Finally! My Sebas are here! Last year when we starting freestyle slalom, I bought the Roces SKT100s. I found a few different problems including non-working hinges, oddly placed frames, and the largest problem, bendy-plastic! When it gets hot out, or if they have been in the car for a few hours, the plastic boot of the skate bends in half at my ankle. I was planning on making a video of this, but then I think…

Who cares?!?! The Sebas have arrived! I got them from Momo Sports in Canada. Momo was super nice and speaks English and even took American dollars! The first time I called them, they said that they were going to get Sebas in about 2 weeks and to call back. I called back in two weeks and they said the same thing. I called back in a week and they had them! They said they had both red and black sized 40. I said hold a red size 40 for me. Then I called back to ask about pricing and address information and they said they had no red ones… I was like ummm… someone before said that they were holding a red pair for me. They were like.. yeah we don’t have any red ones… I said, ok ok… black is fine.

I sent the check and off it went into nowhere land. They originally said to send a check for 520.68 Canadian dollars. I looked up what it would take to do that and it would end up costing me like 40 bucks to do the conversion on a bank check. I called Momo back and asked them if they would take American dollars and told them about the problem with converting here and they said it was totally ok. I went to the bank, got a bank check, which cost 10 bucks, for 466.97 US dollars and sent it to:

Momo Sports
530 Jean Paul Perreault
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
J1L2Z2
Attn: Yan Josselin
1-800-914-3077

In about a week, they called me back and said they got my check and they were confirming my order of a red size 40!! I’m like… wait… you DO have red? They said, yup… we do! We’re holding them for you.

Just yesterday they came!! I have them on right now. If I were a good posting doo-bee I would have pictures and videos and MORE pictures… But I don’t. I just have skates on my feet. Yesterday I put them on right away and went out for 10 mintues for a quick jaunt around my condo complex. They were so smoothe and elegant and easy to manuver in! I tried cones but they didn’t come rockered so I was uneasy. The wheels are also super new of course so they stick!

I just came back from skating and I LOVE them. I heard a lot about how they make yer feet numb over and you have to keep taking them off and putting them back on again until you “break them in”. That’s kinda happening for me but not really. My feet only fall asleep if I just sit in them (which I’m doing right now). But if I’m skating in them, the bloods a flowin and my feet are mowin down those cones. So awesome.

Jeremy went to Paris and he said he’d bring me back some wheels. I thought I had told him that I wanted 76’s and 80’s cuz that’s what the old Roces took. I was bummed when I saw the new skates had a max size limit of 76. But then I asked Jeremy (because I was too lazy to look in my skate bag for them) about my wheels that he got for me. He said that he did get me 76’s and 72’s! woo hoo! Before I went skating tonite, I totally rockered them and I have to say… new wheels rockered are PERFECT. I love how they stick. Maybe it’s just the quality of the Seba brand wheel! Who knows.

My feet are now numb after sitting here in them typing for 10 minutes. I must go take them off and sigh as I longingly gaze into their eyes and sigh and smile with hearts all around them… Haha! Kidding! I wouldn’t do THAT… That’s just CRAZY…

I recently started a new job. At this job they have a fitness center called HealthWorks. I started to go to this fitness center regularly at lunch time. The personal trainer there, Chris Re, asked me what sports I like to do. This is when I told him all about Freestyle Slalom. He was very interested in what this sport was and asked about what muscles I use. He was able to take what I did on skates and translate that into a training routine. The training routine included exercises mostly performed on VersaDisks. I had never seen one before this. From the fitness site I ordered them from:

“Incorporate with workouts for enhanced balance training. Build core strength by using one or two cushions for push-ups, lunges or squats. Enhance balance techniques by doing sitting, standing and lying exercises. Made of soft pliable PVC. VersaDiscâ„¢ has two textured surfaces that are useful in rehabilitation and massage therapy.”

I have been working out on these for a few months now and I have way more stability in my ankles when doing one foot/toe/heel tricks. They even strengthen the stability when doing the double toe pause or double heel pause to reverse direction. Quite a bit of the tricks in slalom require some smoothe movements in the core area as well which these disks strengthen as well.

