Quad 1 - Marka

[marka 519]

Howdy,

Another set of profiles to try out... Thanks again to JR and ProSharp for this chance.  Its really been great to actually try things for myself vs. relying solely on reviews / specs.  The results I've found haven't been what I'd have expected...
 

About me:

I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46.  Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with other neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, when I was growing up.  When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers.  Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid.  I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues.

I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel.  I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx.  This set was initially sharpened by JR at 1/2" ROH when it was profiled, then I ran 6 passes with a 5/8" Fire ring at home.

Quad One

Please see my other reviews for context!  All of my comments and ratings are in relation to other profiles I've tried.  A Zuperior profile with a little added forward pitch was my baseline, which I rated at all 3's for each category.

According to what I've found, the Quad One profile is 6', 9', 12', 15'.  A Quad Zero is 6', 9', 11', 13'.  Finally a Zuperior S (triple radius) is 6', 12', 26'.

I mention all of those together because I'm reasonably sure that someone could swap my runners back and forth between all of those without me noticing much of any difference.  I tossed on the Quad One this morning for a game, so it wasn't back to back with my baseline Zuperior S, but I was immediately pretty comfortable with it and it felt "normal" to me.  Unlike my other reviews I was actually playing a normal game and so wasn't really concentrating on minute differences in profile feel, but even skating around after the game... I struggled to come up with any feel differences.  I thought that _MAYBE_ there was a _SLIGHT_ decrease in stability as compared to the Zuperior S, but it was so slight that I don't know if I just imagined it.

My incredibly unscientific ratings (The Zuperior S is my baseline, purposely set with all values at 3) reflect this:

Acceleration: 3
Mobility: 3
Stability: 2.5
Speed: 3

I mentioned before in my reviews that I was coming to the conclusion that outside of LARGE profile changes... Most any profile would be fine for me.  Other factors like ice temperature and blade hollow & sharpness were much higher for me.  The runner pitch does seem to be something I notice as well.

Up next is the 50 flat profile!  Sneak peak... While still subtle I actually noticed a change I liked!  🙂

Mark