My guess would be he has the same issue I had with the SP-Teris: the ankle area isn't wide enough so you have to pull the laces really tight, but flexing the ankle stresses the topmost area and pops the lace off the hook when you straighten the ankle. In my case, the tongue was too narrow, so it got "stuck" on the throat edges, leaving the front of the ankle with no support.
Huh. How awful! If these were custom boots, someone - maybe your boot fitter - really messed up.
My old Klingbeils were custom, but they were measured totally wrong, so everthing hurt and the tongue was too narrow for my feet, among many other problems. A better skate tech punched the leather around my ankle bones (see #1 below), heat molded the boots, and cut a lace loop (see #4 below) in the tongue to keep it centered, which helped somewhat.
I admit my ideas below are all way more complicated than changing lacing patterns. Since they require modding the boots in some way, you have to be brave, and think carefully about what you do before doing it. I know not everyone is willing to do these sorts of thing.
0. Heat mold the boots, so they fit better.
1. If a lot of the pressure falls on the ankle bones (a problem my old Klingbeils had too), the leather could be punched out there, which would bring the rest of the sides of the boot inwards, covering the tongue better. That would have the extra benefit of making the rest of the boot fit better, and eliminating any pain that occurs on the ankle bones. Of course, you should do your heat molding first, because heat molding tends to undo leather stretches.
2. If one cuts two short parallel slots in the tongue, to create a leather band, e.g., like the second picture in
http://shockerkhan.blogspot.com/2014/06/skater-feel-thy-feet.htmlThat helps keep the tongue centered, and makes it move more with the sides of the boot.
Is there a band cut in your tongue like that? A lot of skate techs can add such slots, if you don't feel up to it yourself.
3. You can also thread the lace ends AROUND the band and tie them back to the same sides they came from - which binds the tongue more strongly into the center, and pulls the sides of the boot more strongly around the tongue. (Note, however, that using the lace band in this way slightly reduces the force that pulls the two sides of the boot together, so you need to lace a little tighter.) Be careful - you don't want to tear the band!
4. Sometimes people they don't cut all the way through the tongue, but just cut the slots in the top leather layers, and cut underneath to separate the leather band from the rest of the tongue, though that requires skill. I think that is called a "lace loop".
5. Some boots come with lace hooks on the tongue itself, which you can use the same way. I bet that works really well. (Incidentally, on new custom boots, Harlick doesn't charge to add lace loops or hooks on the tongue, if I read
http://harlick.com/pdf/price_custom.pdf right.) But I really wouldn't feel up to adding those myself - I think it would take a really, really good shoe repair place or cobbler to do it right.
6. Another approach is to use a metal band, like
https://www.fluevog.com/code/images/colour_image/0000009723/detail.jpg?1I've seen skate boots that had such a band. But I would hate to have the metal band touch my foot inside the tongue - I think that could injure you too. Perhaps it too might only be cut through the top layers of leather.
I wonder if you could get away with a thin key ring band. Instead of cutting slots wide enough for the laces, you just punch a tunnel through the tongue with a small diameter wire (maybe the ring itself) through the leather. That sounds like it would be easy - but I haven't tried it. I guess you could use straight, wire, then tie the two ends together with a granny knot or surgeon's knot to form a loop...
If you use #3, a metal band should tear less easily than a leather band - provided you tighten the two lace ends on both sides of the foot simultaneously.
7. If you don't feel like cutting the tongue, but are willing to do something that would look AWFUL - you could wrap tape (like first aid tape) around part of the tongue. Let the tape, sticking to itself, extend past edges of the tongue. That would effectively widen the tongue. BUT - you want the tongue to feel smooth against the foot - too sudden a height change could hurt the skin. I've never done this, but thought about it. To make it look SLIGHTLY less awful, use tape the same color as the boot. I guess you wouldn't want tape that was too slippery.