- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Hello everyone,
First of all I would like to thank you all for the time you spend sharing your knowledge here, it's really helpful. I'm in the process of choosing new skates but unfortunately here in Madrid Spain there simply are no skate techs, just skate shops with basic knowledge. My height is 6'4 and I'm 170 lbs. Back when I was a teenager I trained freestyle all the way up to 2A before fully committing to dance. I trained and competed in dance for many years, at first I tried with the Risport Dance boots which were the best thing I've ever felt in my feet but they were way to soft for me (probably because of my dimensions) and I just destroyed them. So for the last years of my competitive career I ended up going with very stiff custom Jackson Dance boots and MK dance blades.
That was over 9 years ago and now as an adult I just went back to skating and would like to go back to freestyle. For the las few weeks I've been training in the last skates I used when I worked as a coach which are a pair of the custom Jackson dance boots and a pair of Coronation dance blades. The boots are doing what they can considering they are lower cut and 10 years old but my main concern are the blades, jumping in them is extremely scary, I find it extremely hard to find a sweet spot for spins and they feel a bit unstable overall. So here is what I have in mind so far, for the boots I don't want to go for another pair of Jacksons and I've come to the conclusion that the Risport Royal Prime could be a good idea for me, I was worried that I might be "over-booting" considering I won't be jumping triples any time soon, but since Risport seemed to really work for my feet, the fact that they are a lower cut and also considering my dimensions I think they could be a good choice, I'm also afraid that the Royal Pro are going to be not strong enough and I'll just destroy them like it happened with the Risport Dance boots. The blade decision is where I am really confused, the last freestyle blades I had were a pair of Matrix Supreme (Gold Seal equivalent) and I absolutely loved them, but after so many years of using short 7ft rocker dance blades I don't know if I'll be able to transition back to the flatter blades and specially the long tail is what worries me the most. I would love to go back to a freestyle blade with a more aggressive spinning rocker like the Gold Seal but the tail on those seems massive, and I wonder if the Phantom or de Gold Star would be a better option since they also have a 7ft rocker but it looks like only the Parabolic version is available now. Maybe the obvious answer would be the Dynasty synchro blades but other than the main rocker being 8ft I can't find information about the spinning rocker or the shape of that blade and I've only heard some opinions from people saying they struggle to get their sweet spot in them.
I know there is a lot to read in that message so thank you in advance for your time, I just wanted to share as much info as possible about my situation.
PS(I also wanted to take the opportunity to share with you this graph that shows the shape and rocker of some of the most common blades because I wish manufacturers would share this info on their sites and it wasn't so hard to find.)
First of all I would like to thank you all for the time you spend sharing your knowledge here, it's really helpful. I'm in the process of choosing new skates but unfortunately here in Madrid Spain there simply are no skate techs, just skate shops with basic knowledge. My height is 6'4 and I'm 170 lbs. Back when I was a teenager I trained freestyle all the way up to 2A before fully committing to dance. I trained and competed in dance for many years, at first I tried with the Risport Dance boots which were the best thing I've ever felt in my feet but they were way to soft for me (probably because of my dimensions) and I just destroyed them. So for the last years of my competitive career I ended up going with very stiff custom Jackson Dance boots and MK dance blades.
That was over 9 years ago and now as an adult I just went back to skating and would like to go back to freestyle. For the las few weeks I've been training in the last skates I used when I worked as a coach which are a pair of the custom Jackson dance boots and a pair of Coronation dance blades. The boots are doing what they can considering they are lower cut and 10 years old but my main concern are the blades, jumping in them is extremely scary, I find it extremely hard to find a sweet spot for spins and they feel a bit unstable overall. So here is what I have in mind so far, for the boots I don't want to go for another pair of Jacksons and I've come to the conclusion that the Risport Royal Prime could be a good idea for me, I was worried that I might be "over-booting" considering I won't be jumping triples any time soon, but since Risport seemed to really work for my feet, the fact that they are a lower cut and also considering my dimensions I think they could be a good choice, I'm also afraid that the Royal Pro are going to be not strong enough and I'll just destroy them like it happened with the Risport Dance boots. The blade decision is where I am really confused, the last freestyle blades I had were a pair of Matrix Supreme (Gold Seal equivalent) and I absolutely loved them, but after so many years of using short 7ft rocker dance blades I don't know if I'll be able to transition back to the flatter blades and specially the long tail is what worries me the most. I would love to go back to a freestyle blade with a more aggressive spinning rocker like the Gold Seal but the tail on those seems massive, and I wonder if the Phantom or de Gold Star would be a better option since they also have a 7ft rocker but it looks like only the Parabolic version is available now. Maybe the obvious answer would be the Dynasty synchro blades but other than the main rocker being 8ft I can't find information about the spinning rocker or the shape of that blade and I've only heard some opinions from people saying they struggle to get their sweet spot in them.
I know there is a lot to read in that message so thank you in advance for your time, I just wanted to share as much info as possible about my situation.
PS(I also wanted to take the opportunity to share with you this graph that shows the shape and rocker of some of the most common blades because I wish manufacturers would share this info on their sites and it wasn't so hard to find.)
![10-copy1.jpg](https://scarletskater.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/10-copy1.jpg)
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