Idea Pro Hybrid
Idea Pro Hybrid
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Can someone tell me which rollerblades are better?
I have never ever skated yet but will be taking classes very soon.
I have no idea what kind of rollerblades to get so...
I have been searching through skatefaq.com which has been helping
Roller Derby Women's G800 Hybrid Inline Skate
Roller Derby Pro Line Hard Boot In-Line Skate Women
Roller Derby Women's V500 Adjustable Inline Skates
i honestly don't know whether which one is best as a beginner.
Skatefaq.com is horribly out of date. you might note that the upcoming event (Disney marathon) is from 2006, which I think was the last year for that event. Most of the information in the faqs is from the 90s and a lot has happened in inline skates since then.
More than beginner status, your decision should be based on how much skating you want to do after you are no longer a beginner. Better skates will still be good for learning (within reason) but poor skates will not be good beyond learning and may hold your learning back.
How much do you plan to skate? The more you plan to skate, the better skates you want.
The most important thing is fit. Try on as many skates as you can to find skates that fit snugly around the entire foot without pinching the toes or other spots. You want the skates to act as part of your feet instead of letting the feet move around in them. Every company uses different models for the shape of the foot and frequently use different shapes for different models within the company. The goal is to find a skate where their model is close to the shape of your feet.
What to look for in skates:
Brand
K2 and Rollerblade are the two major brands of recreational and fitness inline skates in North America. (technically using the term rollerblades indicates only skates made by Rollerblade Inc.). You might find some very nice skates from other companies but they tend to change with whatever factory will make a skate for the lowest cost and you may not be able to find brakes or other parts for them in the future. BladeRunner skates are a brand that Rollerblade created to compete with the no name cheap skates. They are generally not as good as the skates that Rollerblade is willing to put their real name on but at least they use the same brakes as the Rollerblade skates, which means that they will be available. Given a choice, I would go with a Rollerblade branded skate over a BladeRunner branded one but other than the availability of replacement, they are not the BladeRunner skates are not necessarily better than no name skates like Roller Derby.
Wheels
Larger is better. All other things being equal (and the quality of wheels rarely is, except in the same brand), larger wheels roll easier and smoother than small ones. I do not recommend anything smaller than 80mm unless the skating is going to be very infrequent. That was the large size in the 90s but now is the smallest size used on good skates.
Most beginners can easily learn on 80 or 84mm wheels. Some will have issues with 90mm but they will be much better for speed and distance once you know how to skate well.
100mm and larger can be too big even for some experianced skaters and would be completely inappropriate for a beginner. That would be something to try after you have been skating for a few years.
Frames (the part that holds the wheels)
Stiffness is good. The lowest level skates use molded plastic frames. On some very cheap skates, they may break if a larger skater uses them (have seen that).
Stamped metal frames are the mid level and extruded frames are the best. Stamped frames will have fasteners holding parts together and folds in the outside to make them stiffer than the metal would be otherwise. Extruded frames will have a smooth profile from front to back except where material has been cut out.
Boots.
As stated earlier, fit is the most important.
There are two common types. Recreational and Fitness. Fitness boots tend to fit smaller for the same shoe size (to help hold the foot better) and the top of the cuff is a couple inches shorter to be more comfortable over longer distances. Fitness boots are generally a sign that the skate is better than ones with rec boots.
Almost all skates now use the soft boot design (created by K2) because they are more comfortable.
Bearings
Ignore the nonsense. ABEC ratings are for high speed industrial equipment. As long as a bearing is at least ABEC 1, there is very little difference based on the number. Early on, some skates used unrated bearings that were really poor. Only really cheap skates would use them now. However, some really good bearings are made that do not meet the ABEC standards because they violate some of the ABEC specs that are not good for skating.
Adjustable skates
Generally only for children.
The problem is that the adjustment only changes the length of the skate. They width and height of the inside of the boot will be too large on small feet and too small on large feet.
All the skates you listed are very much low end but the G800 is the best.