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I was retired when I had mine done so can’t comment on that. Good PT is a must. I was back driving shortly since mine was left and not right. Was back to full gym workouts (elliptical, lateral, and weights) within a month. I was an avid runner pre-replacement, but my surgeon said my running days were over because it would be too much pounding. I was back recreational skating at 3- months but was advised to wait 6-months for hockey. Was basically because although the stem is cemented bone continues to grow around it, and bone grows ever so slowly. That was 6-years ago and haven’t had any issues since. Good luck with the rehab and getting back on the ice.

When I was doing research about skate profiling I stumbled on a YouTube video "What is hockey skate profiling" by the guys from Hockey Tutorial. In the end he said he liked the Quad 0.5 the best so I started there.. The best way I can describe the Quad 0.5 is it 'Just feels natural'. Note, I was coming from a single 11' profile and I changed my sharpen from 5/8 to a 3/4 when I changed profiles. These two things made a dramatic change for the better with my skating. I have yet to hear/read anyone say they hate the quad 0.5 and I can't say that for the other Quad profiles. Please note that I use to wear a mirrored visor and have used T blades in the past. So take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Best of luck on your recovery. I had arthroscopic labral repair and the bone shaved down so thats nothing like what you are going through. Keep us posted.

My Sparx is just over 5 years old. It shipped Jul 2016. My two boys were in minor hockey at the time and they now play Jr A and NCAA. I play beer league a couple times a week. I've never had a single problem with the Sparx in that time. I routinely do 2 passes every couple of games/practices to keep our edges always 'like new'. I very rarely do more than 2. I've sharpened everything from Step Steel to stock steel and the Sparx handled them all equally well. When coming home from Jr A seasons my boys' steel was usually destroyed from a profile perspective because of their team equipment managers sharpening on BladeMaster machines. The toe and heels were significantly rounded off from the manual machines. Sharpening on the Sparx (which I have done for my own skates exclusively) has never affected the profile on my steel, so my blades last a lot longer than theirs do. But then again they are on the ice practically ever day vs. twice a week for me. I don't have any experience with the ProSharp unit so I can't offer any comparison head to head. Yes, it would be great if Sparx wheels were cheaper but honestly at the current prices and the way I use my machine, it's simply incredible value to me and our family and has been since the first day it arrived. Russ owns the company so yes take his words with a grain of salt as everyone has their own biases, but Russ is an engineer not a business or marketing guy. Everything I have read or watched (lots of great Sparx history on youtube) from Russ was logical, fair, balanced and very much what you would expect from an engineer with a background in industrial design. I was in on the Kickstarter like many others here, and for that first year or so when timelines kept slipping I'm sure we all wondered whether Sparx was ever going to deliver on their promise of a revolutionary home skate sharpening machine... well 5 years later after their first launch I can say from my own experiences with the product that they exceeded my expectations, and pretty much nailed it right from the first revision of the machine. For a small company like Sparx, that's pretty impressive when you consider what went into getting the first units out the door.

