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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Rollerblading (a.k.a. In-line Skating)


Thanks to my kids finding my wife's old blades, I got back on mine for the first time in ohhhh a decade.  I used to love blading!  Even played a bit of roller hockey back in the day.

I made it about 50 feet before *snap* ... broke the strap.  Guess the old plastic didn't hold up.

After some debate with myself about whether to fix them, I landed on buying a new pair.
K2 Power 90

New In-line Skates

They have really changed a lot since "my day".  The wheels have grown to up to 100mm... these are 90mm, feel huge!  The larger wheels really speed, and they can bump over lots of bigger stuff (curbing, etc) that my old blades wouldn't have done as well at.

The boot is also a lot more comfortable, they've managed to get more air into them rather than the originals (which were more like a ski boot).

Lots of straps, etc... just a really nice feel out there.

Popularity... rising?

No.  No it's not.

The clerks at the store almost seemed shocked someone was buying them.  Lots of previous model years on sale.  But hey, I'm not about being on trend, I'm about having fun and staying in shape - and they're just as fun as I remember.

In-line Races?

You bet!  I found one in Quebec, anyway.  They seem to be off-shoots of speed skating clubs.  This didn't exist (to my knowledge!) all those years ago, blading was more about hockey and/or beaches.

I might go just to be among my people, see who the heck blades anymore!  Did a trial 30km yesterday, not flat, included sidewalks and stuff, but it went pretty well so figure 42.2km isn't that hard.





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