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happy early Xmas to me:

UPDATE - I AM NOW DRUNK AND NOT RESPNSIBEL FOR WHAT I SAY OR DO TO HIM

That's the worst offense right there.

I'm very curious as to what will come of these. But logic leads me to skepticism. The recurring theme in the videos is "Wow, these make skating so much easier." But easier doesn't necessarily mean better performance. In cycling, touring bicycles are much easier to ride than racing road bikes. Because of their geometry, the twitchy race bikes require more skill and focus to ride than touring bikes. But racers favor the liveliness of the race bike over the stability of the touring geometry in order to be able to suddenly shift position in a race... performance over ease of use. Kgbeast mentioned heel digs and toe carves. With the rocking of the Marsblades, will one have to lower his heels or lean back a bit more for "heel digs"? Will one have to push ones toes down further or lean more forward for "toe carves" when skating backward? If so, this might require more ankle movement for such maneuvers wasting precious fractions of seconds and reducing mechanical efficiency. But on the other hand, maybe you won't have to worry about heel digs and toe carves to perform the same maneuvers with Marsblades. I can see these helping lower skilled players just like an automatic transmission makes driving "easier" for everyone. It might be more like a crutch for those with reduced skating skills and maybe even a hindrance for accomplished skaters. I'm very interested in where this will go. But like I said before, I'd like to see scientific testing on their performance. Clap skates were proven to be beneficial for long track speed skating (but not for short track) using a stopwatch. The Marsblades performance need similar testing. I'm such a Debbie Downer.