Getting Started Roller Skating – Part 5 – Picking Out Your Safety Gear

In today’s episode, I cover:

Why is safety gear important (especially for beginners)?
The importance of a roller skating helmet.
Why you need roller skating pads like knee pads, wrist guards and elbow pads to protect your joints and hands.
Padded shorts / butt pads for those of you looking for extra protection when you fall.
Mouth guards to protect your teeth and tongue.
EzeeFits for protecting your ankles.
Toe guards for roller skates

I also recommended several products in this podcast episode. You can find all of the products I recommended in the following skate guides:

Episode 22 Transcript

[0:04] Hey everybody, Welcome to the roller skate Dad podcast.

[0:10] This is episode # 22. Let’s get started.

[0:17] Yeah, welcome to the roller skate dad podcast, the show that covers everything and anything in the wonderful world of roller skating.

Now, here’s your host, the roller skate dad himself, Jeff Stone.

[0:38] Hey everybody. Welcome to the roller skate Dad podcast.

I wanna thank you guys so much for being here today. We’re going to continue our series of podcast episodes that are focusing on getting you started roller skating. That’s right.

If you’re just getting started roller skating, this podcast is for you.

I started this series about three years ago and we’re going to finally finish it here in the next couple of weeks.

So I’m going to record about five or six episodes here, all finishing out the how to roller skate series podcast.

So if you missed any of these, you can go back and check out the previous episodes and listen to it in its entirety.

My voice may sound a little bit different because it was three years ago, But here we are in 2022 and we’re going to finish out this series.

So What we’re gonna talk about here is part five of the getting started.

[1:42] In the roller skating series and I’m going to be talking to you today, all about my recommendations on the best safety gear that you should be wearing if you’re a beginner and you need to get started.

So way back in episode 18, way back like three years ago back.

Um I discussed the skaters mindset and how you need to get over your fear of skating.

I know a lot of adults especially have a real fear of skating and maybe they skated once as a kid and now they’re older and they’re scared, but I’m telling you anyone can skate anyone.

[2:21] And you know, all you need is you just need to have a little bit of desire first and you got to want to do it,

and that’s the main thing.

I mean once you have that, you can pretty much do anything in life once you have that desire to want to do something.

[2:37] And so that was episode 18, it was all about getting in the right frame of mind and then episode 19 and 20 were really all about picking out um your first pair of roller skates.

So, I gave a bunch of tips in those articles about how to actually pick out the right skates for a beginner.

So I discussed, you know, quads and in lines and roller blades, and we talked about boots and plates and wheels and bearings and toe stops and all kinds of stuff.

There was there was lots and lots of things that I talked about,

in, in those two episodes and then episode 21, which was the one right before this one, the last episode I did back in May of 2019, I gave you 10,

beginner roller skates that you could purchase right now and you know, get you started now, that was three years ago.

So most of the skates that I recommended, they’re still around, but if you are listening to that and you’re wondering like, well, what’s the best beginner skates to get right now?

[3:42] If you go to the roller skate dad website and you go look for the best beginner roller skates, or I have the best beginner roller blades, and in line skates as a separate article.

Um I have all of the most current uh skate picks, recommendations, things that I’ve personally tested or tried or that I have a lot of experience with um that I recommend to beginners who are just starting out.

[4:08] And so we talked a lot, I talked a lot in that episode about.

[4:13] Um, you know, if you want to learn how to skate, you really need to get your own pair of skates,

and you know, using rental skates is okay if you’re, you know, brand new and you’re just going to go roller skating at some kid’s birthday party once every five years.

[4:29] Then, no problem, don’t get a pair of skates, but if you’re really interested in trying to do this for.

[4:36] You know, exercise, let’s say, or mental health or because it’s fun, you know, or you want to go to an adult night and hang out and listen to the cool, you know, music,

and dance or do some new roller skating trick maybe, or maybe you spent most of covid watching,

all these girls, do you know, different dance moves on Tiktok right in their roller skates.

