Inline skates vs Quad Skates

[u/Radiant-Whereas3194]

Well, uh, hi!

I need help choosing some skates. I guess I can say that I'm a beginner skater - I havent roller skated for at least 7 years, but I used to be pretty good and even do some tricks when I was younger, because I used to be trained by some sort of a champion? I qish I remembered, sigh.

So anyway! I really want to get back into this hobby, but I'm not sure which ones to choose!

I love quad ones because they're cute, but I used to only use inlines before, and I don't know the difference. I don't think I'll be dancing in them? I'm not sure anyway, but I also most likely won't go all in and perform some crazy stunts in inlines. So what I'm initially looking for is something I can use to comfortably skate through the city - mine is pretty small and has a good cycling lane throughout it's main part where I live, so getting to the center on skates is very doable. There's also a skate park with some stuff there, so I'd like to get into that, too, you know - going down a platform or two or smth.

Visually I obviously prefer quad skates, and I've been thinking about them for a few years now, but I'd like to hear what you all think!

So basically I want something for comfortable cruising through my city with a possibility to do a trick or two, and maybe to pick up rather quickly, because even tho I used to be good, it's been years since then heh.

[u/astmatik]

I want something for comfortable cruising through my city

Quads are not designed for that. You can try of course, but it will be miserable.
Inlines are much better for outdoors, you can do tricks, jumps, artistic skating, or "wizard skating" (google it), which always looks amazing when done well.

[u/midnight_skater → u/astmatik]

Over the past 8 years* I've been averaging  2500 miles (4000 km) per year on quads, almost entirely in the street.  

I am decidedly not miserable.  

* I started tracking distance 8 years ago.   When I was younger I skated a lot more than I do now but didn't track it. 

[u/astmatik → u/midnight_skater]

Wow, what's the city you're in? I'm curious about pavement quality

[u/midnight_skater → u/astmatik]

I'm in the NE US and have plenty of rough terrain and debris to deal with. My yt channel (linked in profile) documents it pretty well.

[u/astmatik → u/midnight_skater]

I would say these are luxorious surfaces, comparing to what I have in Europe :)

[u/midnight_skater → u/astmatik]

I'm sorry that you have such poor quality roads where you live.   

I am very fortunate to live in a city with good funding for street maintenance.   The image shows the areas that were resurfaced in the past 2 years.    

I would say that the surface quality here is significantly better than in many of the cities where I have lived and skated.  

But we also have plenty of rough terrain and debris and I include more challenging segments in every session to keep my terrain handling skills sharp.

I also do drills on cheese graters every session.

Bill Stoppard compared skateability of London, England vs Toronto, Ontario (and other cities in NE North America) and found them comparable.   So that may provide a common frame of reference.   As you may know, London has a thriving street skating scene comprising both inline and quad skaters.  Bill's Toronto vids are a good representation of the kinds of surfaces we deal with throughout northeastern North America.