I have been looking at/ thinking about Skating Safe's Ultracrash pads for quite a while. Everyone I know or who's written about them on this board seems to love them, but they are so darn expensive I've just never been able to bring myself to click the "order" button. I had also read some archived posts by renatele about how she cut an Akton wheelchair pad into kneepads, but even the wheelchair pads aren't cheap.

Then last Saturday after a "click of death" on back crossovers, I smashed my knee the worst I ever have. I came straight home and ordered myself an 18"x18"x1/4" pad. I figured it's a little thicker than the skating safe knee pads and a little thinner than the hip pads.

I went online and copied the photos of all the pads from the skating safe website, used photoshop to blow them up to actual size, then traced them right off the screen onto pieces of paper. I then cut these out and traced them onto the wheelchair pad after figuring out the most space efficient layout. The padding cuts easily with scissors, but the cut edges are also extremely sticky and stick to the scissors as you cut. I solved this by dipping my scissors in a glass of water every few cuts. The padding doesn't stick to water. After I cut them out, I taped the edges with clear flexible medical tape, top and bottom, then cut around the edge so there's a sort of flange, similar to the actual pads.

I made 2 hip pads, 2 knee pads, and a tailbone pad of my own design. I have enough padding left over that I could cut two elbow pads and two hand/ palm pads the size of the skating safe ones. (Or I could cut out another knee or hip, but since I don't have 3 of either body part, I don't really see the point in that)

To buy all of those pads would have cost me $267 +shipping; just to buy two knee pads would have cost $70 +shipping. The wheelchair pad cost $60 + shipping and the tape cost $4 at Walgreens.

One other thing: I have handled other peoples' ultracrash pads on several occasions, and had been told that the wheelchair padding was not quite the same, and would break if bent too far. This Akton wheelchair pad is exactly the same stuff. I also did see it in smaller sizes while I was shopping online, in case you don't need or want that many pads. If I wear them all at once I'm not sure I'll be able to jump... the things are heavy!

Here is the result:


closeup of knee pad:

That is totally amazing! I think those are fantastic and you saved so much money!!!! I'd be concerned that the tape would eventually come off and if you left the edges "raw" wouldn't they stick to you better? My pads are always sliding down and I'm always digging around and hitching them back up (not the most attractive sight but a girl's gotta do what's necessary ).

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Funny, one of my students thought that hers was meant to be a balance pad for her to stand on...... not so much......

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Thanks Skate@Delaware, glad you like

I'm not sure if the raw edges would help them stick better or not, since the edges aren't sticky at all when they're wet, and my knees get kinda sweaty when I skate. Maybe the edges would stick to the inside of my pants?

I'm a little worried about how the tape will hold up too, but I think they would get really dirty and gross if I didn't cover up the edge with something. I can't even describe how sticky the edges are, I can see them getting coated with lint and hairs and stuff in no time.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Wow, that's good to know! I often find that the exact same product is sold through different channels for completely different uses, and depending on what use it is being marketed for, the price can vary by multiples! You are brilliant!

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Good job!

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Great job!

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That is brilliant!

OK, I know you got the link from another thread, but for us lazy folk, could you re-post the link to where you got the wheelchair pad??

Dd is really starting to work on 2Axel, and I think there might be a need for this in the near future!

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BuggieMom
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Some people are like a Slinky...not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs....

this is where I got mine:
http://www.wrightstuff.biz/akpocu.html

also, for the record, I skated with these (the knee pads) this morning. The tape was kind of poke-y on my legs, and it's already starting to un-stick a little. The weird thing is that the tape is stuck to the pads and to itself where it overlaps really well, but where the two sticky sides touch each other it's coming apart. So I don't recommend the "flange" method of taping the edges.

They also didn't slip at all, maybe the slight roughness of the tape made them stick to the inside of my pants a little better?