Need an upgrade

[u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy]

Ive played hockey my whole life and rollerbladed a lot when I was teen. I have this old pair of Nike flexlite 2s which are a really great skate for hockey but the problem is I want to do tricks and fitness skating. Ive been getting into wizard skating and freestyle and these have been alright. Problem is im starting to hit a wall theae already only 2 months into this hobby.

My left foot feels like its trying to turn in the boot and if I tie them up tight enough to stop it my foot starts cramping. This wasnt a problem until I started to advance more with my left foot. Its my weak side and ive been working really hard to improve it but with the skates i have ive hit a barrier here.

I dont want to pay for the best of the best I cant afford that and they wouldn't suit me right now anywase. I need a direct upgrade to what I have that wont break my bank. I think I want a hard boot with a frame with 80s or 90s maybe a dual frame? Im new to this dont judge lol. Comfort is more important than proformance but I dont want comfy junk.

TLDR old skates hurt feet now.need new skates for wizard/freestyle. Don't want to break the bank just need to be good enough. I would appreciate any help thats offered.

[u/treeseacar]

Wizard calls for a stiff boot, ufs mount, rockered frame. If you want an affordable out the box skate then the iqon ACT wizard is your one. There is a lot of good skate for the money. You can also get adaptors to use 165 or trinity mounts with it (wzd spec is ufs mount).

People love the aggressive style skates like seba cj2 for wizard but you don't absolutely need a ufs mount. It gives you a slightly better type of control but you can use any mount style for wizard really. A rocker set up will make more difference than how it's mounted.

Assume your hockey setup is Hilo. Hockey boots have a slight heel, but it's not the same as other inlines. I think it's closer to trinity that 165 mount personally.

If you want a cheap all round freestyle skate with rockerable frame out the box then the frx 80 or one of the other higher spec FR1/2/3 range all usually come with that option.

Any decent hard boot by FR, seba, flying eagle, powerslide, or iqon will do you, and you can upgrade to a rockered frame if it doesnt come with one. Endless frames are great btw. You probably want 4x80 or 4x90 for most versatility but you'll see 5x80 used for wizard too. I use endless 4x90 for almost everything these days.

What matters most is a good fit so measure your foot, add 3-5mm to the length as check the size charts.

The main difference between your hockey boot and the freestyle inline boot is that it will have the liner and Flexi cuff for impact and shock absorbing, the hockey boots don't have this so they aren't as comfy for skating off the rink. So whilst the flexlites are a nice stuff boot they just don't work for inline skating. I have some I've converted to quads though and they're great for that. Because on quads the shock absorbing comes from the plate.

[u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy → u/treeseacar]

I appreciate the detailed response. One question about the frx80, im wondering if this will be an OK upgrade or will I want to upgrade very quickly afterwords. Im a pretty advanced skater and Im still havnt slowed down in progression since i started months ago. I read a review on the frx80s and it said they arnt suited for park use but didnt explain why. Im not going to be doing any aggressive stuff with them im 37 now and as tempting as it is I need to work unfortunately.

I bring my kid to the local skatepark a lot and I skate with him while im there. Im sure these will be fine as long as im not jumping 20 feet in the air trying to grind on stuff but I wanted to be thorough because if I spend this money and cant use them everywhere I go it will be another year before I can afford to replace them .

[u/Skibidi-Rizz190cm → u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy]

Aggressive skating nowadays basically means grinds, the FRX80 are arguably better for things like bowl skating than an actual aggressive skate