Vet88

Age is a big factor. 10 years ago (was 45) I had bilateral hip replacements, was back skating in 3 months, playing again in 6 months. Last September I had right heel achillies surgery and I still walk with a limp after a skate or any exercise (just can't load the tendon up). My surgeon said 6 months for full recovery but another surgeon (looking at getting a bump removed from my left heel) said at my age it will be at least a year before I can put it behind me and get full strength back. For us males, when we go past a certain age and fall off that performance cliff everything slows down really fast. Take it easy, I hope your next op goes to plan and you get back on the ice bag free.

Oh if only this were true. Over the years I've coached many people who, as soon as they step on the ice, I can see something is wrong with how their skates fit. Later on when I quiz them and have a look at their skates and how they fit, they are in skates that are 1 - 2 sizes too big for them or in a EE instead of a D. Why I ask? "because they don't hurt" is the reply. I know that for us gear heads we have a good understanding of how skates should fit but the majority of people out there (and I'm including people who have skated for years) sadly have very little idea of how a skate should fit. Ergo customs like True are a game changer for them if they ever get into them, they don't have to understand why but finally here is skate that fits them (as long as the measurements etc are correct).

Whilst I agree with everything else you said, this is wrong. The primary reason for a boot breaking down (going soft and opening up on the inside ankle area) within 1-6 months is because of poor technique or pronation issues, skaters lean too heavily on the inside of the skate. Going up to a stiffer boot doesn't fix the issue, it just hides it. And if you don't believe this there is a simple test, rip your laces out and go for a skate.... And this isn't reserved just for the lower level skates either, I know a bunch of pros that replace their skates every 6 months or so as the skate goes soft. However these guys all know how to skate having managed an over aggressive inside roll with years and years of practice, replacing skates is just part of the job.

Sounds like they are too big for you. Mission, Tours and Alkali (after the CA series) are a wide fit in the ankle. I have a narrow ankle and from past experience, you can bake them, have someone stand on them (whilst you are wearing them) to compress them inwards but they always move outwards again after a while. Depending on the Bauer model, Bauer can fit slightly narrower. Or you can find an ice skate and convert it, that may be your best choice as the new / second hand market for ice skates is much bigger than inlines and the range of fits much broader eg in Bauer you have Nexus, Supreme and Vapour, if you have narrow ankles then Vapour is what you would look at.

It most likely means you are marginal in one or more measurements for the 7.5EE so it will always recommend the next size up, this is just how the software works.

If his heel lock, volume and length are all ok then I'd be going for a stretch in that area. It's a simple enough job for someone who has the right tools. If you send them away make sure you measure his width across the forefoot, add the thickness of the skate walls and that gives you the width you want the skates stretched too across the area you need them stretched. This gives the shop measurements to work to. But you may find the Tacks work ok also.

I also want to add that you shouldn't exclude this because of the half ice practices. I read a study last year by US Hockey and it reported that kids who learnt on smaller areas (1/3 and 1/2 ice) were better skilled and skated better in most aspects than their compatriots who practiced on full rinks. No room, no time, you have to think quicker, react quicker, turn tighter, accelerate harder etc etc.

Given his late start, do this. Let him gain confidence, improve his game and become a force in this league. This will carry thru in the coming years as he steps up to the higher leagues. I have seen it so many times, talented kids pushed into higher leagues and the innate skills and instincts they develop when playing against lesser players just don't get learnt (or learnt much slower) when you are chasing the puck all day at higher levels. That's not to say your kid could survive at a higher level, some do and even thrive in this situation but they are few and far between and are usually kids who were born on skates. You should be able to make a good call on this, ask yourself how competitive was he at the tryouts? How big was the gulf in skills between him and the other kids? Would he be a 1st liner or a 4th?

Based on what you have been in, let me put this as simply as I can: NO, Nexus will not be your answer. Why would you put a small heel in a wide skate??? Go to the shop, try everything on. Fit in this order 1: length (laces and tongue pulled out, foot in, toes brushing the toe cap, you shouldn't be able to fit a pencil down the back of your heel) 2: heel lock 3: volume (pencil test across the 3rd and 4th eyelets) 4: width. I say width last because if the other 3 are good then a tight width can be fixed with a stretch or punch. You can't fix any of the others without either major work or compromises.