Um, you know, so if that’s you and you want to learn how to do this, then you need to get your own pair of skates.

You know, rental skates aren’t going to cut it for you. You need something that you can actually go and you can practice on your own outdoors in your garage, in your basement, at your local rink, wherever it may be.

And so that’s the best way to learn any new skill.

Honestly, I mean, as I, I’ve told you guys before, roller skate dad is my passion project.

This is something that I do for fun and um, you know, but it really applies to anything in life business as well. You know, if you want to be good at something, you’ve got to do it over and over and over and over again.

And with roller skating, the only way you can do that is you got to get a pair of skates.

So, um, so anyway, that is what all of those episodes were about.

So today we’re gonna be talking about safety gear and so what should you get if you’re just starting out?

[6:05] So, you know, this is really important if you’re a beginner, you know, both for kids as well as for adults, but I think especially for adults because.

[6:16] Adults, you know, our our bones, they don’t they don’t heal quite as fast as the kids do.

You know, kids fall down, they’re a lot closer to the floor, so they don’t have as far to fall as we do, and typically when they tend to fall, they just bounce right back up and they get going.

Whereas those of us who are older, you know, I’m in my mid 40s, so I’m not.

[6:40] I can still fall and it hurts for awhile, certainly several days if I hurt myself really bad or if I break something then obviously months, but um,

but you know, the older you get, the more prone you are to having really bad injuries from falls and things like that.

So it’s important to to gear up as I say.

[7:03] So you know, this this really I think is the number one reason to that most adults don’t skate is because they’re afraid that they’re going to get injured.

And I think that’s fair. Right, You’re a adult, you’ve got maybe 1235, 10 kids to take care of maybe a spouse as well.

And you know, skating sounds like fun and maybe you’re just getting started out and it sounds like fun, but at the same time it’s like, well I can’t, you know, break my arm and then miss work as a, you know, carpenter or as a roofer.

Right. Um Obviously if you’re I. T. Person like me and you sit behind a computer, you’re probably going to do just fine if you break your leg.

God forbid nobody wants to see anybody get injured.

But um but yeah, I mean it’s a serious thing and so I have to say that it’s a it’s a little weird me talking about safety gear just because when I learned how to roller skate in the 80’s.

[8:01] Nobody wore any, at least I didn’t and I don’t remember anybody wearing any either.

So I mean you can certainly get away with not wearing safety gear if you, so are, you know inclined and you don’t want to do that, but I do recommend it to brand new skaters.

Um It’s definitely, it’s definitely a good way to give yourself a little bit more confidence and understand that if you do fall, that you got something there to help protect you.

So let’s talk a little bit about um about safety gear.

[8:40] And the first thing that I tell everybody that they should get when you’re first starting out, and I personally wear one when I skate outdoors is a helmet.

[8:53] Um I’ve had concussions before from roller skating um I’ll cover that in another episode maybe, but I’ve I’ve definitely had my share of injuries throughout my roller skating time,

and you know, hurting your head is about the worst thing that can possibly happen um as far as injuries go.

So, you know, I’m not a huge helmet guy, I never have been not one of these people that’s like, Oh, you’re riding a bike, you need to wear a helmet.

I mean, I know that’s what everybody would tell you today.

Um but I mean, I rode bikes for, you know, 15 years and never wear a helmet when I was a kid.

[9:36] I probably would wear one now though if I was biking. So, you know, again, I, I do wear a helmet when I skate outdoors.

You know, we have a special outdoor wheels that I always wear.

Um, but you just never know when you’re going to roll over something that the wheel isn’t going to account for and you go down.

[9:55] Um, so it’s just always best to be safe.

[10:01] You know, you just hit a small piece of debris or maybe hit the crack in the sidewalk the wrong way or the road is actually, you know, got a big gash in it and you don’t see it because you’re not paying attention down you go.

So, you know, so as a beginner, I really wear a helmet all the time, even indoors, you know, at least until you get steady on your feet and you’re not falling all the time and because you just don’t want to hurt your head.

