I am writing this whilst on our trip to California, natch. We have travelled from San Francisco, with a little stop by Oakland, then down the coast to Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, taking in the beauty of Big Sur and Route 1's coastal road. It was slightly longer than the inland road, but Californians we have spoken to about our trip have congratulated us on taking the time to admire the beauty of this road! We drove at sunset and it was simply stunning.

As skaters, the most fun way to see the sights in on 8 wheels, and let's be honest, it's less effort to roll than to walk. A skate leash is a fantastic way to carry skates for sure, but if you are on your feet for longer, skates over one shoulder are heavy! (Ours weigh around 4kg.) So if you are stepping around the city, there needs to be a better way to balance the weight. Here comes the Rookie skate pack!

Other skate pack designs are available, but we feel for the price, this one is simply great. It's available in black (a perfect background for your patch collection, obviously) and multi-coloured brights.

There is a large main compartment, for either protective pads, your jacket, lunch or shopping, a small front pocket for keys, wallet, phone and two side mesh pockets. We put a water bottle in ours. Skates strap onto the front of the back with a nylon strap. We put ours between the plate and skate, as the grindblock meant the strap wouldn't be long enough to reach around. The front cover then attaches at the top with two further clips and you are good to go.

Padding to the lower parts of the skate pack and thick padding across the shoulders and upper back meant we were able to carry our skates around pretty comfortably for a few hours. When we wanted to skate, we simply unclipped the skates, and put our shoes there instead, making sure they were secure. That means your shoes don't need to go inside your bag or touch your water bottle.

We were really happy with the quality of these bags, and will be using them again, even when we are not sightseeing! It's really handy having a bag that everything fits in.