Quad skates are awesome...when they work!

Rink Rash

In case you haven't heard, I have a nice broken pair of skates.  For anyone that has looked for small, annoying parts for skates, you know that it's impossible and ridiculous to find what you are looking for. With that being said, I almost missed Saturday's practice because my skates are still broken. Thank goodness for Balls-Out Betty who came to my rescue with a pair of skates.  She has given me permission to use her skates until mine are fixed, or new ones come in, which hopefully will be this week sometime.

Basically, my nuts have gone bad, which isn't the part that is killing me.  Nuts are a pain because apparently after you have changed your wheels 10 times, you should replace your nuts.  I mean it is only a tiny piece of plastic on the inside of the nut and when has anything plastic lasted?

The piece that is giving me nightmares and frequent fits is called a pivot cup.  It is a plastic "cup" that goes inside of the pivot hole on the plate of your skate. The plate is what holds your truck still.  Confused?  So was I!  You would think that with all the wonderful places to order skates, you would be able to order that piece also, right?  Wrong!  I have found two places online to order these pieces, and it is only about $2 for them, without shipping.  Factor in the shipping and you are now at $9 for two little pieces of plastic that will probably break on you again.  Fantastic!

I have had issues with my skates since day one.  I should have known that once they actually broke, the problems would continue to worsen.  So instead of worrying about practice, I worried about my skates.  Now that I have a pair to skate on, I worry about being ready for level two assessments in someone else's skates.

Every skate fits differently.  Skating in someone else's skates is extremely different and difficult.  I didn't realize that Betty's skate had a jam stop instead of a toe stop when I got to practice on Saturday. Also, my skates pull to the right, so without them pulling, I ended up working a whole new set of muscles. If you ever borrow someone's skates, make sure to check them out completely, just in case you are practicing say...toe stop starts at practice that week.

I love that Betty let me borrow her skates, but I was not used to them at all.  I have never fallen down so many times!  If I would have checked out the skates and noticed the stoppers, I would have put my stoppers from my broken skates on them, or at least switched the stopper from the right foot to the left.  I didn't know that I actually use the left stopper to get up, so there is one reason for the first set of many falls.

Then we did some kind of whip, scrimmage, practice thing.  You got points for getting whip assists, not for being a jammer and passing girls (by the way, I scored 32 points).  So, I was the jammer and had to stop skating once I hit the back of the pack, and have my teammates whip me through the pack.  I got through, broke out and skated my ass off...only to have my wheels slide out from underneath me and give me my first BABY case of rink rash.

I am hoping that regardless of my skate situation that I will be ready for assessments.  My new wheels, should be coming in today, no thanks to the U.S. Postal Service, that screwed everything up.  I really dislike this part and piece issue that I have been having.  I ordered some kick-ass indoor wheels, since those are also shot.  They were supposed to be delivered by Thursday, but it is the post office... I should have known better.

All I have left now, are finger crosses and prayers that I can actually become an active skater again (lost active status due to a broken wrist), pass assessments and that I can get my own personal pair of working and wonderful skates.  I hope that is not asking too much!

Oh, and one more thing... BERG traveled to Birmingham, AL this weekend for an away game against the Tragic City Rollers and won!  That's right!  We are a force to be reckoned with!

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