This is pretty funny, in hindsight. I've lusted after Rockerz skate guards for years because of the colors and the stylish penguins on them. (I love and collect penguins.) The two-piece design bugged me, though: I like one-piece guards but I decided to bit the bullet and switch because the rubber loops on the one-piece guards just don't last long. It's a pain to find replacement loops and I keep wearing out the guards with the tail of the blade.
Sooooo...at US Nationals, I broke down and bought a pair of purple ones as a souvenir of the event. They cut them to fit my blades after I said that I used 10" Gold Seal blades. That was in JANUARY. I was disappointed that they were so "clappy" when I walked in them, so I went back to my ratty old one-piece guards after a week.
One of my skaters had the same problem -- he had changed to a smaller boot/shorter blade, so his Rockerz were now too long. His dad shortened them nicely and the clapping went away. The dad (who's a good friend of mine) looked at my skates/one-piece guards yesterday and asked "Do you want me to shorten your Rockerz for you? What size is printed on your blade?"
That was the $64 question! On my old Klingbeils, I had 10" Gold Seals. We're talking 15 years of 10" Gold Seals. The same length. On all six pairs. Coaching boots, freestyle boots, white, tan, rebuilt, etc.
Last year, I switched to Sp-Teri skates. When I looked at the blades yesterday to answer his question, I realized that I had 9-3/4" blades, not 10". (Still Gold Seals. I'm stuck on them.)
NO WONDER they "clap" - I gave the kid at Nationals the wrong length! The dad is going to fix my Rockerz for me by shortening them a 1/4". Yay!
Measure twice, cut once, right? At least it was a shortening situation, not that they needed to be cut longer.