Haha, she said it made her head ache even though she is a hockey player. Unfortunately she doesn't have full access either to the research paper (she is going to request it) but we can get some supporting information which gives a broad outline of their methods. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01188/suppl_file/jz8b01188_si_001.pdf And if that gives you a headache, these guys here wrap it up quite well in an easy to understand sound bite: https://www.zmescience.com/science/ice-slippery-h-bonds-8731058/

The stuff I have previously read on this said it was very small amounts of water getting produced by the heat hence no puddle. However that theory looks like it is now not the primary reason of slipperines with this theory of the mobile water molecules. The article is here: https://pubs.acs.org/action/doSearch?AllField=what+makes+ice+slippery&type=within&publication=344992248 but I don't have access. I will ask my daughter who is doing a chemical engineering degree to get me a copy.

As with a Bauer scan, it will recommend a skate that your largest foot measurement will fit into. So yes, extra wide feet will throw off the length. I've said it before, I would personally like the results broken down into parts per line, for example a Jetspeed fit is: length is 6D, heel is 6D, forefoot width is 7EE, depth is 8D. Now you can work out which skate will fit you best based on your individual foot measurements. If all is lost for a retail boot fit then it makes it an easy decision to go custom.

Me too, I even had my finger poised over the invest button for kickstarter before I had a second thought. For my style of skating (lace free or game mode with just the bottom 3 eyelets done up) these I believe would be perfect for me. But having been thru the biggest thing since sliced bread for inline (sprungs) and seen the issues moving parts introduced to that sport and had some long term feedback about marsblade maintenance, add freezing cold and constant wet to the mixture and it starts to introduce an element of doubt. I'm also surprised that they haven't got NHL sign off yet. Back in Nov / Dec this was mentioned as a 2 - 3 month time frame and I thought you might see a lot of pros trying this in the off season. If they don't have sign off now then I don't expect many NHL players to have tested them to their satisfaction for next season and as the NHL is the window dressing for the general public it will put a major dent in their attempts to get a foothold in the market. And as a lot of leagues use the IIHF rule book as their guide lines, you could spend a lot of time debating whether or not they are compliant until they get signed off in one way or another (rule 37, take your pick of sections 1, 3 or 5). Trust me on this, turning up at a game and getting into an argument with the refs and or the league director about your equipment and its compliance to rules isn't a good idea. @DRR its all about weight transfer, balance and force. If you can keep a constant balance point on the ice for turns and speed yet still allow your weight to transfer back and forward as necessary then there is the possibility to go fast and turn tight.

For me, reliability is the issue, Having seen many Bauer trigger holders have issues (as the blade becomes loose in the holder) I just wonder how well moving components in the holder will last and still keep the blade straight in the holder when it is under pressure on an edge. If you are at elite level and can afford to change holders every game then this isn't an issue but for the general public? I think the tech and the theory behind it is solid but the implementation is another matter.

Earlier there was a post that covered this but I can't find it so I thought I would post this in a new topic. For those that are interested in this type of thing, here is the latest study on the subject and what they found: What makes ice slippery? While the fact that the ice surface is slippery is widely acknowledged, it is far from being completely understood. Photo / File Just in time for the first round of black ice crashes, scientists have explained what makes ice and snow so slippery - and it's a little more complicated than you might think. And while the fact that the ice surface is slippery is widely acknowledged, it is far from being completely understood. In 1886 Irish physicist John Joly offered the first scientific explanation for low friction on ice; when an object - such as an ice skate - touches the ice surface the local contact pressure is so high that the ice melts thereby creating a liquid water layer that lubricates the sliding. The current consensus is that although liquid water at the ice surface does reduce sliding friction on ice, this liquid water is not melted by pressure but by frictional heat produced during sliding. A team of German and Dutch researchers have now demonstrated that friction on ice is more complex than so far assumed. Through macroscopic friction experiments at temperatures ranging from 0C to minus 100C, the researchers show that - surprisingly - the ice surface transforms from an extremely slippery surface at typical winter sports temperatures, to a surface with high friction at minus 100C. To investigate further, the researchers performed spectroscopic measurements of the state of water molecules at the surface, and compared these with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This combination of experiment and theory revealed that two types of water molecules exist at the ice surface: water molecules that are stuck to the underlying ice, or bound by three hydrogen bonds, and mobile water molecules bound by only two hydrogen bonds. These mobile water molecules continuously rolled over the ice - like tiny spheres - powered by thermal vibrations. As the temperature increased, the two species of surface molecules were interconverted: the number of mobile water molecules was increased at the expense of water molecules that are fixed to the ice surface. Remarkably, this temperature driven change in the mobility of the topmost water molecules at the ice surface perfectly matched the temperature-dependence of the measured friction force, meaning the larger the mobility at the surface, the lower the friction, and vice versa. The researchers therefore concluded that, rather than a thin layer of liquid water on the ice, the high mobility of the surface water molecules was responsible for the slipperiness of ice.

