Once of the questions I struggled with when my children started ice skating was when was right to consider buying skates. If you’re new to ice skating, you’re likely wondering the same thing too, so here are my thoughts on the matter.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n The summary is that rental skates suck. That’s not to say that you can’t have terrific fun wearing them, but they’re designed for casual skating only. They are shaped fit as many different foot shapes as possible, to accommodate the thick, warm socks that casual skaters might choose to wear to the ice rink, and to last a long time. They’re generally what are described as ‘soft skates’, which means they don’t have an awful lot of support (and are thus not safely usable for any kind of jumps and spins). I also don’t see the skate blades being dried off when rentals are returned, and the results are inevitable:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In this case, the state of the blades is less than stellar as well:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n None of these attributes make rentals skates great for serious skating. However, when you or your child are starting out with skating, they are perfectly adequate. After all, who wants to drop money on brand new ice skates when there’s a chance that the child may not enjoy ice skating after all and will change their mind?<\/p>\n My policy was that when my children started following the Learn To Skate USA<\/a> Basic 1-6 courses, I would not buy them skates at first. They started somewhere around February this year, and I spoke to their coaches to as them to advise me as to when they thought it would be helpful for my children to have their own skates. I also reckoned that this would give me maybe 3-6 months to find out whether they were engaged and enthusiastic before I made an investment. The kids did well using rental skates, and they were in good company; most of the other children in the lower Basic levels were also skating in rentals.<\/p>\n Around the time where my oldest skater at the time (12 years old) got to somewhere around Basic 4, their\u00a0teacher approached me as promised and said that this would be a good time (if possible) to consider getting them\u00a0skates. Being reasonably well built and getting heavier and taller by the day,\u00a0it was particularly important to find\u00a0skates that would have reasonably firm ankle support.<\/p>\n The subject of which skates to buy is such a huge one that I wouldn’t even dare to start advising to go for one brand over another because it’s a very personal choice both in terms of budget, features and options. I will comment that most of the skaters I see at this level end up with Jackson or Riedell skates, but that may be a regional thing as much as anything else.<\/p>\n <\/a>For the purposes of transparency, I am happy to share that I ended up selecting Jackson Ultima Freestyle\/Aspire<\/a> figure skates for my son.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>While I was emptying out my wallet for one child it seemed rude not to finish the job and also get younger sister (aged 9) her own skates as well, as she was in Basic 3 and learning quickly. She ended up with the slightly cheaper Jackson Ultimate Classique<\/a> figure skates which are in many ways similar to the Freestyle.<\/p>\nRenting Skates<\/h1>\n
Buying Your Own Skates<\/h1>\n