So anyway, wear a helmet, don’t hurt your brain, you only got one.

So, um, if you go to the website, I have a lot of helmets that I recommend.

Um, you can check out the best roller skate helmets page.

It’s under the parts section of the website and you’ll find both the helmets as well as the pads that I’m going to talk about here.

So as far as actual gear is concerned.

Um, even when I was doing speed skating, I used to skate for, or at least practice with the speed skate team.

[11:09] Out at Playland skate center and I would always wear a Triple eight or I have a pro tech helmet as well.

Um Both of these helmets are pretty good. I really like actually both of them, the one I skate with the most right now is the Pro Tec helmet.

It’s like lime yellowish green.

I bought it to embarrass my girls and because you can see it from everywhere on the floor, but it’s a, it’s one of those really heavy duty roller derby helmets and.

[11:45] So anyway, I recommend that especially if you want to, you know, um, embarrass the kids.

You know, it can be fun to have something that’s really obnoxious and bright, what I like about it is that it has a ton of padding in it.

So it has a lot of padding that, you know, is around the ear holes and obviously up on top of the head as well.

[12:08] And you know, it straps just right around the chin and the straps really easy to adjust on some of the helmets.

It can be a little bit harder. I mean you can get away with just wearing like a bicycle helmet.

But the biggest problem is that most bike helmets, they don’t come down and like cover the forehead area at all. They kind of stop a little bit like below most people’s hairline.

And so I tend to like helmets that come down a little bit more.

And then that way if you face plant going face first, especially if you’re speed skating, you know, you want something that’s actually going to protect your noggin on the, on the front side of your head.

So usually the helmets are, You know, around $40, You can get them on Amazon or you know, you probably can’t even find them at like an academy or a target.

Maybe even usually these ones that are made more for roller derby and speed skating.

You typically buy those online. Um, roller skate nation also has some.

And so I typically send most folks to amazon and roller skate nation, they’re both, I, I am an affiliate and I do make a small commission if you purchase from those vendors, um, as I’ve stated on my website.

[13:30] So most of the recommendations that I make, um, are to those two vendors, but you can find them at a lot of online skate shop vendors or if you’re lucky enough to have a skate shop in your area or.

[13:44] Even most skating rinks, sometimes we’ll have some of this gear.

So if anything, if, if you do find that kind of stuff at a skating rink, go to the skating rink and they can actually let you try stuff on and you can, you know, see what fits just right.

Um, so anyway, make sure you get a helmet. So I’m going to lightly touch on some of the other items covered the helmet a lot.

That’s mainly because I think it’s that important, especially if you’re just starting out or if you’re into a really heavy duty roller sport, right? Like hockey or derby or speed, like wear a helmet.

Um, Next up we have the, The Tri Combo Pads, Right?

The three types of pads that you need, you need knee pads. You need elbow pads. You need wrist guards.

So let me cover kneepads first. So, you know.

[14:40] When you’re first starting out, you’re gonna fall a lot. And typically the way you want to fall is you want to fall forward and you want to fall on your knees.

And so if you have knee pads, this doesn’t hurt, right?

It doesn’t hurt as bad, may still hurt. And it actually does hurt me still, even when I fall on my knees with knee pads on, but it doesn’t hurt as bad as if you didn’t have them on.

So, um, typically with the knee pads, you’ll, like I said before, you’ll find like knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards a lot of times they’re actually sold together in a combo pack.

So you can just like buy one pack and you get all three sets of pads together.

[15:22] Um, sometimes you can’t find it like that. And if not then, you know, you can buy each one separately.

The ones that I really like that I use are the 187 killer.

Is that actually the name of the brand? And they make knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards.

Um, and they’re kind of more uh marketed towards roller derby people, you know, roller derby girls and guys who are really into it.

And I like it because the pad is really big, like the, the plastic piece on the front that actually makes up the part that would hit the ground is is really nice and wide.

