Brand: Crazy -- Model: DBX

This is the name of the prototype I’ve been testing for 2 months.
New brand coming on the market. And it’s hot!

The boot prototypes were extremely promising, with two revolutionary major points: rigid for a better reactivity, and super comfy. They had a couple of drawbacks which have been fixed on the last prototypes I saw, a couple of days ago at the RollerCon when I met the guys at last.
The skates look just awesome – they didn’t have my size… so I’m just guessing. I tried them (two sizes too big), and compared to mine the pressure points around the ankle have totally disappeared, it’s not biting the Achilles tendon or the malleolus anymore.
It took me weeks to break the prototypes in, but the new ones will only need a couple of hours.

Bad Habit...

My good habit turned into bad habit.

When I feel myself falling, I anticipate before I touch the ground in positioning myself in a secure position. It's instinctive. I've acquired this habit along my dozen years of inline freestyling without pads. I'm thus used to land with optimal positions to preserve my knees, buttocks and wrists.

Good habit, right.

My Top-3 landing techniques:

• American Splits: (my fav. by far) it's the best one to disguise your fall into a super-stylish cartwheel at low height ending up with smooth American splits... and up!
• Push-ups: using my arms like springs to smoothly get lower as possible and get up.
• Save-Yr-Ass Technique: That's the very one about which this whole article is about...

I broke my plate!

"...doing street rollerdancing..."

 

After only 8 days -- i.e. a bout, four derby practices and half a rollerdance session.

So I went to the skateshop... and this is when the real sh*t began.

• I asked not to have the same model in exchange because I didn't trust the plates anymore. Ok... but they had no other derby plates in size 4. Damn!
• And what about Lazer plates? Not my size either.
• Artistic plates seemed the only option left: designed for jumps, they wouldn't break. But: 1) The thread for the stops is specific to artistic, so I'd have to wear (big) artistic stops and 2) Bearings size 7 only, whereas I can have bearings size 8 for free.
• I dropped the option when they found a Dynapro Powerdyne plate size 4 hidden in a corner. Woot woot so happy! Until we tried to put them on my boots. My feet are too small and the stops jutted out from the boots. Well.
• As there was nothing satisfying, I asked them to give me the same model I had broken, at least to have provisory plates for the bout against Stuttgart the following weekend, and not to have to drill new holes in my boots for plates I wouldn't like -- which I would change eventually (and make a new set of holes for the final plates). Unfortunately, they didn't have my size in stock, at all.
• Back to the only option left: the artistic plates! I had to pay them and they will refund me the price of the plate I broke. I had no choice anyway. 

My Babies are back...

...after a little plastic surgery!