Okay so we did not decide on new skates - yet. He's ordering Riedell GoldStars and Jackson 4500's in my size for me to try. BUT, Jim fixed my old skates!!!!
I knew my skates were generally in great shape (not broken down too much) but they weren't fitting right and I was having control issues and my heal on the right was moving a lot.
Well.... I have new insoles - there were none and either they were missing or it's how they made them then?? We're not 100% sure. Then he sharpened my skates and wanted me to test them out. The only ice of the 4 rinks at that moment that was open was ELITE ice (Olypmian/Nationals/Worlds level skaters. I held my own, didn't get hurt or get in anyone's way LOL. Triples and Quads left and right....
I diverge.... he had me test the the skates out for alignment, kind of like you do with a car and on my right - the side I always have issues with on outside edges, it was completely off. He was on the fence about sharpening and wanted me to try 7/16 R.O.H. first, which didn't feel good stopping so he brought it to 1/2" and moved my right blade and when I went back out it was great! He also had me tie them up a very specific way. All around it was 1000% better than when I came in! He thought I could forego new skates if I wanted to try these a while and said he could tweak the right heal with some padding so my heal doesn't move at, which btw has decreased by about 90% from before.
I am most likely still going to get new skates. I'd like to have another pair and they could fit better.
So that was my experience with Jim. He was truly amazing and REALLY understands feet AND skates. I have a PT background and everything he said about my feet was right on 100%.