Hey,

I've been trying to think of how to start this article off. I guess in order to think of what a beginner would like to see I have to put myself in the position of a beginner. Because once I was a beginner (although it was 1994) I'm going to write about what I would have liked to known about when I started out, its the old saying of "If I knew then what I know now". So here we go...

Your first pair of skates:

The truth is that this is one of the hardest parts. All the selection of gear that is available can be confusing and overwhelling, so I'm going to break down what you need to know.

Universal Frame System: As of 1999 (was it 99?) the heads of the industry came together and agreed on a single locking system for all the parts that make up an inline skate. The UFS was the result. The main parts of an inline skate are 3: Boot (that holds your foot), Soulplates (what you lock the sole of your feet onto rails and curbs with), Frame (that holds the wheels), and the Wheels (duh...). All boots can lock into all frames by two bolts that run up between the frame and boot. This is how you are able to customize your skates. Some skates are more customizable than others... you can change liners (the inside part of the boot), Cuffs (the hard part around your ankle), etc. All these parts lock into each other in the same way with the same (UFS) bolt locking system. So you can literally build a skate from parts of any skate. For a beginner I do not recommend this since you won't know what you want from your skates yet. Customization is best left for more advanced skaters.

Boots:

There are

softboots (like Remz),

Hard boots (like Razors), and

Skeletal boots (like Xsjado).

Each type of boot will give you different levels of flex (how much you can bend your ankle). Flex is very important because it is where your body will exchange the force between your body and your feet. If you have a lot of flex you will have more control with your feet, if you have less flex you will have more control with your leg and body in general. Generally... softboots have the most flex, hardboots the least and skeletal boots are somewhere in between.

Frames:

There are:

Standard

Freestyle

Super Sized H-block

Suspension

What each of these offer you is different types of locking systems on your grinds. For example Standard frames with 2 wheels outside and Anti-rocker on the inside (see bellow) with give you a very solid lock on grinds and is probably the best choice for a total beginner but doesn't have to be... I think the photos speak for themselves. Its really just a matter of what feels right to you. The only thing you need to know is that Freestyle frames are usually the fastest on grinds and standard Anti-rocker is generally the smoothest, supersized-H block frames are something inbetween, but that depends on the particular brand. Be careful thou! Super-sized H-block frames are called 'freetyle' a lot lately but as you can see in the photo's there is a small difference in the grooves which is why I stick to the original term "Oversiezd" or "Supersized" H-block frames.

Wheels:

The easy part, wheels have 2 parameters. Size, and hard/softness. Harder wheels give you less grip on the ground and last longer. The harder wheel will let you do seth/power slides more easily than softer ones but on a softer wheel you will be glued to the ground more so can take tighter turns etc... much better for a skate park environment for example. The size of the wheel will affect how long it lasts and how high or low you are to the ground. More importantly when you are on a royale based grind the bigger the wheel the more likely it is to touch the curb wile you are grinding. Anti rocker wheels are made for grinding and go in the middle of a standard frame.

That's the basics of what you need to know about the skate itself. Now once you've got a pair (no pun intended...) you can go out and start to roll.

Learning the Basics:

There is a lot of debate about how to start learning. One thing everyone agrees on is that because we rollerblading tricks are based on using your body and your skates as one the absolute first thing you have to do is roll... roll everywhere and every chance you get. The more used to having your feet in skates you get, the easier you will learn tricks. Period. So roll around, when you feel comfortable start jumping over things, off things, onto things... start throwing some rotation into that later, 180's, then 360's. Then try some grinds... whichever you feel most comfortable with on low curbs, then low rails, then try some higher stuff. The learning curve is different for everyone so I can't say how long it will take for you to progress but this is generally the path. The city is your playground on inline skates so treat it like it is. Once you are comfortable with rolling and jumping around you can start to get technical...

Technical tricks (or tech tricks) are the tricks that involve more technique than anything else, technique requires good balance which you develop by doing what I just said above. I am not going to go into the 'how to's" of every trick... if you see a trick you want to learn your best bet is to ask the person who did it for some technical tips. It is very important that you first feel confident on your skates before attempting tech tricks because if you don't... that is how beginners get hurt. Remember that rollerblading is not easy, we just make it look easy. Go out and skate, learn off others, challenge them and as they say in Greek mhn masas (don't chew), we're all rollerbladers... so its all good ;)

Thanks to Aggressive Mall for the pics

That's all I can think of for now, comment below with your questions and opinions.

Written by :

Antihero