Boots and outside edge problems

Sorry i know this comes up all the time and i am being lazy rather than reading through reems and reems of threads.

I know that at some point i've read that a particualr manufacturer of boots is better for wide feet. Can anyone tell me which one?

I need to change my boots because my current boots are breaking/have broken down. I have been skating In Risport Lasers (my first pair of skates) and finally, after three years, suggested to my coach that now that i can actually skate to a reasonable adult recreational level, maybe i am allowed to start blaming my tools! I've noticed that hitting an outside edge on the right foot has always been a problem for me - its always been my weaker side (despite being my landing leg). I've had little success with my backspin and my loop has been left behind as the weakest jump i "have", often losing it for months.

Yesterday my coach thought i was getting too much toe on the landing of all of my jumps, when we carefully inspected the tracings they revealed that actually i land on an inside edge every time and gradually bend down to an outside edge, not sure why i finally ventured that maybe the blade positioning was wrong but since they were my first pair of skates i've never known any different. When we looked at the sole there is actually no room to move the blade at all - the plate is the exact same shape as the front of the boot and could not possibly be moved at all.

So all a long winded way of asking which boots are wider so that i can actually move the blade a little to hopefully a better position.

I have been feeling more than a little demotivated by skating for the last year and part of it has been this constant struggle with right outside edges...i'm hoping new boots will sort the porblem out (and least partly) and bring me more motivation for my skating.

Ant

The most important part of the whole thing is that:

#1 - the boot fit your foot properly

After that,

#2 - get the right size blade for the boot.

The width of the boot sole will depend on the shoe size and you do NOT want a wider boot if these fit you.

Blades are sized according to length, not width. Check the space between the front of the blade and the front of the sole - it should be about 1/8 to 3/8". Between the back of the blade and the back of the heel should be about the same. If the blade extends from the front of the toe to the back of the heel (with no space), it is 1 or 2 sizes too big for the boots. There's nothing you can do about width except maybe switch to a different make of blade.

It sounds like somebody attached a too-big blade because that's what they had in stock and they were too cheap to order one size smaller (or didn't know any better).

Rusty Blades said:

The most important part of the whole thing is that:

#1 - the boot fit your foot properly

After that,

#2 - get the right size blade for the boot.

The width of the boot sole will depend on the shoe size and you do NOT want a wider boot if these fit you.

Click to expand...

I had a feeling at the time that the boots were too narrow and they were beyond painful to break in...in fact following on from taking up skating i now take a half size to a whole size smaller in normal street shoes! Also because it was my first pair of skates and i didn't want to spend too much money on the basis that i didn't know if it was a short term thing or whether i'd keep it up, i just made do with the first pair i tried on. My coach was teh one who selected the blade size and i think that the heel plate on the blade is flush with the edge of the heel and the toe blade is right against (if not a tiny bit over) the front of the boot.

Rusty Blades said:

Blades are sized according to length, not width. Check the space between the front of the blade and the front of the sole - it should be about 1/8 to 3/8". Between the back of the blade and the back of the heel should be about the same. If the blade extends from the front of the toe to the back of the heel (with no space), it is 1 or 2 sizes too big for the boots. There's nothing you can do about width except maybe switch to a different make of blade.

It sounds like somebody attached a too-big blade because that's what they had in stock and they were too cheap to order one size smaller (or didn't know any better).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! This time my coach is giving me the number of a boot fitter i can go to and have eveything measured up properly and hopefully get more considered advice.

Ant

If you do have a wide foot, thereby needing a wider boot, Jacksons tend to be more suited to that. They are also good if your toes are boxy rather than pointed. Going to a professional fitter who deals in more than one or two kinds of boot is really the best thing you can do. They'll be able to fit you into what will work best for your foot.

What I will share is that when you are having the blades mounted and adjusted, make certain that the fitter is evaluating you on the ice, not just on the carpet in the pro-shop. I had a bad experience with this. I love the boots and blades he sold me, but everytime I went for an adjustment, there was no ice-time for him to see what the real problem was. I finally had to go to someone else, who pinpointed the problem as soon as I stepped on the ice. After that, the blades were great.

Good Luck!

Those blades are definitely too long.
Sounds like they may also be mounted slightly off center (without request to do so...), that seems to be a very common mistake, even with 'reputable' companies.

Risport Lasers and their other products tend to have this problem... especially when the boot gets to the stage of being broken-in. The boots seem to collapse to the inside making it difficult to hit an outside edge.... and causing phyical risk damage to knee & ankle joints.

I personally do not recommend the product.

When I first got boots and blades, the blades were "sized" by my coach who knew more than the person in the pro-shop (hockey person). She ordered a blade that fit flush front to back. That was actually her preference!

3 Years later, I ordered my own blades and got then 1/4" smaller so that is my preference. I didn't want them flush.

Anyway, they were mounted too far to the inside and I had to have them moved, even though she insisted they were correct (a trip to have them re-mounted and $$ later they were corrected). I went from not being able to hold edges and not being able to do 3-turns to finally getting them after one frustrating year.

Good luck getting them fit/fixed....don't wait too long!