My latest obsession is a shoe. Not just any shoe, but a Heelys. On paper, it's a shoe with a wheel in its heel. In practice, it's the most fun I've had since I first learned to skateboard!
In fact, rolling on Heelys is very much like skateboarding. Your feet become the skateboard almost. It's difficult to explain but I had no trouble whatsoever picking it up (after a ten-year-old in the skate shop gave me a few initial pointers!) The pictures, above, were taken down at the beach over the weekend and I was practicing switching from one foot to the other (I picked that up very quickly too -- I am soooo loving this!)
To give you an idea how quickly you can pick it up (especially if you skate), I went from almost falling on my ass to jumping off small pavements and stepping onto pavements from the road in about an hour or so of continuous use over two days. Learning to switch feet took about another half-hour and I'm still not as confident starting out with my left leg in front but I can switch back and forth between the two quite easily.
What I love most about Heelys is that you don't have to carry them around like a skateboard or take them off to walk like you do with inline skates. I can walk, roll, go back to walking, etc. (Warning: You must be comfortable with attracting attention and talking to strangers because this happens *a lot* when you're wearing these! Get ready for puzzled looks and amazed faces!) It's also a great workout. Oh yeah, and guess what my model is called... yep, you guessed it, Flash!
If you've seen them around and thought they were just for little kids, think again. This big kid loves them too! :)
The Love to heel article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
haha, fabulous system…but what’s the dough to impress the ladies with this kinda material ;)
They look like loads of fun – what sort of speeds can you get up to? And what happens you you start to go up a slight incline and your toe touches the ground?
Just need to find somewhere to try a pair on now and I’m sold. You should try for some commission.
heh, I don’t see how you can roll with only one wheel in the sole of each shoe…is it akward? I hope they come out with a dress-shoe version…just plug a wheel in the sole of one of these pleez.
http://www.florsheim.com/flstore/style.do?cID=10677
Hey Frederik, my pair cost about seventy pounds here in the UK (AFAIK, the adult sizes are more expensive). There was one model that was in the eighties and had a grind plate but they didn’t have it in my size.
Jon: You can go really fast actually, especially when going downhill. That’s where breaking comes in! Officially, there are two types of breaking: hard and soft. A hard brake involves putting the sole of your foot down and a soft break is when you lift the heel of your front foot even higher so that the bottom of the shoe touches the ground. I use a semi-soft break (sole of the other foot, gently touching the ground) when going downhill so as not to wear away the back of the shoe too much (the soft brake really wears it off — just like on a skareboard.)
Lee: Well, you angle the fronts of both feet up so you’re rolling on two wheels. You can lock your back foot on the back of the front foot to give yourself a better sense of security. (And when you do that, it *really* feels like skateboarding!) Having Heelys dress shoes sounds like a great idea! :)
So this is that…
I’ve seen some guys here in Nz doing this. I was wondering what it was. Custom made or what? But no… Should definitly try tit so :)
And still no broken bones btw ?
Still no broken bones :) They’re not custom made — you should be able to find them in skate shops (and shoe stores, apparently, in some places).
Aaaaah, I saw some kid with these on in Bristol last month and wondered what they were called! They look like great fun.
They only go up to size 11 by the looks of it. Damn my size 12 feet!!!
Check out the Flash movies here:
http://www.shoesthatcruise.com/
Hi Aral!!
Congratulations!! You did it at last !!
Next time I want to watch a video of some special combos with the heelys.
I have some photos from Kortrijk (and us) in my website.
Have fun!
Ciao
David
nice those shoes are like realy cool when i go the skate board park i always were those. it super4 fun man how many pears of heelys you have.
hey has anyone found them in a larger size than 11?
those type of heelys are cool, but if you want to go beyond that, you should try the torch 9116 heelys. why just heel when you can grind rails also, like me.
Thanks for the tip, Dark Heelier. I’ll check ‘em out. I know I’ve been wanting a pair with grind plates for a while now! :)
hey awesome we need more adult heelers. Flywalk.com is thinking about sponsoring UK heelers. Anyways you should pass by heelytalk.com its a place where you can learn cool tricks like 360’s and crabwalks you can even talk to team heelys. (trained group of people sponsored by the heelys company) come and check it out.
Hey Seth,
Very cool — I’ll definitely check out the web site!
after staring at your heelys for a VERY long time, i have condluded that you dont have heelys flash, but heelys slide 7104. Theyre VERY similar but once you see a picture of slide 7104 you’ll see the difference
@seth1230: I’m not sure if I should be concerned that you’ve been staring at my heelys for a VERY long time :) You could be right though — I don’t have the original box and it doesn’t say on the shoes. It was the closest I could find on the Net.
those shoes r cool but every 1 is hurting there selfs on them and your not even aloud 2 have them in stores.malls,schools its stupid there dangorous !!
hey man I think thats coool thatu decided to heely man i got mine like a year a go on christmas and bin riding since so keep up the good work.
hahaha yeah im a tad bit obsessed with the shoes, and yeah they are slide 7104, google it, im pretty sure those are the model :D
yeah, i’ve just discovered this and i’m agree : it’s too fun and not just for kids^^ (i’m 26 old….) in citys like paris, it’s just THE solution ;)
hi aral
are you türk? İ’m türk. i buy these shoes on bayram. i like it. eğer türksen ve bunu anladıysan lütfen nerde oturduğunu yazarmısın
çağlar demir
bir öncekinde yazdığım biraz komik o yüzden pardon
hiii
i have some but they are really rubish i want new ones but my mum said nooooo!!!!
so i said ur not having her present lol
love hannah xxx
p.s u need to give me some tricks i am rubish
Very nice
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HEELYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!