There are a lot of articles about choosing, aggressive street skates even though we have several of them on our website. However, the questions repeated on the forum made me sit down and summarize once again, based on what criteria you should choose your first videos for aggressive, what to look for, which models should be considered now if you are new to aggressive.
You might prefer to look for used aggressive inlines from yesteryear and then you might find remnants of previously released commercials.
Boot – plastic, carbon or sneakers in general?
Aggressive skaters boots are divided into three subspecies: a hard boot (most models have just such a boot), a soft boot, and boots like snowboard bindings into which a regular sneaker is inserted. Rollers with a soft boot seem more flimsy, although if we are talking about K2, then any plastic will envy the rigidity of these boots).
Rigid boots, in turn, are divided into those made of plastic and carbon. Carbon boots are significantly more expensive and should be much lighter than plastic boots. Although this is not entirely true (details later). An “overboot” is often stretched over a hard boot for beauty – a skin made of fabric and synthetic materials, designed to give the skates a look “a la sneakers”. Overboot gives the model additional beauty, but as a rule it also gives additional weight, it is quickly erased, deteriorated and shaggy.
Like ordinary skates, aggressive shoes have different pads and aggressive inliners that fit perfectly on the foot of one skater, can put pressure on the knuckles and prevent another from skating. Although because the liner is much thicker in aggressive boots, such problems are rare.
When choosing a trick rollerblades, ideally you should measure it, try to “put” the rollers in both directions on the piano to see how easy it will be to slide in these rollers (if the rollers are too hard or too high for you, it will be difficult to accept the right positions in the slides, on the other hand, a boot that is too low will give very little lateral support.
Is the weight of the rollers important?
It just so happened that roller makers desperately want to release rollers easier, so one or the other model gets the word Light or Super Light in the name. Some rollers are made from expensive carbon for the same purpose – to reduce weight.
Chassis – flat setup, anti-rockering or freestyle frames?
Aggressive rollers, unlike ordinary ones, are very easy to adapt to your taste – they are all sharpened for UFS-mounting of the frame, and you can buy a variety of frames and wheels. Quite often, skates are sold boot-only, meaning that everyone will buy the frame they need for them. Let’s see what they are
Frame choice is determined by riding preference: if your choice is speed, you need a flat setup, i.e. frame that can fit 4 wheels. The larger the diameter of the wheels fits into the frame, the faster the speed will be (although, say, 72 mm is already for a classic aggressive – bust – such a setup will be less stable when landing). In order not only to race at high speeds, but also to slide over pipes and railings, the frame must be made so that there is a lot of space between the middle wheels. Unfortunately, they are too short to recommend to a person with, say, a size 44-45. T
If the plans are mostly to slide on pipes and copings in the skatepark, we take a frame with anti-rockering, i.e. one where two plastic wheels of small diameter are placed in the middle positions. They will allow you to take a more stable position on pipes and copings.
If there is no skatepark nearby and the slides will be mainly on the parapets, freestyle frames will come in handy – without any wheels in the middle positions.
Powerblading is a trendy trend in aggressive action right now. These are frames designed for large wheels – 72-80 mm and at the same time adapted for sliding. Let’s be honest, a powerblading frame will allow you to race around the city on a ride, jump, and slide very limitedly. Stability will be noticeably lower, sliding will be MUCH more difficult, so powerblading is the choice of either very experienced aggro rollers or FSKers who want to feel a little aggressive
Wheels and bearings
The choice of wheels and bearings is of great importance if you plan to ride in a skate park or ramp. A simple rule applies here – any fast bearings are killed in a month and lose their characteristics. So either we are getting ready to change them regularly, or we can immediately buy something like ABEC5 (they are the cheapest and will last a long time). The choice of wheels has more influence on the speed. Here it is important not to miscalculate. The rule is simple – four wheels go faster than two (i.e. a flat setup will be faster), wheels with more rigidity go faster than wheels with less rigidity (i.e. 92A will be faster than 88A), larger diameters go faster than the smaller one, iron hub wheels go faster than plastic hub wheels.
However, for riding in the street, only one thing is needed from the wheels – so that they wear out less.
Why do we buy roller skates – where do we plan to ride?
If your choice is park skating, i.e. if you want to jump on funboxes, fly out in radiuses, slide along edges, do spins and flips – you will need fast enough rollers with wide plates for sliding. The lighter the rollers are, the easier it will be to jump, however, in a skatepark, the radius does most of the work for you, so the weight of the rollers does not matter in principle. The presence of anti-shocks will be a BIG plus. The faster the chassis is, the easier it will be to pick up speed for tricks, but the speed of the chassis is not of fundamental importance, especially at the beginning of skiing. Of the budget models, the best choice for the park is the Razors Genesys – fairly light skates, on the other hand with very good anti-shock and wide plates, a good light frame that can accommodate up to 4 wheels with a diameter of 60mm.
If your choice is a straight, i.e. sliding on street railings, edges, the key factor is the weight of the rollers (it will be easier to jump onto the railing in light rollers), the presence of anti-shocks (to safely jump repeatedly from high railings) and sufficiently large plates. The undercarriage of the rollers does not matter much here.
If you want to slide in a mini-ramp or a pool, then the weight of the rollers does not matter, only the width of the plates matters. Anti-shocks in the mini-ramp will not hurt at all, despite the fact that there are no large loads on the landing.
In a large ramp, speed is very important, so you need skates that can fit 4 wheels of the maximum diameter (optimally 60mm) on each skate. The weight of the skates is also important if you ever plan on flipping. In heavy rollers, this is problematic. The presence of anti-shocks in a large ramp is unimportant. Regular wheels and bearings with 100% probability will need to be changed over time or immediately, so it’s best to take boot only rollers for the ramp and immediately install the correct frame and wheels. Very low rollers like Remz or USD Carbon are not suitable for ramps – they do not hold the foot well at high speeds.
