My daughter will be in need of new skates in the next month or two. She has been wearing the Risport Lux boot for the past year, and it's working very well for her so we want to keep her in that; she doesn't need anything stronger yet (she only weighs 39 lbs and is turning 5 in 2 months, btw, these are not too stiff for her). She wears these expensive boots because it's either these or full customs, and these are cheaper! She has a very narrow and straight foot, high arch, narrow heel, and extremely wide and large ankle bones that made Jackson and Riedell not options at all; they didn't even begin to close around her ankles. The boots come without blades, and she's been using the Eclipse Astra so far. We are perplexed as to which blade to get for the new boots.
We are limited in blade choices because her foot is so small - she needs a size 7 1/4" or 7 1/2" blade for the new boots, and many of the blades the next step up from the Astra do not come smaller than 8". Her coach only wants her on a 7' radius blade, which eliminates Jackson blades as options. Our choices are to stick with the Astra, or put on the Wilson Majestic, MK double star, Wilson Coronation Ace, Eclipse Mist (Ace clone), or MK Professional. Opinions please? Our skate shop just says 'whatever, all fine'.
Her skating level is she will be starting to learn freestyle skills, such as waltz jump, scratch spin, toe loop. She has some higher level skills, like forward and back power pulls, alternating edges, and lovely edge spirals. During her practices she focuses on power, control, and speed in edge work (especially those hard backward inside edges!), and she now has nice smooth deep outside edges. She skates for 1 group class, one 'bridge' class, one power class, 1 private lesson, and 3 1-hour practice sessions each week - total of 5 hours of ice per week (over 3 days/week). Based on her general rate of progress, and her historically very slow foot growth, we expect these new skates to last her through learning the single jumps, except the axel.
My inclination is to either stick with the Astra, or pick the Coronation Ace. It seems like the majestic or double star are not really 'better' than the Astra, and 2-3X the price. Various websites recommend moving to the Eclipse Volant or Crescent but they don't come smaller than 8" so those are not options. The Ace obviously is better, and costs more, but at least we'd get 'more' blade for the extra money. Would the Ace be too much blade for her? Should we save our money and do the Astra again? But would her progress be improved with the better blade? We're willing to spend the money if it will truly make learning skills easier or more technically correct. I'm so confused!