The Best of: Skates.

[Alex Coe]

Post the best of the best when it comes to skate set-ups. Post your favorite boot/liner/frame/wheel set-up that you've ever skated and also the technical reasons that they were the best skates. The best should be determined by the mixture of comfort (comfort would translate to your comfortability with the appearance of your skates as well as how they performed) and ability (essentially how easy trick were for you) you felt on the skates. Also include the bad attributes of the set-up and how it could possibly be fixed or why you have stopped skating them.

If this topic is kept reasonably logical then we might be able to draft our own version of The Best Skate Ever based on our collective experiences.

[jakeordie]

I gotta say my King 55s, setup with Cozmo 59mm Hulgreens and Bones Swiss bearings. Love K2's design principles (softboot, lowered heel, light & minimal design) and the King was super comfortable once broken in and laced tight. I had metal h-blocks, shaved the sidewalls so the bolts touched for grinds, lost the toecaps & BS plates, lost the big heelstrap and used the little ankle strap for the heel. Perfect for park, metal grinds and speed to burn. The bad is that K2 dropped the skate, and no UFS. I switched to experiment more with UFS frames, but they're still my all-time favourites.

[justinthursday]

I gotta say my King 55s, setup with Cozmo 59mm Hulgreens and Bones Swiss bearings. Love K2's design principles (softboot, lowered heel, light & minimal design) and the King was super comfortable once broken in and laced tight. I had metal h-blocks, shaved the sidewalls so the bolts touched for grinds, lost the toecaps & BS plates, lost the big heelstrap and used the little ankle strap for the heel. Perfect for park, metal grinds and speed to burn. The bad is that K2 dropped the skate, and no UFS. I switched to experiment more with UFS frames, but they're still my all-time favourites.

i finally got a pair of these
tried a bunch of different souls on them but the boot just bend with eash one
best with stock souls unfortunately
ive got them flat with face wheels but i have yet to give them a real try

[Village Idiot]

for me:

salomon brandon campbell 1's with widebodies.

frames: fiziks, set up antirocker on cozmo 56 mm street wheels with those fiziks blocks for anti rocker skating. mindgame higgs boson anti rocker wheels.

why? I love the feel of salomon boots because of the low cuff flex...unlike other people, I always found it easier to bend my knees on grinds when I also had flexy cuffs, it feels more natural.

frames: fiziks felt really good to ride on, and I really liked how they slide.

and cozmos are just the best wheels ever.

[zacharias]

Remedyz: Favorite skate ever, so secure to my foot, pure freedom of feet. Remedyz have always felt like the most natural skate ever. They grinded great and flexed well. The bad part is they are no longer made and once you loose liner padding you get blisters like crazy.

Fiziks: Most solid feeling frame ever, roll fast and smooth, and slide great. Too bad they are no longer made and without hitch-hikers wore to the pins reel quick

Hyper 56mm: Favorite wheels they came of the UFS Maj.12. I seriously skated one to a anti-rocker size without any chunks, cracks, or flat spots.

This setup was the funnest skate to roll around in and felt more natural then any other setup I have owned.

[Alex Coe]

So far it seems like flexable softboots with fiziks frames are the best. I could see the comfort advantage there. I haven't heard anything about grooves though. I think the Razors SL models have the best shaped groove I've ever skated, but by the time it was worn in sufficiently it was time to replace it. I didn't like the boot though

[zacharias]

I think Remedy grooves and Salo stock grooves are the best. It feels like your foot, I have not really found a new skate that has a replaceable BS plate that actually feels natural. All though UFS remz plates to lock amazingly they still do not feel as good as a skate with a bs area on the shell against your foot.

[KillerCucumber]

My all time favorite were the 1999 USD thrones. The first gen tumor plates (not the BS plates from 199 had the PERFECT groove when you used the fifty fifty frames with them, plus the juice plates slid on EVERYTHING. After that, the juice tumors and then the AF ufs tumor all fucked the groove to hell. But I will say, and only time will tell on this one, but I think the Carbons might take it...just perfect.