My routine on these is as follows:

1. Standing: Stand on both feet, each foot on a disk for one minute.
2. Standing: Stand on one foot on a disk for 45 seconds. (repeat twice, once for each foot)
3. Squats: Stand on both feet, each foot on a disk. Do 10 squats.
4. Lunges: Stand on one foot on a disk. Bring your other foot behind you and inch it back pretty far, enough so you’re almost off balance. Hands on hips. Lower your torso down to the floor as if you’re going to kneel down on your back knee, but don’t actually touch down. Raise up. These are standing lunges. Do 10 standing lunges.
5. Pushups: Put hands (fists are easier) down on disks, one disk per hand (fist). Do as many pushups as possible.
6. Plank: This is an exercise not performed on the VersaDisk. Do the front plank for 30 seconds. Then do a side plank for 15 seconds. A side plank is where, from the normal plank, you rotate your body onto one elbow/forearm facing sideways. You must rotate your elbow on the floor so that your arm is pointing to the side now. Put your top arm on your hip and push your pelvis forward so it is not sticking out behind you. Go back to the regular plank for another 30 seconds. Go up on another side plank but on the other side now for another 15 seconds.
7. Repeat above steps 3 times.

You’re done! This should take about a half hour. This is the first workout routine the trainer has created for me. I will be asking him to either add to this or create a new one for me that will challenge me even more. I will post that routine when it becomes available.

When I started slalom skating with Jeremy, both of us bought new skates. I chose the Roces SKT 100 and he chose the Sebas. I think both are great skates. I have been skating in the SKT 100s for about 6 months now. Recently I went to Philadelphia to visit Jeremy and have a skate practice weekend. At the very end of the session on Sunday just before I headed home, Jeremy was comparing skates with someone and both of their skates had a hinge up on the boot for your ankle to be able to move forward and back. I was very surprised to see their skates bend like they did.I wondered why mine did not as they were the SKT 100 skates designed specifically for slalom as are the Seba skates. Even skates that are not designed for slalom but have the hinges bend the same way. I looked on my skates and found two bolts on the back of each skate that bolted the upper boot to the lower boot preventing the hinge from working like a hinge. I am not sure why Roces decided to do this. I removed the bolts pictured to the right, and now the hinges work like they are supposed to. I can not believe I have been skating on them for 6 months without the hinge. I think skating will be different now. (If only it would stop SNOWING.)

Update (7:10pm):
It did stop snowing finally. I went out front and just did some simple moves around the parking lot and oh man is it so much better. I have a feeling that the shoot the duck is going to be much easier. Possibly toes and heels easier too.

Update (Dec 9, 2006, 9:52pm):
From Bayside Blades online store rep, Jenny:

“The bolts are in place to make the cuff stiff and supportive so that it
remains very responsive. The FSK skate range is the same. It has hinged
cuffs but bolted in place at the back.

The FSKs were the best selling freestyle skates for last year so they must
be fixed for a goor reason!”

I really want to know what that goor reason is still!

I got my Seba 1 skates today, and I couldn’t wait to try them out. After mentally making love to them for a few minutes, I got to work testing them out, and eventually took them for a spin down Kelly Drive, and then over to the Eakin’s Oval parking lot to do some cones. I’m very impressed with the quality and handling of the skates. They’re also very comfortable, which I’m guessing contributes to the fact that they are somewhat of a project to actually get onto your feet.

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just came today… they must be really cutting edge, cause it looks more like a piece of paper than a pair of skates =(

DHL is going to call me back in an hour so i can go pick them up!

UPDATE: The totally awsome DHL guy came back tonight to deliver the skates! They must have sensed my enthusiasm, cause they told me he was done with his route and would bring it tomorrow. I’ll write up a review soon.

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.

Introduction
I love these skt100 (skt 100) skates. There are a few things that are new about the skt100 skates: (1) wheel spacing, (2) fatness, (3) laces, (4) rockered, (5) heel height, (6) wheel sizes and (7) tongues.

