My latest obsession has been purchasing a pair of Rollerblades. Sounds fun, right? I have a few friends that go regularly and I want to go with them. I'm always looking for a social activity that will be a healthier alternative to sitting by the pool with a half frozen beer dripping icy condensation on my chest as I take a cooling sip on a 100° day. Wow, that does sound great! LOL FOCUS: ... healthier alternative to sitting by the pool drinking beer. Living in AZ that's a pretty common activity, even at night. I have no problem doing things alone, I will go hiking, hit a movie, lunch at a restaurant, or hang at the pool. However, I think with any activity that involves a little exercise it's always easier to keep into it if you have people to go with you, since this is already in place I'm ten times more thrilled about it.
I mentioned my new plan to a few friends, and a few responses were: "Jessica, you'll poke your eye out!", "You'll definitely need a helmet, and pads.", "I'm not sure you on wheels is a good idea", "You're going to sprain something again" and "You won't be near moving vehicles, will you?" So, now that I also have the support of my peers the anticipation is overwhelming!
When I was in Jr. High I was really into Rollerblading too, my next door neighbor who I thought was "sooooo cuuuute" wheeled by my house all the time and I was dying to join him. Every time we had gone snow skiing together he had always paired up with me and helped me to overcome the bad habits I'd clung to since my first ski lesson at 7. Bless my mother, who didn't care why I wanted Rollerblades, promptly bought me a pair. She thinks my renewed interest is a fantastic idea! Even offered to send me my old pair, but since I'm not really into hot pink on black with teal anymore... I think I'll get a new pair.
Learning from Past Experience:
A few years ago I lived in Ann Arbor, MI I had a friend who really enjoyed bicycling, she had MS and the low impact of biking was an exercise she could thoroughly enjoy. My bike was a few years old, given to me by a friend who's wife left him and he was bitterly dispersing her assets. I thought it worked great, but after a while I wanted something pretty since my friend and I started biking 10-15 miles 3 times a week (Shout Out to the Lower Huron Parks and Rec). I took my bike to a bike shop, they said it need a tune but was still in good shape so would be a $100 to tune. I thought it would just be a good idea to hop over to K-Mart buy a $100 pink and white bike instead of keeping the old one. After taking one ride on it I realized my error, it rode awful and I returned it the next day. I asked the bike shop guy what a replacement for my regular bike would be and it was around $700, so I saved the $600 additional and just got a tune and rode merrily on my way. Lesson Learned, Cheaper is just that, cheaper!Research!
Using my past experiences, I knew that I needed to do a little research to make sure I was making the best purchase for me possible. At first I thought I'd be set back around $50-$75, I was wrong... unless I wanted to go to Target, but even then I'd be starting at $60-$70. Since I'm not eager to revisit my bike purchasing mistakes I knew I'd have to open the purse a bit more. I couldn't just look at something and think, "OMG! It's sooooo cuuuute, I'm getting it!" and plan on it working out. There are quite a few resources online, my favorite are YouTube videos and product reviews, Inlineskates.net has tons of product reviews. I found Donna Marie Webber who has a whole Rollerblading channel on YouTube, as well as a website, so I watched most of her videos to get an idea of what I was looking for. She was very thorough, covering types of skates, brands, wheels, costs... I knew I was getting closer.
Here is the first video I watched:
Decisions, Decisions...
I decided I was going to go with the Spark 84 by Rollerblade, K2 had the 2nd runner up with the Andra. Honestly, what it comes down to is I like the color/design of the Spark but there are some other features as well. Third and fourth runner up were the Rollerblade Spiritblade and K2 Escape each running about $100 online and in stores, these are both the cheapest models for the respective brands, and originally what I was looking at, but I really want to have a good experience so the extra $50 will be worth it. AND of course aesthetics are pretty important to me, the design of the base models seems a bit more bulky and square, not as streamlined, though I do like the colors more. Also, I've sprained my ankles numerous times, I spent all last summer hobbling around, so I like the higher more supportive ankle on the Spark 84.
Tomorrow is my final decision day, and I'm pretty stoked. I decided I want to order them from http://www.inlineskates.net/. For a couple reasons, some personal.... :-) I used a lot of the resources I found there to make my decisions. They offer a lot of information about each skate, and also videos on each product that interview a manufacturer representative as well as an inlineskates.net employee. I did find them a little cheaper elsewhere, but I did use their resources to make my final decision. I think it might be bad karma if I went elsewhere because I also make product pages for a website, and I try really hard to have as much information as possible. Many people think this may just be a copy paste kind of job but you'd be surprised how little information is often provided by a manufacturer. Looks like InlineSkates.net really goes the extra mile to inform the customer, and hopefully this gives the little pat on the back to that person in a cubicle trying to find exciting ways to describe 200 different types of InlineSkates.
The final final final step is to go try each brand on tomorrow. This may prove difficult, as I have a size 10 foot... yes 10 quit judging, I'M TALL okay? I'd look really funny wearing a size 7 and being 5'9. I've tried to find some of them in stores but have had little luck, well, I've found them but not in my size. I'm going to compare a K2 to a Rollerblade and see how they feel. Sometimes with larger sizes manufacturers make the foot wider, but I don't have wide feet.
ACCESSORIES CORNER!!!
As you might imagine I talk a lot, so at work I was mentioning the Rollerblade thingy, and the accessories, blah blah... I mentioned I wanted over the knee or thigh high tube socks to skate in, how cute is that!? AND they tell me, "We have those!"I say, "YAY! Looking them up right now!!" Happy for me, go online to look at what's in stock, and no one has bothered to ever put them online. Which means I'll probably have to do it. But it would have been much more exciting to discover what we carried without having to do the work myself.
SHOUTOUT: You are appreciated Inlineskates.net web developers!!
If you happen to be driving in SE Phoenix Suburbs and see this... wave, it might be me!
No comments:
Post a Comment