[joeymc]

Skates that weren't UFS but were my favorite of all time: Black and red OG Remz. I've said it again and again. Perfect fit, felt like an extension of your body, lace up liner, light, small, simple, beautiful, classic. I had my biggest jump in learning tricks and finding my own style in those skates more than any other skate. They were almost perfect. A skate like that with a suspension frame would be my dream skate. The backslide area was so good when worked in.

I haven't been a fan of backslide plates on any skates. The K2 backslide "area" was good. The way the Xsjado area was designed was really good too. The UFS Remz plates lock really well but feel cheap and flimsy. I agree with Zacarias on the boot feel thing.

Second choice for skates: First UFS Remz with the lower liners and simple looking skin (however the lacing system wasn't as good as the newer skins) and the older style souls. Although the new Remz don't feel like OG Remz. They still offer the most ankle mobility compared to other skates and the heart of the Remedy and freedom of feet is still there. They are super comfy when broken in too. The baseball glove feel. I'm pretty excited about the 0901. I think a lot of people that describe Remz as floppy don't do them up properly or are used to the rigid structures of other skates. I'm suprised more people don't skate Remz. They just feel so damn good to roll around in.

Frames: Fiziks because they just roll better than any other frame. Don't care about the weight of them when rolling feels like an orgasm. Sure the groove and pins can be odd but they just feel so damn good. Carving and turning are so fun in these.

Wheels: Face 57's 85a. Super soft wheels with less of a flat profile have become an addiction for me. They feel more like rec skate wheels and paired with some fiziks who needs to grind?

[Monday]

First Low Cuff M12 (non UFS) with a flat set-up of 56 or 58 mm Cozmo Wheels. The long soulplate cut apart to only sit at the rear end of the skate for improved soul-space and heel lift during grinds.

The combination of frame- and boot-material let me control groove tricks to an extend that wasn’t even funny. I could do backslides down kinkrails with no problem...

You were soulgrinding directly on the boot with no soulplate in between, best feeling ever!

[jakeordie]

First Low Cuff M12 (non UFS) with a flat set-up of 56 or 58 mm Cozmo Wheels. The long soulplate cut apart to only sit at the rear end of the skate for improved soul-space and heel lift during grinds.

The combination of frame- and boot-material let me control groove tricks to an extend that wasn’t even funny. I could do backslides down kinkrails with no problem...

You were soulgrinding directly on the boot with no soulplate in between, best feeling ever!

I had the same with CDS heelplates, I agree that locking tricks felt super natural in these skates.....soulframes FTL.

[zacharias]

I hate how skates are currently designed with all the unneccessary bulk. You have super wide sole plates with thick layers of plastic, skins that are replacable but they dont sell seperately, liners as thick as a lay-z-boy, lacing systems that dont even hold your foot down properly, shared size shells that do not promise a true fit no matter what size you choose and frames with the widest, unnatural grooves possible. Skates are so less personal these days. I want to start seeing the shapes of a foot in skates.

Look at salo's they are designed with the foot in mind. The heel of of the sole is shorter than the toe are just like a foot, shock abosrber desinged into the skate, contoured heel, cuff bolt placement performs so natural with the foot, the backslide area is contoured with the shape of your foot, sole plates are slim and make grinding feel like your foot is on the object, and a lacing a buckle system that holds the the skate to make it feel like its for your foot.

I want a skate to come out that feels organic. I want it to feel like an extension of my foot not like a Lego block that I construct around my foot.

[Monday]

True, true...

[cartman11]

I'm suprised more people don't skate Remz.

I like them but they have a huge pressure point on the outside of my foot near my toes, so I can't wear them for more than an hour. I've heard other people have this issue to. Before they start hurting they feel great, I wish I could skate them.

[joeymc]

I know this pressure point you speak of. I've only felt it with the one piece souls. I think it also has to do with the front part of the liner twisting or bunching. When I switched back to the older souls the pain went away for me.

