I skated to work today, and my ankles are killing me, and my calves, hams, and quads are burning. I remembered just how bad my bearings have got beat up since I got those skates, and I remembered just how out of shape I am. I felt like the wind was blowing me backwards at times. So I think I may overhaul my skates sometime next month. I have been saying for a while that I could try the carburetor cleaner trick to clean out the bearings, but I think it is time for new wheels and bearings. I’ve had those on there since I got those skates, and I got them at the beginning of my college career almost five years ago. I skated to a skatepark in California when I was there. It was only a mile or a little more, but by the time I got there, I was wiped out, so I didn’t skate the park, I just watched the kids there skate, and rested, and then skated back. I feel kinda bad because if I had gone to California about a year earlier I would have been all over the place looking for parks to skate. It sucks, I used to be good at skating, not just in better shape, but better at using my skates. I started hitting hand rails on my skates about sophomore year, and I used to use my soap shoes for that too. Now I need new shoes, not because my grind plates on them have worn out from using them to grind rails and curbs, but because the foot wear from just walking around on them has caused the bolts holding the plates on to be ground down past the head and the plates are about to fall off. On top of that I can’t get new ones, even though I wouldn’t since I never use them anymore, because the company is out of business. I really like my shoes, just as shoes, because they are really durable. I heard shoes made for BMX riding, and skateboarding are pretty tough too, but while I used to wear airwalks all the time because they were comfortable I never found them to be extremely durable and they were supposed to be skating shoes. Maybe Vans and some of those other companies make a tougher shoe. I like shoes that last.
Anyway, besides being out of shape, I found this article that talks about bio-tech companies shipping stuff off shores to make drugs cheaper, and this was supposed to be an area that could be the next savior for IT people since Bio-tech is such a hot area now. Oh well, one less job I won’t be getting at the end of the summer. And I wouldn’t have minded working for pharmaceutical company on their production lines….I bet they have a great deal on perceptions with their health plans.
Well back to work. Have a good one folks.
–K says
Yeah, Vans are a lot more durable than Airwalks, but they do have one problem (and you can laugh at me if you like when I describe it). I have what I would call “normal” feet. My big toe is the biggest toe I have, and the others cascade nicely down diagonally from there. I started wearing Vans in around 1993, a little before anyone else I knew did, but that’s mostly b/c I didn’t know any skaters yet, and I’m sure that skaters worldwide were already long ahead of me. Well, I noticed that the canvas ones (think “boat shoes”) would wear a hole through the top where my big toe was long before they wore out. This made me look stupid, with a hole in the top of my shoe. The suede ones, which are a newer design than the sailor shoes, but which are harder to get today so are dubbed “old school” did not have this problem.
Then I met some skaters. I figured out right away that their shoes did not do this. So I asked them about it, and I learned from them that my feet are not, in fact, normal, and that normal feet have the tallest toe being the second toe. As such, the shoes are rounded to fit them better. The suede ones I did not discover this problem with, however, because suede is simply more durable than canvas to the constant pressure of an abnormal toe.
I don’t really know which foot configuration is more predominant. I do know that if you’re looking for durability and have the sort of foot I do, you should take that into consideration and pay for the slightly more pricey suede shoes. Here, Airwalks have an advantage, because IIRC, all of their shoes are suede or some other thick, slightly fuzzy shoe material. Upon reflection, I think it’s probably just useless to get the old style wafflecone bottom shoes at all, and instead buy something around 5 years old (I don’t know what that is b/c I discovered high heels about then and ceased to be cool) that was built for skaters and must be durable b/c it’s new enough not to be considered cool in and of itself (no cool points for nostalgia), but old enough to have been yanked from the market if it weren’t a good design.
BigCat says
Good deal.
I used to have a similar problem with my canvas topped airwalks…mostly because I like to move my toes around in my shoes when I’m bored, but I made a small hole where my big toe was in my old pair. I like those shoes…I still wear them to paint in, they are so old now, and the soles are so warn out that it feels like wearing mockasins (sp?) when I put them on now.
Van’s might be the way to go…or maybe a signature shoe from tony hawk or dave mirra or something. I just like dark colors and a durable design on my shoes…I’m not that picky.