Ron

Not at all. I find the amount of pressure needed to do a quick stop or slow steady stop way easier to modulate and predict. Once again, back to my ski analogy. If I needed to stop on a dime, I could really cut into it and do it. If I wanted a slower more leasurely stop, I could do that very easily also. With ROH, I definitely found it more difficult to moderate pressure exerted by the edges to control my stopping. I could get my hard stops fine, but felt like I had to fight with the skate on some of the slower stops, if that makes any sense.

Tried FBV at 90/75 for the first time this weekend. It was quite an eye opener to say the least. I've messed around with numerous different hollows in the past and either found that the edges were too sharp and 'diggy' for me, or too dull and 'slippy'. I used to use a 1/2" cut and would hate it for the first 1-2 outings, then love it for the next 10 or so. With 5/8" and 3/4", I found that the edge just didn't grab enough for me when I went to accelerate. With FBV I found a nice dig in my strides right off the bat, transitioned from edge to edge really quickly, and the most amazing difference was when I went to stop -- felt very smooth and effortless and very easy to control both inside and outside skates (like stopping on skis). Hopefully the edge is comparably durable to ROH, but I realize I'm a bit of an exception when it comes to going 10-12 outings per sharpening. Now I'm admittedly not a very high level player, but something as simple as this has been able to make me feel more confident and comfortable with my skating and has allowed to me concentrate more on improving other aspects of my game.