ruffage

131g including the two strips of tape on the tenon that they came with. The hosel is very short. My standard fit Reebok Pro Perron blades are ~180g. The hosel on those wasn't quite as long as the original/standard Pro Kovalev (I have one of the old Warrior ones).

Contact Stephen7 from Base.

Got hold of my Base BC27 Pro Kovalev tapered blades the other day. They look to be an exact duplicate of the pattern of my custom Reebok blades I had made a few years ago from a Pro Perron mold, which is good fortune. I'll be pairing these with a True A6.0 SBP shaft.

Just catching up on the Kovalev/Perron news, great stuff. And perfect timing as I just installed my last brand new blade a few months ago from the run of 12 I had made in 2012. Mine are based on Perron's "1387G" pattern circa late 2011/early 2012, which has the slight heel kink as per the Kovalev pro "final"/FLA version. I picked up a Perron pro CCM 40K paint job recently and the lie feels a fraction flatter than my blades. I prefer mine, but beggars can't be choosers and whichever version goes into production I'll be a regular customer. I can also provide a sample blade if needed, the one on the left/top here (the other blade seen is a Perron pro "1387F" variant):

Right-hand mirror of Kovalev Pro, in 0.620 standard fit blade

As noted in another thread, it appears he's back to tongues-out/taped tendon guards as of his Ducks debut, after going the first half of the season with tongues in/no tape for I believe the first time in his career. Certainly didn't seem to be doing much for him. I'm sure AK27 is smiling somewhere too.

In my experience, using the socks with both the 2 and 4 mm pads in each sock, it felt like I lost a fraction of length in the boot. Not enough to be problematic, but noticeable for me. I have since switched to using only the 2 mm pads, both on the inside of the heel. This is the sweet spot for me, and I have regained some of that lost length as well.

sparky1, any appreciable weight gain after the conversion?

When I inquired with BASE about a year ago, they only offered tapered shafts. Would be sweet if they do standard now too. I've been using a True A6.0 75 flex for about 4 weeks. Previously using AK27 100 and 85 flex, and Vapor APX2 SE 87 flex. I love everything about the A6.0. Light, nice balance, perfect shaft dimension for my hands (squarish corners with slight concavity as far as I can tell). Nice amount of grip on the finish. Durability has been fine and it still pops like new after ~15 hours use. I have it cut to about 49" I think, uncut is 54" I believe. It's my new go-to shaft.

I've had my Mako IIs for a little over two months now. Still really happy with them, except for the last few weeks I've started getting a sharp pain on my inside ankle bone on the left foot. I believe the root of the problem could be that I was hit with a puck around that spot about a year and a half ago. It took a while to heal but eventually there was no pain again with my previous skates (G75s). Anyway, I've tried spot-heating on my Mako II a couple of times, trying to push put a spot using my thumb and the blunt end of a screwdriver. This hasn't really helped. My feeling is that a more aggressive punch with a boot stretcher could create enough of a pocket to relieve the pressure point. My ankles are fairly thick and my ankle bones sit fairly high up and relatively close to the eyelets, so my concern punching them out there may damage the eyelets. The spot in question is pretty much right around the seam between the primary liner material and the sort of faux-leather trim material that's on the top edge of the boot. (could even be that seam that's causing my problems?) Anyone had similar concerns and/or tried having this area punched? My other thought was to try and use some sort of foam/gel/silicone padding to encircle the sort spot and see if that did anything. To follow up on an earlier post as well, my rivets seem to be holding up ok - I thought they were coming loose again. So that's good news.

I'm closing in on 20 or so hours of ice time on my Mako IIs. Still love them as much as when I first got them, perhaps even more so as the arch pain I had initially is long gone. Only two minor issues. I get some loss of feeling in my right foot around the baby toe area. No pain but I guess the boot is snug in the wrong spot and cutting off circulation. And the other is the holder seems to be coming loose again. I had the rivets redone after the first few skates as it was very loose (disturbingly so). Anyone tried using screws and T-nuts similar to Graf's system? If this loosening is going to be a recurring issue I wouldn't mind going that route if only to enable me to re-tighten myself and avoid going back to the shop to have them do it. The heel seems fine, it's just around the toe where it's loosening it seems. So maybe a couple of screws per skate right at the toe.

I have six skates on my Mako IIs now. Still really impressed with the performance. Balance and going from edge to edge feels amazing. Turning feels effortless, tons of confidence to dig in hard. Comfort is great now, the arch pain I experienced during the first couple of skates is nonexistant. The shape of the boot seems to encourage me to keep my weight more laterally neutral over the middle of the skate, whereas previously I tended to cheat to the inside edges in other skates. Only complaint is that I've noticed both holders are already loose at the front towers. One is quite loose, it shifts side to side a fair bit when you press on it. Both of the rears feel solid. I had intended to get an extra copper rivet or two put into the fronts when I bought them but forgot before leaving the store. So I'll have to head back this week and get that addressed, hopefully they'll hold up better. I'm a fairly heavy guy (~225 lbs) but I can't see that being normal for this level of skate. I know other people have mentioned having this same proble though.

Had a look on their site earlier, only the pre-workout mentioned caffeine, which would make sense I guess. If the recovery one has none I might give it a try. Have you tried the 'tropical' flavour as well? My brain craves pizza and beer but it's bad news in the morning haha.

I finally got out for a second skate in my Mako IIs. Was again blown away by the balance and stability, it really is amazing. After my initial skate I took the heat gun and did some spot heating around the arch area on each boot. It was definitely improved this time but still some minor discomfort. I also made sure to not tie them too tight in the mid section of the boot as was recommended. The source of the problem is I'm very slightly knock-kneed and pronate a bit, flat feet etc, so a big chunk of my weight ends up on the insides of my feet and pushing down on the molded arch support of the boot. If I consciously try and keep my weight neutral the pressure/pain goes away, so that's something to work on for sure. About halfway through I tried swapping footbets and put my old Superfeet in, just because why not. Comfort was improved, almost all the arch pain was gone, but it felt like I lost a tiny bit of volume, and most importantly lost some of the feeling of connection to the ice. They just didn't feel as direct and pure with the Superfeet in. So back to the stock footbeds next time. I imagine my feet will adapt a bit as I wear them more too. Progress in the right direction anyway!

To clarify I did mean powdered drink/shake mixes, only with carbs and other nutrients on top of just protein. I've used whey protein for a while after workouts etc, but was thinking a more comprehensive powder mix would be best for this sort of recovery. And yeah, the cheaper the better! I sleep fine normally, it's just tough to wind down mentally after 3 hours of skating, even though I'm physically exhausted. Thinking about having to wake up the next morning probably doesn't help either. I have used some Vega products before, I have some of the Vega One shake mix right now actually. Tried their pre-workout drink years ago. But yeah, any caffeine at all is a no-go for after the games Friday. I have heard some good feedback on Curcumin (the active component of tumeric from what I understand), but read it may have some carcinogenic properties to go along with all the good stuff. So I've been hesitant to try it. Definitely feel the aches and pains Saturday morning waking up though, so something to combat that would be great.