Wheel Spacing
The skt100’s have a different wheel spacing than my old hockey skates. On my old skates, the front wheel is directly under my toes and the back wheel is directly under my heel. The skt100 skates, the front wheel is a bit in front of my toes and the back wheel is a bit in back of my heel. So the wheels are spread out more.

This new wheel spacing helps me and hurts me. It helps me because I have better balance when I am crossing and in akward positions. It hurts me because when crossing, the front wheel of one skate catches into the back wheel of the other skate. So I have to get used to this spacing and move my legs further apart when doing close footwork.

Fatness
Fatness means that the skt100 skates are just fatter in general. They are heavier and fatter and just bigger all around. I can not get my feet as close together as I was able to with my hockey skates only because there’s more padding and plastic. I have to be aware of how close my feet are together when doing the tricks I know.

Laces
The skt100 skates have no laces. I took them out. The old skates have laces. I couldn’t take them out. I hate laces. So because there are two giant clips on the skt100 ones, there are no laces on them. Woo hoo!

Rockered
Holy crap! This changes everything. I can not believe how easy it is to turn my skate. Just skating backwards is so different. I also noticed that the rockering does not last very long. After just 20 minutes or so, I started to notice the wheels getting to be less rockered. Maybe there is a way of skating that I can do where it keeps the rockering. I’ll have to learn some toe and heel tricks to wear the outside wheels down.

Heel Height
This is a major difference. The height of my heel on my old skate was very high because the boot had a heel and because the skate has giant wheels in the back. The skt100 skate has virtually no heel on the boot and the huge wheels are in the middle. The would make one feel like they are always going to fall backwards. This isn’t the case with me tho. The wheels being spread apart further keeps me from that feeling. The combination of the lower heel height and the spread out wheels makes me feel very sticky to the ground. It also makes me lean on and trust the fronts of my skates more. It is easier to go up on my toes for some reason. This will take some getting used to.

Wheel Sizes
The new wheel sizes are good. I bought two sets of wheels: 88’s and 90’s, which isn’t a huge difference and doesn’t make them super rockered but it is a difference. To make me get used to the rockering. Because of the skt100 skates, I also don’t have to worry anymore about the giant wheels in the back and the small ones in the front. These skates standard have all the same size wheels. Another huge plus.

Tongues
The only downfall of the skt100 skates. I love them to pieces but the tongues suck. The sewing on them stinks. There is a giant piece of plastic on the front of the right tongue on the right side that presses into my leg and pinches badly. So what I did is roll a little piece of duct tape into a really skinny tube. Then I duct taped that little tube against the sharp part of the plastic that is sticking out. I tried them on in the house and it’s 100% better!

Conclusion
The skt100’s are just great. I will need to learn to skate all over again with new skates, new rockered, and new socks. (Yes I got new socks. They’re from EMS. I love them.) So it’s true… Before I learn more tricks, I will be learning to skate first, then learning the current tricks, then learning new tricks. The learning to skate first will go really quickly and the tricks will go as fast as I can schedule some personal practices.

This was a very cool session. There are a few different topics that came up this time: cups, weather, location, tricks, wheels, skates, future skate sessions, and other sites.

Cups
Jeremy brought me a set of the cups he bought. They rock. They’re pretty colors of “baby” blue and “I’m wicked gay” pink. I love them.

Weather
It rained. Blah.

Location
The location was a situation because there were a few locations that were possible rain places but none of them were definite. Then Jeremy said on his way up that there was a parking lot on the way to my house down the street. When he described where it was, I knew immediately where it was and thought it was a great idea. It is basically the same sort of place Jeremy has in Philly where the entire space is covered by a highway. The only difference is that in my area, it is a parking lot. So we skated during the day and met a couple skateboarders and a little biker named Steve, or Jim… hmmm. wait. Nick… that’s it. I think it’s a pretty good location.

Sunday, we skated from morning until late afternoon in two different locations. The first location was the bball court across from my place. That is my favorite place to skate ever. It is so perfect for setting up cones and just goin nuts with tricks. There are lines to set up the cones and it’s a super smoothe surface. We skated there until lunch and then in the afternoon, we went back to the highway because it started raining again.

