We get it, you can’t go roller skating on Monday at Sk8world in Portage Indiana. Monday, being the first day of the work week is a great time to plan your skating time as well as checking out your skates. Sk8world has a great schedule of public skate sessions so take this opportunity to do a check up on your skates before coming to the rink on Wednesday!
Boots:
Checking your skates is really important and almost no one does it. Are your skates in your trunk in a case or bag? Not the best for quality skates to be left damp and inside a container that doesn’t 
breathe. Always take your skates into the house with you, take them out of the bag and let them dry naturally. If your boots are leather and left damp they can mold, eww gross! Dampness from your feet during skating saturates the leather along with the salt from perspiration can literally make your boots wear out much faster and crack. Don’t put them over a heat vent or use a hair dryer, just let them dry outside the bag indoors. After they dry, rub a little Lexol found at your local retailer inside and out the boot to keep them supple and soft.
Wheels:
Next, check your wheels. Make sure all of them have a locknut on the axle to keep them on your skates. Locknuts have a plastic liner that keeps it from spinning off during skating. If you have changed your wheels a couple of times and are still using the same locknuts, get new ones next time you are at the rink. They cost pennies and are important for your skating safety. Are your wheels wearing down in the front on the outside edge? This might mean you are a toe pusher and need to rotate the front wheels to the back. Switch sides so they wear evenly much like the tires on your car. Take this opportunity to get any hair or dirt out around the hubs of the wheels.
Bearings:
Bearings, they make you get your roll on! There’s 2 bearings in each wheel that need to be cleaned and checked once in a while. Make sure you don’t have a lot of dirt or hair wound around the axles (the part that holds your wheels on the plate. Once or twice a year you should clean them, either take them to the rink or check out this article by Bill Powell of Bones on how to best clean them. Do NOT spray your bearings with WD-40! When you skate you will spray it out onto the floor created a dangerous slippery area for skaters to slip and fall.
Skate Plate:
Skate plates are the magic that help you skate the way you want. A property set plate on the boot along with properly adjusted trucks (the part that has 1 or 2 cushions above the axles) allow you to perform edges to the outside or inside and do all that fancy footwork. If your trucks are too tight you can bare go side to side, so adjustment is important. Best to let the rink pro shop staff at Sk8world handle this part. It depends on your height, weight and ability as to how they should be adjusted. But check to see if the plate is fastened solidly to your boots and no mounting hardware is missing. This is more common than you think.
Toe Stop:
Lastly, check your toe stop. Make sure there’s no metal sticking out that can damage our beautiful wood floor. Skates without a toe stop – at least a covering plug for where the toe stop goes can really gouge a wood floor. Our skating floor is no different than your hardwood floors at home and you wouldn’t want to damage those either!
Now make plans to roller skate at Sk8world in Portage Indiana. Our newly renovated facility is the perfect place to meet up with friends, host a birthday party, fundraise for your school or organization and enjoy this great form of exercise while having fun roller skating.