You’ll see on some of the knee pads and elbow pads that are out there that the surface area that will actually strike the ground is is really small.

And so I would try to stay away from that. I would try to go with, you know, knee pads that have a wider surface area so that when you do need to stop and fall to your knees sometimes,

that that is actually a way to learn how to stop when you first are getting started to drop to one knee or,

and Worst case scenarios followed two knees. Um.

[16:37] That you want to make sure that you have enough surface area there,

so that it actually, you know, you don’t you don’t wind up, you know, rolling off your knee and onto your thigh or something like that and wind up scraping your skin up, which is what you’re trying to avoid.

So another good knee pad or combo pack is by triple eight.

So again, the people who make the helmet that I recommended previously, they also make knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards.

And I actually have a set of those and they’re nice too, the surface area, Like I was saying, on the actual pads themselves that hit the ground, they’re not as big.

And so that’s the reason why I tend to recommend the 187 killer pads because they’re a little bit wider for bigger guys like me.

Um but the key is to have these pads because they’ll help, especially when you’re first learning how to skate and when you’re really the most concerned about falling, you know, like when I go to a session to an adult night.

[17:41] I don’t wear all this stuff, but you know, I’ve been skating for 30 years and I fall maybe twice, three times a year, right?

And usually it’s because somebody is going the wrong way at a rink and I run into him, like I very rarely fall of my own accord.

And that’s just because I have a lot of experience and as you gain more experience, you’ll start to feel better about not necessarily needing all this gear,

all the time, but when you’re first starting out, it’s good to have because it helps you to make sure that you don’t get injured because.

[18:16] If you do get injured, that’s a surefire way to ensure that you don’t learn how to skate.

You know, you go out, you injure yourself, then you’re like, I’m not doing that anymore, like, I’m just Klutzy, I’m not good at this.

That’s those are all, that’s all B S you can totally, you can totally learn how to skate.

I’m I was probably one of the classiest kids there was, so if I can learn how to skate, you can, and I’ve taught lots of adults how to skate and it just takes time and it takes persistence.

You have to, you have to be consistent and the best way to stay consistent is to ensure you don’t get injured and they, you have a good time when you go, like, that’s the most important thing. You know, if you’re not having fun, you’re not gonna want to do it.

So, so anyway, that’s kneepads, make sure you have them. You don’t want to hurt your knees, you can’t skate if you have hurt knees.

Um So you just want to make sure you get lots of padding and you know what I will say about kneepads is like, they’re gonna feel bulky,

and they’re going to be weird when you’re first wearing them and that’s okay, that’s normal, the more that you skate with them on the, the easier it’ll get.

[19:25] Alright, so let’s move on to the next. Um I apologize if I’m clearing my throat a lot or coffee and I’ve been kind of under the weather, under the weather the last couple of weeks, so, but I wanted to get a couple of these,

get this podcast episode out for you guys because I know a lot of you have been waiting a very long time for me to to record something new.

So let’s talk about elbow pads. Um again, like I said before, I recommend the 187 killer Or the Triple eight. Either one of those are pretty good.

Um and the reason why you want elbow pads is because you know, you are going to fall forward.

That’s how every teacher, that’s how I anyone who teaches roller skating always teaches people like fall forward, You don’t want to fall backward, falling backwards.

Like the worst thing you can do when you’re learning how to skate,

um because you lose your control that way, it’s a great way to hyper extend um joints like elbows, especially break wrists, break elbows, um break tail bones.

Uh there’s lots of bad things that can happen by falling backwards.

So you want to try as best you can to fall forward. So elbow pads are great because sometimes you’re gonna fall to your knees and when you fall to your knees, you’re going to be going too fast and you’re.

[20:51] You know, your momentum is going to pull you down and when it does your elbows and your wrists, you know, your hands are going to be the thing that go down to stop you.

And so by having elbow pads, it ensures that,

you don’t break your elbow, because let me tell you, I’ve done it about four years ago, five years ago now, I almost broke,

the radio bone in both my elbows.

