jpeaslee 30 Report post Posted November 24, 2019 (edited) Steel - Step Blacksteel 288 SB4.0 Hollow - 7/8" Profile - Quad II About Me - Played inline in South Georgia a little bit growing up and club inline in college. Took about a 10 year break and started playing Ice a year and a half ago after turning 30 and moving to a place that has legit hockey (yes it's "Alabama", but it's different than you'd think). I play 3 nights a week. Low D2 player, but skating is probably my biggest strength. I messed around with profiles a bit when I first started ice and wound up skating on 8'/13' w/ a minor forward pitch and that completely changed the way I was able to skate. FWIW, I'm a big guy, 6'2" 265, usually play forward. Review - So this is probably the least I’ve skated one one of these profiles before writing a review, but when you know, you know. THIS IS MY PROFILE. I liked the Zup M, I felt more comfortabe and I thought that was probably going to be the winner but I figured I’d try the Quad II before finalizing everything since objectively the QI was for 254-280, and the QII was for 263-296. Reminder, I’m on 288 steel. Immediately upon receiving the runners I noticed they had a visible amount of forward pitch. I asked JR about it before skating on them (Mostly to make sure I didn’t accidentally order the wrong profile) and he pointed out that they’re a bit different and do have a little bit more forward pitch since they’re designed for longer steel. To be honest, I got a little excited about this. I’ve been feeling like I wanted a little more forward pitch and figured I’d possibly experiment with that once I figured out what profile I was going to keep. Stepping on the ice, I immediately felt comfortable. Even though these technically have a slightly flatter series of radii, I actually felt a little more maneuverable. I think a lot of it is the pitch forcing me to be more on my toes. Stability still felt great when I put a little more weight on my heels. This is the first time on my new skates that I’ve actually felt BETTER than I did on my old skates (Nexus 9000, 288 LS Edge w/ step steel 8’/13’ combo radius w/ minor forward pitch). Overall I still feel like the Zup was a little more stable at speed and maybe a little faster overall, but there wasn’t ever really a point that I didn’t feel solid on my feet or like the profile was holding me back in any way. Without a doubt, this profile simply felt right. It left me without really Acceleration: 4.0 Mobility: 5.0 Stability: 4.5 Speed: 4.0 Other Profiles Tested: 11', 9/10’, Zuperior M 8'/13' (not prosharp) BIG shout out to JR for offering this up. I think this is a huge asset to this community and a great opportunity to try so many different profiles, which is not normally very feasible. Edited November 24, 2019 by jpeaslee Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
