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2nhockey

Skate Stiffnes for Disabled Skater

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Much appreciate your help so far on getting my kids, especially daughter outfitted. After much hand wringing over her birthday present I decided to order her some Graf 735's. Then I went to order them and discovered Easton skates were on clearance plus additional discount incentives. Soooo, I came back here and read around half of that monster Easton Mako thread. To make the story longer, I ended up ordering Makos for her. We'll see how we did when the order shows up (I ordered the same size Makos as her Graf size).

 

Now, on to my boy. He has a disability that really shows up when he skates. His left ankle just collapses resulting in him pretty much skating only on his inside edge. The association has really struggled finding skates for him that work but finally connected on some entry level Bauer Supremes. The Supremes are so flexible though that they don't support his left ankle enough. Then he tries to compensate with his right side and, well, we just have a mess. This is consistent with his disability, and it is not physically possible for him to develop the ankle strength necessary to skate normally. Since he'll be in hockey next year we started getting his gear now, too. Starting with skates.

 

So back to Easton we go, for now. Looking specifically at the RS 85. Will this skate provide tons of stiffness in the ankle area? Can somebody describe fit if these skates vs Supremes? What other skate might you recommend? He has wide, flat feet and did really well in standard width Supremes (except he has outgrown them lengthwise). He is a Squirt level skater and growing rapidly, thus the strong desire for stiff as possible at a low cost.

 

Thsnks again!

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Hopefully this might help some. Both of my ankles collapse which causes me to overpronate a lot. This caused me to have the same problems: always on inside edges, bottoming out when trying to stride forward, etc. Superfeet yellows helped a little bit, but what has seemed to work the best is by having my skate shop insert shims in between the holder and boot of my skates on the outside edges of each. This pushes the outside edges down and inward to make the skate more level on each edge. I can make another picture to explain it. I think he ended up using an old plastic container (like a milk jug) to cut up and make the shims with.pH9gFPm.jpg

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Have you thought about using an ankle brace? Might have to tie the skate a little looser, but it could help so long as it still allows him the necessary forward flexion.

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As Utterkaos already said, cant shims are better choice for the problem. The boots stiffness is not a matter.

 

This is my first VH skates though, I put medial shims on it, not cant shim.

 

Medial shims

 

2mm medial shim

 

 

Please note; Medial or cat shims should be made with different thickness. Usually front is thicker than back.

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Cool - never knew these existed. Thanks for pointing these out.

 

Medial and cant shim? Where do I find more info?

 

What about skates? He has outgrown the Supremes he was in and the Eastons are priced right. Any guesses on if the Easton RS series will fit like a Supreme? Certainly open to suggestions. Thanks! 

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A medial shim just refers to a shim placed on the inside of the foot. Always think opposites - for someone who supinates (their weight distribution is more focused on the outside of the foot), you shim the inside of the skate. For someone who pronates (their weight distribution is more focused on the inside of the foot), you shim the outside. The purpose of the shims is to change the angle the boot rests on the holder. Your son will still "pronate", but his holder/runners will remain parallel with the ice.

 

I agree with both the guys above me. Shimming is your best option. Occasionally I'll put someone in a slightly stiffer boot, but there are certain factors that go into it. The next step is determining how tall to make the shims. For me, I use a little trial and error. I'll take a look at the person's feet and see how egregious the pronation or supination is and kind of go from there. After that, I'll watch the customer skate and re-evaluate from there.

 

With regards to Easton skates...My biggest issue with them has always been their quality, or lack thereof. That being said, I've had a few adult league guys come into my shop over the past year who bought the RS skates because of the blowout prices and they were relatively even-keeled about them. Didn't really have anything negative to say (mostly because of the price), but also didn't have anything positive to say.

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Thank you. Great explanation. 

 

My son is coming from Bauer Supreme Enforcers. Since hockey season started in November he has gained an entire tennis shoe size. His hockey skates went from a little big to toes are curled. That was his second pair of skates this season. He is big for his age (10) - a lot like I was. I was wearing a size 12 shoe by middle school  (probably 6th grade but not positive) and he seems to have inherited my size genetics.

 

With that said I will readily admit the only reason I'm looking at the RS's is their price, partly because I anticipate going thru 2 sets of skates between now and 2016-2017 season end. And I can't justify the money for his age/size/growth. 

 

I guess I am looking to see if you (anybody) can predict for me how an Easton RS in size EE will fit compared to a Bauer Supreme (D), especially regarding heel lock.

 

Again, thanks for the help! 

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No problem!

 

I'll be honest - I don't have a wealth of personal experience with Easton skates. We've only ever carried Bauer, CCM, and Graf in my shop. I've read up on Easton skates here and there, but never really had to fit them before.

 

Don't know if this helps or not, but with regards to growing room and getting more time out of the skates:

 

I'll always find the skater's competitive fit (kick heels back, put weight on foot & can feel toes grazing against front of the toe cap), then go up a half-size from that.  There have been some cases where that isn't as straightforward as it seems (the kid will be in-between sizes). There have been times where the kid might be a size 5.25, so I'll go up to a size 6 skate. In those instances, I use growth insoles. You can either stick an additional insole underneath the ones that come with the skate, or throw a more "industrial" insole inside the skate (like Superfeet). Those are a lot thicker than the flimsy, stock insoles and help take up volume inside the skate.

 

In some rare cases, I will go up a full size from their competitive fit. More times than not, I usually do this in the early Spring because most kids are growing out of their skates by then, and won't be skating a whole lot over the summer, but still enough to warrant needing new skates. Considering the kid will be growing over the spring/summer months, the parents want enough room for the skates to still have some growing room going into the fall season. In those cases, I will always use a growth insole to help take up volume. 

 

It is always tough when doing that because you have to find the right balance of what is "okay" with regards to growing room and "too much." I always tell my customers who want to go crazy with growing room inside the skates for their kids "asking a kid to play with skates that are too big is like asking him/her to run effectively with clown shoes on."

 

After all of that that, you can always stretch the skates (length and/or width). I usually tell my customers that we can get about an extra quarter of a size in length, and about a full size in width (D to an E), sometimes more depending on certain factors. 

 

So, at the very least, I can usually give a growing kid three-quarters of a full-size extra out of his skates to really maximize his or her time in them. Of course, that is all contingent upon the skates not being completely broken down.

 

Wish I could help you with regards to the Easton sizing. Hope all goes well. If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to offer whatever insight I can.

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Thanks for the help. I got him in some Easton 85's to try. In these skates I pulled the laces out and flopped the tongue forward and had him push his toes all the way to the toe cap. I could easily get a pencil behind his heel, so guessing these skates are a full size too long. D width caused no pain throughout. Had him kick his heels back and then tried pencil across eyelets where the 4th and 5th eyelets were the pencil rocked across his foot. I think that means these skates just don't have enough volume even though that was only spot where pencil wasn't on both sides of skate. Especially if he was in skates that actually fit? Guessing the volume will become enough of a problem that I need to dkip the Eastons for him.

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