pgeorgan

I'd say the SCS 1 is a neutral pitch profile. Not forward leaning with no toe like the Quads I'm used to. A little longer feeling than a 10' if you're going for something closer to being on rollerblades.

@flip12 Out of morbid curiosity I got an SCS 1 standard/medium profile on Black Friday. I quite liked it. Not quite as agile as 10', but still agile and definitely more stable. Big upgrade from the Quads and solves the problem of the ultra flat back they have.

I was on Mission's. Last pair was from circa 2001. Couldn't tell you which ones, but they had the plastic hooks on the outside for heel lock. I used to ratchet down the heel lock part and then skip every eyelet after except the top, which I made extra tight.

Similar situation for me on rollerblades, actually. The only problem is those boots could actually flex! One of the pleasant surprises of going from Quad to 10' was that I found I didn't need to tie my laces as tight. Having so much toe shaved down in the case of the Quad was forcing me to tie my laces tighter than what was optimal, for whatever reason.

Ah gotcha. Ya I did not like the Ellipse whatsoever, tbh.

I navigated over to this site. Correct me if I'm wrong, the 981/Quad Hybrid appears to be a modified old school Hudson?

I'm thinking of trying a 9.5/10.5 but am nervous I'll lose a lot of the agility I have with a 10'. Wondering what your opinion was of the two, since it appears you've tried them both. Or anyone else for that matter. Some other folks have said that it feels like a Quad 0.5, but that's 8-10-12-14, so not really sure how those could be at all similar. In my experience, the Quad 0.5 would just be another one of those "skates on rails" profiles, which I'm not going back to. I've also heard good things about the Elite SCS 1. The SCS 1 in standard size is 6-17-13-4, which just trying to wrap my head around sounds pretty wild. They also don't tell you how much of each section is profiled to which radius.

I think a 9.5/10.5 is about the only one I'd considered trying at this point, just given the positive experience I've had with a basic 10'.

My experience was similar. Probably made me a better skater for having had the experience, but going back to a 10' for the first time in years was sort of eye opening. It dawned on me that the idea of a quad or a multi-radii profile is somewhat flawed in that I'm not sure you can really have the best of both worlds. Eg, agility doesn't just come from the front part of the runner. If you flatten the back to add stability, you're going to notice it in other aspects of your game. You're definitely going to lose some agility, somewhere. Further, I don't really feel that "unstable" on a basic 10' with neutral pitch as compared to a quad. I'm right where I need to be on my skates and I think that translates to being the most stable, IMO. That's certainly how I feel on the ice, anyway.

I've tried almost every ProSharp profile there is and recently skated on out-of-the-box Bauer Fly-X. Best skate I've ever had. Used to be a big believer in these other profiles but not anymore. I feel stupid for having skated on the quads the last several years.

I read that the Quad 0.5 kinda feels like a 10' single radius, which according to the internet is what McDavid uses. 10' or 11' depending on your source. I'm going to try it out on some unused Bauer steel I have lying around and go from there.

Side note here, I just read a post on another site that Bauer have changed their stock profile to 9.5/10.5 ?? Is that right? I can't find anything that corroborates this.

Ok so how does one decide between Junior, Standard and Large? Nevermind I see it at the bottom of the link in my last post. I like the Quad 0. I feel like if I tried a Quad 0.5 I'd be on rails, which is why I'm hesitant to get a Quad 0.5 where sections 3 and 4 are flipped (aka Polaris). Was really hoping others on here had some more feedback.

So you're saying that the Polaris cut has less acceleration than the Quad 0? Their marketing says they're supposed to be the same, but somehow I doubt that just based off the radii of the respective profiles. I mean it's basically a Quad 0.5 with the back two sections swapped with each other. It's an interesting idea, except for they only have the one size, which IME isn't going to be suitable for everyone. If I already skated on a Quad 0.5, I'd feel more comfortable giving it a go, but that's not the case for me. Edit: I'm also confused whey their marketing material has 3 sizes listed but they're all the same profile...

What's your comparison between the two I mentioned, if you have one? I have no frame of reference for your 981.