Practice English Speaking&Listening with: 2014 K2 Alexis Boa Womens Inline Skate Overview by INLINESKATES.COM
Hi, welcome to the Daily Spin. I'm Steve,
the owner of inlineskates.com, and joining us today is the skate expert from
K2, Mike Powell. Thanks for joining us, Mike. Thanks for having me. We've got a very exciting skate
in front of us for women. This is the K2 Alexis Boa. So, there's
a regular Alexis model but this is the Boa model and personally I think the
Boa is the greatest creature comfort built into skates ever and you guys are the only ones that have
it at K2, right? That is correct. So, tell us about the Boa. Show us how this works.
All right, well the Boa closure system is a quite amazing system and
I'll show you it's a very easy system to work. I'm going to disengage the
other closure system to show you how Boa works. So, you're going to see that I
pop open the Boa there, I just pull it open, and then to get out of a skate or to
get in, all you do is pull. It is that simple. And then to get into your
skate, you can imagine my foot in the skate right now... Not yours, 'cause that's women's
skate. Yeah, I could probably wear it. I'm kind of...you know... Let's not go into that
now. So, we push this shut right here.
The Boa closure. And then you twist the dial. What this does is it pulls
this nylon lace all the way up through and winds it up so you get a smooth
even fit throughout the whole skate. It's pulling from the bottom
and there isn't a better closure system really in any kind of footwear, especially inline
skates. I have the Boa system on my snowboard boots and I just love it. K2 Boots?
Yeah. Okay, great. Good answer. All right, so
it's got a couple other things on the closure system as well. Yes, so we've got this
Powerstrap here that's going to put your heel in that heel pocket which is super important
and, get this dialed in right, then you've got your
ratcheting buckle here and what this does, it engages that cuff, you get it
tight up here and you get all the support that you need to really have fun and skate. The key to
a really good performance skate is a skate that has a tight, snug fit so there's no
looseness or loss of power. That's exactly correct. You don't want be sloppy in your skate
at all. So, speaking of loss of power, we've got an aluminum frame on that skate. That's
also a feature that helps you to keep the power transferred directly
all the way to wheels, correct? That's correct. When you get an aluminum frame, especially this one, it's a medium
length aluminum frame, it's really going to take the power that you put into your skate
put it directly to road. You can imagine, you know, if it's plastic, it
you know, there's a little bit of flex there. With aluminum, you're not getting that flex. It's very rigid.
You wouldn't want to make an airplane out of plastic. No, no, you wouldn't. Exactly so
that's why you use aluminum. Yes. Okay, so, were you going to say more about the frame?
Well I was just going to say that it also is super stable at speed because the aluminum is very rigid as well.
Right. So, wheels and bearings are a significant upgrade over the model below this,
correct? Yes. So, you get an 84mm wheel straight across so
a straight 84 on the skate. And you also get the ILQ 7 Bearing
and Twin Cam is manufactured bearing specifically for inline skating
and K2 uses them on our high end skate which you're seeing right here and
it's got 6 balls instead of 5 and just the
tolerances are a little bit tighter and it's been designed for inline skates. So,
ILQ 7 Bearings are going to be a lot smoother. It's not just for speed, it's also about
smoothness, being able to get up the hill. It doesn't just mean that a person
necessarily wants or needs to go any faster on this skate. No, you're exactly correct. Now,
why is a bigger wheel better than a smaller wheel? Well, it's going to
suck up a lot of just the cracks and roll over the cracks on the road a little bit easier. More
rubber between you and the road. Yeah, so it's a little bit smoother. You're also just going to
get higher speeds because it is a bigger wheel so you are going to generate... One roll of the wheel will get you
further so just a little while to get up to speed but once you are, it'll hold that higher
speed better and allow you to kind of continue that
performance. Exactly. Okay. Have we missed anything on this skate?
Well, you know one thing that we're doing that we've done since 2000 is we've worked wit the BCRF-
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. We've given them over 2 million dollars
toward...yeah, you can really see the pink ribbon here. It's something we really believe in
and, you know, a percentage of all K2 sales go to that and 2 million since
2000 is something we're really proud of. That's a lot of money. All right, so describe the
perfect customer for this skate. This is the high end fitness skater. Someone who
is using fitness as part of their daily workout. It's also for
a skater, I mean, it could be for the new skater who wants the best. Some people want the best.
No reason a new skater couldn't be able to handle this skate. No. It's like the Cadillac of skates.
Yeah, you know, it's an 84mm wheel. I think a new skater can handle that and it's
for those who want the best or the high end fitness skater who is using fitness as a
training tool. Okay, great. So there you have it - the K2 Alexis with the
Boa feature on it. And, thanks for joining us, Mike. Hey, thanks for having
me. I appreciate all the great information and thanks for joining us on this addition of the Daily Spin.
