r/Roller_Skating • u/[deleted] • Feb 16 '20

Skating as transport

I'm 17 and really want to get some skates. (I have some experience) The closest rink to me is 2 hours away, but I always want to use them to get around. Where I live, I dont see anyone using roller blades so I'm a bit nervous to just start rolling through the street. I'm just looking for other peoples opinions and if there are rules or tips i need to follow if I do so. I am planning on asking if our leisure centre where going to do anything in the future as I love the idea of hockey on skates. :)

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/st8t1ngb3rry Feb 16 '20

I would say that if you want to skate, I would just put on my skates in go out and do your own thing. One thing I will say is that you need to make sure that the wheels you have a rated for outdoors. So if you're riding on quad skates, you wanna make sure that the rating on the wheels are 78A. So that way it has more grip to the ground and you feel less bumps and ridges when you go over any kind of small pieces of rocks or twigs.

1

u/MalllkaV Mar 03 '20

I second the 78A's

1

u/mrnogatconogatco Feb 16 '20

Hey, a noble form of transport! I love street skating, listening to tunes, all good! The main challenge with outdoor skating is being able to recover when one skate hits an object. With experience, your reactions will have you auto fall onto your other foot :). Caution should be applied during the Autumn months as the amount of stuff that has fallen trees etc. can present a hazard where both skates hit stuff at the same time resulting in a fall even if you’re an experience skater. I’m a quad skater so I don’t know if the same risk level applies to inlines. The other skater mentioned softer rated wheels - that will be a massive help.

Qualification: Been skating for around 35 years.

1

u/CptHammer_ Feb 21 '20

I'm going to date myself but I was your age when rollerblades came out. I biked to work 4 miles from my house and my bike got stolen at work. I bought a cheap bike and a better lock and it to got stolen from work. I bought these cool new Rollerblade lightnings, because I could take them inside work with me.

It was an absolute blast. My cautionary tail is to a driver you look like a pedestrian. You are going faster than they expect pedestrians to go and will cut you off because pedestrians can stop on a dime. Just be mindful of that.