I was I think I’ve I’ve told you guys about this in a previous podcast episode, but I was skating with my daughter lily and we were doing the push cart race,

and I had a pivot pin actually move on me and the front truck of my right skate,

completely swung into a 90° angle, which.

[21:42] Is not good.

And I didn’t know it. And so I started racing and I was pushing her and the thing pivoted on me and you know, the the truck swung around and I didn’t know it had swung around and I came right down and I landed on my,

left elbow or actually my right elbow,

and then I got up thinking that I must have tripped over a kid or somebody clipped my skate,

and went to do a couple of pushes and went right down again, straight down onto my left elbow and had no pads on, like, like normal at the rink.

I don’t usually wear them and wound up by the end of the session, not being able to bend my left elbow and went in, had it x rayed,

had a break right through my radio bone, so the doctor was like, you need to stay off your skates for three months.

[22:40] That wasn’t going to happen. Like I just went to the rink and I made sure that I didn’t go fast and I stayed slow on my skates.

I think, I think I missed like three weeks of skating and because I, I wasn’t gonna stay off my skates, I’m not going to fall.

And so as long as I didn’t fall, like I wasn’t going to reinjure that elbow, but if I had had elbow pads on, if I had put them on and they were in my bag, if I had had them on, I would have never broken that bone,

and it would have been awesome because that really stunk.

It stinks when you can’t bend your elbow.

[23:20] Um so wear elbow pads. Again, the 187 killer elbow pads are a little bit wider surface area um for contact on the ground.

So I tend to like those a little bit better.

But the Triple eight are also really good and usually you can certainly almost always find an elbow a pad in knee pad combo pack.

Um and usually you can get those on amazon or roller skate nation for like 50 bucks or less than 50 bucks.

Um So the last thing I was going to talk to you about is wrist guards.

Uh, as far as the main pads, the normal pads that I often recommend to people and the wrist guards.

[24:10] I know that you guys know that I used to be an artistic roller skater when I was A kid when I was like 14, 15 years old.

[24:18] Actually like 8-15 and I wish I had had wrist guards when I was an artistic roller skater.

I had I I used to fall a lot, like a lot, you know, practicing all these different jumps, you know, flip,

toe loop, uh sow cow, not the singles,

I mean those, I I was able to land just fine axl it was when, you know, you’re practicing doubles, you know, double loop, double flip, double sound cow, double axel.

[24:52] Those are the ones where you typically, you know, especially when you’re first learning, I mean, you fall and I used to fall a lot, like, so much that I used to.

[25:02] To break the blood vessels that were in my hands and like right below where your fingers are at, on the, on the, on the pad, the palm of your hand.

I just would have these little black circles below every finger,

and I was like, you know, thinking about it now, I’m like, man, if I had worn wrist guards, like that never would have happened, because they actually have on the palm, they have this little plastic piece that actually,

pops up on the palm, so that if you fall hands down.

[25:39] Your hands, your palm don’t hit the ground, this piece of plastic hits it.

And so the reason why risk cards are really important is because.

[25:49] You can actually have a fall that doesn’t break your wrist but actually breaks your elbow and you know, I’m not a big medical person, that’s more my wife who has the E.

M. T. Certifications, but I do know if you fall and you hit your hand hard enough on the ground, it can actually radiate all the way up your,

your your arm and actually cause damage in your elbow.

So I didn’t know this until I started having different injuries. But the risk cards are super important just to make it a whole lot easier for you when you do fall.

You know when you do fall it’s it, I don’t want to say it’s going to keep you from ever spraining your wrist, but it certainly will help protect them and it will certainly help protect protect the palms of your hands.

And if you ever do fall backwards, it also helps just because you know it.

[26:50] Those those falls tend to be the ones that are the most out of control, the ones that are the hardest to recover from quickly while you’re falling.

[26:59] Um So anyway, again on these 187 killer those pads, the combo pack, it comes with risk cards as well as elbow pads and knee pads. So I recommend them a lot.

