Seba CJ2 84 Prime - Black Inline Skates

Seba brand, mostly associated with freestyle slalom and freeride skates, tried to change their portfolio to a broader one circa year 2013. While this ambition of becoming an inline skating powerhouse in all areas has not been realised, the result of company taking a step in this direction were several interesting skates.

One of them is Seba CJ, an aggressive skate made in association with Australian skater CJ Wellsmore. CJ is undoubtedly one of the most talented aggressive skaters on the planet, however he always had it a bit uphill because of the country he lives in (and we are not talking about lethal, venomous spiders and snakes here) – Australia is separated from the rest of the rolling world, most importantly from the US, a birthplace of aggressive skating, and Europe, where the community around this sport is thriving these days. Thus, CJ had to wait for far too long for his signature skate. Finally, he struck a deal with Seba, resulting in Seba CJ skates, now coming in three varieties. Furthermore, the CJ line of skates now includes not only aggressive models, but freeskating ones, too!

Seba CJ 2 Prime, the newest addition to the lineup, are based around earlier CJ2 skate, but drastically different in some ways. The integrated padding is gone – it was replaced by high quality Prime liner. No one tries to hide the fact that it was inspired by famous Intuition liners. Some may scratch their heads trying to understand the reason behind reworking a boot with integrated padding in to one with liner, yes. However, the practice of modding the CJ skates to accept liners has been popularized by Canadian skaters and became so widespread that it only made sense to offer this as a stock option. As the shell was designed with integrated padding in mind and was already pretty slim, using a liner in the skate gives even tighter fit. Of course, if you already have your favourite liners – there’s nothing standing in the way of using them instead of stock one.

While CJ Carbon are made, as name suggests, with carbon fibre shell, CJ2 and Prime variant both use a composite material equivalent. As a result, skate is a bit heavier than its more high end counterpart, but also a bit more flexible. This makes the skate feeling less rigid out of the box and will appeal to skaters who prefer a bit more ankle freedom as well as skates that bend more on tricks.

The outer skin material have decent level of rigidity and is pretty resistant to damage. There are additional reinforcements, too – a rubber material strip protecting the toe area and replaceable slider on the outer side of the skate. The padding is comfortable, anatomically shaped and helps securing the foot in place, providing a snug fit. As these are aggressive skates, their toe box is wide to prevent toes injuries. Underneath the foot resides a comfortable insole and shock-absorber.

You can lace the boot to the very top and this does a great job at keeping your foot in place. To eliminate the heel lift completely, skate comes with a 45 degree velcro strap. The composite cuff closed with a buckle stabilizes the ankle without limiting front to back movement range. The liner itself can also be laced at the top.

Even though Seba CJ2 Prime 84 - Black are categorized as urban skates, they still come with soulplates. They are made out of fast sliding material and allow us to convert our pair of skates to aggressive ones simply by swapping frames. Out of the box, we can use the skates for soul-based grinds (preferably on copings and rails, as frames are naked aluminum) or stalls, having freeskating frames on. Soulplates are the same width for the whole length of the skate – which is important for many users and makes it easier to lock on a grind. Backslide groove is shallow but well shaped and will work perfect until you’ll work in the deeper groove on tricks. The boot is UFS compatible.

The frame made in extrusion process measures 255 mm. It isn’t complex when it comes to design, but really solid and have smooth walls, which makes it more suitable for skatepark. The 4x84 setup is agile, still low to the ground but feels more stable, dynamic and faster than 4x80 thanks to longer wheelbase and sligtly bigger wheel diameter.

Seba CJ2 84 - Black come highly recommended to all skaters who seek a lightweight boot suitable for both freeskating and aggressive inline, allowing them to try both or even mix these styles.