Product Review: Knee Pads

187 Pro Knee Pads: http://www.187killerpads.com/pro-knee-pads.php

Anyone who has ever skated and fallen on their knees know that your knees take a LOT of pressure on them. 
My second day at derby I fell on my knee and bruised it fairly badly. It took several days, almost a week even for it to heal enough where it didn't hurt to get on my knees for stretches, let alone be able to fall on it. I was told that I really needed to get pads. I had no idea where to go or who to turn to. Online you have to know the correct measurements and I was afraid that because my upper thighs are bigger that a pad that would fit my knee wouldn't fit correctly. I was recommended by a fellow skater to a skate shop in the 'big' city.  I went in and the lady that owned the skate shop was awesome. She let me try on all the pads to figure out which ones fit best, had the most cushion, and what was in my price range.

Knee pads come in MANY styles. You can have ones with rivets and without. if you skate on a hardwood floor rivets can destroy it.  Some knee pads have more padding than others. There are ones that slide on and ones that Velcro on and many combinations there of. I tried on Triple Eight knee pads first. Their sizes are a little smaller than 187 in terms of how big they go. Again, I am a big girl, I need a bigger size. The 187's of course won b/c they had a size that fit. But between the two of them here is what I was told and what I thought. 187's had more padding on them. When you kneel down on them it feels like you are kneeling on to a mattress. Don't get me wrong Triple Eights have padding, just not what I was looking for. Also remember I was doing this WHILE having a bruise on my knee so I was a little pickier than I might have been otherwise.  Some people don't like that 187's are so much thicker. A major complaint of girls is that during crossovers their knee pads hit each other and affect their skating. Since I had to relearn how to crossover on corners I wasn't too worried about that. I like the Triple Eight pads and I knew that I wanted the wrist guards that they make. I hate mixing brands, but that's how it worked out for me. 187's where the best option. In terms of their knee pads they have more than one. I opted for the best of the styles because my knees aren't the best and I need to protect them.

Now for me skating with the 187's, I love them. I can do knee falls and it lessens the impact greatly. I haven't had an issue yet with them knocking as I cross over. My only downfall is that my knees are slightly inward on my legs. My bones that surround my knees are slightly misshapen so my knee cap isn't perfect. So as I fall it works well, but if I am doing exercise on my knees, the hard plate likes to slide across the floor. This makes it very complicated to do an exercise on one knee. But other than that I have no issue. As I stay in derby and get bout ready, if it becomes a problem I might have to pay to get a much more expensive and personalized knee pad. But I don't regret a single bit getting the ones I did.

The best advice I can give someone is to go to a skate shop that will allow you to try on the pads. One that will let you get down on the ground and make sure they work for you. Then you can decide the best ones for you.

~ <3 Kiss My Blarney