Um If you do have to buy them separately, you shouldn’t have to pay anything more than like I’d say probably about 20 bucks for them for just wrist guards by themselves.

They’re really not that expensive.

And you know, again, once you once you have a pair you’re pretty much set like this isn’t something that usually wears out.

I mean I guess if you’re in Derby it does, but I mean I’ve had my pads for gosh.

[27:41] A decade, you know, maybe not a decade because I have some newer ones, but I have I have pads that are a decade old and they’re still they’re still in great shape so.

[27:53] Mhm. Alright, so let’s move on to a few other things that you might want to get.

Those three knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards as well as a helmet.

Those four things as a beginner, everybody should have those if you’re a more advanced skater and you’re playing a roller sport, I hope you wear all four of those things.

Um Again, not if you’re an artistic skater, but but if you’re a hockey player, Derby player, speed skater, you should be wearing all those things, but a couple of other things that a beginner might want to look into.

[28:33] So one is, it’s going to sound like a joke, but it’s really not. Is a butt pad.

[28:40] Like a butt pad. Yes, a butt pad. So these are padded shorts that they actually sell and market mostly to like skiers, People who do a lot of snow skiing or snowboarding.

And what they are is they’re padded shorts.

And so they have these like, I don’t know what else to call them. They’re like, you know, thigh pads and and, and hip pads and butt pads, you know, gluteus maximus pads.

Um and they go all the way down, um your quads and you know, the the back, not all the way down to your calf, but you know, all the way down to the, to the knee, basically.

Um the ones that I bought for my wife.

And yes, I bought her some because she’s not an advanced skater at all, she’s a beginner.

And so I bought her one of these butt pads, she wore it like twice. She’s like, I’m not wearing it, it’s ugly, I can’t do it.

But what you can do is if you have like a nice pair of like stretchy pants, you can put your stretchy pants over the top of these things, they don’t have to be on the outside of your garment.

[29:52] But but anyway, what they are is they’re super cushy.

And so if you’re really concerned about falling and like, you want to make sure for sure that like, you don’t hurt anything.

[30:05] Like you can get a pair of these, they, I think the ones that I bought her, they’re called body approx protective padded shorts.

So if you go to the best roller skate pads article on my website, I have a I have a link there and anyway, I mean they work, that’s all I can say.

Like if you fall in these, I mean it’s not, I’m not saying it’s not gonna hurt, it’s gonna hurt, but like the key is is that like you won’t break a hip or I shouldn’t say you won’t break a hip.

Um You have a much lower likelihood that you’ll break a hip if you’re wearing something like this, right and more importantly, just it helps cushion the blow a little bit.

Um The biggest thing too is like if you have kind of more like a skinny, but like I did when I was a kid,

not so much now, but um you know, you can, you can damage your tailbone, which really hurts when you fall straight backwards onto your tailbone.

So these padded shorts actually helped to, you know, give you some cushion there to where your tailbone won’t hit the ground if you, if you slam down into the ground hard.

So so padded shorts, definitely a thumbs up for me. For those of you out there who are beginners who are really concerned about falling and getting hurt if that’s you.

[31:30] You can you can get a pair of these for like 30 bucks. I mean we’re not talking like there are $1000 or anything like that, we’re talking like $30,

and put them on, you know, especially if like you just practice in your garage or you know, which is where I learned how to skate was in my garage or your basement.

If you live up north and have a basement um You know nobody’s going to see you, nobody’s gonna see you roller skating in there until you get good enough and then maybe you ditch them and you take them off when you go to the rink, right?

Um But it’s a great way to ensure that you don’t hurt yourself.

Um Then the next piece I got two more pieces.

Uh The next one is a mouthpiece. So like a mouth guard and this actually is something that I’ve worn.

I did in the beginning when I first started speed skating and it was mainly just because um I had not competitively skated in.