Tricks
This was a good trick session. Oh man, I learned or honed 3 different tricks: the crazy, the grapevine, and a modified grapevine we invented as we went. We may not be the first skaters to have invented this but it’s pretty neat. It has to have a name of some sort.

The crazy has gotten easier for me especially at the bball court. As I practiced it more, I got a little better at it. I also learned from Jeremy that transitioning between front cross and back cross is a spread eagle or inverse spread eagle, which is supposed to be the sideways movement.

The grapevine is something Jeremy taught me on Saturday. I learned it pretty quick as it is similar to the crazy. It’s not really a trick that people do much on the cones. The only video I’ve heard about is one where one tiny part of the trick moves around a cone. Otherwise it is done beside the cones. I had trouble maintaining my momentum through this trick. I thought that if I can do it around the cones, I would be more likely to keep my momentum. So, I started to practice it on the cones. This gave birth to this 3rd trick that modifies the grapevine.

We initially called it the “insanity”. I think it is probably called something different already though. So this is where you do the grapevine in a compact way and less exaggerated backwards ‘S’, moving your crosses through the cones and doing the inverse spread eagle and spread eagle around the cones. I want to start practicing every day at the bball court.

Wheels
I ordered new wheels! Woo hoo! I will have rockered wheels very soon! Woo hoo!

Skates
I want new skates. Jeremy has recommended the Roces SKT 100 Slalom. These are the ones I will probably get when I purchase new ones.

Future Skate Sessions
Jeremy and I discussed going to the Big Apple Roll, which is a giant pile of city skates over 3 days. We’re going to go and have a blast. We’ll be there to get our skate on and blow people away with our beginner style slalom tricks. Awww yea!

Other Sites
I may be stealing Jeremy’s thunder but he found another slalom site. Looks pretty neat! American even! Woo hoo! I also registered at nycskaters.com. There are some great discussions/whining arguments on there. So great.

Conclusion
I think that we both learn way way way more when we’re skating together on one of our main skate sessions. I also think that solo sessions are really great for practicing what I’ve learned in a main session. I will be practicing these new tricks with my new wheels and new skates at the bball court every day after work (weather permitting). One last… Woo hoo!

I just got back from the basketball court across the street. When I go out for these solo sessions, I aim to learn something I didn’t know before about slalom. Here is what I learned tonite in about 30 minutes of learning the new trick Jeremy learned:

1. 80cm is a good width apart for this trick. It might be easier at 40cm.

2. Six cups stacked, of the cups we bought at Walmart, is a good enough stack of cups to withstand a pretty heavy gust of wind.

3. Thirteen cups in a line, or an odd amount, is good for going back and forth over the cones without stopping. I started out with a forward cross on the first cone, down the line forward crossing. At the last cone, I did the last of the forward crosses, then did the cool stop and go thing of the crazy to reverse direction. Then did backwards cross down the line to the last cone which was a cross, then did the cool stop and go thing of the crazy to reverse direction. Then did more forward crosses, and so on and so forth and so hence forth on and forth, fifth and sixth.

4. Doing the Crazy, I haven’t figured out the best angle to start with. I don’t know if it’s easier to do back and forth straight then diagonal, or do all diagonals. But I learned that the angle at which one starts with matters.

5. Doing the Crazy, I haven’t figured out how far out to go. But I learned the distance one goes out from each cone matters.

6. The laces around my ankles need to be tightened for more support from my skates.

7. Doing the Crazy, going from backwards to forwards is harder than the opposite.

8. I want to rocker my wheels as soon as possible.

So, I suppose you could say I learned enough for about eight sessions. It was a good 30 minutes.

Last time Jeremy was here, I bent one of the metal lace loops. I fixed it with some pliers. Good stuff.

I just modified the lower buckles on my Twisters. They used to hook around and into the shell of the boot, which caused them to protrude into my ankles and give me hot spots.

I used some speaker wire to attach them to a lower part of the boot. I’ll find out tomorrow if this does any good.

UPDATE: the new buckles I made are perfect. I skated all day today with the hotspot from yesterday and it didn’t bother me once!