Pattern 99 Skating Impressions, Day 1:Hmm. I don't know what to think. These blades have "personality". They do feel substantially different from the Gold Seals that I've been on for the past week.
Quietness: There's a BIG difference in ice rip between the Gold Seals and these blades. I enjoyed the stealthy quietness of these blades. The Gold Seals were growling with even minor applications of power or a modest edge. It took more oomph to get these (and frankly, any other flat-side blade) to make the ripping sound. I can still do it, but it takes a stronger effort. Personally, I like the quietness of the Pattern 99.
Forward stroking and crossovers: Mild stroking produced no major difference in feel. However when I put more power into an extended push-under on crossovers, the push-under skate tended to steer itself away on the push. Because it was gliding away quicker, I couldn't push as hard as I could with the Gold Seals until I adjusted the push. If I angled my skate to make it feel like I was pushing with my heel on the cross-under, I could steer it inward to have something to push against. I found this a bit off-putting, and I don't know if it was because of the stanchion height difference (medium rear + low front stanchion) or because of the contrast between these and the tapered blade of the Gold Seal. I can see how the GS taper could influence skate direction when on one edge, and I had been adapting to them for a week. The net result is that I didn't feel that power stroking was as natural as on the GS blades.
Backward stroking and crossovers: Stroking in backwards patterns felt more familiar than in forward patterns. I had no trouble here, except that I scratched the toe picks a couple of times. It seems to be easier to do with these blades. It was easy to put power down as long as you didn't scrub it off with pick scratching. I think I could adapt to the feel of these going backwards very easily once I learn its "personality".
Three turns: Very straightforward and familiar feeling. No major change in feel, and I felt at home here.
Spins: These left me confused. The very first attempt went very well, with about 6 revs but with some travel (my normal nemesis). After the easy initial spin, I thought that adapting to these blades would be a cinch like the Gold Seals on spins. However, I had very mixed results on subsequent spins. I had some decent ones like this...
However things went mostly downhill over the session. I couldn't enter the spin sometimes, I couldn't hold the spin at other times. The ice was filled with lots of loops with the exception of a handful of them. I got frustrated trying.
Other: I didn't have any trouble with the low front stanchion limiting deep-edge turns. I didn't push them to the limit though, but in normal skating it shouldn't be an issue. Here's a photo of a medium-aggressive hockey turn with the Pattern 99s. It kicked snow about 4 inches outside of the tracing. I can live with that amount of lean in everyday skating. I was pleased that I didn't boot-out at this level of turn, so it's adequate.
I did some forward inside brackets. They felt good like before. The RFI bracket, my best, could be done at speed easily without any blade issue.
I attempted a couple of miserable attempts at a toe loop, but I'm jumping very little anymore. I've become a lousy jumper. My attempts were just plain ugly, stabbing, toe-waltzes. That's completely my bad. It's too bad that I didn't get to test all these blades when I was younger and a jumper.
Wrap-up, Day 1: This morning, the push-under glide-away on stroking, and the trouble with establishing/holding spins frustrated me. I am left with the question of "Should I live with these long term?" I'm sure that I'd adapt over time, but is it worth learning this "new language"? However, as they say, YMMV,