All the Single action

I love love love this video!

Words cannot express.

And I'm nearing the end of my time on my not quite complete skates.  The pivot cups are in the mail, sitting somewhere in Canada Post right now, waiting for me to receive them.  Then it's just about putting the trucks on and voila!  Done (for now, at least...  something tells me I really want a shorter wheel base).

So I wrote a quick mini-review of the single action plates.

I loosened up the trucks (and keep loosening them, actually- but there's not much room on the king pin to get them as loose as I want) and they skate better for me.  When I first recieved the skates the action was super tight and the skates felt pretty unstable and were almost unskateable.   I noticed I want to use harder wheels with them, so I'm thinking the 45* angle keeps more contact with the floor, which I think is a definite benefit.  I even ordered a new set of wheels to try out, but partially also because I wanted to check out that particular company's products after hearing tons of goodness about them.  I think this is a matter of the 45*, though, mainly because my friend Razzie noticed a similar thing about her DA 45's, it's easier to stay in on corners and maintain the contact with the floor...

On an more intuitive level, it feels like these plates are longer than my old plates because of the extra effort to make tight turns.  To be honest, I've measured and measured again and I think I should have pushed for the size smaller.  The wheelbase is really the same size as my old plate, which are on boots a full size bigger...  They just are mounted more forward.  Actually, not my old skates feel funny because the wheels are too far back under the ball of my foot.  I didn't notice that so much before.  So who knows, maybe I'll do a 122/Skins DA 45 combo as outdoor skates and order the smaller size to put on my beautiful boots.  I'll have to sell my old skates first, though!

I think for how I skate, or at least attempt to skate, wanting to play with speed control and tight cuts/ transitions while blocking and jamming, the SA would work better with an even shorter wheel base and way looser trucks.  Then they would skate pretty sweet....

But my thoughts are if I'm doing all that to get them to skate more like a DA, then what's the point? 

The plates in general feel pretty rigid compared to whatever stock plate are on my old skates, and I feel a lot more power in my stride, and they remain pretty light, which is good because I like to run on my skates sometimes, so I can get more comfortable on them and have all the movements feel like second nature.

I did notice that there are some quality issues that would make a difference to me long term- some uneven axle widths and a couple are a little loose- not slipping but there's a slight wiggle- but that could happen with DA Trucks too, it's just about quality control.

Overall, I have enjoyed the opportunity to skate SA, it's been a cool experience and I'm glad to know I can skate SA and it's not a huge deal...  They way some people talk it's all important and SA are way to unstable for derby or something...  They aren't, just different and I don't see why anyone would scare players off from SA plates.