I agree with everything Zacharias is saying.

Also, all of my favorite skates have had very little soul space. I always say big souls make soul grinds feel like platform grinds.

[zacharias]

I know this pressure point you speak of. I've only felt it with the one piece souls. I think it also has to do with the front part of the liner twisting or bunching. When I switched back to the older souls the pain went away for me.

I agree with everything Zacharias is saying.

Also, all of my favorite skates have had very little soul space. I always say big souls make soul grinds feel like platform grinds.

True platform grinds, you can't even lean over them with huge souls.

I think we should mail Kato a sewing machine and a sheet of UHMW for jokes.

[Alex Coe]

We should be thinking about what technical reason causes these feelings that we love. Joey, you have a lot of good ideas about how a skate should feel and perform but how do you think we could form a skate like that? What materials and what shapes do you hypothesize would work? I am assuming that the Remz boot isn't perfect for you but just close to.

[Chinaski]

I am in love with my current setup:
salomon xsjados
slimlines
flat 56mm random wheels

Pros:
I like a higher more supportive cuff rather than v cut, I feel like it is more responsive and let's my whole leg and body meld better with the skate.

I have wide feet with low arches, and xsjados are so adjustable that I can avoid all my normal pressurepoints.

Once strapped in they feel very slim and compact. I had remz and they just felt bulky to me, but I may not have had them on tight enough.

I've broken in the royale enough so I can properly torque my hblock tricks.

I love the way a velcro strap feels for the cuff in comparison to the feeling of a regular buckle. Buckles always feel like they just pinch my foot on either side.

Slimlines so far have been a great middle ground for transfering from anti rocker to flat. Rolling feels amazing, cracks don't bother me anymore, and I can still full torque

I think they look great as a whole skate.

Cons:
The souls are way to enormous. I would rather have a carbon size soul. I always feel like I am cheating a little bit.

The negative side souls are so big I can't properly put weight on my front foot during royales, while still touching my frame.

The shoe is kind of pointless to me, I miss just being able to slip my foot into a skate. I also prefer simple shoes like chucks and vans authentics so the overly detailed xsjado shoes are a little hideous to me.

----
I definitely agree with Zacharias. I think the whole laced up neoprene liner fad is based around boots like the genesys not being designed around the human foot. You don't need all that stuff if the skate fits in the first place.

I am also glad to hear that other people hate thick souls, It was one of my main problems with the salomon widebodies. It felt like you were watching a video of someone else grinding, since you totally couldn't feel anything.

[zacharias]

Most skates are just put together piece by piece just to go around a foot. I just wanna see more ideas like based around how your foot works not how a i wont miss a single soul trick with my monster plates.

The Roces Graal had an awesome idea. Soft little slipper type thing that held your foot down perfectly plus the biomex ankle type of deal that worked well with the bend of an ankle.

Remedyz had inner laces, a velcro strap, and outer laces to hold your foot down like not other skate I have ever skated. The cuff basically was your ankle making it feel like the most natural "foot-like" skate.

Salo had the slim souls, contoured cuff, perfectly fitted shock pad, and a good foot security system(laces and buckle).

K2's are soooooo comfortable and the BS area was placed on the soft boot making it push slightly against your foot when grinding making you feel and control the grind.

One thing these skates all have in common is an ambiguous backslide area and for the most part the soul area on the heel and toe sides are not symmetrical. I don't know about you but my feet are not leveled flat on the sides and the side of my arch is not perfect crescent.

[justinthursday]

i honestly hate my souls not being symmetrical
it makes cess slides feel so awkward
a frame isnt a natural shape either
but it makes grinding feel more in control when it matches the shape of the frame
i even like having my neg be the same size as my positive and have the frame rigth in the center of the boot
this way you have a more natural balance
not a skate that wants to lean out over your soul tricks for you.
if stock salomon souls were the same at the heel as they were up front and the grooves were symmetrical then i would probably never skate anything else

just my opinion
not at all saying you are wrong
i can totally understand where youre coming from with your preferences