Just to throw it in the mix....
Someone at a higher level than I am raved about these (parabolic) with her Harlicks.
I am stuck on making a blade decision and boots are supposed to ship tomorrow. My fitter needs to make sure he has a set of blades for my new boots!
Okay - just to throw this out there because you seem to be in a quandary.
The Phantom seems to be a pretty high-level blade - that is, the skaters in my area who were doing doubles, etc. twenty years ago loved them and still continue to love them. They were very popular back then.
I don't know anyone who is wearing them now - like the kids who are now out there doing doubles. They are in another blades.
That being said, I knew a few adults who were Bronze level ice-dancers who also loved their Phantoms.
So in the end, mostly you get used to a blade and you love it.
OR you absolutely hate it, you know it right from the beginning and you switch to another blade which hopefully, you love!
Good luck with your blades. :)
Yeah this is how it goes with me and "some" decisions. When I feel stuck it's hard to make a rational choice. I know I'm probably making it way more complicated than necessary.
Thanks for your input!
Quote from: icedancer on December 02, 2014, 08:16:53 PM
I don't know anyone who is wearing them now
Patrick Chan still is.. but he's the only super high level skater I'm aware of that is currently skating in Phantoms :)
I wear Phantom profiled paramount blades and I love them, I don't know why Phantoms in general don't seem to be more popular than they are, but they were SUPER popular about 20 years ago. I had Phantom Specials then, while most of the people I knew skated on the regular ones. I especially like the aggressive toe pick configuration, and the spin rocker works very well for me - it's not as severe as the gold seal (the spin rocker is 17" for the phantoms vs 12" for gold seal), or as flattened out as the Pattern 99 (which is 12" at the very very front but a massive 27" where most people tend to spin).
To a degree blade choice really is what you are used to - and you do usually know immediately if you dislike a given blade. I've never heard anyone say they "hate" phantoms though - not like what I tend to hear about Pattern 99's - those are a definate love/hate for most skaters.
Wouldn't it be nice if shops had a test drive for blades? That's potentially a very expensive mistake to make! Torn.... fitter recommends the P99's for me for stability and speed(?).
Consider maintenance - can you or your skate tech properly sharpen a parabolic blade
in theory this blade should produce a natural turn as soon as the blade is not perpendicular(on the flat) to the ice as it is wider at the tip and tail and narrower in the middle - this wide - narrow - wide makes maintaining the hollow a challenge as the hollow radius changes from tip to center to tail - it is this detail that in a small town we don't have the services for - thus blade maintenance should be considered prior to purchase
Yes I'm sure he can. He maintains blades for Olympic level competitors. I also believe he isn't big on parabolic blades.
Quote from: rd350 on December 02, 2014, 08:22:49 PM
Yeah this is how it goes with me and "some" decisions. When I feel stuck it's hard to make a rational choice. I know I'm probably making it way more complicated than necessary.
Thanks for your input!
Good luck! I totally know how you feel.. I feel like I have to start thinking about what I want next like.. Right now!
I'm in Phantoms right now, and I love them. It took a bit to learn how to spin in them, though, as it was a change from what I was in. I started in Coronation Aces, then went to Visions and finally to Phantoms. I'm in my second pair of Phantoms.
However, Phantom is a LOT of blade. I like the aggressive pick, but I'm pretty big in general (tall for a female skater, overweight, and have larger feet). I think Aces and Visions are great blades for entry level through low doubles, and really higher doubles as well depending on the skater.
I'm NOT a fan of the parabolic, but that's just me. I didn't see much (if any) advantage and don't see the point in spending the extra money.
The fitter told me if I wanted the Phantoms I'd be better off sticking with Coronation Ace right now for the price and I'm guessing my level. Maybe in the future. I decided to go with the Pattern 99's as it's what the fitter really recommended. Hoping it's the right choice!
Quote from: rd350 on December 06, 2014, 12:05:56 AM
The fitter told me if I wanted the Phantoms I'd be better off sticking with Coronation Ace right now for the price and I'm guessing my level. Maybe in the future. I decided to go with the Pattern 99's as it's what the fitter really recommended. Hoping it's the right choice!
Curious- did he give you reasons as to actually why he recommended the P99? And likewise, why he didn't recommend the phantom? (not including pricing)
Yeah he said the taper and side hone of the Phantomss make sharpening accurately more difficult and just that if I wanted to stick with a 7' rocker that I could stay with the Aces for much less $.
He recommended the 99's for me because I should be more stable on the 8' foot rocker and they should give me more speed with less effort.
Also I decided I went all the way out to him for a reason and should trust his judgment.
Interesting. He makes a very good point on the honing with the phantom (it's one of the things that makes me scared of Gold Seals....just dunno if my sharpener can handle that).
The 8' rocker is one of the things I find intriguing about the P99. I'd like to move to that, I think. Plus there's the flatter, further back (if I understand the diagrams correctly) spin rocker. I feel like that could work well for me. He didn't have any comments on that? But I guess he'd have to know/or at least see your skating.
I do also find it interesting that he didn't suggest Ultimas. My US fitter (who's very very good) thinks they're the way to go. Primarily because of quality control. He's seen too many warped/weird blades coming out of MK/Wilson. Plus he was on the design committee for Ultima, so no bias there ;). Over here though, MK/Wilson are SO CHEAP compared to the import prices on the american brands that it almost makes no sense to do it.
He may have mentioned Ultima to me way back when he had me trying on Jacksons. I have some unexplained aversion to Jacksons! He also mentioned Eclipse recently but I wanted to go with the Wilsons'. I have their Coronation Aces now and have had for a very long time and I have it in my head they are superior for some reason!
Quote from: rd350 on December 02, 2014, 09:00:16 PM
Wouldn't it be nice if shops had a test drive for blades? That's potentially a very expensive mistake to make! Torn.... fitter recommends the P99's for me for stability and speed(?).
I believe Ultima blades can be tried for 30 days money back guarantee. They have various profiles comparable to Pattern 99, Phantom , Gold Seal and Coro Ace.
That would be something!!