Anyone got tips for breaking in new skates please?

[karne]

My old Elites are finally pretty much dead (after my wearing them for three and a half years and they were already a year and a half old when I bought them), so I ordered a new pair. They had to get them from the warehouse but they're shipping this week, yay!

There are no pro shops in my city and the nearest is three hours away. I might take them to Sydney for a weekend to get them heat-baked, but otherwise, anyone got any tips for breaking them in with minimal pain and stress (and without blades for the first week or two since I only have one pair?).

[fsk8r]

If you're careful, you can heat mold using a convection oven at home. And without blades you've only got the hooks to worry about being hot.
I've always been told not to walk around in the boots without blades, but there's no harm in sitting with your feet in them watching the TV and standing in them doing the ironing to help get your feet used to them.

[Query]

Some people do it with hair driers. Some very brave people do it with heat guns.

If you use an oven, just be aware you can't be certain it has the exact temperature you set it to, and that it cycles temperatures a lot before it preheats.

Anything that aggressively breaks in boots (e.g., repeated heat molds, repeated physical deformations while warm) is halfway towards breaking them down.

If it's only 3 hours, and the shop in Sydney is good, I'd let them do it, for now. Because being careful means trying to guess how far you can heat them towards pliability, without damaging them. And if they know what they are doing, any advice they give is worth listening to.

But, after the heat mold, maybe you should just try skating in them a couple weeks or so before taking any drastic measures. (I waited 6 years, which was too long. But mine were way too stiff for me.)