Query, heel height is definitely another big one!
I like what I have. (1 3/4") I'm used to it and happy but wondered what other heights might feel like. The new blades will I guess be lower perhaps, so that should be interesting. I know I felt low in Phantoms.
It would be so nice to be able to try these options first.
Sooooo, my tech called back today saying I'll have to get the blades myself. I asked him about getting the Step Ninety Nines, and he told me I'd have to go to Canada or find someone to ship them. He LOVES Step and spoke so highly of the qualities of their hockey blades that I was convinced to go on a search. (He said he never handled their figure stuff but would try it in a heartbeat if he was me given the finish of their blades, the steel, and the price difference.)
Step never wrote back, so I called Quebec, and they transferred me to I
think CCM in the US? The representative told me that they can't get the blades due to their production being halted until 2023. That explains the lack of inventory online?
I called a random hockey place near one of my rinks that carries Step before that, and they said they would not handle anything figure. Next I tried a random store in Canada, and they were helpful but only had the Pattern 99s and no Step Ninety Nines. The guy I spoke had a helpful comment. He told me that they used to sell Step hockey blades but have stopped now that CCM took over, because the quality went down terribly with rust and pitting problems. I thanked him for that information, because it makes me think I'd end up with one pair now if I'm lucky but looking at Pattern 99 in the future if the quality continued to be no longer so nice as it was when recommendations were made. I really love the idea of stainless and was convinced about the nice quality or else it would be easy to just go ahead and order the others and get it over with.
I think I may still call around and try to hunt down a set, but I hate to waste time.
We are probably going over the border whenever Daughter's renewed passport arrives, but that leaves me little time to adjust before some things that I rather not be still adapting to new blades for (the end of this LTS semester, lessons with Coach Awesome between the holidays, and possibly competing in early January.)