..and after 30 minutes of speed skates

After the excitement of Le Mans and a timely work bonus I was in the Club Blue Room skate shop again. This time I was after speed skates, my friend Tom came too looking for some slalom skates. 

I tried on a couple of pairs and I was expecting them to feel like wooden clogs after hearing about other peoples' experiences of speed skates. They were all a lot more comfortable than I imagined. Powerslide Double X is what I was drawn towards. The manager, Dave saw me trying them out around the shop. Dave mentioned he has them too and how great he's found them to use. They're also heat mouldable so certain areas can be stretched to accomodate individual foot shapes. Heat moulding is something Club Blue Room do as an after are service but there's nothing stoping you from doing this at home if you know how.
         I tried them out a little longer and just out of curiosity I tried doing a double toe wheely in the shop. It worked, the response and control I had with the skates felt good.

Sold.

Tom also got his slalom 'Hardcore Evo,' skates. We could have been on the advert for Powerslide skates with the way we both came out of the shop beaming. Christmas had come early. Our first destination was Hyde Park.



I said to myself I'd be sensible and take it easy on my first outing on speed skates.
However this bike zoomed past. 

Challenge accepted. 

The power transfer with the speed skates is just so much more efficient than my other slalom and recreational skates. I managed to overtake the bicycle before the end of the Serpentine Road where I slowed to turn back around. The bike stopped at the end too, I thought he was going to have a go at me for something silly as certain cyclists have a thing against skaters. It's all a bit silly, like some kinda of old fashioned racism  However he was really interested in how fast I was going. That's something I've always wondered myself...

After some more runs I decided to join Tom in the slalom cones too. Probably not the best skate for slaloming but I manage some toe wheeling. Also the 'Special,' but out of cones. (I can't do the Special with my actual slalom skates anyway). I forgot to film the Special.



A lot of people were warning me that it'll take months and months to build ankle strength in order to get used to speed skates. I was already purposely building up my ankle strength anyway, but for slalom toe wheeling and I think that really helped prepare me for my new skates.

So what I've come to believe is that slalom skating has fed into my all-round skating, street skating and now speed skating too. 

Speed skates to the left. Slalom skates to the right. Both for different skating disciplines but can equally compliment each other.