Inline Skates Or Roller Skates: What is the Best?

Skating, an age-old fun activity. Starting for kids to adults, skating is very much popular among people, regardless the age. Now, you must be known of the fact that skates are of different types. And the two basic types are inline skates and roller skates.

Now, there are a few common questions that appear before us. Which is better, inline or roller skate? With which one we should start with? Well, to figure this out, we are bringing the very popular debate of inline skates or roller skates here.

We will point out the key features and factors of each type of skates so that you can get a clearer concept of these two types of skates.

Inline Skates Or Roller Skates?

Build Structure

Roller skates or widely known as quad roller skates have a very classic built design. A boot, resembling a regular shoe is there on top of 4 equal-sized wheels. The wheels are situated in a two by two formation. They also come with a variety of boot styles, starting from old school high leather boots to low cut sneaker looking boots. The boots are tied around with a piece of lace.

On the other hand, inline skates have a more modern-day and aggressive look. The boot here looks like a regular sporty sneaker. The wheels are attached to the boot in a streamline with the help of an aluminum or high-performance plastic frame. The number of wheels can be of three to five and even of different sizes, design-wise. Apart from the lace, a Velcro strap is used for maximum fit and security of the boot.

Balancing

Balancing is the key factor in skating. In the initial stage, it can be very much troublesome for both the skaters. But, gradually, with regular practices, balancing does not seem to be a worrying issue for the skaters. But then again, as the quad rollers have a parallel and side by side placement of wheels, it tends to provide more balance.

The center point grabs the gravity more and supports the skater to maintain his/her balance. But that doesn’t mean that inline skates do not provide any balance advantage at all. Actually, they do, just you have to give more effort to that, that’s the main catch here.

Read: Top 20 rollerblading tricks for beginners

Freedom of Movement

Well, in this case, inline skates will win. Because the streamline pattern of wheels takes the very least amount of space to stand on. That is why, these skates are very much efficient in cornering, spinning and taking sharp turns. Also, it can avoid minor obstacles quite easily.

Whereas, roller skates grab wider space. And the wider the surface is, the tougher it gets to take a sharp corner. Also, roller skates can give you a hard-time in bumpy or jerky roads or surfaces.

Acceleration and Braking

Well, the more freely you can move, the better speed you will get. Again the streamline wheels of inline skates come to aid these skates to gain more speed in a shorter time. Also, the less occupied spacing grabs less gravity, and that also helps to get better speed.

Whereas, roller skates remain a bit behind in the game of getting acceleration. The side by side situated wheels restricts the movement of these skates to some extent which hampers the gaining of speed.

Also, quad rollers have a toe plug up in front which is used as a brake, which means you have to brake a roller skate using your toe. On the contrary, Inline skates are to be braked by using the heels, as the brake is located behind the heel of the boots. 

Activities with These Skates

Roller skates are more popular for indoor activities. Like indoor rink skating, jam skating and also for recreational or rhythm performances with skates. As these skates offer more balance, such sophisticated indoor acts are preferably done with roller skates. Inline skates are designed to aggressive and adventurous. That is why it is best to use outdoors.

Also, many professional sports like roller hockey, speed skating, freestyle skating and even casual outdoor movement are mostly done with inline skates. Moreover, the amusing skating trickeries that you enjoy on various tournaments and events, are performed with the help of inline skates.

Read: Roller Skates vs Rollerblades for exercise

The bottom Line…

So both these skates have their pros and cons. At some point, if inline skates get ahead, in the next point quad roller skates easily overtakes with any other type of advantage. This friendly competition of these two skates is taking the producers to their stake in some cases. Each of them has its uniqueness and outraging features.

So who wins?

Well, it depends completely on the skaters’ needs. When you are going to buy a pair of skates, make a picture of your future activities with the skate, then cross-match with the given list and then pick the most suitable one.

The popular debate of Inline skates or Roller skates will never actually come to a rock-solid conclusion for their very own unique features.