Zuperior S - Marka

[marka 526]

Howdy,

Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles!

About me:

I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person.  🙂  I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46.  Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, where I grew up.  When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers.  Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid.  I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues.

I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel.  I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx.

Zuperior S, with some additional forward pitch ("25% more forward pitch")

This is my 'baseline' profile.  I switched to this profile a couple months ago, done for me by @Nicholas G on this forum prior to JR receiving his ProSharp setup.  Prior to this I was using stock steel which had been repeatedly sharpened manually, grinding down both the toe and heel.  That steel was then profiled by JR to a 10' radius where steel still existed, but the toe and heel were still considerably ground away.  I also used unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel.

Given that I've run the Zuperior profile for months, I'm used to it and find it normal in every sense.  This is my baseline and I'll be comparing other profiles to it.  As such, I've rated the steel as in the middle in all categories:

Acceleration: 3
Mobility: 3
Stability: 3
Speed: 3

Comparing this profile to what I had tried before, it provided a LOT more stability as compared to the OE steel with the heel & toe ground down and felt like it had way more 'blade on the ice'.  At first, with a 1/2" Fire sharpening like I'd previously been using, I had trouble with initiating turns.  However, when I moved to 5/8" Fire and spent a little more time on the profile, I was back to having the same agility I'd always had while keeping that same feeling of stability.  Comparing this profile to the unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel, I really noticed the additional pitch forward putting my balance where I expected it to be and no longer had any issues with "toe picking" like I'd had with the unprofiled stock 10' radius steel.

Frankly, I was completely happy with this profile and didn't feel there was anything I was lacking.  However, I wanted to try other options and see what I might not know, so here we are...

Up next are a Dual Radius 9'/10' review and a Quad 0.  See those in their respective sections.

Mark