[32:30] A couple of decades and I wanted to make sure that if I did fall while I was speed skating that you know all my teeth didn’t get knocked out because I was going really fast or you know at least really fast for me.

[32:43] Most people who have speed skated or raced against me would say you weren’t going very fast Jeff, you just think you were going, you just think you were going really fast.

I’m not the fastest person on the, on the ring floor but I can move, I’m no slowpoke.

So you know if you’re really into like Derby, I’m pretty sure most Derby girls Derby players and you know hockey players wear a mouth guard and I’m almost positive every hockey player out there does.

Um and you know but speed skaters do as well and you might too as a beginner like if you’re really really nervous about hurting yourself, you don’t want to hurt your mouth or your teeth, you know getting the mouth cards are great,

way to ensure that um it helps protect your teeth and uh your tongue too.

Um So anyway that’s um that’s another option for you.

Uh you can find those again on the parts list, I have those listed there And very cost about 20 bucks. 25 bucks.

They’re not too too crazy.

[33:51] Um And then the last thing that I want to recommend, it’s not really,

like a pad to ensure that like you don’t break something, but there’s just something that like I recommended honestly on my site like five years ago and I still recommend them because they’re awesome,

and that’s the easy fit,

And so what the easy fits are is they’re basically just a pair of padded anklets.

I want to call them socks, but the ones that I wear don’t actually cover the base of your foot or your toes. They just cover the hell and they go up your ankle, kind of like a high top shoe.

And I love them because it doesn’t really seem to matter which skates I wear.

I mean I try all different kinds of skates. I’ve bought God dozens.

I’ve purchased dozens of skates at this point to test them and try them out.

And it really doesn’t matter which skates I wear if I have a pair of these on the easy fits, um.

[35:03] I’d never get any, I never get any blisters or you know, any really bad rub marks.

So they just work really well for me. Um They come in like three different thicknesses.

So they’re kind of this uh I can’t remember exactly what kind of material it is, but it’s like a, it’s like a uh kind of a squishy material, you know, padding.

And they kind of come in a in three different thicknesses. You have a one millimeter, a two millimeter and a three millimeter thick.

I typically tend to go with the two millimeter.

Um, but all the family uses them. My two daughters use them.

My wife uses them and they can make skates that maybe you would curse, feel a little bit more comfortable.

Um There’s only one pair of skates that I skated in for an extended period of time that I wore these and it didn’t fix it.

And those were the vanilla 3 60 skates.

[36:08] So the you know the Vanilla Junior and you know the vanilla freestyle and the vanilla blackout? I’ve worn all of them.

I’ve worn all the vanilla skates. I’ve tried almost all of them. I think that they have maybe not the the newest ones like the parfait, they don’t make those in my size. Those are made more for ladies.

And I think the V. Line, I haven’t tried that one yet either, but All the other skates are super comfortable. But there was something about that 360 boots that just hated me.

I mean it was like death and I was determined to try to make these things work and to try to break them in and they the the boot would come like right under,

the ball of my ankle and just rub it.

[37:01] To know business and even the easy fits wearing those did not fix that problem.

But every other pair of skates I’ve worn and I’ve worn these, I don’t get any blisters and like I get no foot irritation or, you know, redness or anything at all.

So, so they’re great. I highly recommend them.

I tried probably like 10 or 15 different products.

I actually have a, I have an article on the website, a very old article About um about them about easy fits and I tried all kinds of different stuff.

They, they’re also really cheap, they’re like $20, at the most.

Um and so it’s like a, you know, it’s just like a little anklets.

So anyway, I’m going on and on about it, but I really do love it and I think it’s an awesome product and um they do actually have a full blown sock.

So like, if, for instance, you’re really having issues with maybe your toes, like, you know, I, I did write an article just recently about roller skates for people with wide feet, for people who need like a wider toe box.

Um they do easy fit, does sell like a whole sock where it’s all made out of this material and it covers the whole foot.

I’ve actually never tried it before, but um I’m sure it works great because it works great around the ankles and um and the heel.

