Don't know how they get the tape to lay smoothly over the curves of the boot without puckering, etc.
In connection with a class, I was taught how to wrap an ankle with athletic tape to reinforce it. I had to practice many times before I could get the tape to lay smooth. But that method won't work on skates, because of the blade at the bottom, which you obviously don't want to cover. (At least you don't need to do a pre-wrap with gauze (or equivalent), as is sometimes done on ankle and wrist wraps, to prevent the tape from sticking to your skin.)
Maybe these instructions, from "Mr. Edge", a very well respected Chicago area skate tech, will help.
http://www.askmredge.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sk8tape_Instructions1.pdfHowever, from the ankle wrapping experience, I can suggest several things:
1. Orient the roll of tape so the tape unrolls onto the boot from the bottom, not the top. Most of the time you want a few inches of unbound tape hanging from the point it unrolls.
2. Keep a fair amount of tension on the tape at all times. Most tape can stretch a little, and you are using this to create a clean wrap. I.E., there will be places where one side needs to stretch a little more than the other to lay flat against the boot. In addition, the adhesives are probably designed to activate best if the tape is stretched - especially true of plastic electrical tape. (Incidentally, most
plastic electrical tape is designed to work best if the initial wrap is sticky side out, and later wraps are stick side in - but you can't do that here. Fortunately, you don't need as strong an adhesion for purely cosmetic purposes.) (Or was the mention of electrical tape here meant to refer to cloth electrical tape, rather than plastic electrical tape?)
3. I suggest you sit on a chair, with the boot in your lap, and with blade guards on so you don't have to worry about cutting yourself. When you cut or tear the tape, you may need to hold the boot between your knees, because most of us only have two hands. You could alternately clamp onto the outsole with a vice instead - but not so hard that you damage the adhesion between the outsole and the boot, or warp the outsole. Avoid the vice if you can.
4. Try to do it holding onto the tape with the same hand throughout - if you switch hands, there is a good idea that you will lose tension, or accientally introduce an unwanted twist. This can be hard with your ankle, if you have flexibility limits - but, since you don't have to wear your boot while you wrap it, there should be no problemIf you are right handed, use your right hand, and vice-versa. With your foot, you probably did have to pass it hand-to-hand, unless you are hyper-flexible, but with the boot, and the short lengths Mr Edge advises you to use, you can turn the boot instead.
5. Practice first using something like a dollar store ace bandage. That will be too easy, because it stretches more than most tapes - but it will get you in practice to do clean wraps. Of course, it won't stick, so you won't be able to save your wrap, and can only do part of it at the same time, but it should still be good practice.
6. Use good quality reasonably new tape, that preferably hasn't been exposed to high temperatures. After a while, tape becomes much more difficult to handle. That is probably a bigger problem with athletic tape (where good brands include Johnson & Johnson) than with Skate Tape (or electrical tape). E.g., bad brands of athletic tape, or old tape, won't tear cleanily across. However, most Skate Tape is cloth tape too - so maybe it has the same characteristics, in that it is designed to tear cleanly along exactly two axis - laterally across the tape, and longitudinally along the tape. In Mr. Edge's diagram, he uses a scissors, which may be more awkward than clean tears, in that it will make you wish you had 3 hands, but will work with other kinds of tape, or with old or poor quality tape.
7. Don't be surprised if it takes a fair # of attempts before your succeed. With athletic tape on my ankle, I think it took over an hour for me to get it right. But this will probably be easier, because Mr. Edge has segmented the wrap into many successive pieces of short length tape, rather than trying to wrap it in one go.
Hope that helps.