Roller Derby Skates
Picking skates can be the hardest part. you want a pair that will give you top speeds, a pair that is easy to maneuver and looks bad ass.
Well here you will find the starting point for looking for the right pair of skates.
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Skates - (COMPULSORY as per WFTDA /MRDA rules…and you’d look pretty silly turning up to a Skate sport with no skates…)
This is where things get a little complicated. Generally you want to invest in a pair of skates that are specifically designed for Roller Derby or Speed skating. Some people tend to prefer a pair that is designed for Jam skating. Either way, they need to be suitable for the sport, and therefore the full-ankle, hard shell type of roller boot is not a good choice at all. You want a shoe-style skate, with little to no build-up around the ankle, as your ankles need to be free to move how they want to move. You will find manoeuvring through the pack very difficult with a pair of quad boots that limit the movement of your joints.
You can find all sorts of skate configuration within the Roller Derby category, such as standard-mount and short-forward mount etc. These are all designed for different styles of skating, for instance short-forward is more geared towards speed and agility, and are perfect for those who aim to be a Jammer. A standard mount option gives a lot more stability under the skater, and therefore is more suited to those who want to be a blocker or a pivot. It’s advisable to get to know what kind of style you eventually want to go for, and talk to as many skaters about it as you can. There are plenty of online forums on the subject of Roller Derby, and you can bet that there are hundreds of threads on these forums packed with this type of advice.
The following companies make ranges of skates specifically for Derby:
Riedell
Vanilla
Suregrip
Anarchy
Antik
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