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My neurosurgeon pulled some major strings and I ended up having my surgery yesterday! I am in for a lengthy recovery before I can get back to fun things like hockey, but I'm doing pretty well, sticking to the postop directions. Just glad to have the pressure off the nerves at last.

Oh, yeah, not having excruciating leg pain 90% of the time is great. I'm trying not to overdo it, but things look good so far.

Waking up after my neck surgery, that was the first thing I noticed that I didn’t have that constant nagging pain through my body. Glad to hear you’re already feeling better!

That all black model is called "Threat Level Midnight".

Final review now that I’ve had a chance to skate on them. The scanning and ordering process was easily, took under 30 minutes. Production was insanely fast, just 9 days from order to pickup at Pure hockey in Anaheim. Disappointed in the pickup process. I had watched the videos and read the instructions, and had to correct the LHS employee a few times, and a few things I let go. I don’t want to blame some kid making $14/hour, that’s on true and pure hockey to make sure they have the right process in place if they’re going to sell high-end product. As others noticed, there is a small amount of eyelet damage because he cranked them pretty hard while they were soft. I left the store thinking they weren’t going to work out because the tongue was crushing my feet, forgetting that it was adjustable. The skate itself? My one complaint is that it isn’t very deep, when the reason I went custom was specifically because I need an exceptionally deep skate (without it being wide or long). I wanted to be able to put my foot all the way into the skate without having the top of my foot stick out, and these might even be a little shallower than retail supremes. But because of the moldability and adjustable tongue, the lack of depth isn’t causing any of the major issues I associate with shallow skates. The tongue feels like it is comfortably cupping my feet, not crushing them. I can’t get the laces through the eyelets once they’re on my feet, so I have to make sure they are all threaded then tighten them once my foot is in. I found it pretty difficult to get a grip on the laces for tightening today, which can be easily solved with one of those little metal tightener doohickeys that I have laying around somewhere. I went flopped today but I think next time I will try it tucked just to see if I like it better. Length and width are absolutely perfect. Once I made a few adjustments, I was able to get that “feels like a firm but comfortable sneaker” fit that other people talked about. But the ultimate test is how they feel on the ice. The answer: great. I had a little bit of calf pain because I’m a lazy, upright skater, especially when coasting around between drills on open ice. These skates will fight you if you try to be upright, they want to force you into a hockey stance. I had zero foot pain, which has never happened even in skates I was used to and had broken in. My old skates were giant boats that were way too wide for me, but they were the only skates I could wear that didn’t crush my feet from above. Left is old, right is new: https://imgur.com/a/F0kENmj This caused a lot of problems with edges and losing energy with each stride. Skating on them for the first time, I could immediately feel my edges better and push them way harder. I could carve my c-cuts better and stop more forcefully. I was getting more energy transfer through my foot, which made me noticeably faster going end to end and coming out of crossovers. I felt like I could glide forever without losing speed, but that’s probably the higher quality steel and the shallower cut that I read most people recommend for these skates (I went from 1/2 to 5/8). I still might adjust some things to try to get an even better fit. I wanna rebake them at home this weekend, with an ankle wrap, to see if i can’t get the heel lock from good to great. But that’s just tweaking. All in all, I got what I wanted out of the purchase and would recommend.

Try this - lace up and go for a skate and concentrate on what your feet are telling you. My bet is it is bugger all, you aren't getting any feedback from the blade and the way it is working under your foot. Now go for a skate with your laces undone, every little twist, edge, catch in the ice is felt. We are genetically designed to do anything as energy efficient as we possibly can BUT... the brain has to know what is going on so it can work out how to be energy efficient. Laced up and you are still skating so the brain thinks this is ok, the only thing it's got to compare with is how you walk and run, it knows no different. Unlaced and now your muscles are having to work to not only control your balance over the blade but also how you put power INTO the blade - this part is really important. Maximum transfer of energy without the crutch of the boot. Your foot can't fold, you will feel it immediately. Your alignment straightens up, it has to as your brain demands it because it now knows what it is costing you to skate unbalanced over the blade. I skate every day, 1 - 2 hours a day (and always with no laces) so it's hard for me to give a figure for someone who skates once or twice a week. But skaters I have coached show literally immediate results during a single lesson. Yes, you are skating slow but the way you start balancing over the blade is immediately noticeable. That wobble is important, your brain is now working out how to use your muscles in the most efficient manner to control the edge. Every time you skate you are improving. Video yourself, especially from front or behind so you can see how your blade starts to straighten up under your foot. For those who are fortunate to have skating dna then this will be just a tune up but for the other 95% of the population out there (that is the number who pronate / supinate / have alignment issues) then this becomes a revelation. there is always something in the way you skate that needs improving and skating with laces undone brutally exposes it. For me one of the key things about this is it isn't dependent on the skate you are in, a coach who is training you or even how long you have skated. It's all about you, your body alignment and how well you can control the skate blade. Teach yourself with built in auto correction (your brain).