[38:30] So anyway, that is my big list of all the pads and gear that beginners might want to look at before they get started and hopefully it was useful.

[38:43] And so, you know, that’s all the time that I have today for this podcast episode, you know, I just want to reiterate that, you know, I think it’s really important that,

when you’re first learning, especially that you skate safely and that you even go a little bit overboard, you know, just to make sure that you don’t get hurt, because if you get hurt, you’re not going to want to skate.

And so, you know, I know when I’m first learning how to do something new.

[39:12] It’s really easy to have my confidence shot, you know, when I mess up and you know when you’re a beginner, that’s kind of the definition right of a Nube, like you’re going to mess up a lot, and so like.

[39:25] Just give yourself a lot of grace, you know? Just remind yourself that, you know, you’re just starting out, you’re new.

Yeah, you’re falling a lot. Guess what? So did I, so did every other great skater that you see at the skating rink when you go, sure you’re falling. They did too.

They just kept going and they kept practicing, right? And that’s why they were so good on their skates now, right?

So but the biggest thing I think that hurts confidence the most is when you get hurt and so that’s the reason why I spent a whole episode just talking about safety gears.

Because if you get hurt, I think most adults if they wound up going to the skating rink, you know, first time in 20 years or 30 years and they injure themselves like to the point where they’re like I can’t skate for a couple of months, most people aren’t coming back.

And so I feel like, you know, if you spend the $100 let’s say it is to buy probably less than $100 to buy the skate gear,

and the safety gear that you need, so you ensure you don’t hurt yourself, then you have a much higher likelihood of succeeding in trying to learn how to roller skate and to keep doing it.

So anyway, I just want you to, you know, thank yourself.

[40:39] For, you know, the first few months when you’re falling down regularly, you know, you’re you’re going to thank yourself that you have these pads, right?

And you’ll be like, man, I’m glad I, I’m glad I got those pads, because now this isn’t that big of a deal.

[40:54] So I know in the last like 23 episodes, if you’re just now coming to my website and you’re listening to all these podcast episodes, um you know, I’ve thrown a lot of gear at you.

You know, we talked a lot about, you know, how to pick out the right skates and then spent a whole episode just talking about the best skates to go get and then here’s a whole episode about safety gear.

And so, you know, I’m kind of done talking about the gear for the podcast as far as the how to roller skate series goes.

So going forward, all the next episodes are just going to be about.

[41:32] How to roller skate, I’m just going to be talking to you about tips tricks, things that you can do when you’re first getting started learning how to, you know, do this great sport.

And so if you’d like more details about any of the safety gear, I recommended, you know, go out check out roller skate dad dot com.

You can go to the parts section, I have all of,

uh safety year listed under there, you can also go to roller skate dad dot com slash 22 which is this episode and I’ll have all the links that I talked about in this episode on that page.

So anyway, that’s it. We covered it.

Next episode, I’m going to be talking all about how to get going roller skating.

Wuhu finally going to talk about roller skating. So we’ll see how this goes. I’ve actually never thought about how do you actually teach somebody how to roller skate without showing them?

So this will be interesting. But um I hope that you guys will enjoy it.

So anyway, I want to thank you guys again so much for being here. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve aired an episode and until the next time.

[42:46] Get on out there and skate. Thank you for listening to the Roller skate dad podcast at www dot roller skate dad dot com.

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Wrapping Up

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Did you like what you heard? Do you want to hear more? Check out these additional episodes:

Want to Learn More About Skating?

Want more reviews on roller skates? Check out my Best Roller Skates page for a list of all of the quad roller skates I recommend. I also have pages for roller skates for men, roller skates for women and roller skates for kids where I recommend the best skates on the market today. Or, check out my roller skates for beginners if you are completely new to roller skating.

Or, if rollerblades or inline skates are more your style, then check out my rollerblades for men, rollerblades for women or rollerblades for kids pages. Or, if you are completely new, check out my rollerblades for beginners page.