A newbie - Sort of lol

[Donnylutz]

Okay: Quick snapshot...

I started artistic skating on quads when I was 15 and competed in freshman and sophomore. When I was 18 I switched to ice and stayed frozen until 2012. For some reason that year, at 31, I decided to return to my roots. I ended up winning novice mens freestyle at nationals in 2012.

I keep going back and forth. Roller skating is my roots and heritage, ice is SO MUCH more freeing and flowing.

I don't know a single person personally that skates on inlines. Hopefully someone can answer some questions for me????

Does it really feel like you are ice skating?, like you have inside/outside edges and all? It's so hard without having them on to imagine that feeling being recreated with wheels, but from the videos I've seen it looks quite possible.

If so, where can I get some inline skates? No one in my club has any clue and I don't even have a freestyle coach in my region to ask. In my wild fantasy I'm thinking these could be a beautiful combination of my two passions. Are they called Pik Skates, or Snow White skates?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Donnylutz

[rwsz]

Originally Posted by Donnylutz

Okay: Quick snapshot...

I started artistic skating on quads when I was 15 and competed in freshman and sophomore. When I was 18 I switched to ice and stayed frozen until 2012. For some reason that year, at 31, I decided to return to my roots. I ended up winning novice mens freestyle at nationals in 2012.

I keep going back and forth. Roller skating is my roots and heritage, ice is SO MUCH more freeing and flowing.

I don't know a single person personally that skates on inlines. Hopefully someone can answer some questions for me????

Does it really feel like you are ice skating?, like you have inside/outside edges and all? It's so hard without having them on to imagine that feeling being recreated with wheels, but from the videos I've seen it looks quite possible.

If so, where can I get some inline skates? No one in my club has any clue and I don't even have a freestyle coach in my region to ask. In my wild fantasy I'm thinking these could be a beautiful combination of my two passions. Are they called Pik Skates, or Snow White skates?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Donnylutz

talk to jayson sutcliffe he can tell you a lot about it,,,,,a couple of lady skaters also in the usa were at nationals. you can get the inlines online or from your rink.

[Kyle_colwell]

Hi Donny,
Pic skates and snow whites are the ones on the market today that have a "rocker" in an effort to simulate ice blades. It is not as easy as ice in fact, it is as hard to spin on them as quads. However, if you can spin on quads and on ice blades you should be able to strike a happy medium on inlines. Many people incorrectly say that spinning on inlines is easy and just like ice---but I can guarantee you that those people have never tried inlines even on let alone try to skate in them. The pic skate for your foot size would require four wheels while the snow whites would only have three. The snow white toe stops are much more similar to quad toe stops than the pic skates. I haven't tried the new pic skate toe stops but they look a little different. You may want to check out WIFSA (World Inline Figure Skating Association) site and connect with some people there or check out Snow White's site at inlinefigure.com

[Mort]

Inline to ice is very similar. The one exception being that you always have grip when your wheels are down. The grip available varies depending on weight and applied torque and the softness/wheel compounds and skating surfaces.

Where you can stand up straight on your ice blades and not have any grip, inlines do. This is the biggest challenge to adapt to. Everything else is nearly identical in the way ice skates to inlines perform. The only other thing I can think of is when I was recently at a ice rink wearing some hockey rentals (yea Im aware how garbage rentals are) the grip increased substantially as I edged over. On an inline you have nearly the same grip at a slight tilt as you do a hard/sharp tilt.

So overall what you should expect is to almost always have grip. To spin on inlines you'll need a rockered setup or some good heel/toe skills.

I'm no figure skater either, just a guy who skates it all . Look up some slalom videos for some inline skills. There's a lot of phenomenal dexterity out there to see. Most use SEBA or powerslide skates, never heard of pik skates.

Checked up on them and their frames seem to have a rockered style where the rear wheel is, and the front wheel positioned just forward of the ball of the foot. Where the furthest spot which normally houses a wheel now houses a toe stop piece.

The "Snow White" is a plate, an inline figure plate. Honestly from their pages if you were to buy a specialized skate for imitating ice figure skating, I would use their plate on your choice of boot over those pik skates.

How many times have you simply rolled inlines? If never I'd strongly suggest a "urban" skate first, you'll get the hang of the way inlines perform versus ice skates, and the potential to sell a non specialized skate without substantial loss is greater. Urban skates are designed for abuse far beyond figure. The only downside id see is you wont have the toe pic/stop.