Roller Skates

Any suggestions for my almost 6 year old? Should I get her skates or blades?
TIA!

Re: Roller Skates

If there is any chance she will play hockey, she should learn to rollerblade and if most of her skating is outside, rollerblades take the bumps more easily. Otherwise, I have skated a lot on both in my life and I would much prefer quad skates for a kid. There are a lot of ways to stop on quad skates and the stopping distance is so short.

Roller Skates

DS is 4 and we just bought him blades. I figure he would grow out of skates anyway. hes only practiced 2 times so far but hes doing good.

Roller Skates

DD just turned 6 and got Skechers roller skates for her birthday. I didn't want her to start with roller blades I think they are harder to master and she may still be a little too young for them.

Re: Roller Skates

My kids play roller hockey and the coach said that roller blades and roller skates are equally hard to learn on. The transition from blades to skates is easy, but the transition from skates to blades is as difficult as learning to do it for the first time.

Hearing that, I'd probably skip the skates and go straight to blades.

Re: Roller Skates

Thanks everyone for your responses!
I'm still not sure which to choose though
Dd will be using them outside. She's not exceptionally graceful (and neither am I...I broke my wrist roller skating as a kid so hopefully I'm not making a huge mistake) so I'm not sure if the quad will give her more balance.
Thanks you have given some things to think about.

Re: Roller Skates

Posted by jodi714

Thanks everyone for your responses!
I'm still not sure which to choose though
Dd will be using them outside. She's not exceptionally graceful (and neither am I...I broke my wrist roller skating as a kid so hopefully I'm not making a huge mistake) so I'm not sure if the quad will give her more balance.
Thanks you have given some things to think about.

Re: Roller Skates

My DD just had her first birthday party in a skating rink & she LOVED it. She has already asked for her own skates. So I'll be watching here for brand recs!!!!

Re: Roller Skates

I wanted to bump, to see if anyone found any they like.

My daughter went ice skating last weekend & loved it more than roller. So we thought to get roller blades & ice skates.
But not sure on a brand?

Re: Roller Skates

For value, Chicago has some nice roller skates. For really great quality, you would buy the boots, plates and wheels & toe stops separately or the boots & blade separately.

Riedell used to be known for amazing boots for both roller skating and ice skating & now they have some complete skates that look amazing.

For roller skates, look into what kind of bearing you want. There is a pair of inexpensive Chicago skates that I think would be good for my son to start with but I would upgrade the bearings.

DS is starting ice skating lessons but I want to wait to see whether to buy a hockey skate, a figure skate or a speed skate. I get disgusted by rental skates so I hope to figure this out ASAP. I worked in a rink and maybe I saw too much with those skates.

If you live anywhere near Great Neck, go to Jesse Halpern Skate & Tennis. They've been there forever and have a great reputation. They would probably disagree with me about the Chicago skate & want to build you a custom skate but you can tell them a budget, and I know I will bc DS is growing so much and he may decide he doesn't like to skate. I wish Great Neck wasn't so far for me but I will probably go. I wouldn't know how a hockey skate should fit at all.

Re: Roller Skates

Def roller blades. I think skates are outdated and most kids use blades.