K2 has released a new slalom skate called the “Soul Slide Urban Skate.” As far as I know, this is the second urban skate to hit the market in the U.S. including the Twister from Rollerblade.
Good to see that not only is freestyle/slalom growing, but its also growing in the U.S.
I think the skate looks decent, but I’d like to see more skates available with 76mm max wheel size, to get the frame down to 230mm, like my seba 1 skates (they should arrive early next week!) Anyway, at least the frame is shorter than the twister’s frame, which i found to be too long.
-jeremy
Posted in Equipment |
July 27th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
they’re not new, they’ve been around since 2005. the boots are way too soft for serious freestyle skating. but they’re comfortable.
twisters use standard speed skate frame mounts (165mm spacing/11mm pitch), same as the sebas so you could bolt seba frames right onto twisters. or any number of aftermarket freeskate or speed frames.
in europe there’s a limited edition twister that has a shorter, 245mm frame.
July 27th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
oh and the souls come with the brake bolted to the skate, but they don’t include a shorter axle if you want to remove it! who freeskates with the brakes still attached?
plus the rivets that hold the cuff together pop off easily when you’re skating so you go from not a whole lot of ankle support to zero ankle support in about the time it takes for you to hit the open car door.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
I would say that’s a “three thumbs down” from el asso wipo… hehe.
July 27th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
hrrrm my comments might be construed as being a bit negative huh. the positives: er….they’re comfortable, and not too expensive (the soul slide is the top of the line model and the retail price is only like $199). think of them as a slightly more maneuverable recreational skate, use them that way and they’re pretty good. but calling them freeskates or urban skates is a bit of a stretch i think. definitely not a slalom skate.
July 28th, 2006 at 2:34 am
to be honest,i don’t like k2.
shoes from k2 can make u feel very comfortable,but not professional.
In China,skaters always say k2 means comfortable and not professional.
July 30th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
well i guess that’s the verdict on these skates. I’ve only seen the picture, so i’ll trust these other opinions.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I’ve been looking for slalom skates for a while. The thing is that having read joystick .com information about slalom skate I’ve decided to buy a pair of Seba 1 and it’s totally true that the skates have SERIOUS ventilation problems. I can’t actually believe that a 300 euros skate can have such a basic problem. So If you have big feet, langer than 40, not doubt try to get a Salomon MAx V. Otherwise, wait for next Seba skate which will be released in february 2008. In the meantime for people sizing less than 40, it’s possible to get a comformtable boot and add it a Seba frame, I’d like to have a K2 boot with a Seba Frame but I’m not sure that’s possible.
By the way, does anybody no how to solve Seba ventilation problems?
September 28th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
what problems are you having? I’ve had two pairs of sebas (40s and 39s) and had no problems with ventilation.
K2 softboot doesn’t give enough support IMO.