Look at your foot after you take the skate off after a 2 hour session. If you have really red areas on the inside and or outside of the forefoot then that is a good indication the skate is too narrow for you. But if you getting the pain under your foot then it is unlikely it is width however pain can transfer depending on what is affected. A good examination of your foot after a skate could go a long way to working out what is causing the issue. Something somewhere should show irritation.

The top one doesn't look like it opens up enough to be a Drury or P91A, I agree the shape is similar but it looks near enough a closed face like a PM9. However the angle of the photo can be deceptive.

We are on the same page, just looking at it with different perspectives. My issue was strength, my foot and ankle muscles were not strong enough to hold the edge, the ankle collapsed. As I continued rehab and when I got enough strength back to a do a simple one foot calf raise, I could then finally do a one foot slalom again without face planting on the ice. Strength isn't going to make you a better skater once you are strong enough to do the basics, but as you advance towards elite levels of skating and want to make incremental gains in your performance then strength does start to come into play.

If you can walk, run, hop, skip and jump like any other normal human then I agree with you. However I have recently had first hand experience of this when I blew my achillies, had surgery and was in a boot for 3 months. When I finally got back on the ice and attempted a one foot slalom on the foot I had surgery on, I fell flat on my face, couldn't hold an outside edge, just not strong enough.

I suspect he will have seen what I have seen in a lot of them. The lining had issues. If you pull it on and off your lid a lot it frays and peels around the edges badly. I glue them down but eventually it goes hard (from repeated gluing) or falls apart completely and becomes unusable / uncomfortable. In some helmets it happened really fast like within a couple of months, others would last for ages. I also got 5 of them a few years ago, lost 2 to the lining issue, one to a puck strike and have 2 left. Regardless of their issues, imho they are still one of the best helmets ever made so far.

Which raises an interesting question about customs and possibly their biggest negative point, why would anyone buy a 2nd hand custom boot made for a random player who you have no idea of what shape their foot is? At least with retail you know what you are getting which makes me wonder if 2nd hand customs will hold their price versus retail.

Have a look back thru the thread at some of his earlier vids, the diff is quite noticeable as he now skates more upright over the blade giving him better balance, technique and power. Primary reason for doing it, if you have any technical issues when skating then no laces finds you out immediately. Give it a go, you don't have to skate lace free. Just undo your laces and try the following - v starts, front to back transitions and 360 degree power turns. If you don't fall off any of your edges, primarily your inside edge, when doing these then your technique is pretty damn good.

If he is comparing it to his FT1's then it's not really a fair comparison as they are lighter and without shot blockers. Add shot blockers to the FT1's (FT1's @ 740 grams and full shot blockers at 180 grams) and the difference is around 100 grams to the slightly heavier integrated True. My size 6 one100's with shot blockers weigh the same as his larger sized True.

My shot blockers weigh 180 grams each, Skate Fender Full Pro small - medium that cover all of the skate. So the built in shot blockers are much heavier than an external one. But I am interested in how stiff the built in shot blockers make the skate. I'm looking for a super stiff skate in the area of the inner ankle that won't move when the ankle leans in against it. If these are as stiff as you say and hold their boot shape after many hours of skating then I might direct some players towards True specifically for this reason. @smu, you should consider this.

As I said before, get some ball of foot gel pads. It's a cheap fix. I had pain in a similar spot a few years ago when wearing Graf Ultras. It wasn't a rivet issue but the screw holder and tiny bits of staple poking up thru the sole of the boot. My superfeet yellow didn't stop it but once I put the gel pads in everything was sweet. Like these: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Scholls-Stylish-Cushions-Heels/dp/B01MCZFO4P/ref=lp_3780101_1_8_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1522019776&sr=1-8