Video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAhNtDaNNSg
Riders are pushing the envelope and taking Freeline Skates to SKATE PARKS, POOLS/BOWLS and DOWN THE MOST GNARLY HILLS you could imagine.. What started as a personal hobby of inventor, Ryan Farrelly, has become an underground movement.
Weighing only 2 lbs per skate, Freeline Skates are made from airline grade aluminum. Although they are small enough to fit in your back pocket, these hard core skates are not toys. They are capable of over 40 MPH downhill and can provide a new riding expirirnce everyday for years.
Riding these skates is a lot like rideing a bike, balance is easier with motion. We recomend starting on a slope or next to somthing to push off from when learning. There are no straps; simply a foot patform with grip tape to stand on. Yes, they are tricky at first , but the fun far outweighs the difficulty.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The next ride Comment: When I saw the freeline skates I had to try them. There was a tough learning curve the first month.. I could barely stand on them. Now I am carving hills with the best of them.
Almost 49 and rocking freelines :) Customer Rating: Summary: Fun eventually Comment: I bought these after being disappointed with the small amount of speed I got from my ripstik. After watching the instructional video on Youtube, and seeing a great deal of fun tricks being done, I wanted to get Freelines.
The first day I bought them, I couldn't help but follow the instructional video's advice of holding onto a sturdy hand-rail and moving myself back and forth with my arms. Seriously, I couldn't leave that rail until after four or five hours of practice (my time on the rail was split across a few days).
I had two main challenges as a beginner, the first was learning to forcefully twist my feet to steer, and the second was using this twisting to steer both feet independently. This takes practice.
When I first started moving along a sidewalk, a large problem shows itself: the presence of cracks, twigs, and rocks. It doesn't take much to stop you if you're putting along at beginner speeds, and that means you're suddenly off of your skates. Don't worry too much, because if you slip and fall, you just let gravity take your foot straight down and it's on the ground, safe and sturdy.
After a couple weeks, I became comfortable enough to use it as a method of transportation. My speed feels like a slow run. Maybe 5 to 8 mph. Speeds are hard to hold on rough asphalt, but I'm sure I've gotten past 10 mph.
These skates were built for going down hills, where skaters report going well over 30 mph. All of my riding has been on flat surfaces; I just haven't had time to go out to a hill.
I'm not sure if it's entirely caused by these skates, but I believe I should mention that my knees feel a little worse for wear.
Using these skates takes leg muscle, control, and practice, but for now they seem worth the effort. Customer Rating: Summary: pretty cool but hard to master Comment: I ordered a pair for myself. At first it looks easy but when i tried it out , it was so hard. I think if i had enough patient i would mastered it. Anyways, be prepared. It is not as easy as it look. It took me around 1 week to get the hang of it but i couldn't keep the momentum and couldn't turn. I just realize that this is only use on the street. If you try to ride on sidewalk or something, it's hard because of the cracks. Especially when you move from sidewalk to side walk, you should watch out for the bump. I prefer sticking to the old roller skates 1 since i feel more secure and can easily move from sidewalk to sidewalk. Good luck to all those who attempt to master it. Customer Rating: Summary: Everything I expected. Comment: These things are damn fun. Don't expect to get on them and ride them right away but don't expect to put in hours of practice to learn how to do so. Instructional video helped a little but they can't teach you how these things are gonna feel once you step onto them.
Some advice: The first thing you're gonna want to do once you get these is put new wheels and bearings on them because the stock ones are absolute crap. The wheels aren't totally necessary but the bearings hardly spin. New bearings will totally help your momentum and reduce the amount of effort you need to use to simply go. I put on bones reds bearings because their inexpensive (about 12 dollars) and well reviewed and the improvement was incredible. More money will buy even better bearing but mine seem to work great for me now. My next set will almost definitely be more expensive ones to see if I can get even more improvement.
As far as wheels are concerned, better ones will increase grip/traction and probably help you balance better since all the weight from your leg is centered over the base of the wheels. Despite what Ryan Farrelly says in the instructional video, THE FREELINE STOCK WHEELS ARE NOT 72MM WHEELS. In fact 72mm wheels won't even spin on these things because of the shape of the mold. How you can have misinformation about a product you invented in your own instructional video is beyond me but they managed. The set wheels I bought (make that second* set of wheels I bought) are 65mm and even those seem slightly wider than the stock ones but they work great. Don't waste your money buying wheels through Freeline either, they're overpriced and mediocre. Any skate shop will have a selection of way better 65mm wheels for around 29 dollars and in more interesting colors than the plane jane primary colors. Customer Rating: Summary: Best thing since sliced bread.... Comment: The first thing I have to say is that if you've ever ridden a Snakeboard, then it won't take you very long to get the hang of these, the foot/body movement is really close.
I think the best thing about these skates is that (believe it or not) you can balance yourself better since your front foot won't dictate what happens to your back foot, like on a skate/snakeboard... You just need plenty of patience in learning how to Freeline, and the payoff is WELL worth it.
To the above posts: for uphill skating, you REALLY have to throw your upper body into the footwork to get some good momentum...
For the clear wheels and other cool add-ons, go here:
http://freelineskates.co.kr/en/component/page,shop.browse/category_id,1/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,1/
Also, I really recommend wearing at least elbow pads and wrist guards with these... ;-)
