Starting freestyle

[GriffinHeart]

Greetings all, from Portugal,

I've been skating for a while just for fun and now i want to try learn freestyle, i own some rollerblades

spark 4.0 Rollerblades
http://www.rollerblade.com/dynamic/prod ... dProd=323&

and my size is fairly big, i think its 11 in USA units (45 european), so the frame is really big , the thing i wanted to know is, will it help me or is it needed for me to change the wheel setup? atm the skates come with 78 wheels (82A) should i do something like 72 78 78 72? i want to start from the most basic stuff and work my way of that, what would you recommend?

From what i've seen there is no freestyle/slalom in Portugal at all (really sad) so i have no one to practice with, i'm gonna try get some friends to join me.

Anyways, hi all and thanks.

[jlacivita]

Hi GriffinHeart. Welcome to the forums!

Setting up a rocker is definitely something you want to do early on if you have any plans to really freestyle skate (on or off cones)

the standard rocker is using a 4mm difference, but i've never heard of 74mm wheels before. i've seen 78mm but they are rare.

if you can fit them, try 76 80 80 76, otherwise try 72 76 76 72.

Come back and let us know how you're doing!

[GriffinHeart]

hey, thanks for the reply

So today was a lovely day and last day working cause i got me self some vacations and i was all excited to see how i manage with the rocker setup. When i get out of work its starts raining :\ and when i get to the only store i know in Portugal that sells something inline related they only have 72's with 78A and 80's of some white brand. pretty bummed

would it work with 72 80 80 72? and the difference in hardness (78A / 82A) be bad?
I know you guys from USA but do you know some store i could order some misc stuff? like wheels and etc.

Thanks again!

[denni]

72 80 80 72 would be a significant difference in wheel size. Might be too much of a rocker. You could certainly try it! I wouldn't mind the difference in hardness... but that's just me.

[agentcherry]

I'm currently using 76mm/85A and 72mm/88A wheels to rocker. I have no problem with the difference in hardness (although I don't know if there would be a difference with all same hardness either). I got the 88A wheels as a Christmas present so I'm not being picky .

[GriffinHeart]

Hey again guys!

i managed to get 2 sets of 4x76mm after running trough all the sports shops in my town, and i bought some bearings.

Now i'm having some trouble, the bearings i bought said ABEC 7, is that bad quality? I ask this because when i try to roll the wheels with my hand, the original ones, they take forever to stop (ZZ something bearings), while the ABEC 7 don't even compare, like they roll for 1sec.

is that normal?

Still haven't had a chance to try them properly, but i did put them on without buckling up and i noticed the huge difference, now i'm trying to find a nice spot where i can practice so far i've found these:





What you guys think? they all have smooth surface, but they pretty crowded gotta search for a more reclusive spot.

[jlacivita]

crowds are good

[Cowry]

Crowds are good,but when I do a bit more technical training I personaly prefer a more quiet place so I don't get distracted too often and I can concentrate a bit better on what I need to do, without people asking me to show them something (which is usually nice, but not when I want to learn whatever technical trick and I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong + in such case people will probably think I'm crazy: I tent to talk to myself outloud about what I should do different )

note: I know I'm nuts, but they don't have to know

[RollRSkateGirl]

Hey welcome!

I'm just jealous that your permitted to skate in places like that! In the USA, most of those places would be considered private property and people are afraid of lawsuits if you fall and hurt yourself or someone.

[GriffinHeart]

Hey welcome!

I'm just jealous that your permitted to skate in places like that! In the USA, most of those places would be considered private property and people are afraid of lawsuits if you fall and hurt yourself or someone.

Dunno if i'm permitted, guess i'll find when i get to skate there (too much cold to skate atm :s), open areas should be ok if not i'll just have to skate my way trough the security

[tomvv]

Hey welcome!

I'm just jealous that your permitted to skate in places like that! In the USA, most of those places would be considered private property and people are afraid of lawsuits if you fall and hurt yourself or someone.

I'm jealous that Griffinheart has such big, open, smooth, level public areas to skate in. Anything like that left in our fair country?

[GriffinHeart]

So this weekend i got to try the rockered setup, and i've found a place with painted marks for cones guess i'll find some freestylers after all.

One question, how long do your wheels last? i've skated about 4h and my heel wheels are |_| instead of \/, i mean they seriously flat :s is that normal? don't think i'll have the budget for the wheels if its gonna be like that xD.

[Jochen]

One question, how long do your wheels last? i've skated about 4h and my heel wheels are |_| instead of \/, i mean they seriously flat :s is that normal? don't think i'll have the budget for the wheels if its gonna be like that xD.

That depends on the wheels, the surface and what you do with them.

If the surfaces are as smooth as it looks like in the pictures (envy!) the wheels should last longer than you describe. For outdoors, Hyper Concrete + Grip's are very good because they are long lasting but still kind of "soft" (not really soft, but softer than, say, standard Seba wheels or Hyper-Formance + Grip). The hard Gyro wheels (Titan) are long lasting, too, but I wouldn't use them on asphalt etc.

There are some topics about wheels here, the opinions differ a bit... I recommend all of the above. They may be a bit expensive, but they're worth it!

BTW you should visit the "Roller-Days" event which is in Germany soon.

[GriffinHeart]

the heel and front wheels are 78A and the middle ones 82A, the surface was a smooth one stone like and the wheel is literally flat =x. Well they some random brand ones so i figure not the best quality and theres no place here to find better stuff, i'll look to get some online.

BTW you should visit the "Roller-Days" event which is in Germany soon.

That would be fun but economy everywhere is sucky, thanks for the advice i'll look into it. Backwards skating is still evading me =X gotta practice more

[JohnS]

i'd say your current wheels are too soft, i'd be going for 83-85A wheels on all of them myself, if u were skating at an indoor skate rink that was really smooth, what you've got now would be quite nice.