Special Equipment is one of the oldest and respected speed
skating equipment specialists in North America. Under the
current management since the mid 1990’s, we continue the
tradition of bringing value and performance to our customers.
The most often asked question we hear is, “Do you skate?” I
skate as often as time allows. I have competed in Ice short
track, Long Track, pack style marathons as well as inline road
races, and hill climbs. My favorite skating moments, are those
rare times when Mother Nature graces us with beautiful, clean,
crystal clear black ice on our lovely lakes. To me, nothing
comes close to the supernatural sensation of floating atop
near frictionless transparent ice. It is something I wish
every skater experiences at least once in their lifetime.
I started speed skating as an adult, crossing over from
cycling and cross country skiing. Living in the mountains of
western New England, we are blessed with beautiful country
roads, an abundance of ski trails and regular snowfalls most
winters. After an unusual snow-less winter many years ago, I
decided it was time to get some modern speed skates. I
immediately fell in love with the sport. One of the biggest
advantages I quickly found with modern skates was the ability
of the boots to adapt frames and wheels, allowing year round
use. Inline skating has added a whole new dimension to the
sport of speed skating. Inline skating has the advantage of
being accessible to many more folks and ideally suited for
skating in fair weather. The possibility of great success
increases with greater numbers of participants and the
increased presence of top skaters coming from the inline
racing community, show this clearly. The added diversity also
benefits the sport in general.
I inline skate in the summer and Ice skate in winter often. I
try to personally test most every item before I
offer it for sale. I don’t carry items I feel are not good
values or good quality. I care about what we sell and wish all
a wonderful skating experience.
About our background
Coming from an engineering background with many years in
quality engineering and manufacturing fields, has helped us
greatly in what we are now doing in the skating field.
Developing sporting products has been a passion of mine for
the last few decades. For many years “I was a quality
engineer by trade and a bicycle frame designer /builder by
profession”. For a par-time / home shop builder I was honored
to have had my frames compete respectably at cycling world
championships. I apply the same high standards to all the
equipment I select, combine, and to the custom machine
equipment that I develop specifically to work on skates. We
always strive to achieve the highest work standards currently
in skating.
