Today I had the pleasure of meeting Laurie at our Toronto shop. Laurie was celebrating her 45th birthday by treating herself to some new inlines skates. Throughout her twenty years of skating, her favourite pair of skates had always been her Rollerblade Aeroblade's, which were her second pair of skates. Since those skates, she got away from the plastic boot with smaller wheels and into a softer boot with bigger 90mm wheels. She never quite got comfortable on her newer skates and admits to leaving them in the closet for extended periods of time because they were't fun to skate on. She missed the experience she had before and wanted to get a skate that would feel similar to her Aeroblades, if not better.
Knowing that she missed the more solid feel of a plastic boot around her foot, I recommended she try on the Seba FR2, a skate we often recommend for it's support and responsiveness. The skate comes stock with a decent liner from Seba, but I suggested she also try it with the heat moudable Intuition Skate Liner, designed specifically for the FR shell. She tried both and was blown away by how different if felt with the upgraded liner. She was sold on the FR boot and Intuition liner, but wasn't completely happy with the 80mm wheels. She still felt a little higher off the ground than she wanted to be. So I switched out the 243mm frame for a 231mm frame and put green (one of her favourite colours) 76mm Seba Street Invaders wheels on and then let her try them again. Laurie started rolling around the shop on them and that's when a big grin appeared on her face. We created the perfect setup she was looking for. To top it off we heat moulded the liners, put Superfeet insoles in the skates, and some Lorpen Coolmax Liner socks on her feet.
Laurie was so happy about her new skates that she didn't want to take them off. She skated right out of the shop, thrilled to be back on some skates she was comfortable and confident in.
Happy birthday Laurie! Enjoy your new skates.
Everyones needs or wants are different, and we are here to help you find the right skate for you. If you have questions about a custom setup or just need some skate advice, please call, email, or visit one of our shops.