hundreds of videos, a bunch of drills, a bunch of skills, a bunch of choreography within the membership. But the reason why I diversify it like that is because the drills are still often overlooked, but the drills are super, super important. So you have to build up strength in order to do these certain skills. And then the choreography isn't about becoming the best dancer on skates. It's about having a fun way to practice these skills that you've learned. So it all comes together, but honestly, I would say 94% of the time, it's the skater that needs to develop these different skills and this strength versus getting a new pair of skates. Because getting a new pair of skates, you're gonna have to get used to it. You're gonna have to find how you need to put your weight in that specific skate. Every skate is not the same. And you can put a very good skater on a really good skate and be wonderful. You can put them on a really cheap, really bad pair of skates, and they will probably still be wonderful, but it will be different. And you'll see them have to focus a little more on the skate that is not as good. So I know that I am saying this as someone in like my dream skates, a Harlech boot, a Role Line Plate, probably a Role Line Wheel, Role Line Toe Stop. That is my dream setup. But you will also find me trying a bunch of different skates. And I have some more skates coming up that I will be trying. And it's very funny because people see me in these other skates and they're like, oh, well, is that better than this? No. This is my perfect setup. And it's my perfect setup. It's not a lot of people's perfect setup. My own brother, he used to wear Harlech, and then he switched from Harlech to Edea because Edeas are lighter. And Harlechs are heavy and they're hard to get as well. It takes a while to make them because they're handmade. And that is its own thing where it's kind of like the dream skate for a lot of people and it will take time to get there. And so a lot of people will work with what they have, which is what I suggest, and put in an order for their dream skate if they can. And it'll take like a year or two to get that dream skate and they'll work on their skating so that they're ready to meet that skate when they get it. And I think that that is the healthiest and best way to do it if you can. But obviously, if you can't get your hand on your dream skate, get what you can get. And for me, I will wear my Rydells with my Complex Plate or with my Role Line Plate. I will wear my Rydells as well. I wear my Rydells all the time, actually. And it's not a bad skate at all. You can watch my review on it. I love that skate. Is it the same as my Harleks? No, it's a different experience. It's a different boot. But there's nothing bad about it. And it's just different. It's just whatever you prefer. So I grew up in a family of roller skaters and I grew up wearing hand-me-downs until I was going, no, not even until I was going to the world championships, until my second year of winning the world championships, I was in hand-me-down skates. So really, I was trained to be able to talk about this because I did not have access to the newest, to the best. The reason that I even got new skates after a period of time at the world championships was because there was a company saying that all world champions were in this plate and in this boot. And I was like, actually, I'm not. I'm in a completely different setup. So that was when I started trying other boots and other plates as well, other than my original setup. That's when I tried a Role Line plate for the very first time, because I was on this setup, which was a Harlek boot. They weren't gold at the time, but I was on my Harlek boot. This is my first boot that I ever bought myself. And this plate, which is an Atlas plate, which they don't even make anymore because it is, whoa, so heavy. So when I first tried the Role Line plate, it was because they were saying that all world champions were on that setup and I wasn't. So they had to let me try it and I fell in love. So it really is about what you can get and what you can wear. Because if I can make that work for me with that plate being so much more difficult to maneuver, it made me such a strong skater that when I got on a lighter plate that was easy to maneuver, I was like in heaven. And I was so much better because I was used to pushing that plate to its absolute limit. And then I didn't have to push to my limit in these. I could if I wanted to. If I wanted my edge to be insane, I could. But I didn't need to work as hard in a way. So I came from hand-me-down skates. Now I'm not saying that you need to wear hand-me-down skates. I'm not saying that $50 skates, $100 skates are not good enough for you. The skates you can get your hands on are the best skates for you. You gotta start somewhere and I'd rather you just start. I'd rather you start than wait for the perfect setup. So if you can get your hands on a Rydell or an equivalent, I'm saying Rydell because that's probably the easiest boot to get your hands on that is good and will be safe for you and will last you a long time, do it. If you can get your hands on the boot and the plate that you want, the wheels, those you can play with and have an outdoor set, have an indoor set, different toe stops, different laces. You can make it as cute as you want it to be and all of that, but I want you to be on a safe boot. So I have a blog and it's in the description that talks about all of the skate setups that I would recommend, different price ranges as well. The scariest thing is some of the, I'll say more inexpensive because they are and there's a lot out there. A lot of those boots are not going to hold your ankle the way that these are supposed to. So it wasn't really until 2020 when a lot of people started skating with very cheap skates that there were a lot of ankle injuries. I don't want you to have to go through that at all. So if you can get your hands on a good boot, again, I will put everything in the description, but if you can get your hands on a good solid boot that will be safe for you, that is obviously ideal. But realistically, just start and don't skip your drills. Don't skip your strength training. I have drills on skates, I have drills off skates. Don't ignore them. In the membership, you get full access to all of it. So please check that out. And please let me know if you have any questions. I know that I am not necessarily the best with knowing very, very specifics about each skate, but basically if the website doesn't tell you the specifics of a skate, don't trust it. There should be information about your skate online. There should be information about how stiff the boot is and what type of skating they recommend with that skate. If there isn't, email the company and don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you have because you should know this stuff before you buy it. And your skate should last you more than six months. It really should. Unless you are doing like crazy, crazy stuff on it, your skate should last you more than six months. My skates last me more than five years. So I skate a lot too. Please take care of yourself. Be safe, do your strength training, do your drills, learn your skills and practice with your choreography. And I will see you later.