In need of some educated/experienced help

[Hipster 5]

Anyone....Bueller......Anyone.....Anyone

Not sure about the Missions. That's one skate I have never tried. I had a friend who seemed to always be popping out the lace grommets on his missions.

Salming F1's are a quality skate. My teammate had a pair and I wish I had purchased some when I had the chance to get my size. I have wide flat feet and the Salming was a good value. Lots of skate for the money.

Personally the only light weight skates I have skated are the CCM Pro Tacks and the Easton Ultra Lite Pro and Z Air Comp SE. I liked them all, but the Ultra lite pro had a nice low cut boot and seemed to give me more room in the instep than the Pro Tacks.

I have 3 pairs of Grafs. 705's, 709's and 707's. I'm a fan of the 7 series and I think they will be considered some of the all time classics if they are not already. 705 is cut most like other skates. 709 has a deeeep boot and allows for great forward flexion of the ankle. The 707's are my new friends as they are cut for total ankle control by the skater. This is bad if you like stiff, high boots with lots of support, but grrrreeeeat if you like maximum agility and use your ankles a lot in your skating.

Since the One 90's came out for Bauer, you can find some excellent deals on their Supreme 3000, 5000, etc. etc. just depends on what you like fit wise. the look of your foot seems like a Bauer 7000 would fit pretty well. If you like stiff ness, these and the Eastons Z-Air Comps are as good as it gets.

I've tried Eastons newer boots and like them, I just don't own any yet.

As for steel, you may not need to go the T blade route if you don't prefer them. Graf Cobra steel is pretty hard and holds an edge well as far as I can tell. CCM Pro Lite 3 is OK, but at 190, you could torque the toes if you skate hard and stop hard. I don't know about the new ccm E holders.

Easton Razor bladz and Razor Bladz II have good steel and the holders feel pretty nice and stable, IMO, but the hardware has been unreliable. I've lost screws on the ice in practice and the damn runner went from a razor blade into a switch blade by swinging all the way out!

you might want to buy an inexpensive hand stone and keep it in your bag. Running this along the outside edges (carefully) will take off metal burrs and dings. I find it prolongs the length of a good sharpening.

If you buy an extra set of steel runners and holders with sturdy, reliable hardware, you could go that route. Hope that helps. Also, If you know what size and model fits you best, then E-bay is a good option too. I've bought stuff there to experiment with that was cheap enough to risk the potential rip off. I've been lucky.

Hope this helps.

[Taoism 0]

I have been told by oldtrainerguy28 that if I was comfortable in my old tacks I would probably not like the fit of the mission skates. Also through the course of our correspondence I think I figured out why my old tacks suddenly didn't fit right anymore.

They fit the bomb for like 4.5 maybe 5 years, then one day they were killing me. It was like my feet grew or the boots shrank. My seni-educated guess now is that what happened was the custom insoles finally gave out. Without a good insole to properly support my feet they were flattening out and in effect "growing" when I tightened my skates. when I really skated hard it compounded the problem, putting even more pressure on my feet flattening them still more. Wish I had known about grey superfeet back then.

After oldtrianerguy28's input and advice I am gonna give the vectors a try with some superfeet.

[B-Nads 0]

My foot arch is a bit higher than yours and I find Vectors miserable - hope you have better luck if you go with them. If it is the Tack that fits you, I would look for a deal on a pair of Pro Tacks - they can be had for decent close-out prices now. I would also look at the RBK's or a pair of Bauer 8090's. As for your blade dilema, you'll have to decide if you can live with T-blades. In your place, I would buy one or two extra sets of steel, mail them out, and invest in one of those magic stick sharpeners - they are usually good to stretch and extra 2 or 3 skates out of a sharpening.

[Taoism 0]

Love the Neely avatar. He was awesome to watch play(I grew up around Boston). I miss the Garden and the Bruins as a fun winning team.

As for the Vectors, do you mean your instep(top of foot) or your arch(inside bottom of foot) is high?

[Jason Harris 31]

I believe the issues were with certain buyers NOT Salming directly.

I hadn't seen this thread before, but my issue wasn't with Borje. i thought he was a good guy. However, he wasn't too involved with the products; he would approve them or make suggestions for changes, since his name was on the line, but he didn't have much involvement beyond that.

My issue was with Libro Grupen, who licensed Borje's name for the equipment they manufactured. There is no doubt that certain actions of theirs lacked integrity, but I admit I was angry when I put up the web page, although not as angry as I was a week earlier when I really would have laid into them! Two years later, it's no longer important but, after switching from Windows to Mac, I don't have the software or inclination to change the page.

The sad thing is I've still had calls from retailers asking if I have certain products remaining, whereas they're basically shut out of the N.A. market. In other words, I believe it could have worked, yet both sides lost.

[Taoism 0]

Sorry things didn't work out for you man. I actually ran into a dude wearin a pair of salming's the other night. He loved them.

I, on the other hand, ended up getting a pair of vectors. ZG 110's with t-blades. I have only skated on them once so I cannot make much of a judgement on them yet other than to say they are far more comfortable than the used grafs I last skated in. Oh, and I feel like I am falling over backwards on them. Not surprising after the grafs, which incidentaly had about a 1 cm lift in the heel, so very forward and aggressive. hopefully when I get around to retrieving my stuff from new hampshire they are amongst the mess and I can have some work done on them, as I did like some things about them. Weight, or lack thereof for one. But all in all, for not having skated in 2 years, not too bad. with some break in the vectors will probably be quite nice.

Huge thanks to oldtrainerguy28 for his help and input. and thanks go as well to everyone else who tried to help me out. Oh, also, spreedizzle I am still interested in those black t-blades. I'll shoot you a PM later on this weekend. They would look nicey nice on a pair of vector 10's, my next skates I think, when I have a lttl more money to throw around after seeing how bad my bank account looks after paying for the summer semester in 4 months or so.