Love to heel

Oooh what a feeeeling... Aral on his Heelys
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!)

Aral's Heelys: Flash!

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! :)

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