- Joined
- Jan 19, 2023
Hey all! Looking for advice on what makes more sense for my first pair of skates
I'm (male, 140lb) planning to get them fitted from a pro shop and the options available for men come down to Jackson Artiste or Jackson Freestyle. Cost is ~230 vs ~370.
My background has just been public skating on rentals - I can do crossovers and some backwards (prob from my rollerskating experience).
My main goal is just to take advantage of the multiple free/inexpensive winter rinks available in NYC in the winter seasons. So immediate term will probably skate a lot the next two months just self learning/from friends. After that, before winter rolls around again will probably go occasionally to the rink/consider lessons depending how much I'm into it.
Being such a beginner it seems like Artiste makes more sense/is generally recommended.
However I wonder if there's merit (if I'm willing to invest the extra upfront cost) to get the Freestyles to have a better blade/boot already for the next few years and one that is supposed to be able to handle jumps if I get into that in the future? The fitter said Artiste's can't handle jumps (could break?) though a bit confused since officially the Jackson website says Artiste can support up to ISI FS2 (https://jacksonultima.com/blogs/news/jackson-ultima-support-rating-system) which seems to include things like waltz jumps/bunny hop/half lutz.
Really hard for me to know how far I'll get into this or if/how many classes I'll take, just don't want to start skating and not long after (or like even a year later) feel like my skates aren't quite as 'advanced' as should be to support what I'm trying.
Outside of support for jumps (like if I don't end up going beyond very basic jumps) is there still much value for the Freestyles over Artiste? Also want to double check if any gotchas that might make one or the other harder for a beginner to start learning on.
Clearly I'm a noob! Thanks for any and all the advice!
I'm (male, 140lb) planning to get them fitted from a pro shop and the options available for men come down to Jackson Artiste or Jackson Freestyle. Cost is ~230 vs ~370.
My background has just been public skating on rentals - I can do crossovers and some backwards (prob from my rollerskating experience).
My main goal is just to take advantage of the multiple free/inexpensive winter rinks available in NYC in the winter seasons. So immediate term will probably skate a lot the next two months just self learning/from friends. After that, before winter rolls around again will probably go occasionally to the rink/consider lessons depending how much I'm into it.
Being such a beginner it seems like Artiste makes more sense/is generally recommended.
However I wonder if there's merit (if I'm willing to invest the extra upfront cost) to get the Freestyles to have a better blade/boot already for the next few years and one that is supposed to be able to handle jumps if I get into that in the future? The fitter said Artiste's can't handle jumps (could break?) though a bit confused since officially the Jackson website says Artiste can support up to ISI FS2 (https://jacksonultima.com/blogs/news/jackson-ultima-support-rating-system) which seems to include things like waltz jumps/bunny hop/half lutz.
Really hard for me to know how far I'll get into this or if/how many classes I'll take, just don't want to start skating and not long after (or like even a year later) feel like my skates aren't quite as 'advanced' as should be to support what I'm trying.
Outside of support for jumps (like if I don't end up going beyond very basic jumps) is there still much value for the Freestyles over Artiste? Also want to double check if any gotchas that might make one or the other harder for a beginner to start learning on.
Clearly I'm a noob! Thanks for any and all the advice!