Recovery time depends substantially on the surgical approach. Posterior approach will require more convalescence, more rehab, more time to resume full activity, and more restrictions during recovery. I suffered with this shit for 5 years because I was too afraid to get the surgery and incapable of deciding between THA and BHR. THA surgeons all recommended against BHR because of the potential issues with metal-on-metal hardware; meanwhile, BHR surgeons presented BHR as a no-brainer for several reasons and downplayed (or completely ignored) the MoM issue. I also cared more about the least invasive procedure with the least amount of pain and the quickest recovery. The BHR guys also (mis)represented BHR as less invasive, when, in fact, it's much more invasive because of how much access to the joint it requires. Finally, last year, I found an experienced THA surgeon (Alexander Neuwirth at NY Cornell-Weill) who uses a plastic ball in a ceramic cup and does it with a minimally-invasive anterior approach. Up to that point, the only THA surgeons on my insurance plan used metal components and/or only do the posterior approach. I was still very skeptical about believing what he was telling me about how my being an ideal candidate and my current physical condition meant that I'd recover very quickly; and I was even more skeptical about being back on the ice in "6-8 weeks." He was right. Surgery was March 12th around 7:00 AM and the only reason I didn't leave the hospital even a few hours earlier than 4:00 PM was because I was still dizzy from the pain meds and because it took me that long to produce any urine to be sure there were no issues with that. As soon as my head cleared, I walked around the ward basically carrying my walker in front of me without needing it. I used it for safety to get to the car and from the car to my apartment and that was the last time I touched it. I spent much of the next week lying on my massage table because it allowed me to angle my head down and feet up to keep the swelling down. Swelling still moved all the way down my leg and peaked at 7 days. Zero hip pain and some minor discomfort in my quads for a few days. Started upper body training after 7 days because I was still feeling sort of weak; but I could have started immediately if I'd wanted to. Zero prescribed rehab because I have my own gym at home and zero post-surgical hip precautions: the anterior approach allows you to bend at the waist and to do everything except torque your hip by twisting your body while standing on that leg. I did nothing besides my normal leg training for rehab (eliptical, leg extensions, squats, leg curls, hyperextensions, and some band work for abductors & hip flexors). For the first 6 weeks of training, I substituted reverse hyperextensions on a big exercise ball for traditional hyperextensions, because I didn't want that pressure directly on the hip joint. I also waited 6 weeks before doing my abs by hanging upside down on my inversion table. I started walking up and down the hallway outside my apartment daily for the first two weeks and after my two-week check-up, I got the go ahead to get back on the eliptical and to start light leg workouts. I worked out pretty hard for the next 4 or 5 weeks and at my 6-week follow-up, he told me I could get back on skates. I got on the ice 7 weeks to the day from my surgery and within a few of hours on the ice (over 2 weeks), I was pretty much back to normal. Been going to sticks and pucks 2-3x/week since early May and have my 4th game tomorrow night. I slip some extra neoprene padding under compression shorts over my hip right on the joint, just in case I get knocked off my skates and fall directly on it. He said the biggest risk is a direct impact only because the titanium implant is so much harder than the surrounding bone that the femur could crack if I fell directly on the hip hard enough. Other than that, the only risk is high-impact sports, which my surgeon doesn't recommend (at all, ever) for recipients of THA. That's no issue for me, because I don't do anything high impact and all of my cardio is on the eliptical. I'm mainly a center and while I'm not that great a player, I typically cover more ice in any game than anybody else on the ice. My surgical hip is now one of my only joints that never hurts. Ultimately, the long-term results are the same whether you have anterior or posterior THA, and (functionally), even if you have BHR. The posterior approach typically takes about twice as long to get back to full activities, requires rehab, and involves some more pain, especially initially, and there are strict hip precautions (i.e. no bending past 90 degrees at the waist and no crossing legs) for a few months. BHR is also a harder recovery than anterior THA, but is fine, as long as you're not one of the unlucky few who have metal ion issues. Let me know if you have any other questions.

The longer radius is used with beginners and young players to help them keep balance and focus on skating posture. Developing a proper skating posture should be the primary end goal when first learning how to skate properly. I think ProSharp has a document somewhere that discusses this.

I'm not saying quads are bad, I'm saying they're bad for beginners. I firmly believe that beginners should learn on a single 9' or 10' radius, (9.5'-10.5' dual is ok too). Once they have mastered the basics, they can then try more complex profiles. I don't like longer singles like a 13' for beginners either, because I think it's too much of a crutch and hinders muscle development. In my opinion, asking someone to learn to skate on a quad is like asking a new driver to learn in an 18 wheeler.

For beginner skaters, profiling is one of the best things to invest money into. The stability a new skater can get going from a standard 10' -> 12' and optimizing the balance point can allow them to focus on their edge work instead of worrying about balance.

These were like 4 years in the making, from finding appropriate donor gloves to getting the embroidery files digitized and then stitched out, then sent off to CPR. Didn't get around to sharing on this forum. Here's a teardown photo CPR sent me: